A Stranger in Town (1967) User Reviews

Violent Spaghetti Western filled with thrills , frantic action , grisly killings and lots of shots

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 3 April 2014]

Offbeat Western about a strange but deadly gunfighter and taking on a nasty bandit called Aguila and his hoodlums . The movie contains gun-play, action Western , chills , and bloody spectacle . Unknown to anybody else but himself , no one knew the stranger , not the band of killers he destroyed o the woman he ruined . The Stranger (Tony Anthony) arrives in an abandoned village where he witnesses the massacre of Mexican soldiers by a heinous bunch commanded by Aguila (Frank Wolff) . The Stranger threatens Aguila to denounce him if he does not accept to let him take part in the robbing of a shipment of gold carried by a group of Unión soldiers to deliver the Mexican army . The scheme is a success but when The Stranger claims his due of the theft , he gets a good punches instead . But The Stranger is not the kind to get trapped so easily. Tempt him , whip him , brand him , break him , but makes damn sure the stranger doesn't crawl out of town alive ¡ .

The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count , and it's slow-moving but when take place gun-play results to be fast moving and quite entertaining . Acceptable Spaghetti Western ; it follows the Sergio Leone wake , including close-up , zooms , choreographic duels and no being proceeded in American style . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes . Tony Anthony is very fine, giving even some cynic touches , he ravages the screen , he shoots , hits and run and ultimately takes the law on his own hands . The Stranger is caught and there takes place the ordinary ¨Pestaggio¨ in which protagonist receives hitting , punches , beating , knocks but he manages to escape with the gold , then the bandits, who want his skin, chase him . This movie gets the ordinary Western issues, such as avengers antiheroes , violent facing off , quick scenes and exaggerated baddies . This is a good Spaghetti Western with some moments genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much . It's an improbable blending of standard Western with pursuits, high body-count and though sometimes minimalist turns out to be quite amusing . Made on a fairly middling scale with passable set design , adequate photography filmed in Elios studios and evocative musical score . Screenplay with interesting premise about a 'strange gunfighter' , it follows a similar plot to classic ¨For a fistful of dollars¨ . It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the starring Tony Anthony and his enemy Frank Wolff who steals the show as a sensationalistic villain . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Tony Anthony , is good in his usual tough as well as silent role and he starred some decent Westerns . Anthony did work for many years on Spaghetti Westerns ,some with co-production company Lupo-Anthony-Quintano Production . He produced and starred in two 3-Dimensional movies, both of which enjoyed a modest theatrical release . After making various films , Anthony effectively retired from the movie industries . In addition , a nice casting full of usual Italian secondary such as Fortunato Arena , Aldo Berti , Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia as Aguilar henchman and the beautiful girls Jolanda Modio and Gia Sandri as Maruca . Special mention to Raf Baldassarre in his ordinary role as a cruelly baddie , he is terrific , and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . Appropriate cinematography by Marcello Masciocchi , but is necessary a perfect remastering , being the copy a little washed-out . Rare musical score plenty of strange sounds : whistle , shouts ,voices in Morricone style , it was composed by Benedetto Ghiglia .

The motion picture was well realized by Luigi Vanzi as Vance Lewis . Direction by Luigi is finely crafted, here he is more cynical and violent and also inclined toward humor and packs too much action . Vanci is a craftsman who makes a nice camera work with clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , moving shootouts and bemusing scenes . Vanci directed a trilogy about ¨The Stranger¨ starred by Tony Anthony , they are the followings : "A Man, a Horse, a Gun" or "The Stranger Returns" with Daniele Vargas , Marina Berti , Dan Vadis and again Raf Baldassarre , and "The Silent Stranger" with Tony Anthony, Lloyd Battista, Kenji Ohara , Raf Baldassarre , this third film Tony journeys to Japan intent on returning an ancient scroll to its rightful owner . Furthermore , other films directed by Ferdinando Baldi in which appears Tony Anthony in similar character are ¨Get mean¨ and ¨Blindman¨. ¨A stranger on town¨ is an outlandish , surprising and uneven story but will appeal to Spaghetti Western aficionados . Rating : 6 , riotous Western in which there's too much action and violence and excitement enough

The Spaghetti Western As Minimalism

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 5 June 2007]

I was familiar with this film's reputation long before I finally saw it, and am amused to be impressed with what it finally turned out to be. A few years back I purchased Roger Ebert's "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie", a collection of his zero star "bomb" reviews of stuff that failed to pass even minimal muster with him. A DOLLAR BETWEEN THE TEETH was reviewed under it's Americanized title, A STRANGER IN TOWN, and Ebert fled the film twice with the same kind of revulsion I feel when encountering fruit.

