Alberto De Martino

Alberto De Martino
Born	(1929-06-12)12 June 1929 Rome, Italy
Died	Rome, Italy
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1959–1985

Alberto De Martino (12 June 1929 – 2 June 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. 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 stated that his best known of these film was probably The Antichrist. The Antichrist capitalized on the box-office appeal of The Exorcist (1973) and in its first week in the United States earned a greater box office than Jaws.

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. 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 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, poliziotteschi, Peplum films and horror. A real life friend of Sergio Leone, he was second unit director in Duck, You Sucker! He was often credited as Martin Herbert.

In 1980, De Martino nearly lost his home when his film The Pumaman 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.

Title	Year	Credited as				Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Screenwriter	Screen story writer	Other
Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal	1937				Yes	Actor as "Son of Scipio"
Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete	1960				Yes	Assistant director
The Invincible Gladiator	1961	Yes	Yes		Yes	producer
Gladiators 7	1962		Yes	Yes
Medusa Against the Son of Hercules	1963	Yes	Yes
The Blancheville Monster		Yes
Gli invincibili sette		Yes	Yes	Yes
Gladiators Seven	1964	Yes	Yes
The Triumph of Hercules	N/A	Yes
100.000 dollari per Ringo	1965	Yes	Yes	Yes
Heroes of Fort Worth	N/A	Yes
The Spy with Ten Faces	1966	Yes	Yes
Special Mission Lady Chaplin		Yes
Django Shoots First		Yes
Dirty Heroes	1967	Yes	Yes
O.K. Connery		Yes
Roma come Chicago	1968	Yes	Yes
Carnal Circuit	1969	Yes	Yes
The Man with Icy Eyes	N/A	Yes
Crime Boss	1972	Yes
The Killer Is on the Phone	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ci risiamo, vero Provvidenza?	N/A	Yes
Counselor at Crime	1973	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Antichrist	1974	Yes	Yes	Yes
Strange Shadows in an Empty Room	1976	Yes
Holocaust 2000	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Pumaman	1980	Yes		Yes
Formula for a Murder	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes
Miami Golem	N/A	Yes

External links

• Alberto De Martino at the Internet Movie Database
• Alberto De Martino at AllMovie