Ottavio Poggi may not be a name that you are familiar with.\u00a0 There’s certainly very little biographical information about him anywhere.\u00a0 But he was actually one of a band of little known – but very important – producers who fuelled the whole explosion in the Italian film industry in the 1950s and 60s.\u00a0 These guys, and I’m thinking of others like Mario Siciliano, Fortunato Misiano, Emimmo Salvi and so on, were small scale producers.\u00a0 They didn’t have the profile of a Franco Cristaldi or an Alberto Grimaldi, let alone a Carlo Ponti or a Dino De Laurentiis.\u00a0 They concentrated almost solely on low to mid budget productions,financing films in whatever genres happened to be popular at the time.\u00a0 And it’s thanks to them – as much as if not more so than their more celebrated directors and stars – that genres such as the peplum, spaghetti western and polizioteschi thrived to quite the extent that they did.<\/p>\n
Poggi is an elusive character.\u00a0 I have been unable even to track down a date of birth.\u00a0 But he was active in the film industry from the war years, initially as a writer, and then working his way up the production ladder.\u00a0 By 1952 he was a producer in his own right, putting together a number of melodramas and comedies for directors like Fernando Cerchio and Sergio Grieco.\u00a0 Towards the middle of the decade he discovered his cinematic vocation, moving into the cape and sword field with the likes of Il falco d’oro <\/strong>(The Golden Falcon<\/em>) and Giovanni dalle bande nere <\/strong>(The Violent Patriot<\/em>), a genre he’d revisit roughly twenty times over the next ten years.\u00a0 Some of his films had ambition: Annibale <\/strong>(Hannibal<\/em>) was the subject of considerable press attention, and he was able to contract Vincent Price to appear in Nefertiti, regina del Nilo <\/strong>and Gordon, il pirata nero. <\/strong><\/p>\n In the late 50s, he also founded Liber Film, who also produced a handful of films that he either wasn’t directly involved with (such as Tot\u00f2 e Cleopatra<\/strong>) or only had a hand in the script, with the hands-on production responsibilities being left to the likes of Nino Battiferri.\u00a0 Sometimes Liber was involved in international comproductions – such as Bernard Borderie’s Ang\u00e9lique – <\/strong>but on the whole they were primarily Italian films, made by Italian directors and, apart from the occassional American star, featuring Italian actors.\u00a0 It’s notable that he often worked with the same people over and over: Grieco, Cerchio and Luigi Capuano – all efficient if unglamorous directors – all made numerous films for him, and actors like Gianna Maria Canale, Guy Madison, Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese and Andrea Aureli appeared repeatedly.<\/p>\n What happened to Poggi, I don’t know.\u00a0 It’s certainly true to say that when the boom in historical adventures died out in the mid sixties, he seemed to disappear.\u00a0 Neither Poggi or Liber became involved in Spaghett Westerns, the next big boom genre, and apart from contributing to the scripts of a couple of small scale spy films he wasn’t heard from again.\u00a0 I also don’t know whether he was anything to do with stunt director Fernando Poggi (who appeared in several of his films) or any of the other numerous Poggi’s who have made their living in Cinecitta over the years.<\/p>\n 1942 1952 Non \u00e8 vero… ma ci credo<\/strong> 1953 Lul\u00f9<\/strong> 1954 Addio, mia bella signora!<\/strong> 1955 Il falco d’oro<\/strong> 1956 Lo spadaccino misterioso<\/strong> 1958 La spada e la croce<\/strong> 1959 1961 Nefertiti, regina del Nilo<\/strong> Gordon, il pirata nero<\/strong> 1962 La tigre dei sette mari<\/strong> Tot\u00f2 contro Maciste<\/strong> 1963 Il leone di San Marco<\/strong> Tot\u00f2 e Cleopatra<\/strong> 1964 I misteri della jungla nera<\/strong> Sandokan alla riscossa<\/strong> Sandokan contro il leopardo di Sarawak<\/strong> Tot\u00f2 contro il pirata nero<\/strong> 1965 Il ladro della gioconda<\/strong> L’avventuriero della tortuga<\/strong> Song of the World<\/strong> 1966 Superargo contro Diabolikus<\/strong> Tre notti violente<\/strong> 1967 Ottavio Poggi may not be a name that you are familiar with. There’s certainly very little biographical information about him anywhere. But he was actually one of a band of little known – but very important – producers who fuelled the whole explosion in the Italian film industry in the 1950s and 60s. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[807],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110\/revisions\/2114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nQuarta pagina<\/strong>
\nAka 3\/4 of a Page
\nDir: Nicola Manzari
\nCervinia Film, Industrie Nazionali Associate Cinematografiche (I.N.A.C.)
