Riccardo Freda Filmography

Born:: February 24, 1909 in Alexandria, Egypt
Occupation:: Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: Born in Egypt to Neapolitan parents, Riccardo Freda attended school in Milan and also took classes at the Centro Sperimantale. Freda supported himself as a sculptor and art critic before entering films in a supervisory capacity in 1937. He directed his first film, Don Cesare di Bazan, in 1942....Read More

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L'Ossessione Che Uccide

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Stefano Patrizi, Martine Brochard, Henri Garcin, Laura Gemser, John Richardson

Synopsis: With enough aliases to fill a hotel ledger, this downbeat horror film by Riccardo Fredo focuses on the past and present of Michael Stanford (Stefano Patrizi), a successful actor. His father was knifed to death years ago and now Michael and his girlfriend Deborah (Silvia Dionisio) are going to Read More

1980
Liz E Helen

Crew: Director

1972
Tragic Ceremony

Crew: Director

Actors: Camille Keaton

Synopsis: Italian horror icon Riccardo Freda directs I Spit on Your Grave star Camille Keaton in this gory shocker concerning four hippies who seek shelter from a summer storm in a seemingly-abandoned villa, only to realize that they have stumbled into a satanic sacrifice. Frightened away by the gruesome Read More

1972
L'Iguana Dalla Lingua Di Fuoco

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

8/24/71
La Salamandra Del Deserto

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1971
A Doppia Faccia

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Klaus Kinski, Margaret Lee, Christiane Kruger, Günther Stoll, Sydney Chaplin

Synopsis: This psychological drama finds Helen (Margaret Lee) wanting a divorce from her adoring husband John (Klaus Kinski). She leaves him and is killed in an auto wreck. John finds himself the target of a police investigation to determine if the death was an accident, murder or suicide. His wife had Read More

1969
Roger La Honte

Crew: Director

Actors: Georges Géret, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Irene Papas, Jean Topart

6/15/66
Coplan FX 18 Casse Tout

Crew: Director

Synopsis: The first of two Francis Coplan spy films directed by veteran Riccardo Freda, this flamboyant entry has FX-18 (Richard Wyler of British television's The Man from Interpol) hurtling back and forth between Paris and Istanbul to prevent an Arab nuclear strike on Israel. Teamed with a bumbling Israeli Read More

10/6/65
Giulietta e Romeo

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Geronimo Meynier, Rosemarie Dexter, Carlos Estrada, Umberto Raho, Toni Soler

Synopsis: The English title of this Shakespeare adaptation is Juliet and Romeo, according the heroine top billing for the first time in history. Its Spanish title, evidently concocted to obscure its literary roots, was Los Amentes de Verona. Directed by costume-spectacle "regular" Riccardo Freda, the film Read More

1964
L'Aigle De Florence

Crew: Director

Actors: Brett Halsey, Françoise Fabian, Jose Nieto

1964
Il Magnifico avventuriero

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This historical war drama follows the command of 16th-century artist Benvenuto Cellini as he and his troops defend Rome against the attack of Charles V and his armies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

8/3/63
Maciste

Crew: Director

1963
The Ghost

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: The alluring presence of doe-eyed horror icon Barbara Steele enlivens director Riccardo Freda's passable sequel to his own Horrible Dr. Hichcock. Steele returns as Cynthia, the troubled widow of a sadistic murderer and necrophiliac, who had once conspired with her lover to murder her husband Read More

1963
Le Sette Spade del Vendicatore

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this costume adventure, a dashing swordsman helps protect Philip III of Spain from the traitors trying to overthrow him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

10/30/62
The Witch's Curse

Crew: Director

Actors: Kirk Morris

Synopsis: Maciste, here played by Kirk Morris, is instead a legendary Italian superhero of long standing. In this one, the mighty Mr. M journeys to seventeenth-century Scotland (this is Hell?) His foe is a fearsome Scottish witch who holds awesome power over the local wildlife, and for a while it looks like Read More

4/11/62
L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock

Crew: Director

Actors: Robert Flemyng, Barbara Steele

1962
Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World

Crew: Director

Actors: Gordon Scott, Leonardo Severini

Synopsis: In 13th-Century China, the invading Mongol leader Garak (Leopoldo Severini) decides to kill a young prince before he can take the throne, staging a hunting accident to explain the death. The nomadic strongman Maciste (Gordon Scott) saves the prince from a tiger pit and brings him to a monastery Read More

