Illusion’s own Jamison Ousley talks with Alrugo’s Dario Russo about the rediscovered classic, Italian Spiderman.

JEO: According to the Italian Spiderman history, the print was lost at sea for decades. How was it rediscovered?

DR: In 2006 Alfonso Alrugo, founder of Alrugo Entertainment, orange-farming mogul and producer of Italian Spiderman died from blood poisoning caused by a citrus parasite. On his deathbed, grandsons Vivaldi and Verdi Alrugo - who were very close to their grandfather - transcribed his unfulfilled life wishes. The list included locating and propagating the exceedingly rare Margaret Fruit Tree; sending Dino De Laurentiis a picture of Alfonso and Dino’s wife doing the business in the back of his Maserati; building a time machine; and most significantly, locating the only existing print of his opus Italian Spiderman, which was lost at sea in 1969.

After Alfonso’s passing Vivaldi and Verdi set to work on fulfilling their grandfather’s last wishes. Fortuitously, Alrugo Fruit Co. had recently expanded into deep-sea fishing and Vivaldi and Verdi had a small fleet of lobster boats at their disposal. They assembled a ramshackle team of orange farmers, scientists, a deep-sea fisherman and several ‘deck maids’ from the Alrugo Dance Institute. They loaded three lobster boats with supplies, armaments and oranges (to fend off scurvy) and in April 2006 they embarked on their quest for the missing film.

They would be at sea for a year before their mission was completed. During the process they lost two of their boats and most of their crew but returned with the film cans intact.

JEO: Were any other films discovered along with Italian Spiderman?

DR: There were some trailers for Mondo Sexo, and Sex Cops II attached to the beginning of the reel, but they are still being restored.

JEO: It is said that Alfonso Alrugo got into the film business to make movies that ‘did the job’. What was ‘the job’ as he saw it?

DR: Originally he meant giving you an erection. Later, in a bid to expand his audience, ‘doing the job’ extended to moving people emotionally and making people laugh. If you get an erection in the process, well then that’s a bonus.

JEO: What drew Alrugo to the Giallo film genre?

DR: It was actually Gianfranco Gatti who drew Alfonso into the production of Giallos. Gianfranco already had a few low budget Giallos under his belt, including In the Morning You’ll Be Dead (1960), Hooker (1962) and Blood Hooker (1962). The latter two were filmed simultaneously and so it is very difficult to tell the two films apart, as they would often simply re-shoot a scene with different dialogue.

Italian Spiderman was Gatti’s dream project though. He saw it as an outlet for many of the ideas he had been itching to realise for his whole career but lacked the money to complete.

JEO: What is the significance of the panther on the Alrugo title card and its growling sound effect?

DR: Alfonso Alrugo was nearly killed by a panther while travelling through India in the 1950s. He wrestled the beast for several hours before finally managing to bite its jugular out. He later skinned the animal and kept the pelt on the wall behind the desk in his Palermo office. Alfonso decided to include the panther in the Alrugo Entertainment logo as a symbol of overcoming adversity and also as a way to mock the panther that failed to kill him, which he often referred to as an incompetent animal.

JEO: Italian Spiderman dates back to 1968, not long after Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man had just begun to achieve iconic status. Is there a direct connection or is the name simply a coincidence?

DR: Gianfranco Gatti could not read or write, so it is unlikely there was any influence.

JEO: The ten segments released over the Internet are referred to as excerpts. When might we expect to see the complete feature?

DR: The restoration process is long and difficult and we have to keep replacing technicians as they are often overcome by the fumes. But we can assure you that the ten segments currently on the Internet are only the first part of a full film and once the remainder of the film has been restored it will be on the Net for all the world to see. There may be a bit of a wait between the current ten and the next installation but there will be plenty of other Alrugo material to feast your hungry eyes upon in the meantime.

JEO: The Italian Spiderman story on the Alrugo website says that actor Franco Franchetti died in a spearfishing accident. Was it his fondness of spearfishing that led to the spear-gun-armed women in episode six?

DR: Franco Franchetti was a much-acclaimed actor and a household name in Italy during the 60s; he was also a highly egocentric man. On the set of Italian Spiderman his extravagant demands and sweeping last-minute script amendments would often result in heated arguments with Gatti. Supposedly, Gatti once threatened the actor with a broken bottle when Franchetti demanded that production cease for a month to allow him to go fishing in the West Indies. Before any blood was spilled, Alfonso Alrugo stepped in and attempted to appease both parties by opting to shoot some scenes on location while Franchetti vacationed, using whatever resources were at hand. The end result is the surf-off scene, featuring spear-guns found on Franchetti’s yacht.

His un-repentant hedonism and love for spear fishing did, however, finally lead to his down fall. The day after one of Franchetti’s seaside opium luaus, the actor was apparently showing off in front of a bevy of “top-dollar” girls when he shot his spear gun at piece of coral that reportedly, “looked like a vagina”. It deflected and hit Franco; He bled profusely form the eyes and died there in the sand, surrounded by topless women, a tragedy.

JEO: Are we going to see Italian Spiderman’s origin before the series is through or does he not have one?

DR: As far as we know, Italian Spiderman came out of the womb with a mask, full moustache and a lit cigarette.

JEO: Will we learn where Italian Spiderman’s rivalry with Capitan Maximum began?

DR: Not likely.

JEO: I noticed that the Italian Spiderman soundtrack is available for purchase. Who wrote the film’s amazing soundtrack?

DR: The music of Italian Spiderman was composed by Italian songster Enzo Bontempi. He was a medium-sized name on the Italian lounge/funk scene during the 60s. After his work on Italian Spiderman, Bontempi worked with Alfonso’s son Tedesco Alrugo under the Alrugodisc label. He released one disco album entitled Wow before fading into relative obscurity. Franco Franchetti also had a brief stint as a session drummer with Bontempi.

JEO: Had Italian Spiderman seen distribution in 1969, as was originally intended, do you think it would have been as well received as it has been today?

DR: It goes without saying that it would have been up for some major awards. Italian Spiderman could have easily trumped Midnight Cowboy for the Oscar. Actually, Gianfranco Gatti makes numerous references to John Peckinpath in his autobiography, claiming he won a bar fight against Peckinpath in Amsterdam and that he ‘squealed like a whore’ when Gatti stepped on his neck. This has never been substantiated however. He also refers to John Voight as a ‘whore’; in fact he refers to many of his contemporaries as ‘whores’ in a chapter of his autobiography. The chapter is entitled ‘Whores’.

That said, we do believe the Internet is giving Italian Spiderman a whole new audience and is allowing a diverse group of people to discover and enjoy it via means that just were just not available in the 1960s.

Italian Spiderman is available as downloadable segments at youtube, myspace and other video sharing sites.

.