A STRANGER IN TOWN (1967) / THE STRANGER RETURNS (1967)

A STRANGER IN TOWN / THE STRANGER RETURNS
aka UN DOLLARO FRA I DENTI / UN UOMO, UN CAVALLO, UNA PISTOLA
Alfa Digital (USA)
Region 0 NTSC, 1.85:1 (16*9)
Running time 86m/95m

This double bill of the first two (of three) Stranger movies makes no effort to disguise the Leone influence, borrowing heavily of both the characters and situations from the maestro's Dollars trilogy.

The first film (also known as A DOLLAR IN THE TEETH) sees the Stranger (Tony Anthony) wander into town and assist a bunch of no-good Mexicans steal a large sum of gold from the US Army before attempting to turn the tables on them and steal it back for himself. So far, so spaghetti western. I need not reveal much more of the plot as anyone with a passing familiarity with the genre will be able to write the script themselves from here. The unfortunate problem is that you get the feeling that's exactly what director Luigi Vanzi did, putting little thought into anything that might distinguish it from the rest of the bunch.

Tony Anthony doesn't work in the pseudo-Clint role. He doesn't have the presence of an Eastwood, Nero, Van Cleef or any of the other familiar Stranger-type characters who came before him or followed afterwards and just doesn't seem particularly menacing, no matter how much the script might try to make him so. Indeed, he is too often upstaged by lead villain and spaghetti regular Frank Wolff, who barely pauses for breath in between the chunks of scenery that he chews.

The sequel is equally derivative but still an enjoyable romp involving more greed, treachery and gunplay, this time revolving around yet another haul of gold. One of the few moments of genius in the story (which incidentally was partly the work of the returning Anthony) concerns the hidden whereabouts of the gold, which I won't spoil here for anyone who hasn't seen the movie. It's a mindblowing twist, albeit one that's slightly ridiculous in the cold light of day.

Anthony is again slightly lacking in the leading man department and certainly doesn't make himself look any harder this time around by wearing a lovely pink shirt. I'm not one for making judgements based on a man's dress sense, and I'm not casting aspersions on men who like to wear pink - but come on, he's supposed to be a gunslinger. Nonetheless, nobody lives long enough to question his dress sense if he has his hand on his pistol.

The film boasts a good score by Stelvio Cipriani which is one of the most blatant of Morricone rip-offs (particularly the opening title). That in itself wouldn't be so bad (it's certainly not unexpected of the genre) but the score is woefully overused, playing through scenes where silence would have said so much more.

Alfa's disc is not great. The prints used are badly beaten up, albeit anamorphically enhanced, showing a fair amount of damage and suffering from some pretty faded colours. The audio quality is clear but suffers from a tinny distortion that makes it all too clear that substandard material has been transferred to a digital format, a fault that is compounded by the pixellated appearance of some of the scenes. It almost looks like it's been taken from a video source rather than a print or negative. Overall the disc is watchable but it appears a definitive release of these films yet eludes us - it certainly pales in comparison to some of Alfa's other good, though flawed, restorations such as crime thriller VIOLENT NAPLES or Lucio Fulci's SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK.

Extras are limited to a couple of trailers.

That's the end of my brief spaghetti western DVD round up, although they will make a return since I've got piles of them sitting here. Normal service, for whatever that means in the context of this blog, will be resumed shortly.