Franco Ressel

Franco Ressell in SARTANA IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH.

Nationality: Italian
Birth: 8 February 1925, Naples (Italy)
Death: 30 April 1985, Rome (Italy)
Aka:Walter Frank Ressel, Frank Ressell, Ray Russell

With his twinkling blue eyes and prominent lashes, Franco Ressel made an unlikely - but somehow effective - villain.  Throughout the sixties and early seventies he played a succession of crooked bank managers, suave master criminals and out-and-out lunatics.  Although his performances were primarily in exploitation films, they weren't confined to them, and he appeared in the likes of Petri's L'assassino (61) & Arrabal's The Tree of Guernica (L'Arbre de Guernica, 75). Whatever the quality of the film, his dilettante viciousess always had a certain camp edge to it, an underlying sense of fun just beneath the surface of his superficial gentitlity.

A former theatre actor with the Pagnani-Ninchi company, alongside Italian stalwarts such as Dina Galli, Salvo Randone and Antonio Gandusio, he spent most of the 50s performing on stage.  Notable shows included Walter Chiari's Burlesco (50) and Sogno di un Walter (51), the musical comedy Buonnotte Bettina (56-57) and Luciano Salce's Uno scandalo per Lili (58).  In the sixties, however, he took the step into films and, finding a considerable amount of work as a character actor, never looked back.

By 1965, he was regularly appearing in major support roles such as the playboy Marquis in Bava's Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l'assassino, 64) and a member of Joseph Cotten's criminal gang in Guerrini's superb Gangster '70 (68). Although the quality and frequency of his roles dropped in the seventies and eighties, this was more a reflection upon the Italian film industry than his thespian talents. His last feature role was in Sergio Corbucci's A tu per tu (84), which was made the year before he died

ONE TO WATCH

Sabata. This features Ressel at his most playful as one of a pair of corrupt town officials. Gianni Rizzo, who has a similar camp presence, plays his partner in crime.