Joseph W. Sarno (March 15, 1921 – April 26, 2010) was an American film director and screenwriter. Sarno emerged from the proto-pornographic sexploitation film genre of the 1950s & 1960s; he had written and directed approximately 75 theatrically released feature films in the sexploitation, softcore and hardcore genres as well as a number of shot-on-video features for the 1980s hardcore video market. Early life Sarno was born in 1921 and grew up in Amityville on Long Island. Career Sarno, a pioneer of the sexploitation film genre, completed his first adult-oriented feature, Nude in Charcoal, in 1961. Among his best-known films in the genre are Sin in the Suburbs (1964), which was about wife swapping, Flesh and Lace, The Swap and How They Made It (1966), in which his wife appeared, and Moonlighting Wives (1966). Sarno's work of the sexploitation period was typified by stark chiaroscuro lighting, long takes, and rigorous staging. He was also well known for scenarios centering on issues of psycho-sexual anxiety and sexual identity development. During his sexploitation period, Sarno worked with such actors as Uta Erickson, Dyanne Thorne (star of the Ilsa series), Audrey Campbell (Olga's House of Shame series), Michael Alaimo, Patricia McNair, Tod Moore, and his cousin, Joe Santos, who would become a regular on television's The Rockford Files. Beginning in 1968, Sarno's work became somewhat more explicit, predicting the emergence of soft-core. His breakthrough feature Inga (1968) was one of the first X-rated films released in the United States. Other noteworthy soft-core features include All the Sins of Sodom (1968), Vibrations (1968), Passion in Hot Hollows (1969), Daddy, Darling (1970), Young Playthings (1972), Confessions of a Young American Housewife (1974, which was about foursomes), and Misty (1975). Sarno was also the director of Deep Throat Part 2 (1974), the R-rated sequel to the hardcore classic Deep Throat. After 1968, Sarno's soft-core work was divided between films produced in the United States and films produced in Europe, principally Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. Many of Sarno's European features were made with American backing. In Europe, he was known for having worked with actresses Marie Liljedahl, Christina Lindberg, Helli Louise, and Marie Forså. Sarno's first hardcore feature was Sleepyhead (1973) featuring Georgina Spelvin and Tina Russell. Reluctant to be associated with the hardcore genre, Sarno began directing explicit films under various pseudonyms, like "Karl Andersson" in Touch of Genie (1974). He acknowledges being the uncredited director