death_place death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name occupation
rome , italy 20 december 1999 alexandria , egypt 24 february 1909 riccardo freda
 riccardo freda film director
riccardo freda

riccardo freda -lrb- alexandria , egypt , february 24 , 1909 -- rome , italy , december 20 , 1999 -rrb- was an italian film director .
he was born to a neapolitan family .
he left studies in milan in 1933 and entered the experimental center for cinematography and he soon began work as a screenwriter for directors like goffredo alessandrini and raffaello matarazzo .
best known for his horror and thriller movies , freda had no great love for the horror films he was assigned , but rather favored the epic sword and sandal pictures , being inspired by the literary classics of hugo and pushkin .
unlike other directors of the period like mario bava and antonio margheriti , freda had worked with high budgets and obtained egregious results .
freda 's `` sins of rome '' -lrb- 1953 -rrb- was one of the first italian peplums , predating steve reeves 's `` hercules '' by four years , and his classic '' '' -lrb- 1961 -rrb- was theatrically released one year before ray harryhausen 's famous `` jason and the argonauts '' .
he directed kirk morris and gordon scott in two classic maciste films in the sixties , in addition to directing several spy films , spaghetti westerns , historical dramas and world war ii actioners .
he never finished either of the two horror films he was assigned in the 1950s -lrb- `` i vampiri '' and `` caltiki '' -rrb- , but rather allowed his cinematographer mario bava to complete them .
bava 's great effects work on `` caltiki '' in particular launched him on a directing career of his own in 1960 .
thus many fans regard freda as mario bava 's mentor in the film industry .
freda 's greatest horror films were his two 1960 's titles , `` the horrible dr. hichcock '' -lrb- 1962 -rrb- and `` the ghost '' -lrb- 1963 -rrb- , both of which starred barbara steele , but he really enjoyed doing the adventure films a lot more .
he directed anton diffring and the legendary klaus kinski in giallos later in the decade , and then pretty much retired from filmmaking in 1972 , emerging from his retirement in 1981 -lrb- at age 72 -rrb- to direct one last slasher film , `` murder obsession '' -lrb- aka `` fear '' -rrb- .
he died in 1999 in rome of natural causes -lrb- at age 90 -rrb- .
