8. Massimo Dallamano (1917-1976)
Born in Milan, Massimo Dallamano began his career in cinema as a cameraman for documentaries and commercials in the 1940s. After the war, he started work as a cinematographer including Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. A pretty impressive achievement indeed for Dallamano, who began his directorial career with another Spaghetti Western called Bandidos. Happily for us fans of Italian sleaze, Dallamano extended his range into erotica and Gialli. In 1968 he made the underrated Giallo - A Black Veil For Lisa. He followed this up with an adaptation of Venus in Furs - starring the delightful Laura Antonelli as sizzling, sexy, sadistic Wanda. A further adaptation of another book - Dorian Gray - marked Dallamano as a stylish and inventive director. Before he sadly died in a car crash aged only 59, Massimo Dallamano directed the amazingly good Giallo - What Have You Done to Solange? In the Giallo canon, this one must be up there in the top ten, and very probably in the top five films. It is a twisted tale of a married school teacher whose schoolgirl lovers start turning up dead. Dallamano's tragic death robbed Italian cinema of a very special talent.