Tony Musante made tightly wound men credible, and his Italian work gave him room to be vulnerable. We value that intensity, though The Bird with the Crystal Plumage shows how little it can do for an underwritten part.
Fi1m perspective
In The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Tony Musante plays Sam Dalmas, an American writer caught in a murder plot, and we keep looking past him to inspect the image. Dario Argento makes that scrutiny part of the pleasure, though it leaves his leading actor competing with the photography. We felt uneasy because the controlled framing and editing kept us searching the screen. It is a thriller we warmly recommend, with a reservation about how little the writing gives Musante to work with.
His early American parts left less doubt about what he was there to do. Joe Ferrone, the menacing subway hoodlum in The Incident (1967), helped establish a tough-guy image reinforced by films such as The Detective (1968). Italian work widened the choice: he played Paco Roman alongside Franco Nero in The Mercenary (1968), then Enrico in the romantic drama The Anonymous Venetian (1970). The latter gave his vulnerability more room, although the shift from manic energy to quieter emotion could be awkward. We value the willingness to try something beyond the threatening young man.
Television continued to make use of his toughness, casting him as Detective David Toma in Toma (1973–74) and the feared Mafia boss Nino Schibetta in Oz (1997). Those parts make sense for an actor associated with physical commitment and tightly wound men. They also help explain why it is worth looking beyond the American crime work before deciding what sort of actor he was.
Back in Argento's thriller, Musante shares the screen with Suzy Kendall as Julia and Enrico Maria Salerno as Inspector Morosini. All three are watchable, and none can quite repair the thin characterisation. We would not mistake the lack of depth for a failure of effort, but nor would we claim that Musante makes Sam matter as much as the carefully arranged images. Start there for the suspense; try The Anonymous Venetian for a part that asks something different of him.
Biography
Tony Musante (1936–2013) was an American actor. Born Anthony Peter Musante Jr. in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he graduated from Oberlin College in 1958 and attended Northwestern University. He began his career in Off-Broadway theatre in 1960 and made his film debut in 1965.
Musante appeared in feature films in the United States and Italy, including The Incident (1967), The Mercenary (1968) and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), in which he played Sam Dalmas. On television he starred as Detective David Toma in the series Toma (1973–74) and played Nino Schibetta in the first season of Oz (1997). He also had a recurring role in the soap opera As the World Turns. On stage he appeared in the 1975 Broadway production of P.S. Your Cat Is Dead!, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for an episode of Medical Center (1975).
