Biography

Giuseppe Mercanti, best known as Pino Mercanti (16 February 1911 – 3 September 1986), was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Palermo, Sicily, Mercanti was a pioneer of the Sicilian cinema as the leading filmmaker and the artistic director of the production company O.F.S. (a.k.a. Organizzazione Filmistica Siciliana), founded by the brothers Francesco and Girolamo Gorgone with the purpose of promoting the production of films on Sicilian soil. Following the bankruptcy of the company, Mercanti moved to Rome, where he directed a number of melodramas, adventure films, Spaghetti Westerns and other genre films, often international co-productions. He was sometimes credited as Joseph Trader.