Mario Volpe was born in 1896 in Naples, Italy. He studied engineering
before entering the Academy of Fine Arts, where he learned painting and
sculpture. In 1912 he appeared as an extra in silent Italian films
In 1914 he starred in "The Adventures of a Journalist", produced by the
Napoli Film House where he worked until 1918 as an assistant director.
In 1920 he moved to Montalbano Film Florence where he began to work as
a director and directed five silent feature films, including "The
Master", "Thou shalt not kill!", "The Mystery" and "The Ace of Spades".
He then left the cinema to devote himself to teaching and founded an
acting school with Valentino Soldani, that was short lived.
In 1930, in Paris, he met the Behna brothers, producers of films in
Egypt who offered him to direct the first sound film of the Egyptian
cinema entitled "the Song of the Heart" in 1931. He accepted and the
film was released in 1932. For many reasons, the film was not a popular
success but Mario Volpe moved to Egypt where he directed four more
films.
In 1937 he returned to Italy, but it is only after the war that he was
able to make some films like "The Two Sisters" in 1950. He died in 1968
at the age of 73.