R.I.P. Marcello Fondato

I’ve just heard that scriptwriter and director Marcello Fondato has died. According to the press reports:

83 year old Marcello Fondato died on Thursday evening in San Felice Circeo (Latina). Fondato was a journalist, screenwriter, director and producer, who joined RAI aftter the war, under the director Vittorio Veltroni. He wrote screenplays for Luigi Comencini, including Tutti a casa and La ragazza di Bube. In the 60s he moved into directing, and in this capacity he worked with actors including Vittorio Gassman, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Enrico Montesano, Catherine Spaak, Renato Pozzetto. He had his biggest success in 1974 with Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo, with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, which was a huge box office champion. He also worked again with Spencer in Charleston, Lo chiamavano Bulldozer, Bomber, Lo sceriffo extraterrestre and Chissà perchè capitano tutte a me. In the 80s, along with his Paolo, he wrote and produced some drama for Raidue including Affari di Famiglia in 1988.

What the obit perhaps fails to make clear is that while Fondato was a very succesful director of comedies, he was also a scriptwriter for some very important films as well. He worked, for instance, with Mario Bava on Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace, on a couple of early westerns (such as The Relentless Four), caper films like Top Crack and Grand Slam. He made about 7 films as director, and although he’s best known for working with Bud Spencer the likes of Diary of a Telephone Operator and Midnight Lovers were actually quite prestigious releases. I’d like to see his first film, I protagonsiti, a crime film about Sardinian kidnappings.