Riccardo Freda Movies and Career Information

Riccardo Freda (born in Alexandria, Egypt, February 24, 1909 - died in Rome, Italy, December 20, 1999) was an Egyptian-born Italian film director. 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. Freda's "Sins of Rome" (1953) was one of the first Italian peplums, predating Steve Reeves's "Hercules" by four years, and his classic "Giants of Thessaly" (1961) 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 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 Fifties ("I VAMPIRI" and "CALTIKI"), 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"