Happy 80th Birthday Mario Caiano

Mario Caiano was born in Rome, Italy, on February 13, 1933, the son of producer Carlo Caiano. After grade school he registered for college under the alias of Mariano Cajano. He alternated his university studies in philology with his apprenticeship in the film business, working as an assistant director and occasionally a scriptwriter for such famous directors as Sergio Grieco, Fernando Cerchio, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Vittorio Sala, Riccardo Freda, Edgar G. Ulmer and Camillo Mastrocinque. In 1962 Caiano made his film debut as a director with “Ulisse contro Ercole” (Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules) (1962). From then on he made films in virtually every genre. He directed one of the first Italian westerns, “The Sign of the Coyote” (1963), the interesting gothic horror flick “Nightmare Castle” (1965), which starred Barbara Steele, the psychological thriller “L'occhio nel labirinto” (1972) and the captivating detective thriller “Calling All Police Cars” (1975). In all he’s been involved in over 45 films and TV series among which are thirteen Euro-westerns including: “A Fistful of Dollars” 1964 as an assistant director, “Bullets Don’t Argue also 1964 as director, “Ringo, the Face of Revenge” (1967) producer, writer and director, “A Train for Durango” (1968) writer and director and “Shanghai Joe” (1973) writer and director. Caiano at times used the aliases Allen Grünewald, William Hawkins, Nick Jordan, Mike Perkins, Manfred Rieger and Edoardo Re. Caiano’s last work was as a director on the TV film “Io ti salver” in 2002. Today we celebrate Mario Caiano’s 80^th birthday.