Umberto Lenzi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi at the Festival de Cine de Sitges in October 2008.
Born	(1931-08-06)6 August 1931 Massa Marittima, Italy
Died	(2017-10-19)19 October 2017 (aged 86) Rome, Italy
Occupation	Film director and screenwriter
Years active	1958-1993
Spouse(s)	Olga Pehar

Umberto Lenzi (born August 6, 1931 – died October 19, 2017) was a famous Italian film director, a person who writes movie scripts (called a screenwriter), and a writer of books (a novelist).

He loved movies from a young age. Lenzi studied filmmaking at a special school called the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. His first movie was made in 1958, but it was not shown to the public. His first official movie, Queen of the Seas, came out in 1961. In the 1970s, he made many mystery films called giallo films and crime movies. He also directed the first Italian cannibal film, Man from the Deep River. He continued making movies until the 1990s. Later, he became a novelist, writing a series of detective stories.

Biography

Early Life and Studies

Umberto Lenzi was born on August 6, 1931, in a place called Massa Marittima in Italy. He was very interested in films even when he was in elementary school. While he was studying law, Lenzi also started film fan clubs. Eventually, he decided to stop studying law and focus on learning how to make movies.

He finished his studies at Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1956. For his final project, he made a short film called I ragazzi di Trastevere. Lenzi also worked as a journalist for different newspapers and magazines. Between 1957 and 1960, he wrote several detective novels and adventure stories using a fake name.

Making Movies in the 1960s

Before his first official movie, Queen of the Seas, Lenzi directed a film in Greece in 1958. It was called Mia Italida stin Ellada or Vacanze ad Atene, but it was never released.

Lenzi's movies in the 1960s were often about popular types of stories at that time. In the early 1960s, he directed many adventure films. These included two movies about Robin Hood (The Triumph of Robin Hood and The Invincible Masked Rider). He also made two films about a character named Sandokan (Sandokan the Great in 1963 and Pirates of Malaysia in 1964).

Around 1965, Lenzi started directing European spy films. Some of these were 008: Operation Exterminate, Super Seven Calling Cairo, and The Spy Who Loved Flowers. He even made a movie based on a comic book character called Kriminal. After that, Lenzi made war films like Desert Commandos and Legion of the Damned. He also directed Westerns, such as Pistol for a Hundred Coffins and All Out (1968).

Making Movies in the 1970s

After the success of mystery films called giallo by another director, Dario Argento, Lenzi also started making them. His film Seven Bloodstained Orchids was inspired by mystery novels. Another giallo film, Knife of Ice, was a new version of an older movie called The Spiral Staircase. Other mystery films Lenzi made in the early 1970s included Spasmo and Eyeball.

In the early 1970s, Lenzi also directed the first Italian cannibal film. This was Man from the Deep River. This was a type of horror movie that he would make again in the 1980s with Eaten Alive! and Cannibal Ferox. In the late 1970s, Lenzi mostly made crime dramas. He also directed two war films: The Greatest Battle and From Hell to Victory (1979).

Making Movies in the 1980s

The 1980s saw the release of some of Lenzi's most well-known films. These included Nightmare City and Cannibal Ferox.

Lenzi also worked on horror films in the late 1980s. These included Ghosthouse (1988), which he made under the name Humphrey Humbert. He also made a slasher film called Nightmare Beach. Lenzi did not want his name on this film, so it was credited to Harry Kirkpatrick. Other films from the late 1980s were horror movies made for television. These were The House of Witchcraft and The House of Lost Souls. These films were part of a series called Le case maldette (which means Houses of Doom). They were about haunted houses. The films were made but not shown on TV right away. Lenzi said he made them as if they were for movie theaters. He and the producers did not think that TV sponsors would not want horror films. The two TV movies were finally released on video in Italy in 2000 and later shown on Italian satellite TV in 2006. In 1989, Lenzi directed a police action film called Cop Target. It was filmed in Miami and Santo Domingo and starred Robert Ginty and Charles Napier.

After the 1980s

In 1990, Lenzi used his own company and a small amount of money to make two films in Brazil in three months. These were the horror film Black Demons, which he thought was his best work in 1996, and the adventure film Hunt for the Golden Scorpion.

In 1992, he made the adventure film Mean Tricks (also known as Hornsby and Rodriguez). It starred Charles Napier, David Warbeck, and David Brandon. In 2006, a magazine called Variety reported that Lenzi was making a slasher film in Italy called Horror Baby.

Later, Lenzi started a new career as a novelist. He wrote a series of murder mysteries that took place in the 1930s and 1940s at Cinecittà, a famous film studio in Italy. His books included real people from the Italian film industry.

Death

Umberto Lenzi passed away on October 19, 2017. He was in a hospital in the Ostia area of Rome. The exact reason for his death is not known.

Personal Life

Umberto Lenzi was married to Olga Pehar. She helped him write some of his films.

Lenzi believed in anarchism, which is a political idea that people should live without a government or rules.

Legacy

Roberto Curti said that Lenzi was "one of the most important people in Italian genre cinema." This means he was a very influential director who made movies in specific styles like horror or crime. Louis Paul suggested that Lenzi made some "enjoyable action films in the 1960s and good thrillers in the '70s." However, he also said that Lenzi "never consistently excelled at any one genre." Paul believed that Lenzi would "probably be remembered most for his cannibal-themed horror films."

Kim Newman talked about Lenzi in 2021. He said that many people, including himself, thought Lenzi was not as good as other Italian directors. This was because his more intense and gruesome movies from the 1980s, like Cannibal Ferox and Nightmare City, were more widely available. Newman noted that Lenzi was a leader in the "jungle cannibal" movie style, making the first and most gruesome ones. However, he also felt that Lenzi often just followed whatever type of exploitation movie was popular at the time. Newman did mention that the films Lenzi made with Carroll Baker in the late 1960s made him rethink Lenzi's work.

Select Filmography

See Also

In Spanish: Umberto Lenzi para niños

• Cannibal boom
• Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
• Poliziotteschi
• Spaghetti Nightmares