Rino Di Silvestro was an Italian writer/director who specialized in
extremely raw, graphic and, in the opinion of many critics, offensive
low-budget exploitation fare. He was born in 1932 and hailed from a
family of Sicilian landowners. He established his own avant-garde
theatre company and produced the risqué comedy play "Op Bop Pop Nip" in
the 1960s. In addition, Di Silvestro was a ghostwriter who penned over
200 screenplays. He made his directorial debut with the supremely
scuzzy chicks-in-chains outing
Mädchen im Knast (1973).
He followed that with the sleazy
Catrice, die Nymphomanin (1974) and the nasty
Nazisploitation item
Deported Women of the SS Special Section (1976).
Di Silvestro achieved his greatest enduring cult cinema notoriety,
however, with the outrageously trashy and leering soft-core horror
schlocker Werewolf Woman (1976).
His last two pictures were the typically tawdry
Angel in the Dark (1984)
and the crass sexploitation peplum
Die Orgien der Cleopatra (1985).
He died of cancer on October 3, 2009.