I can sympathize with him: This is an ultra-cheap, mean spirited, nearly artless little study in applied bad taste & nihilism masquerading as a cowboy movie for grown-ups. It doesn't even have a particularly involving musical score, the one thing that the Italians usually managed to get right with their Westerns. The first thing our "star" gunslinger encounters when entering the seemingly deserted town the film takes place in is a dead body. Then he beats the sole patron of a saloon to death with a tequila bottle, and the movie never gets any friendlier.

The "star" is one Tony Anthony, an actor I had never heard of before, and with my cynic's attitude about European genre entertainment the natural assumption was that "Tony Anthony" was a pseudonym. It isn't. He stands about 5'9", looks like he may have been a boxer at one time, and speaks with a Brooklyn accent. His blond hair dye isn't fooling anyone, but he knows how to take a beating like Brando. By studying Anthony's IMDb reference page one learns that he made about a dozen movies during his career and was an advocate of the 3-D revival of the early 1980s that resulted in Friday THE 13TH PART THREE with it's 3-D popcorn popping effects and the infamous spear to the eye. Anthony made three "Stranger" films, this one being the first, and with or without Mr. Ebert's acquiescence they have amassed a bit of a cult following due to their unremitting brutality, grim overtones and nihilistic, deadpan remorselessness for being morally bankrupt.

Just like Tony Anthony himself -- at least on camera -- so it makes sense that the films managed to resonate with some viewers. They are honest about their intentions. One of the misconceptions about the fascination with Spaghetti Westerns is that audiences become enamored with their overtly arty & superficially poetic nature. That may be true, but the fondness I feel for Spaghetti is more rooted in a dislike for the traditionalist approach to making Westerns, which usually have a moral centerpoint. As such it is fascinating to find one that quite literally has none: Nobody in this movie is heroic or noble, there is no justice or redemption, only a bunch of filthy, sweaty, drunk, bloodthirsty bastards fighting it out in some dusty nowhere for a couple of sacks of gold.

I find the honesty to be delightfully refreshing. Here at last is a Western about lust, greed, hatred, contempt; All of the reptilian aspects of the human psyche glossed over by the traditional approach with it's pap sentimentality, laughable romantics and lunkheaded attention to detail. By contrast, A DOLLAR BETWEEN THE TEETH is stripped of all but the bare essentials needed to tell the story, which is gleefully ripped off from FISTFUL OF DOLLARS lock, stock and smoking barrel.

But on the ultra dirt cheap. Almost all of the handguns seen are modern-day police revolvers, and you can see the department store blue jeans labels on some of the costumes. There are maybe four locations used in the film and two are outdoor locations easily recognizable from ten dozen other Italian made Westerns. The two others are collections of ramshackle buildings in a wonderful state of disrepair that are probably no more than a few hundred yards away from each other in real world terms. Yet here they make up a little universe of their own, sort of like how the Holodeck on "Star Trek" is always the same room no matter what it is programmed to look like. Throw in a couple of sand pits filmed from various different angles and a totally minimalist music score comprised of only those elements needed to propel the action forward and we are talking about a pared down work that reminds me more of the artwork of someone like Sol Lewitt or Mel Bochner than anything Sergio Leone may have produced.

One name jumps out at me from the production credits: Allen Klein. It is indeed the same Allen Klein who was brought in to save The Beatles from bankruptcy in 1969, and after thinking about his connection to the film things started to make a bit more sense. He and Tony Anthony must have been acquaintances of some kind and for whatever reason Klein put up the money to make this film -- probably hoping to cash in on the surprise box office success of FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and the other Leone favorites. In 1967 you literally could make a movie like this in a place like Italy for about $15,000 or so, provided you had industry people who perhaps owed you a couple of favors (or were enamored by the clients associated with you, i.e. The Rolling Stones) and I can quite literally see this as a filmed investment scheme, with Tony Anthony fronting the project for Klein.

