Alberto De Martino (12 June 1929 – 2 June 2015) was an Italian

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. Born in Rome, De Martino started as a child actor and later returned to the cinema where worked as a screenwriter, director and dubbing supervisor. De Martino's films as a director specialised in wellcrafted knock-offs of Hollywood hit films. These films were specifically created films in Western, horror and mythology genres which were developed for the international market. ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' stated that his best known of these film was probably '' The Antichrist''. ''The Antichrist'' capitalized on the box-office appeal of ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 The Exorcist (novel), novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, ...

'' (1973) and in its first week in the United States earned a greater box office than ''

Jaws Jaws or Jaw may refer to: Anatomy * Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth ** Mandible, the lower jaw Arts, entertainment, and media * Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker'' * ...

''.

Life and career

Alberto De Martino was born on 12 June 1929 in Rome. De Martino was the son of a film

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...

. He started his career as a child actor. On attending University, De Martino studied law. Martino returned to a career in cinema working as an editor, screenwriter and as an assistant director. Martino stated he was encouraged to be a director by

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

for whom he supervised the dubbing for '' La Dolce Vita''. De Martino was also very active in the field of dubbing, and he was dubbing director for more than 1,500 films. De Martino was one of the active directors in the Italian genre cinema between 1960s and mid-1980s; his films spanned different genres, including

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

poliziotteschi Poliziotteschi (; singular ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'italiana'', ' ...

Peplum films Peplum originates in the Greek word for 'tunic' and may refer to one of the following: *Sword-and-sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mo ...

and horror. A real life friend of

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

, he was

second unit director Second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming stag ...

in ''

Duck, You Sucker! ''Duck, You Sucker!'' ( it, Giù la testa, lit. "Duck Your Head", "Get Down"), also known as ''A Fistful of Dynamite'' and ''Once Upon a Time ... the Revolution'', is a 1971 epic Zapata Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Leone and ...

'' He was often credited as Martin Herbert. In 1980, De Martino nearly lost his home when his film ''

The Pumaman ''The Pumaman'' ( it, L'uomo puma) is a 1980 Italian superhero film co-written and directed by Alberto De Martino, starring Walter George Alton as the title character and Donald Pleasence as the villain. It was featured in a 1998 episode of ''Mys ...

'' failed at the box office. ''Pumaman'' was followed by a few more films concluding his career with ''Miami Golem''. He died in Rome on 2 June 2015 at the age of 85.

Selected filmography

:Note: The films listed as N/A are not necessarily chronological.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martino, Alberto De 1929 births 2015 deaths Italian film directors Italian screenwriters Italian male screenwriters Writers from Rome Male actors from Rome Giallo film directors