Remembering Adalberto Albertini

Adalberto ‘Bitto’ Albertini was born on July 14, 1924, in Turin, Italy. He entered the film industry as an operations assistant on some films during World War II. In 1946 he was a camera operator on the film “Addio, mia bella Napoli” with director Mario Bonnard. He then became a director of photography and continued in this profession until 1965. He then decided to turn his attention to direction which he did until 1985 hiding behind several pseudonyms such as Al Albert, Ben Norman, Albert Thomas, Stanley Mitchell, Ben Norman and Albert J. Walker. During his years as a director he specialized in making period, sword and sandal, action and erotic films such as “Black Emmanuelle” in 1974 with Laura Gemser. She became a star and was not available when “Black Emmanuelle II” was filmed which was a flop. Albertini’s career was basically finished at this point and he finished up with two ‘Mondo’ films. Adalberto’s Euro-westerns were “A Stranger in Sacramento” (1965) as screenwriter, “The Twilight Avengers” (1970) and “The Return of Shanghai Joe” (1974) as director and screenwriter. Adalberto Albertini died on February 22, 1999. Today we celebrate what would have been his 85th birthday.