Italo Martinenghi R.I.P

Italo MartinenghiIt’s sad to have to report the death of another of the grand old characters of Italian cinema, Italo Martinenghi. Martinenghi is perhaps not the best known of figures, but behind the scenes he was a very significant industry character.

As a director, he made a handful of films, most particularly four low budget entries in the Three Fantastic Supermen series: Three Supermen of the West (73), Three Supermen Against the Godfather (79), Three Supermen in the Olympic Games (84) and Three Supermen in San Domingo (86). Most of these were Turkish co-productions, characterised by their lack of resources and yet not without their charm.

However, it’s probably fair to say that he was really more of a producer than a director, and was simply following in the grand tradition of movers-and-shakers who then decided to take poisition behind the camera, as much to save money as anything else (Mario Siciliano being another great example of this tradition).

As a producer, his credits are rather difficult to ascertain, but he was a regular fixture for companies Cinesecolo and Ambrosia Cinematografica, who made a variety of Spaghetti Westerns, spy films and other examples of popular Italian cinema.

About Matt Blake 890 Articles
The WildEye is a blog dedicated to the wild world of Italian cinema (and, ok, sometimes I digress into discussing films from other countries as well). Peplums, comedies, dramas, spaghetti westerns... they're all covered here.

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