Remembering Bruno Mattei

Bruno Mattei was born on July 30, 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He began his film career as a film editor and doing other odd jobs in his father’s film editing studio. He then began editing films for such directors as Roberto Bianchi Montero and Nick Nostro. He began directing films with 1970's "Armida, il dramma di una sposa" credited as Jordon B. Matthews. During his career he was known for his many thrillers and horror films and was often called "The Italian Ed Wood". In order to make his films he became producer, director, screenwriter and film editor. He also used a number of aliases such as Vincent Dawn, Michael Cardoso, Dawn Norman, David Graham, David Hunt, Bob Hunter, Frank Klox, Werner Knox, Pierre Le Blanc, Jimmy Matheus, Jordan B. Matthews, J. Metheus, Martin Miller, Erik Montgomery, Stefan Oblowsky, Gilbert Roussel, George Smith and William Snyder. No matter what the pseudonym you know you were in store for low-budget fare. Mattei left the industry for a five year period in the late ‘90s before returning in 2001 and making over 50 films many direct to DVD. Mattei was involved in four Euro-westerns: "The Last Tomahawk" (1965) as film editor, "Kill Johnny Ringo" (1966) as film editor, "White Apache" as director and "Scalps" (both in 1987) as director and screenwriter. In May of 2007 he went to the hospital complaining of severe pain. He was found to have a brain tumor he fell into a coma after complications arose after its removal. Mattei died on May 21, 2007. He was 75. Today we remember Bruno Mattei on what would have been his 80^th birthday.