Strong and Moving!

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I admit I have been a major Tony Anthony fan for years. His wise guy American cowboy with the fast gun was known as the Stranger. The Stranger took on large gangs of vicious outlaws in for movies from 1965 to 1975....and he always won! However, he usually rode off in the sunset as broke as ever...and as dirty! In this film, the Stranger wanders to Japan to collect $20,000 for a valuable scroll. Instead of making his fortune, the Stranger finds himself in the middle of a feud between two feudalistic Japanese clans who are terrifying the peasants of Osaka by their bully boy antics. Of course, the Stranger is beaten and humiliated before winning his war!

This is the 3rd installment in Tony Anthony 'The Stranger' series after both 1967's A Dollar between the Teeth and A Man, a Horse, a Gun. This time, the Stranger (Tony Anthony) come across some bad guys trying to kill a Japanese emissary for a very important scroll. Before the emissary dies, he asks 'The stranger' to return the scroll to Japan for a great reward. The Stranger goes to Japan, only to find himself stuck in the middle of two rival clans with language barriers, and no clue of the culture. He decides to play them against each other to free the town. The whole plot is just another recycle plot concept that originally came from 1961's Yojimbo, and make more popular with Sergio Leone's 1964's A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood. That plot isn't anything new. Everything in the film is a homage or rip-off from both of those movies, from The Stranger similar looking Man with No name's poncho, the similar music score with the over-the-top screaming, and the plot. Considered by some the first "East-meets-West western", it was released by MGM to compete with the United Artists Clint Eastwood the Man with No Name film series, it became a surprise success. You can really see why. Anthony's persona was not the typical tough spaghetti western hero; the Stranger was vulnerable and sneaky, with a sardonic sense of humor that works. There is a great scene of him, fighting a great sword-man with a bamboo stick that was funny to watch. Another had to be the tattoo scene. Look it up to find what I'm talking about. I also found it funny that he named his horse, pussy. The narrative by Anthony wasn't that bad, but others might differ from me. The communicating problems were indeed well-used, and surprising no sub-titles weren't even needed. The producers reduce the dialogue to a minimum because Italian, and English doesn't translate well to the Japanese with the effect, they wanted. Indeed it was funny as hell to watch. It was fun to watch to see, how each scene was going to end up. Even if, some of them had some really bad botch cuts. The film had some production problems and legal problems with the distributor that got the film delayed for years. While, it was filmed in 1969 by Director Luigi Vanzi, it didn't come out, until 1975. Since, it had distributors problems, the film sometimes go as Horseman and the Samurai, the Samurai on a Horse, and the Stranger in Japan. The action scenes were entertaining as hell. Glad, to see that the film didn't suffer from one shot kills. There were some really brutal kills here. I like the cannon gun that the Stranger carries around him toward the end. I doubt PETA would like this movie, as Chicken were used as weapons & People getting tossed into pigs. I guess, it was a different time. The score by Stelvio Cipriani was somewhat beautiful to hear. His use of Slovak folk instrument called drumbla in combination with guitar is interesting. It did get pretty haunting, in scenes that didn't need it. The sound effects with the music are somewhat annoying. There was a loud bong type sound that just needed to go. It ruin a lot of scenes. Like other movies, there were some historic inaccurate, like the whole idea of exchanging in Ryo in a post Meiji Resolution Japan. I have to give the movie, props for filming in Japan during Typhoon season, and having Japanese actors for supporting cast. While, it's hard to film in the rain, the movie did what it could, and did the fight scenes in it, anyways. It made the scenes so much cooler to watch. Still, the storms constantly destroy the set. You really get to see the atmosphere of the environment here. I just surprise that the movie was even made after all those storms. Mad props to the fine cinematography by Mario Capriotti. The quality on the DVD is alright for the most part for an old film. It's a bit discolor, and dirt lines are somewhat visual in the film. It's still worth finding if you can. Apparently, "The Stranger" would travel through time to different places in the fourth and last movie. Really, how silly is that. I wouldn't bother seeing it, unless you want to. But do make sure to see the previous two 'Strangers' movies. Overall: Silent Stranger is a good 90 minutes movie and has comedy throughout. Well worth the money if you have nothing else.

You gotta hand it to Tony Anthony. The man definitely thought outside of the box. Not content with recycled "revenge for a slaughtered family" or "gang of vicious thugs control a town" plots.......he co-wrote & starred in a series of films as "The Stranger", which, coincidentally, no pun intended, got stranger & stranger as they went along.He..along with director Ferdinando Baldi, brought "Zatoichi" to the Spaghetti West w/ Blindman in 1971... fought against Moors and Vikings in Spain in 1976's "Get Mean",...& ushered in a modest 3d revival w/ 1981's "Comin' At Ya".This, the third collaboration with Director Luigi Vanzi...."The Silent Stranger" predates a bunch of East-meets-West Spaghetti Westerns, including 1971's "Red Sun", "Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe" in '72...and "The Stranger and the Gunfighter" in '73. I was, for the most part, pleasantly surprised...by this Italian/Japanese/American co-production. There's a pretty good script..a mixture of Spaghetti Western violence...a number of well-staged Samurai sword fights which aren't bad at all....nicely done, & a lot of humor.Plodding through the snow in the Klondike.........The Stranger has a run-in with bandits who are attempting to rob a young Japanese man of an apparently valuable scroll. The Stranger manages to kill the bandits, but the young Japanese man is shot. He tells The Stranger that the owner of the scroll will pay him $20,000 for its return. Entrusted to return this mysterious scroll to its rightful owner, & looking forward to a big payday.. The Stranger and his trusty horse board a ship for Japan. Once there, he discovers that two powerful warlords have been vying for control of a village and both parties claim that the scroll is rightfully theirs. The Stranger realizes that the only way to save his hide....and get his money, is to play both sides against each other.Yes, this is yet another twist on Yojimbo, ...adding the old fish out of water bit...having a gunfighter battle both with & against samurai in Japan.A dispute between the American producer and distributor MGM kept it from being seen in USA theaters until 1975. ..seven years after it was produced.A little "Yojimbo"...a bit of "Ran"...a "Fistful" of other stuff...it's fun.

Ever see "Miller's Crossing"? How 'bout "Last Man Standing" with Bruce Willis? Well, before either of these movies there was "The Silent Stranger". The story leaves a few questions unanswered but for the most part it is intriguing and worth watching. I recommend it if you like either Westerns or Samurai flix. The combination is not as peculiar as you might think.