Get Mean was not a comfortable studio production but a risky independent gamble personally carried by its star and producer, Tony Anthony. Concerned that the Spaghetti Western had become stale, Anthony deliberately pushed The Stranger into an absurd, quasi-medieval Spain filled with Barbarians, Moors, curses, cannon battles, dynamite, and a hunchbacked villain modeled on Shakespeare’s Richard III. He began filming with $50,000 of his own money and ultimately borrowed another $50,000 from director Ferdinando Baldi. Baldi’s experience staging large-scale battle action—including work on Ben-Hur—helped the production, but the budget remained visibly strained: the Spanish battle scenes reused the same horses and performers, with costumes changed between takes to make the forces appear larger. The film was shot in Spain during spring 1975 at locations including Mini Hollywood, the Alcazaba of Almería, and the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Tony Anthony’s $100,000 Gamble and the Battle Over Get Mean’s Cut
Get Mean / Tony Anthony / 1970s
Get Mean was not a comfortable studio production but a risky independent gamble personally carried by its star and producer, Tony Anthony. Concerned that the Spaghetti Western had become stale, Anthony deliberately pushed The Stranger into an absurd, quasi-medieval Spain filled with Barbarians, Moors, curses, cannon battles, dynamite, and a hunchbacked villain modeled on Shakespeare’s Richard III. He began filming with $50,000 of his own money and ultimately borrowed another $50,000 from director Ferdinando Baldi. Baldi’s experience staging large-scale battle action—including work on Ben-Hur—helped the production, but the budget remained visibly strained: the Spanish battle scenes reused the same horses and performers, with costumes changed between takes to make the forces appear larger. The film was shot in Spain during spring 1975 at locations including Mini Hollywood, the Alcazaba of Almería, and the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
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