Anthony Steffen, Sylvia Koscina starred in The Crimes of the Black Cat aka Seven Shawls of Yellow Silk
Anthony Steffen Q&A Part II: DJANGO Inspired Clint Eastwood
What happened to Anthony Steffen’s career after the demise of the Spaghetti Western in the mid-’70s? Did he attempt to pursue other film genres or more "mainstream" work?
Before the Spaghetti Westerns, the "sword and sandals" films were the real box-office hits. They would often use leftovers from every Hollywood biblical or historical spectacle, films such as Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, etc. Antonio appeared in Robert Aldrich’s Sodom and Gomorrah — and he didn’t have many good things to say about Stewart Granger.
Anyway, when that genre faded, the Spaghetti Western took its place. Now, in the early ’70s, the spags slowly gave way to the gialli, violent erotic thrillers such as Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970). The world gialli is plural for giallo, which means "yellow" in Italian. As most of the films were based on Edgar Wallace novels published with a yellow cover, the Giallo Collection, the films became known as gialli.
So, all that stock company of actors doing Westerns went to the new "genre of the moment." Of course, new names appeared on the scene, but meanwhile all those old spag types were being violently murdered by mysterious serial killers that were only uncovered at the end of the movies, which also had plenty of sex.
Around that time, The Exorcist became a worldwide hit, so many devil possession rip-offs popped up — and the same happened with cop thrillers following the success of Dirty Harry and The French Connection. Italian cinema knew how to use a standard formula and exploit it to the utmost, at times reinventing it. Those were the mainstream films.
Anthony Steffen was always sought after; there was never a moment in his career when there wouldn’t be a film project waiting for him. He was working all over Europe, which made him an absent father and husband. The poverty and suffering he experienced during World War II made him keep on working and making money, so he could always provide for his loved ones.
Anthony Steffen: Seven Dollars on the Red (top, 1966); Blood at Sundown (bottom, 1965)
Anthony Steffen died in 2004. What did he have to say about his oeuvre?
For a year and a half we were very close to him. He would not see his films again, even though there was a huge wall in his condo filled with posters. His widow gave us a few of them after he died. It was difficult for him to grow old, not be the same beautiful young man he had been — and his cancer was only making things worse.
At first, he referred to his films as only a way for him to earn a living, but as we became closer, he would open his heart about them. He liked the movies. He worked with Vittorio De Sica, whom he considered the best director he ever knew.
In addition to being an actor, Antonio wrote and even directed some parts of the films in which he starred. He was a trained actor who loved George Bernard Shaw and Pirandello, whose character he played on the stage.
In films, his most difficult part was the blind composer Peter Oliver in the delicious giallo The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972). Also, he was very afraid of horses and in each Western he had to overcome his fear in order to work. Once during filming a horse fell on him and he almost died.
Gunshots were not comfortable for him either. Those sounds brought back some dreadful memories of when he was fighting the Nazis. Odd things for a Western star, aren’t they?
He tried to pretend that his films were not a big deal for him, that they were all part of the past. But he liked filmmaking and couldn’t avoid a discreet satisfaction whenever he was recognized in the streets. It’s too bad he couldn’t see the book come out, as he died in 2004, three years before it was published in Brazil.
Anthony Steffen was a very down-to-earth man, and my co-authors and I believe he would have liked the book. Of course, he wouldn’t have told us.
Any other book projects in the works?
We’re now translating the Anthony Steffen biography into English. An American publisher expressed interest in the book, and since its subject still has numerous followers and admirers we believe the book could do well among English-speaking readers.
Antonio’s films are being restored and released on DVD all over the world, and that has also stimulated our desire to make his life story available to as many people as possible. Since we’ve recently uncovered even more exclusive information about him, the English-language edition of the book will be even better than the one in Portuguese.
And finally, Fábio Vellozo and myself are currently working on another bio. This one is about the great Brazilian actress Monique Lafond [the sultry blonde star of titles such as Tropical Emmanuelle, Passion and Shadows, and Latin Lover]. As I said earlier, some lives must be made known and Monique’s is an excellent illustration of that.