Remembering Demofilo Fidani

Demofilo Fidani was born on February 8, 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. Fidani was a film director, screenwriter, set designer, and Italian painter, and medium. Fe was the husband of Mila Vitelli Valenza and the father of actress Simone Blondell. Demofilo was very prolific, specializing in spaghetti westerns, which he made ​​using various pseudonyms (Slim Alone, Danilo Dani, Nedo De Fida, Miles Deem, Lucky Dickinson, Dino Fidani, Nedo Trust, Dennis Ford, Sean O'Neal, Demos Philos, Dick Spitfire ...).

 
His style has been described as "Borrowed", since he has used the names of well-known personalities (Butch Cassidy, Macho Callahan, Django and Sartana ) in the titles of his films.
 
He was accused of a lack of originality and the eccentricity of his characters and disregard for continuity, as well as the fact that most of his work was at best "routine" films, which has led some to call him the Ed Wood of Spaghetti westerns. However, it should be noted that his professionalism has been honored twice by the Ministry of Culture with the Gold Medal in 1975 and 1985, during the demonstrations "A Life for the Cinema."
 
In addition to spaghetti westerns, he also directed gangster films (Sedia elettrica), thrillers (A.A.A. Massaggiatrice bella presenza offresi...), erotic (Calde labbra) and sex comedies (La professoressa di lingue). He had a stable of actors he used over and over which were characteristic of Fidani such as Hunt Powers (Jack Betts), Gordon Mitchell, Jeff Cameron, Ettore Manni and Klaus Kinski. In all Fidani almost two dozen Euro-westerns from “Stanger Say Your Prayers” (1967) to Everything for a Friend” (1972).
 
Fidani was also a painter, stage designer and author, in his later years he was known as a medium. Among his written works as a a medium are The Mystery of Life (1986), Eternal Life (1988), If You are There Knock Once and The Reality and Charm of the Afterlife (1991). The first two books were given the Levanto Award for their moral content.
 
Fidani died on March 17. 1994 in Rome.
 
Today we remember Demofilo Fidani on what would have been his 100^th birthday.