Mario Zampi

Most closely associated with the British "zany" comedy cycle of the '50s, producer/director Mario Zampi began his career far from London, as a juvenile actor in his native Rome. Emigrating to England in 1931, Zampi was hired by Teddington Studios (the London branch of Hollywood's Warner Bros.) as a film editor. Moving into the production end, Zampi joined fellow Italian expatriate Filippo del Giudice in 1937 to create Two Cities Films. Zampi steered clear of the more serious Two Cities projects of the '40s (In Which We Serve, The Way Ahead), preferring instead to work on the comedies. Zampi's best-known directing assignment was 1951's Laughter in Paradise, though his more ardent fans prefer such Terry-Thomas vehicles as The Naked Truth (1956) and Too Many Crooks (1958). Mario Zampi's final film was the Ernie Kovacs cult comedy Five Golden Hours (1961).