10/31/61
I Mongoli

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Cast in the epic tragedy mold, this is the story of a thirteenth century romance. Jack Palance is the son of Genghis Khan and Anita Ekberg is his mistress. Battle between Khan's forces and those of the rebels rages around them but, when peace is finally achieved, Ekberg kills Khan so that her Read More

8/31/61
The Giants of Thessaly

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this fantasy adventure, Jason and Orpheus leave Thessaly to quest for the magical Golden Fleece. Along the way they encounter an assortment of monsters, wizards and a conniving witch. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

12/6/60
The White Warrior

Crew: Director

Actors: Giorgia Moll, Steve Reeves, Renato Baldini, Nikola Popovic

Synopsis: Although this uninspired Italian adventure film is loosely based on Leo Tolstoy's tale about a 19th-century clash between Czarist Russia and several ethnic groups in the Caucasus, Tolstoy's original talent is buried. Ponderous and quickly put together, the story stars Steve Reeves as the muscular Read More

6/21/59
Agguato a Tangeri

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Edmund Purdom, Geneviève Page, Gino Cervi, José Guardiola

Synopsis: Director Riccardo Freda does not take this uninspired, turgid spy film very far in its story about a federal agent (Edmund Purdom) and his efforts at blasting apart an international drug cartel. In one of the more unlikely turns of a plotline, the agent falls in love with the daughter of the Read More

11/8/57
I Vampiri

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This Italian vampire tale stars Gianna Maria Canale as an ancient, sultry bloodsucker who, much like real-life kinswoman Countess Bathory, can only maintain her youthful appearance through the regular consumption of a serum derived from virgins' blood. When she begins to age again, she demands Read More

4/5/57
Da Qui All'eredita

Crew: Director

8/14/55
Teodora, imperatrice di Bisanzio

Crew: Director

Actors: Georges Marchal, Gianna Maria Canale, Roger Pigaut, Henri Guisol

Synopsis: The English-language title of this European costume epic alternated between Theodora, Byzantine Empress and Theodora, Slave Empress. Gianna-Maria Canale stars as Theodora, the Egyptian dancing girl who wins the heart of Roman emperor Justinian (Georges Marchal). Many historical accounts indicate Read More

9/29/54
Spartaco

Crew: Director

Actors: Ludmilla Tcherina, Massimo Girotti, Gianna Maria Canale, Yves Vincent, Carlo Ninchi

Synopsis: Originally titled Spartaco, Sins of Rome is a highly suspect retelling of the 1st-century B.C. slave revolt which rocked the Roman Empire to its foundations. Spearheading the rebellion is Thracian slave Spartacus (Massimo Girotti), who is no Kirk Douglas but who handles the role with panache. To Read More

1/28/53
Vedi Napoli e Poi Muori

Crew: Director

2/29/52
Il Tradimento

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this suspenseful crime drama, two conniving crooks continually double-cross each other. Eventually their victim comes back to get revenge upon them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

4/11/51
Guarany

Crew: Director

1/3/50
II Figlio di D'Artagnan

Crew: Director

Actors: Gianna Maria Canale, Franca Marzi, Piero Palermini, Carlo Ninchi, Paolo Stoppa

Synopsis: Few Italian filmmakers turned out lavish costume dramas with as much panache as Riccardo Freda. In Il Figlio D'Artagnan, Piero Palmermini stars as Raul, the son of swashbuckler D'Artagnan of Three Musketeers fame. Unlike his famous father, Raul has no deep abiding love for swordplay, but before Read More

1950
I Miserabili

Crew: Director

Actors: Valentina Cortese, Gino Cervi, John Hinrich, Aldo Nicodemi, Duccia Giraldi

Synopsis: In 1935, American audiences were treated to two simultaneously released versions of Les Miserables, one made in Hollywood, the other in France. Much the same thing happened in 1952. While 20th Century-Fox's Les Miserables, starring Michael Rennie as beleagured ex-convict Jean Valjean, was making Read More

1/21/48
Aquila Nera

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Rossano Brazzi, Irasema Dilian, Gino Cervi, Harry Feist

Synopsis: Before turning to horror pictures, Italian filmmaker Riccardo Freda directed some of the finest costume epics of the postwar era. Filmed in 1946 as Aquila Nera, Freda's Return of the Black Eagle made it to American screens in 1949. Based on a story by Alexander Pushkin, the film concerns the Read More

9/21/46