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Claudio Gora, Valentina Cortese, Paola Barbara<\/p>\n
\nI morti non pagano tasse<\/strong>
\nDir: Serio Grieco
\nDomino Films
\n(writer, production manager)<\/em>
\nCast: Tino Scotti, Titina De Filippo, Carlo Campanini<\/p>\n
\nDir: Sergio Grieco
\nAssociati Produttori Indipendenti Film (API), Gladio Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Peppino De Filippo, Carlo Croccolo, Titina De Filippo<\/p>\n
\nAmarti \u00e8 il mio peccato<\/strong>
\nDir: Sergio Grieco
\nGladio Film, Po Film
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Jacques Sernas, Luisa Rossi<\/p>\n
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nGladio Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Valentina Cortese, Jacques Sernas, Luigi Pavese<\/p>\n
\nTua per la vita<\/strong>
\nDir: Sergio Grieco
\nPo Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Gaby Andre, Ettore Manni, Gerard Landry<\/p>\n
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nGladio Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Gino Cervi, Armando Francioli, Silvio Bagolini<\/p>\n
\n Figaro, il barbiere di Siviglia<\/strong>
\nAka The Barber of Seville
\nDir: Camillo Mastrocinque
\n (producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Tito Gobbi, Armando Francioli, Irene Genna<\/p>\n
\nAka The Golden Falcon
\nDir: Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia
\nPo Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Anna Maria Ferrero, Massimo Serato, Nadia Gray, Frank Latimore<\/p>\n
\n Giovanni dalle bande nere<\/strong>
\nAka The Violent Patriot
\nDir: Sergio Grieco
\nPo Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Vittorio Gassman, Constance Smith, Anna Maria Ferrero, Gerard Landry, Philippe Hersent<\/p>\n
\nAka The Mysterious Swordsman
\nDir: Sergio Grieco
\nPo Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Frank Latimore, Fiorella Mari, Gerard Landry, Tamara Lees<\/p>\n
\n La Gerusalemme liberata<\/strong>
\nAka The Mighty Crusaders
\nDir: Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia
\nMax Production
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Francisco Rabal, Sylva Koscina, Gianna Maria Canale, Philippe Hersent<\/p>\n
\nAka The Sword and the Cross
\nDir: Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia
\nLiber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Yvonne De Carlo, Jorge Mistral, Massimo Serato, Andrea Aureli, Rosanna Podesta<\/p>\n
\nAnnibale<\/strong>
\nAka Hannibal
\nDir: Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer
\nLiber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Victor Mature, GAbriele Ferzetti, Rita Gam<\/p>\n
\nLa Venere dei pirati<\/strong>
\nAka The Queen of the Pirates
\nDir: Mario Costa
\nMax Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Gianna Maria Canale, Massimo Serato, Scilla Gabel, Andrea Aureli<\/p>\n
\nAka Queen of the Nile
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nMax Production
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Edmund Purdom, Liana Orfei<\/p>\n
\nAka Rage of the Buccaneers
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nMax Production
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Riccardo Montalban, Vincent Price, Giulia Rubini, Liana Orfei<\/p>\n
\nIl colpo segreto di d’Artagnan<\/strong>
\nAka The Secret Mark of D’Artagnan
\nDir: Siro Marcellini
\nLes Films Agiman, Liber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: George Nader, Georges Marchal, Magali Noel, Massimo Serato<\/p>\n
\naka Tiger of the Seven Seas
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nEuro International Film, Liber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steel, Maria Grazia Spina, Andrea Aureli<\/p>\n
\nAka Toto vs. Maciste
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nLiber Film, Wanguard Film (Nino Battiferri credited as producer)
