And didn’t Berger’s wife die in prison, also arrested on the same charge? Someone must have had it in for them … jealousy or vengeance - because these days no celebs do time for drugs.
I reckon it was Anthony Steffen who dropped the dime, as apparently they hated each other … just my conjecture, for a little fun. 
I should start a separate thread on USA vs other countries introduction to SWs because I would bet that 99% of Americans have never heard of Franco Nero, Anthony Steffen, or even American Actors like Berger or Law that acted in European movies. It wasn’t until mail-order video like Netflix that most Americans had a platform to try out “foreign” movies that didn’t just happen to be in the video store, and even now they haven’t gravitated to 50 year old European movies(even though that is 90% of what I now watch).
I’d go as far as to say that if I drove to the beach right now with a camera and microphone and asked the first 100 random people who Alain Delon was, NO ONE would know. Even I had never heard of Delon until about 7 years ago but subsequently caught up on most of his work and Delon, like Nero, is now one of my favorite actors.
I should add that Americans know about the first 3 Leone westerns because of Clint Eastwood but even I had never head of OUTW until maybe 8 years ago and Django is strictly something Tarantino came up with 
to most.
The UK is probably nearly as ignorant as the USA regarding Euro cinema - but thankfully with the dear old internet there’s no excuse to be stuck with Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock movies … those two are probably now past it, but I don’t give a hoot who’s who in Hollywood these days … There’s enough treasure out there (film wise) to ensure you never have to suffer another American blockbuster for want of something better to see. 
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Amen, brother!
LOL … Steffen’s definitely a bigger prick 
We don’t call him Stiffen for nothing 
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I pre-ordered my copy. Looking forward to getting this one. I love all these new books coming out. It definitely helps keep the genre alive. And purchasing a copy supports the effort. Keep 'em coming writers!
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Has anybody read this book yet? I have it but have not gotten around to it. Just wanted to know what people here thought about it.
You already have the book, but before reading it you want to know what others think of it? Well, it’s a fine edited volume with twelve contributions covering a wide range of topics, from images of “Irishness” in Italian Westerns (Christopher Frayling) to the belated release and reception of Spaghetti Westerns in the German Democratic Republic (Rosemary Stott). Frayling’s essay is very entertaining, all the others are at least interesting, if somewhat dry and, of course, academic in their approach (though not excessively). Editor Austin Fisher contributes only an introduction, Lee Broughton’s essay condenses parts of his Euro-Western book.
Thanks Companero. I can sense from your response that it seems odd that I bought it but haven’t read it yet and want to get others’ opinion of it. Well for me, any new book on the genre is welcome. I grab it up because 1) I want to support the effort, 2) I want to get it new before it becomes out of print and difficult to get a copy. I will get around to it at some point. I do find that some of these books are mostly written almost as an academic study, very analytical, and mostly for reference. It does make it hard to enjoy in that form. But again, it’s about showing support for the author’s effort…
No, no, that’s fine.
After you’ve read it, we’ll meet at the water cooler and chitchat about the intertextual contingencies pertaining to transitional modes of image formation and inherent identity shifts in ekphrastic representations of Robert Aldrich’s Vera Cruz in Leone’s triadic Dollars Trilogy.
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Ha! That’s brilliant my scholarly friend! I definitely had to look up the word ekphrastic. LOL
So a non-academic style with a decidedly academic price tag. Curious.
Just glancing through the sample, it looks like it will be a good read. Having said that I’m a little surprised by the vast majority of the sources appearing to be in English given the nature of the films under discussion and the fact that the author is an academic.
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Sebastian, I think you’re correct. These books (which are in hardcover textbook form) seem to definitely be academic. They figure universities will spend a lot of money on them which they’ll pass the cost onto students and they will rarely come down in price unless a student sells it for dirt cheap. Which probably also explains why they are almost unreadable. Given that I will attempt to get through Spaghetti Westerns At The Crossroads. Wish me luck. I’ll try to find the Wong book if the price gets more reasonable. I may have to wait for a used copy on Amazon to become available.
I’ve read Austin’s book Indio and although it is definitely an academic book chiefly aimed at an academic audience it is genuinely readable and interesting I think for anyone interested in the genre. I enjoyed it anyway.
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Thanks Phil. I will definitely get to it. What about Austin Fisher’s earlier book Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western? It has LVC from Death Rides A Horse on the front cover. Have you read that one? I also have The Spaghetti Western: A Thematic Analysis by Bert Fridlund. Have you heard of that title?