FTER THE PRODUCTION of Operazione paura, Mario Bava was approached by producers Giorgio Moser and Arrigo Columbo to save another troubled
VINCENT PRICE and Moana Tahi are poised to rule the world in the Franco and Ciccio comedy, LE SPIE VENGONO DAL SEMIFREDDO.
picture. This time, the movie was Dick Smart 2007, a Filmstudio production starring Richard Wyler and Marga- ret Lee. Filming had begun in Rio de Janeiro and was set to be completed in Rome at INCIR–De Paolis Studios, where— according to Wyler—Bava’s former assistant, director Franco Prosperi (ultimately credited onscreen as “Frank Shannon”), had to be replaced when personal problems began to inter- fere with his ability to work. The editor on that picture was Romana Fortini, the innovative cutter of both Terrore nello spazio and Operazione paura, who may have suggested Bava as a replacement. Wyler remembers that there was some excitement among the actors for the few days when they thought Bava might be coming to their rescue—“I had al- ways wanted to work with him,” he says—but things didn’t work out that way.