Fondato, Marcello

(1924-)

   Screenwriter and director. Fondato began his career in films as a screenwriter, collaborating with Luigi Comencini on a number of films, including Mogli pericolose (Dangerous Wives, 1958), Tutti a casa (Everybody Go Home, 1960), and La ragazza di Bube (Bebo's Girl, 1963). After also working on a number of the Toto films and cowriting several of Mario Bava's horror classics, including I tre volti dellapaura (Black Sabbath, 1963) and Sei donne per l'assassino (Blood and Black Lace, 1964), he made his directorial debut with Iprotagonisti (The Protagonists, 1968), a film about five wealthy tourists who pay to spend time with a notorious Sardinian bandit and which earned him a Nastro d'argento for Best Original Story. Certo certissimo . . . anzi probabile (Diary of a Telephone Operator, 1969), adapted from a short story by Dacia Maraini, is usually regarded as his finest work as a director. However, he continued to write and direct a number of other successful films in the 1970s, including Causa di divorzio (Cause of Divorce, 1972), which reflected a burning issue in Italy at the time; Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo (Watch Out, We're Mad, 1974), one of the films featuring the comic duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill (Mario Girotti); and A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere (The Immortal Bachelor, 1975), which took its title from a popular song of the 1930s. In the 1980s he worked mostly in television, directing several miniseries, among them the six-episode Affari di famiglia (Family Affairs, 1989).