Furio Scarpelli, “father of Italian comedy” and screenwriter of over 120 films, died in Rome at the age of 90 yesterday.
Scarpelli enjoyed a working partnership with Agenore Incrocci, known as “Age”, from the 1940s to the 1980s and together they wrote the screenplay for the Italian western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which was directed by Sergio Leone and starred Clint Eastwood.
The two also wrote films for the comic Totò and the screenplays for comedies starring Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman. One of their most famous films outside Italy is “I soliti ignoti” [Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958], a story about a group of rather inept thieves.
Scarpelli and “Age” were nominated for two Oscars as screenwriters, the first for “I Compagni” [“The Organizer”, 1963], about exploited textile workers in Turin at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the second for Casanova 70 [1965].
After the pair went their separated ways Scarpelli was also nominated for the screenplay of Il Postino [1994].
Scarpelli will be best remembered in Italy for the comedies he wrote with “Age” about particularly Italian vices. His funeral will take place in Rome on Friday.
Have you seen any of Scarpelli’s fims?
