
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

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

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

In the slang of the underworld or "mala" there is a special term for cop: "Madama". But if word were to get around that the "Madama" is Vito (Christian De Sica) they might even start to like the guy. Vito is a funny sort of a cop. For a start he doesn't like the uniform (he never wears it). Things might even go smoothly for him, if it weren't for an incredible number of beautiful girls who always manage to get in his way. Especially one girl Angelo (shouldn't that have been Angela? No, the girl's name really is Angelo). Problems arise too, with his direct supervisor, who also happens to be a relative. But Vito puts up with it all and manages to stay his usual calm and polite self, even when he risks getting killed.
La madama

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

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

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

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

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

King Androcles of Thebes commands a ship in search of a threat to Greece, predicted by an atmospheric oracle. Hercules is part of the crew, but the strongman falls overboard in a thick fog. Washed ashore, he saves a young Ismene from Proteus, an evil, shape-shifting creature. Ismene takes Hercules to Atlantis, where he discovers that her mother, Queen Antinea, has captured Androcles. Hercules schemes to rescue him and thwart Antinea's dream of world conquest.
Hercules and the Captive Women

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

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

Krios, the youngest of the Titans, may be the least strong of the seven brothers whose strength comes from their mother, earth-goddess Gaia, but is by far the smartest, and thus their natural leader. He arrives on Crete, the kingdom of the mighty king Minos, impresses him as gladiator, gains his trust, falls in love with a mortal girl and discovers both Minos's human sacrifice-cult and a foreign conspiracy to seize power with a hidden army.
My Son, the Hero

Maciste's village is attacked by pirates. The women, including Maciste's fiancee Guja, are carried off to Salmanak, where dwells the lair of the blood drinking Kobrak. Maciste vows to rescue them.
Goliath and the Vampires

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

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

A criminal (Giuliano Gemma) seeks vengeance when his double-dealing brother (Klaus Kinski) steals his jewels and mutilates his shooting hand.
The Bastard

Documentary on Italian genre cinema.
Italian Kings Of B

Kirk Warren, a former spy, is to be executed because he tried to steal a million dollars. But he is saved by Colonel Smithson because Sir Wilcox has prepared a mission for him. Warren has to steal a secret formula in Switzerland and try to expose the real identity of Mr. X. Kirk leaves London and Alina, his girl, together with three clumsy friends to accomplish his not so secret mission. But Kirk's great love is always a million dollars and not a secret formula.