Mario Caiano was born in Rome, Italy, on February 13, 1933. After grade
school he registered in college under the alias of Mariano Cajano. He
alternated his university studies in philology with his apprenticeship
in the film business, working as an assistant director and occasionally
a scriptwriter for famous directors such as
Sergio Grieco,
Fernando Cerchio,
Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia,
Vittorio Sala,
Riccardo Freda,
Edgar G. Ulmer and
Camillo Mastrocinque. In 1962
Caiano made his film debut as a director with
Herkules, der Sohn der Götter (1962).
From then on he made films in virtually every genre. He directed the
very first Italian western,
Mit Colt und Maske (1963),
the interesting gothic horror flick
Amanti d'oltretomba (1965),
which starred Barbara Steele, the
psychological thriller
L'occhio nel labirinto (1972)
and the captivating detective thriller
...a tutte le auto della polizia... (1975).
Among other things, Caiano wrote the script for
_Nelle pieghe della
carne (1966)_,
directed by Sergio Bergonzelli. He
has been very active in Italian TV with work on such shows as
Un'estate, un inverno (1971),
Diagnosen (1975),
Astuzia per astuzia (1979)
and many others to this day.
