Of Italian-American ancestry, Narizzano was educated at Bishop's
University, Quebec. His first theatrical work was with the Mountain
Playhouse in Montreal, before joining the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation as assistant to
Norman Jewison,
Arthur Hiller,
Sidney J. Furie and
Ted Kotcheff. From the
mid-1950's, he worked in British television in a variety of genres ranging from thrillers and horror to serious dramatic works by
J.B. Priestley,
John Mortimer and
William Inge.
Influenced by the French New Wave, he achieved his greatest cinematic
acclaim as director of
Georgy Girl (1966), a romantic comedy
(considered risqué at the time) set in swinging
60's London, starring
Lynn Redgrave
and
James Mason. Narizzano spent his
twilight years in relative seclusion, having immersed himself in
religious studies.