If numbers of titles is a good sign then things look promising for this film since I picked it up as "The Stranger and the Gunfighter" but when I pressed play it said "la brute le colt et le karate" as the title but then also said "Blood Money" in brackets as an alternative title but on IMDb I found it as "El kárate, el Colt y el impostor". I came to this film because I was watching random titles from the Shaw Brothers back catalogue and suddenly found this western crossover which didn't even feature their distinctive shield on the titles even though they are listed as one of the (many) production companies behind it. The plot is a typical exploitation one which is trying to make the most of the popularity at the time of spaghetti westerns and also of kung-fu movies; in this case Ho Chiang comes to America from China to get his late uncle's money but when he arrives all he finds is some smutty photographs which gunslinger Dakota tried to rob, also thinking there was money. Ho realizes that the photos are a map, or rather photos of women who have the map tattooed onto their bottoms. Needing local help, Ho and Dakota team up to seek the bottoms and the treasure, although a deranged preacher is on their trail seeing the same thing.
On the face of it, this film is easy to dismiss as a cheap rip-off just looking to grab as many viewers as possible by combining genres that were selling at that time but there is nothing new under the sun and it is really no different from films like Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon with Jackie Chan partnered to an American star to bring several audiences and style together. Yes it does feel cheap but it is actually quite a lot of fun simply because it doesn't take itself too seriously. The plot is the first very obvious clue (it is a hunt for bottoms) but generally the tone is one of silly fun and the material generally supports this. How this humor would have played to Chinese fans I can only imagine but for me it worked pretty well as trashy entertainment. The martial arts action is very limited and they don't make the best of Lo Lieh in that sense but he is actually very good with his delivery and has good chemistry with Van Cleef. Van Cleef buys into it well even if some of his stuff is a bit silly, but again he seems to be having fun.
The Stranger & the Gunfighter (call it what you will) is not a great film. It sets its sights low but generally it does produce some genre- splicing trashy fun even if it never captures what makes both genres good in their rights – this is particularly evident in the low level of martial arts action. Ultimately it is a trashy exploitation film but, if you meet it on that level, it is a quite fun one.
