<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

A cinematic “Giacomo of all trades,” Antonio Margheriti (1930-2002) worked in various genres during his forty years as a director, producer, writer, and special effects technician. Billed as Anthony M. Dawson to disguise the Italian origins of his work from less perceptive filmgoers, Margheriti popularized the subgenre of space opera as its most frequent practitioner in the 1960s.

Margheriti entered the industry in 1957 as a screenwriter, and by the following year had already c o-directed Gambe d’Oro (Legs of Gold, 1958) with a regular collaborator, Turi Vasile. Space Men (aka Assignment Outer Space, 1960) not only marked his solo directorial debut, but also initiated the series of colorful adventures t hat are perhaps his single greatest claim to fame.

Later to play James Bond’s friend, Felix Leiter, in Thunderball (1965), Rik Van Nutter stars as reporter Ray Peterson, who has a ringside seat when a malfunctioning computer puts a nuclear spacecraf t on a collision course with Earth. As usual, the film’s imaginative visual flair counterbalanced any deficiencies in Ennio De Concini’s screenplay, written as Vassily Petrov.

For Il Pianeta degli Uomini Spenti (Planet of the Lifeless Men, a k a Battle of the Worlds, 1961), Margheriti secured the services of Claude Rains to play eccentric Prof. Benjamin Benson. Again scripted by “Petrov,” it concerns a planet that wreaks climatic havoc by orbiting Earth, but the computer that l au nched its unmanned saucers turns out to be the relic of an extinct alien race.

Margheriti segued into Gothic horror, using two stars who had worked with the maestro, Mario Bava. Christopher Lee received a solid supporting role in La Vergine di Norimberga (The Virgin of Nuremberg, aka Horror Castle, 1963), while I Lunghi Capelli della Morte (The Long Hair of Death) and Danza Macabra (aka Castle of Terror; both 1964) showcased Barbara Steele.

Margheriti alternated these with a spate of pepla (sword and sandal films), then resumed his SF efforts with what became known as the "Gamma I Quadrilogy." Produced by Joseph Fryd and Walter Manley, with screenplays from writer-producer Ivan Reiner a nd R enato Moretti, the quartet is named for its primary setting, a space station of the United Democracies c. 2000 A.D.

In I Criminali della Galassia (The Galaxy Criminals, aka The Wild, Wild Planet, 1965), we meet Cmdr. Mike H al stead (Tony Russell), his gal, Lt. Connie Gomez (Lisa Gastoni), and his pal, Jake (rising star Franco Nero). Like many supporting players, Massimo Serato had multiple roles in the series, here playing a mad scientist miniaturizing subjects for eugenic s experime nts.

Revisiting the alien possession theme from Bava’s Terrore Nello Spazio (Terror in Outer Space, aka Planet of the Vampires; 1965), the trio returned in I Diafanoidi Portano la Morte (The Diaphanoids Bring Death, aka War of the Planets, 1966). Resembling green clouds, the bodiless Diaphanoids lure Mike and his crew to a base on Mars, seeking to replace their deceased hosts.

Similar to Battle of the Worlds, Il Pianeta Errante (The Wandering Planet, aka Planet on the Prowl, 1966) added to the sense of déjà vu with its alternate title, War Between the Planets. Genre mainstay “Jack Stuart” (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) was the new hero, Cmdr. Rod Jackson, in thi s tale of another rogue planet that creates disasters on Earth and must be blown to smithereens.

Interstellar Yeti varied the mix in I Diavoli della Spazio (Space Devils, aka Snow Devils, 1967), which once again starred “Amber Col lins” (Omb retta Colli) as Jackson’s love interest and Enzo Fiermonte as his superior, Gen. Norton. Superintelligent aliens from an icy but endangered world, the Yeti seek to colonize Earth, after changing the climate to flood and freeze its surface.

In an in teres ting p ostscript, Manley and Reiner transplanted this successful formula into a U.S.-Japanese-Italian co-production, Kinji Fukasaku’s The Green Slime (1968). Shot in Japan, it featured American pseudo-stars Robert Horton and R ichard Jaecke l, Italian leading lady Luciana Paluzzi, and goofy tentacled monsters attacking the crew of an apparent sister station, Gamma 3.

Margheriti then concentrated more on horror films such as Nella Stretta Morsa del Ragno (In the G rip of the Spi der, aka Web of the Spider, 1971), a remake of his earlier Danza Macabra. He also contributed to the giallo crime thrillers with La Morte Negli Occhi del Gatto (aka Seven Dead in the Cat’s Eye, 1 973), and ev en dir ected a s paghetti Western, Take a Hard Ride (1975).

The infamous Apocalypse Domani (aka Cannibal Apocalypse, 1980) concerns a virus that causes cannibalism. The director “knew that it was really a vulgar product ion, based essent ially on t he pre-sales to countries like Germany and Japan that were very much into outlandish sexual and lurid kind of cannibalistic stories,” as its mortified leading man, John Saxon, told writer Matthew R. Bradley.

In its final yea rs, Marghe riti’s c areer degen erated into derivative potboilers like Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983) and Alien Degli Abissi (Alien from the Deep, 1989). But for all of its admitted low points, his oeuvre introdu ced a uniq uely entert aining br and of SF, i n which mod futuristic visuals and fast-paced action took precedence over low budgets and loopy scripts.