León Klimovsky

León Klimovsky
Born	October 16, 1906 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	Madrid, Spain
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, film producer

León Klimovsky (16 October 1906–8 April 1996) was an Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer.

A trained dentist, born in Buenos Aires, his real passion was always the cinema. He pioneered Argentine cultural movement known as cineclub and financed the first movie theater to show art movies. He also founded Argentina's first film club in 1929.

After participating as scriptwriter and assistant director of 1944's Se abre el abismo, he filmed his first movie, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Player. He also worked on adaptations of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo and Ernesto Sabato's The Tunnel.

During the 1950s, Klimovsky settled in Spain, where he became a full-time "professional" director. He directed many spaghetti westerns and exploitation films, filming in Mexico, Italy, Spain and Egypt. Horror film fans best remember him for his contributions to Spain's horror film genre, beginning with La Noche de Walpurgis ("Walpurgis Night"), the film that is said to have started the Spanish horror film boom of the 1970s. Klimovsky directed famed Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy in no less than eight films in the 1970s, while also directing other classic horror films such as "The Strange Love of the Vampires", "The Dracula Saga" and "The Vampires' Night Orgy". Naschy complimented Klimovsky's workmanlike attitude and abundant energy, but he always felt that Klimovsky rushed through many of their projects together, never allowing for sufficient retakes.

León Klimovsky always dreamt of doing great mainstream movies but ended up doing commercial exploitation films, but he had no remorse, as cinema was a vocational mandate for him. He retired from directing in 1979, at age 73.

In 1995, at age 89, he won the "Honor Award" from the Spanish Film Directors Association. He died the following year in Madrid from a heart attack at age 90. He was the brother of noted Argentinian mathematician and philosopher Gregorio Klimovsky.

Filmography

• La barraca (TV miniseries, 1979)
• Violación fatal (1978)
• La doble historia del Dr. Valmy (1978)
• Laverna (1978)
• El extraño amor de los vampiros (1977)
• ¿Y ahora qué, señor fiscal? (1977)
• Último deseo (1976)
• Gritos a Medianoche (1976)
• Secuestro (1976)
• Tres días de noviembre (1976)
• Muerte de un quinqui (1975)
• Mean Mother (1974)
• Una libélula para cada muerto (1974)
• The Devil's Possessed (1974)
• Odio a mi Cuerpo (1974)
• El Talón de Aquiles (1974)
• The Vampires' Night Orgy (1973)
• Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)
• La Rebelión de las Muertas (1972)
• La Casa de las Chivas (1972)
• The Dracula Saga (1972)
• Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1971)
• Su le mani, cadavere! Sei in arresto (1971)
• El Hombre que Vino del Odio (1971)
• Reverend's Colt (1970)
• La noche de Walpurgis (1970)
• Quinto: non ammazzare (1970)
• Los hombres las prefieren viudas (1970)
• La sfida dei MacKenna (1970)
• Pagó cara su muerte (1969)
• Bridge Over the Elbe (1969)
• L'urlo dei giganti (1969)
• Giugno '44 Sbarcheremo in Normandia (1968)
• Un hombre vino a matar (1968)
• Una chica para dos (1968)
• A ghentar si muore facile (1967)
• Few Dollars for Django, 1966)
• El bordón y la estrella (1966)
• Two Thousand Dollars for Coyote (1966)
• La colina de los pequeños diablos (1965)
• Aquella joven de blanco (1965)
• Stop at Tenerife (1964)
• Fuera de la ley (1964)
• Ella y el miedo (1964)
• Los siete bravísimos (1964)
• Escuela de Seductoras (1962)
• Horizontes de luz (1962)
• Todos eran culpables (1962)
• Torrejón City (1962)
• La danza de la fortuna (1961)
• Un tipo de sangre (1960)
• La paz empieza nunca (1960)
• Ama Rosa (1960)
• El hombre que perdió el tren (1960)
• Un bruto para Patricia (1960)
• Gharam fi sahraa (1960)
• S.O.S., abuelita (1959)
• Salto a la gloria (1959)
• Llegaron los franceses (1959)
• Un indiano en Moratilla (1958)
• Desert Warrior (1957)
• Viaje de novios (1956)
• Miedo (1956)
• La pícara molinera (1955)
• El tren expreso (1955)
• El juramento de Lagardere (1955)
• Tres citas con el destino (episode Maleficio, 1954)
• El conde de Montecristo (1953)
• La Parda Flora (1952)
• El túnel (1952)
• The Earring (1951)
• Suburbio (1951)
• La vida color de rosa (1951)
• The Marihuana Story (1950)
• The Guitar of Gardel (1949)
• Se llamaba Carlos Gardel (1949)
• El jugador (1947)

External links

• León Klimovsky at the Internet Movie Database
• The artist and his paradoxes (in Spanish)