Mario Caiano was born in Rome, Italy, on February 13, 1933. After grade school he registered in college under the alias of Mariano Cajano. He alternated his university studies in philology with his apprenticeship in the film business, working as an assistant director and occasionally a scriptwriter for famous directors such as Sergio Grieco, Fernando Cerchio, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Vittorio Sala, Riccardo Freda, Edgar G. Ulmer and Camillo Mastrocinque. In 1962 Caiano made his film debut as a director with Ulisse contro Ercole (1962). From then on he made films in virtually every genre. He directed the very first Italian western, Il segno del coyote (1963), the interesting gothic horror flick Amanti d'oltretomba (1965), which starred Barbara Steele, the psychological thriller L'occhio nel labirinto (1972) and the captivating detective thriller ...a tutte le auto della polizia... (1975).Among other things, Caiano wrote the script for _Nelle pieghe della carne (1966)_, directed by Sergio Bergonzelli. He has been very active in Italian TV with work on such shows as Un'estate, un inverno (1971), Diagnosi (1975), Astuzia per astuzia (1979) and many others to this day.