Giorgio Simonelli

Giorgio Simonelli (14 November 1901 – 3 October 1966), was an Italian film director, editor, screenwriter and journalist.

Born in Rome, Simonelli obtained a high school diploma in business studies, then he started working as a journalist, and even as a film critic, for the weekly magazines Avvenimento and Gente nostra. In 1928, at 22, he made his directorial debut co-directing with Nicola Fausto Neroni Maratona and two years later he was among the screenwriters of the first Italian talking film, The Song of Love by Gennaro Righelli. From 1934 Simonelli mainly devoted himself to the film editing, then, since 1940, he reprised his activity as a director specializing in comedy films of great commercial success, in which he directed some of the more popular actors of the period, including Totò, Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo, Nino Taranto, Renato Rascel, Walter Chiari, Ugo Tognazzi, Macario, Alberto Sordi and Aldo Fabrizi. He concluded his career by signing many successful works interpreted by the comedy duo Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. His last film was the western-parody Two Sons of Ringo, in which just before the end of filming he was replaced by Giuliano Carnimeo for health reasons.

Director

• Le due tigri (it) (1941)
• Two Hearts Among the Beasts (1943)
• La bisarca (1950)
• Io sono il capataz (1950)
• Auguri e figli maschi! (1951)
• La paura fa 90 (1951)
• Io, Amleto (1952)
• Saluti e baci (1953)
• It Happened at the Police Station (1954)
• Noi siamo due evasi (1959)
• Robin Hood and the Pirates (1960)
• Ursus in the Land of Fire (1961)
• I due mafiosi (1964)
• Two Mafiamen in the Far West (1964)
• Two Mafiosi Against Goldfinger (1965)
• Two Sergeants of General Custer (1965)
• I due toreri (1965)
• Two Sons of Ringo (1966)

Screenwriter

• The Song of Love (1930)
• Fountain of Trevi (1960)

Film editor

• The Blue Fleet (1932)
• Paradise (1932)
• La Wally (1932)
• Seconda B (1934)
• Don Bosco (1935)
• Golden Arrow (1935)
• Cavalry (1936)
• Luciano Serra, Pilot (1938)
• The Widow (1939)
• Cardinal Messias (1939)
• The Thrill of the Skies (1940)