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Toto, Luigi Pavese, Samson Burke<\/p>\n
\nIl boia di Venezia<\/strong>
\nAka Blood of the Executioner
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Lex Barker, Guy Madison, Alessandra Panaro, Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese<\/p>\n
\nAka The Lion of St. Mark
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Gordon Scott, Gianna Maria Canale, Alberto Farnese, Rik Battaglia<\/p>\n
\nAka Toto and Cleopatra
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nLiber Film, Euro International Film (EIA) (Nino Battiferri credited as producer)
\nCast: Toto, Magali Noel, Moira Orfei<\/p>\n
\nAng\u00e9lique<\/strong>
\nAka Ang\u00e9lique, marquise des anges
\nDir: Bernard Borderie
\nCompagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cin\u00e9matographique (CICC), Fono Roma, Franco London Films, Francos Films, Gloria-Film GmbH, Liber Film, Pro Artis Ib\u00e9rica
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Michele Mercier, Giuliano Gemma, Robert Hossein<\/p>\n
\nAka Kidnapped to Mystery Island
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film, Eichberg-Film (Nino Battiferri credited as producer)
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Guy Madison, Ingeborg Schoner, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Giulia Rubini, Peter Van Eyck<\/p>\n
\nAka Sandokan Fights Back
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film, Eichberg-Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Ray Danton, Guy Madison, Franca Bettoia, Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese<\/p>\n
\nAka Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film, Eichberg-Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Ray Danton, Guy Madison, Franca Bettoia, Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese<\/p>\n
\nAka Toto vs. the Black Pirate
\nDir: Fernando Cerchio
\nLiber Film
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Toto, Maria Grazia Spina, Mario Petri<\/p>\n
\nAng\u00e9lique et le roy<\/strong>
\nAka Angelique and the King
\nDir: Bernard Borderie
\nFilms Borderie (as C.I.C.C.), Fono Roma, Francos Films, Gloria-Film GmbH, Liber Film
\nCast: Michele Mercier, Robert Hossein, Jean Rochefort<\/p>\n
\nAka The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen
\nDir: Michel Deville
\nLes Films Marceau, Liber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: George Chakiris, Margaret Lee, Marina Vlady<\/p>\n
\nAka Cold Steel for Tortuga
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\nLiber Film, Eichberg-Film
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Guy Madison, Ingeborg Schoner, Rik Battaglia, Andrea Aureli<\/p>\n
\nAka Le chant du monde
\nDir: Marcel Camus
\nCosmos Film, Les Films Marceau, Liber Film, Orph\u00e9e Productions
\nCast: Hardy Kruger, Charles Vanel, Marilu Tolo<\/p>\n
\nPerry Grant, agente di ferro<\/strong>
\nAka The Big Blackout
\nDir: Luigi Capuano
\n??
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Peter Holden, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Marilu Tolo, Seyna Seyn<\/p>\n
\nAka Superargo vs Diabolicus
\nDir: Nick Nostro
\nLiber Film, Societ\u00e0 Europea Cinematografica (SEC) (as S.E.C. Film), Producciones Cinematogr\u00e1ficas Balcazar
\n(producer)<\/em>
\nCast: Giovanni Cinafriglia, Gerard Tichy, Loredana Nusciak<\/p>\n
\nAka Web of Violence
\nDir: Nick Nostro
\nHesperia Films S.A., Liber Film
\n(producer, writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Brett Halsey, Margaret Lee, Julio Pena<\/p>\n
\nColpo doppio del camaleonte d’oro<\/strong>
\nDir: Giorgio Stegani
\nG.V. Cinematografica, SEC, Variety Film Production
\n(writer)<\/em>
\nCast: Mark Damon, Luisa BAratto, Magda Konopka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"