The Stranger and the Gunfighter

Lee Van Cleef stars as a rugged cowboy who arrives in the town of Monterey seeking the fortune of the Chinese Mr Wang. Blowing open the four safes in the bank, he discovers nothing more than photos of women in all four of them. But Mr Wang walks in on the fourth explosion and is killed. Van Cleef is charged with the murder of Wang and sentenced to hang. Back in China, warlords are furious to learn that Wang's money is missing and send forth Wang Ho Kian, a young warrior and Wang's nephew, in search of it... Wang Ho arrives in time for the hanging and saves Van Cleef from the noose. Together, the two form a friendship and set off in pursuit of the late Mr Wang's bounty...

The film plays as more of a kung fu action than a western, but is none the worse for it. Utilising the acting talents (and one or two other features) of various lovely ladies - and a plot device used in Dick Emery's 1972 film "Ooh... You Are Awful" (namely that the tattoos on four women's backsides hold the key to a fortune) - the film shows that while the golden age of spaghetti westerns was beginning to come to an end, the industry could still produce little gems like this.

While the final showdown isn't exactly a Dance of Death, with both bullets AND karate kicks flying you can't really go wrong, can you? Whilst the music isn't exactly memorable, and at times the dialogue is awful (yea, yea, it's all lost in the translation, I know), the majority of the action scenes are good, although at times the synchronisation of the kung fu kicking and the "Ow!"s are on par with the dubbing of the worst spaghetti western. A decent time-filler.

"Là Dove Non Batte Il Sole" aka. "The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is certainly not a very good Spaghetti Western, but it's a very funny one.

A Chinese Kung-Fu warrior named Ho Chiang comes to the American Southwest to find his late uncle's treasure. His Family is held hostage by a powerful warlord back in China until he will return with his uncle's fortune. After Ho Chiang saves a gunslinger named Dakota (Lee Van Cleef) from the gallows, the two keep on searching the uncle's fortune together. The Chinese stranger and the gunfighter soon find out that the tattooed bottoms of four ladies are the key to the secret treasure.

"The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is a Spaghetti Western with a nice touch of Comedy and Action. The characters are quite funny, especially the main villain, a psychopathic religious fundamentalist gunfighter and preacher who comes to different towns to "preach the word of God", and and shoot those whom he considers to be sinners. Lee Van Cleef (one of my personal favorite actors of all-time) stars as the gunfighter Dakota, Martial Artist Lieh Lo plays his ass-kicking Chinese buddy Ho Chiang. This Movie is great fun, especially for Spaghetti Western fans like myself. Definitely worth watching!

The "East Meets West" idea of an Asian fighter in the Wild West was not new anymore (see Terence Young's "Soleil Rouge" from 1971, or "Il mio nome e Shanghai Joe" by Mario Caiano, 1973), but "The Stranger And the Gunfighter" was the first time (1974) that an Asian production company, namely Shaw Brothers, came to Italy for a Western production, bringing Lo Lieh as a seasoned star of their own. The kung-fu fighter has to recover a treasure that once belonged to his uncle and return it to China. The map leading to the treasure is tattooed in 4 parts - on the backs of 4 ladies. Yes, that's a bit of a different idea for once ;-). Lee Van Cleef plays a bank robber who assists very unwillingly, but in the end even enjoys a little trip to Asia.

The movie is nowhere near "Soleil Rouge" and Lo Lieh isn't Toshiro Mifune, but it's an entertaining action movie with a story you haven't seen before. "Il mio nome e Shanghai Joe" is a very violent flick, whereas recent movies such as "Shang-High Noon" are silly comedies. What I like best about "The Stranger And the Gunfighter" is that it's well balanced between action and comedy.

Around the time this movie was made, the spaghetti western was just about on its last legs. Also, the craze for kung fu movies was starting to die out as well. So it must have seemed logical for the Italians and Hong Kongers to team up and make a movie that mixed both genres (though this movie was not the first to do so.) Though it's perhaps inevitable that a mix of genres would have mixed results. Certainly, the movie has solid production values, and its light-hearted nature is welcome after so many serious spaghetti westerns and kung fu epics. There's also some nudity, unusual for both genres at this time. But the movie feels kind of drawn out, taking its time when the pacing should have been a bit more snappy. Even more surprising is that there isn't a terrible amount of kung fu in the movie, though this may have been because the choreography and direction of the martial arts fights are sub par. Also, the two leads don't manage to generate that much chemistry, though the language barrier might explain this. I'm not saying this is an awful movie, but it is disappointing. If you want to see a good spaghetti western / kung fu mix, watch "The Fighting Fists Of Shanghai Joe" instead.

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.