Anthony M. Dawson Movies

Former boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler stars as a U.S. Marine sergeant who aids an Amazon rain forest tribe in their battle against land developers. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this commando action-adventure by Antonio Margheriti, Captain Wesley (Lewis Collins) has been charged with cleaning out some drug sites in Thailand and gathers up four of his mercenaries for the task. His superior is Fletcher (Ernest Borgnine), a drug enforcement officer with shady business contacts. Wesley and his crew, including the tough Charlton (Klaus Kinski) and China (Lee Van Cleef), head out into the jungle to eradicate the drugs at their source. Battles and explosions follow. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This Italian-Turkish co-production helmed by genre veteran Antonio Margheriti (using the pseudonym "Anthony M. Dawson") was cobbled together from a four-part science-fiction miniseries shown on Italian television. In prehistoric times, the muscular Yor (Reb Brown in a loincloth) saves his cave-babe (Corinne Clery) from a dinosaur just before they get zapped into the future to battle bad guys in the familiar desolate wasteland. Genre stalwart John Steiner (Caligole) and the ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi co-star with Carol Andre. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Half zombie epic, half cannibal gorefest, this unusual blend of two popular Italo-horror subgenres results in a high-octane thriller that delivers the gory goods. The story involves a group of former Vietnam POW's who contract a bizarre disease in captivity which compels them to eat human flesh. Needless to say, this makes assimilation into post-war American life rather difficult as the gestating disease takes hold on the returning veterans, whose cannibal instincts eventually fight their way to the surface. One such victim is commando Norman Hopper (John Saxon), who is bitten by one of the POW's during a rescue mission and carries the gestating contagion back home. When the soldier who bit him (John Morghen) is released from a veterans' psychiatric hospital after apparently being cured, he makes brief phone contact with Saxon before succumbing to an immediate relapse, leading to a gory rampage and subsequent shootout with police. When Saxon begins feeling the urge to munch -- first developing an appetite for the teenage cupcake next door -- he springs his fellow cannibals from the hospital, leading to another bloody confrontation with the police -- this time in the city sewers. Director Antonio Margheriti (alleged ghost-director of Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein) manages to fuse crime-thriller conventions with gory cannibals-in-the-streets horror without losing viewers' interest, although the drastically-edited video version (under the title Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) suffers badly from the absence of Gianetto De Rossi's chunk-blowing makeup effects. The dialogue, while better than the average Italian post-dubbing job, is so overloaded with profanity that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Released under a dozen titles, the best-known being Cannibal Apocalypse. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Spaghetti meets chop-suey in the Italian/Spanish/Hong Kong production Blood Money. Lee VanCleef plays an adventurer in search of a treasure buried somewhere in the orient. The clues are tattooed on the backs of four lovely young ladies. This translates to lots of exposed epidermis, not to mention a surplus of blood-and-gore. VanCleef emerges from the confusion with his reputation intact, but most of the supporting actors were never heard from again. Blood Money was produced by Sir Run Run Shaw, Hong Kong's leading purveyor of box-office bonanzas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this horror movie, residents of a remote Scottish town fight a strange and terrifying beast that has been gobbling them all up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this remake of his own La Danza Macabra, director Antonio Margheriti casts Anthony Franciosa as writer Alan Foster, who accepts a bet from Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) and his friend Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman). No one has ever survived a night in Blackwood's castle, but the skeptical Foster gladly accepts the dare. The castle is striking and scary, which soon begins to affect Foster's mind. He meets Blackwood's sister Elisabeth (Michele Mercier) and the jealous Julia (Karin Field). Julia's portrait had intrigued him earlier, but it is Elisabeth whom Foster beds, only to see her stabbed by a stranger. The attacker's body vanishes after Foster kills him, and he quickly realizes that the castle is inhabited by vampiric ghosts. Foster must survive the horrors of the night and hold on to not only his life, but his sanity as well. This is an atmospheric film, full of crypts, skulls and mist, and Margheriti's direction is assured. The acting is solid all around, with a fine supporting cast including Peter Carsten, Raf Baldassare, and Silvano Tranquilli, though fans of the original might miss Barbara Steele just a little. Overall, this is a worthy remake with some spooky moments and a well-written script by Bruno Corbucci and Giovanni Grimaldi. The music was composed by the prolific Riz Ortolani. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Plenty of campy humor enlivens Antonio Margheriti's tame giallo thriller about murders at a prestigious girl's boarding school. Mark Damon (The Fall of the House of Usher) is the studly riding instructor having an affair with one of the students (Eleonora Bron), an heiress who is the killer's primary target. Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still) investigates the crimes, as women are murdered in showers, thrown into pits of quicklime, and terrorized in aviaries. Other than copping out by featuring yet another overly obvious transvestite killer, it's not half bad. Genre stalwarts Luciano Pigozzi and Marisa Longo also appear. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Rik vanNutter, fondly remembered by James Bond fans as "Felix Leiter" in Thunderball (and also well known internationally as the former husband of Anita Ekberg) stars in the Spanish-Italian Dynamite Joe. The film is set in the years following the Civil war. vanNutter plays a government agent, assigned to protect a gold shipment. The bandits whom he confronts along the way are not prepared for vanNutter's "secret weapon": that newfangled invention called dynamite. Halina Zalewska and Merce Castro costar in this lively spaghetti western. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as Snow Devils and Devil Men From Space, this Italian melodrama is a muddled mixture of two popular film genres. Part of the story is given over to a search for the destroyers of a Himalyan weather station. When the search party reaches their destination, they are captured by what seems to be a tribe of abominable snowmen. We soon learn that the blue-tinted beasties are actually the vanguard of an invading army of extraterrestrials. Heading the cast of Snow Demons are Jack Stuart (also known as Giacomo Rossi Stuart) and Amber Collins (aka Ombretta Coli); the director was Anthony Dawson (aka Antonio Margheriti; do we detect a pattern here?) The film was originally released as I Diavolo della Spazzio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this campy Italian sci-fi adventure wicked aliens from outer space abduct and miniaturize Earth's leaders to make it easier to destroy the planet until a courageous hero appears to fight against him and his legion of skintight leather-clad robot women. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide