Fernando Di Leo

Fernando Di Leo (11 January 1932 – 2 December 2003) was an Italian film director and script writer. He made 17 films as a director and about 50 scripts from 1964 to 1985.

Fernando Di Leo was born on 11 January 1932 in San Ferdinando di Puglia. After briefly working in Rome's film school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, di Leo made his debut as a director as part of the omnibus comedy "Gli eroi di ieri, oggi, domani" with his episode titled "Un posto in paradiso" (transl. "A Place in Heaven"). Following this Di Leo wrote several scripts for Westerns, often uncredited. This included work on "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More". Some of his Westerns had uncredited literary sources, such as "Days of Vengeance" which is loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo".

Di Leo was a fan of film noir and wanted to make an Italian version of these films. Among his first efforts was the script for Mino Guerrini's "Date for a Murder" based on Franco Enna's novel "Tempo di massacro", written in 1955. In Di Leo's version, the setting is moved to a contemporary Rome and has elements of contemporary spy films. Di Leo worked with Guerrini again on the film "Gangsters '70" which did not do well at the box office. Di Leo began directing more of his own films at the time including the war film "Red Roses for the Fuhrer" and a few erotic films: "A Woman on Fire", "A Wrong Way to Love" and "Seduction". From 1969 to 1976, di Leo was able to produce many of his own works with his production company Duania cineproduzioni 70. He followed this with a return to noir with "Naked Violence", a film adapting a novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco, a writer who Di Leo would adapt for several future film productions.