(1902-1994)
Screenwriter and director. After working in the theater as a set designer during the 1920s, at the beginning of the sound era Perilli joined the new Cines, where he served as production designer and then as assistant director to Mario Camerini. In 1933 he directed his first feature film, Ragazzo (Boy). In spite of recounting the edifying story of a street kid whose criminal behavior is eventually reformed by time in a Fascist youth camp, Ragazzo became one of the few films to be completely banned by the Fascist authorities, its total prohibition coming from Benito Mussolini himself. Perilli directed two other minor films in the early 1940s, Margherita fra i tre (Margherita and Her Three Uncles, 1942) and La primadonna (The First Soprano, 1943), but for the most part he worked as a regular screenwriter (and sometimes assistant director) on a dozen of Camerini's subsequent films including Il cappello a tre punte (Three-Cornered Hat, 1934), Darb un milione (I'll Give a Million, 1936), I grandi magazzini (Department Store, 1939), and I promessi sposi (The Spirit and the Flesh, 1941). In the period following World War II he collaborated with many of the major directors: with Camerini again on a half dozen films including Due lettere anonime (Two Anonymous Letters, 1945), La bella mugnaia (The Miller's Beautiful Wife, 1956), and I briganti italiani (The Italian Brigands, 1962); with Roberto Rossellini on Europa '51 (The Greatest Love, 1952); with Giuseppe De Santis on Riso amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949); and with Alberto Lattuada on Anna (1952). He also worked with American directors such as Martin Ritt on 5 Branded Women (Jovanka e le altre, I960) and Richard Fleisher on Barabbas (1961). Following his collaboration on the screenplay of John Huston's The Bible: The Beginning (1966), however, he largely retired from the cinema, returning only to supply the story and screenplay for Luigi Comencini's Mio dio come sono caduta in basso (How Long Can You Fall? 1974).
Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.