Sergio Martino(I)
- Director
- Writer
- Production Manager
Talented, prolific and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has
made a vast array of often solid and enjoyable films in such diverse
genres as horror, comedy, Western and science-fiction in a career that
spans over 40 years.
Martino was born on July 19, 1938, in Rome, Italy. His grandfather was
noted director Gennaro Righelli. Sergio
began his cinematic career in his early 20s as an assistant to his
writer/producer brother Luciano Martino
and handled second unit director chores on
Mario Bava's
The Whip and the Body (1963),
and made his directorial debut in 1969 with the mondo documentary
Wages of Sin (1969).
He really hit his stride in the early 1970s with several superior
giallo murder mystery thrillers that usually starred popular actress
Edwige Fenech (who was married to
Martino's brother Luciano at the time):
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971),
They're Coming to Get You! (1972),
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971)
and
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972).
Martino subsequently collaborated with Fenech on a handful of other
projects, including the bubbly sex comedies
Sex with a Smile (1976)
and
Cream Horn (1981).
Other people Sergio has frequently worked with are actors
George Hilton,
Ivan Rassimov and
Claudio Cassinelli and screenwriter
Ernesto Gastaldi. Sergio's other
worthwhile movies are the gritty spaghetti western
Arizona Colt, Hired Gun (1970),
the terrifically trashy
Torso (1973),
the rousing crime thriller
The Violent Professionals (1973),
the entertaining action/adventure romp
Slave of the Cannibal God (1978),
the fun "The Island of Dr. Moreau" rip-off
The Island of the Fishmen (1979)
and the funky post-nuke sci-fi/action opus
2019: After the Fall of New York (1983).
He has also directed various made-for-TV features and episodes of TV
shows for Italian television.
made a vast array of often solid and enjoyable films in such diverse
genres as horror, comedy, Western and science-fiction in a career that
spans over 40 years.
Martino was born on July 19, 1938, in Rome, Italy. His grandfather was
noted director Gennaro Righelli. Sergio
began his cinematic career in his early 20s as an assistant to his
writer/producer brother Luciano Martino
and handled second unit director chores on
Mario Bava's
The Whip and the Body (1963),
and made his directorial debut in 1969 with the mondo documentary
Wages of Sin (1969).
He really hit his stride in the early 1970s with several superior
giallo murder mystery thrillers that usually starred popular actress
Edwige Fenech (who was married to
Martino's brother Luciano at the time):
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971),
They're Coming to Get You! (1972),
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971)
and
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972).
Martino subsequently collaborated with Fenech on a handful of other
projects, including the bubbly sex comedies
Sex with a Smile (1976)
and
Cream Horn (1981).
Other people Sergio has frequently worked with are actors
George Hilton,
Ivan Rassimov and
Claudio Cassinelli and screenwriter
Ernesto Gastaldi. Sergio's other
worthwhile movies are the gritty spaghetti western
Arizona Colt, Hired Gun (1970),
the terrifically trashy
Torso (1973),
the rousing crime thriller
The Violent Professionals (1973),
the entertaining action/adventure romp
Slave of the Cannibal God (1978),
the fun "The Island of Dr. Moreau" rip-off
The Island of the Fishmen (1979)
and the funky post-nuke sci-fi/action opus
2019: After the Fall of New York (1983).
He has also directed various made-for-TV features and episodes of TV
shows for Italian television.