
Duccio Tessari
Writing
Biography
Duccio Tessari was an Italian director, screenwriter and occasionally actor, considered one of the fathers of spaghetti westerns. Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter of Peplum films. In 1964 he co-wrote Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, one year later he gained an impressive commercial success and launched the Giuliano Gemma's career with A Pistol for Ringo and his immediate sequel, The Return of Ringo. He later touched different genres and worked in RAI TV, directing some successful TV-series. He died of cancer in Rome, at 68. He was married to actress Lorella De Luca.
Known For

The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.
A Fistful of Dollars

A newly arrived governor finds his province under the control of the corrupt Colonel Huerta. To avoid assassination by Huerta, he pretends to be weak and indecisive so Huerta will believe he poses no threat. But secretly he masquerades as Zorro, and joins the monk Francisco and the beautiful aristocrat Hortensia in their fight for justice against Huerta and his soldiers.
Zorro

Glaucus, a demobilized centurion returns home to Pompeii to find his father murdered by a gang of black-hooded Christian robbers that terrorizes the city and he decides to investigate the matter while the nearby volcano threatens to erupt.
The Last Days of Pompeii

A mother hires an ex-C.I.A. man to find and bring back her son, who has been abducted by his father and taken to Morocco, where his grandfather, the ruler of a desert tribe, wants him to become his successor.
The Law of the Desert

Giuliano Gemma stars as a cool, cocky mercenary enlisted by a sheriff to infiltrate a ruthless gang of outlaws. Ennio Morricone provided the score to this early spaghetti western hit.
A Pistol for Ringo

Once again billed as Montgomery Wood, Giuliano Gemma plays a civil war soldier who returns to his family land to find his family decimated, his property taken over by a family of Mexican bandits and his fiancee about to marry the Mexican gangster behind all this. Bent on revenge, he goes undercover disguised as a Mexican and discovers he has a daughter!
The Return of Ringo

Twin brothers were raised by wolves, revolt against tyranny in pre-Roman Italy and then come to a parting of the ways as they lead their people toward the founding of a new city, the founders of Rome.
Romulus and Remus

Messalina was the Roman noblewoman who inveigled ageing emperor Claudio into marriage. Once ensconced on the throne, Messalina launched a reign of terror that shook the empire to its very foundations. The subject of countless film treatments, Rome's most villified empress is herein played by British actress Belinda Lee.
Messalina

Upon his return from battle in the previous film, the great warrior Hercules learns that his lover, Daianara, has lost her senses. Acording of the oracle Medea, Dianara's only hope is the Stone of Forgetfulness which lies deep in the realm of Hades. Hercules, with two companions, Theseus and Telemachus, embarks on a dangerous quest for the stone, while he is unaware that Dianara's guardian, King Lico, is the one responsible for her condition and plots to have the girl for himself as his bride upon her revival.
Hercules in the Haunted World

A mob hitman wants to retire, but his bosses don't think that's a good idea. Complications - and many bloody shootouts - ensue.
Tony Arzenta

A group of passengers traveling around the Mediterranean on a luxury liner enjoy various adventures and become romantically involved with each other.
Love, the Italian Way

Italian explorer rescues the daughter of the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, meets a hermit who has invented gunpowder and builds a cannon.
Marco Polo

A woman's ex-husband, who is the son of an Arab chieftain, kidnaps their teenage son and brings him back to Morocco, where the boy is to be made the leader of the tribe. The child's mother hires a mercenary to get her son and bring him back to her.
Beyond Justice

A warrior returning home to his country must battle giant bats, three-headed dogs and a vicious dragon to save his wife, and his people, from the machinations of an evil ruler.
The Revenge of Hercules

A spaghetti western in which three adventurers team up during the Mexican Revolution. Mary O'Donnell, a radical Irish journalist, wants to foment a peasant revolt in Mexico. She enlists the help of a seedy bandit, Lozoya, by saving him from a death sentence in Utah. They meet a man calling himself Prince Dmitri Vassilovich Orlowsky, who claims to be a Russian prince, not to mention a man of the cloth. Wallach pretends to be a Mexican folk hero. The trio crosses the border, the two men seeking a cache of gold while O'Donnell pursues her revolution.
Don't Turn the Other Cheek

Ranch owner MacGregor has seven sons and oldest Gregor leads his brothers to Las Mesas, a small town where they want to sell horses. They get into trouble with local people who are related with evil Santillana. After getting imprisoned and losing their horses they decide to go after Santillana's gang.
Seven Guns for the MacGregors

Young Aladdin has a series of wild adventures after he discovers a magic lamp containing a genie.
The Wonders of Aladdin

Two brothers, Monty and Ted, will inherit $300,000 if they manage to live together for six months.
Alive or Preferably Dead

Tom Proby is a representative from a British engineering firm sent to Sicily to convince the landowners (all in the Mafia) to allow his company to build an oil refinery on some waterfront real estate. Proby talks to the mob bosses about the project, but disagreements between different bosses complicate his efforts.
Better a Widow

When a young female student is savagely killed in a park during a thunderstorm, the culprit seems obvious: TV sports personality Alessandro Marchi, seen fleeing the scene of the crime by numerous eyewitnesses. The evidence against him is damning... but is it all too convenient? And when the killer strikes again while Marchi is in custody, it quickly becomes apparent that there's more to the case than meets the eye...