Joe Sarno Film Artefacts Collection Donated to European Genre Film Foundation

Young Playthings

Stockholm, 11 October 2022 - The European Genre Film Foundation (EGFF) has been gifted the collection of film artefacts and archive of Joseph W Sarno and his wife and working partner Peggy Steffans. The collection spans Joe and Peggy Sarno’s film production career in Sweden, including some of his most famous films. EGFF is dedicated to preserving, restoring and promoting European genre films, as well as working with creatives and their families to safekeep their cinematic legacy. 

Joseph W Sarno (15 March 1921 – 26 April 2010) wrote and directed 75 films for theatrical release during his long career, with his wife and collaborator Peggy Steffans working with him on everything from casting to costumes. During the late 1960s, the whole 1970s and early 1980s Joe Sarno directed several films in Europe, including Sweden, Denmark and West Germany, including The Seduction of Inga (1968), Young Playthings (1972), Fäbodjäntan/Come Blow the Horn (1978) and Helgerån/Sacrilege (1988).

Joe and Peggy Sarno amassed a vast collection of props, clothes, screenplays, work prints, photos and more that were stored in a basement locker of their Stockholm residence for over 50 years. This estate has now been donated to the EGFF. Amongst the saved items are numerous costumes and props from Sarno’s Swedish film Young Playthings (1972), starring Christina Lindberg. The film celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, which will see an HD restoration by the EGFF partner AGFA (the American Genre Film Archive) and released on BluRay by Klubb Super 8 in Sweden and streaming next year on Cultpix. 

Speaking on behalf of EGFF, Chairman Rickard Gramfors said, “We are grateful to Peggy Steffans for the trust in donating this unique collection to the EGFF. We have started to catalogue the collection and it is a rich glimpse into the Swedish part of the Sarno film oeuvre.” The collection will be made publicly available through online documentation and physical displays at special screenings and events. “It is rare for film memorabilia from anything but the biggest productions to survive so long,” notes Gramfors, “so this is a particularly important and noteworthy that these artefacts are preserved for the future.”

In 2014 the Swedish documentary “A Life in Dirty Movies” about Sarno and his wife, and their attempt to make one last film, was released by Klubb Super 8 on DVD. Several of Joe Sarno’s films, including a recovered version of “Young Playthings”, scanned from a 16mm workprint found in the collection of Joe Sarno, are available to stream on Cultpix, which finances the work of the EGFF. 

About the EGFF

The European Genre Film Foundation is dedicated to the preservation, restoration, understanding and dissemination of classic genre films. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, it has a global remit to save an overlooked aspect of film history for future audiences. More information to be published at egff.org

About Cultpix

Streaming platform Cultpix is a global SVoD service for classic cult and genre films. Headquartered in Stockholm, it brings together films from over two dozen film libraries and rights holders in Europe, North America and Asia. It offers classic cult movies from Something Weird Video (USA), Nikkatsu (Japan), Penny Video (Italy), Eurociné (France), the British Film Institute (UK), Hungarian National Film Institute (Hungary), SF Studios (Sweden) and many more.

Young Playthings - the pleasure rocking horse.