However it came about the movie was made, and as an object lesson in low budget film-making it is a fascinating if somewhat ghoulish little production that somehow, against the efforts of no less than Roger Ebert, has managed to withstand the test of time. It's an awful film to be sure but you do have to sort of marvel at it's insistence to be not just in bad taste, but in the worst taste possible.

7/10

Tony Anthony's movie...

[Perception_de_Ambiguity · 7/10 · 11 March 2011]

Tony Anthony (which you may know as the titular character of 'Blindman') probably is the most feminine of all SW anti-heroes, and still one of the coolest. He's just so damn relaxed that the coolness comes naturally, there's little of that typical affectation on his part. He is a slouch, stoic but not stilted, he's wearing a pink shirt, has bleached blond hair and there's no sign of any homophobic tendencies (when he shoots a baddie who falls into his lap he doesn't react with either irony or macho behaviour to ensure us how masculine he is). After he got beat up badly he rescues a woman who later wordlessly rides on a horse with him on the back of the horse and her in front, him holding on to her hips to not fall off, but not in any sexual way. In the sequel, 'The Stranger Returns', he's even carrying around a parasol for much of the running time. I find it funny that its movie poster even asks the question: "Is he interested in women?"

Despite all that he's a real badass who most of the time is unquestionably more skilled and smarter than any of his enemies. There's no doubt he'll prevail in the end and we still care, we'd even care if he hadn't been beaten up (see sequel), which is a scene that most SWs have to make us care about our anti-hero because most viewers tend not to care about characters who have the upper hand all of the time. It's worth to note that Tony Anthony more than most stars of a movie not only shapes his own character but apparently the films as a whole as a producer and writer. Ever since this film he always starred in the movies he played in, that guy wouldn't play second fiddle to anyone.

Dialogue in the film is EXTREMELY sparse, although it doesn't have more action than your average SW. After the first 15 minutes there is a section in the film that is the most essential to the plot and it has the most dialogue. Cut away that 10-minute section and the complete dialogue adds up to maybe 20 lines. The main music theme rocks melancholically and is catchy, arguably it's a bit overused, but this never bothers me in a film if the tune is good. The additional score arrangements are also effective but the film doesn't shy away from silent sections either. Certainly there's nothing special about the film (except that it WORKS), it's just a lot of cool fun. Every bit as good as the surprisingly enjoyable sequel.

FOR WHAT IT IS...

[QBSNIDERLOES · 20 June 2004]

Personally, I enjoyed all three of the Anthony (Stranger) movies...I I took them as satire of the Eastwood trilogy...Eastwood smokes cheroots, Anthony rolls cigarettes that unravel in his mouth...Eastwood wears a poncho, Anthony a ratty serape...Eastwoods kills with his six gun, bad guys take Anthony's six gun so he kills with a shotgun...Eastwood is direct, Anthony is sneaky...the list could go on and on...the Anthony trilogy is to the Eastwood trilogy as the James Coborn (Our Man Flint) were to the Sean Connery (James Bond) movies...high quality the Stranger movies were not, campy fun they were...how can you not like a ratty little scoundrel like the stranger, who's always losing his pistol and getting beat up, who looks like a skid row derelict, but somehow, manages to kill all the bad guys in the most inventive of ways...what's not to like...

"Fair" film playing off the Cliché of the Dollars TRilogy

[marc-366 · 7/10 · 25 August 2005]

"A Stranger in Town" is the first of Tony Anthony's "Stranger" films - a character heavily borrowed from Eastwood/Leone's "Man With No Name". As I understand it, the aim of these films was to take the European vision of a western to a wider American audience. Which it successfully achieved.

The Stranger (Anthony) arrives in town to witness a brutal massacre of Mexican soldiers by a gang of bandits led by Aguila (Frank Wolff). Before the execution, Aguila assures the soldiers that he is "a fair man" - a regularly uttered pronouncement throughout the film. The death of so many men demonstrates otherwise.

The Stranger agrees to work with the bandits, who are now clad in the soldiers uniforms, to help steal gold from the US army. The plan is successful, but the Stranger is soon double-crossed once he arrives to collect his 50% share (despite Aguila being "a fair man"). After a beating, he escapes with the gold, and is pursued by the gang......

Whilst there are obvious similarities between this movie and the Dollars Trilogy - in particular a Fistful of Dollars - this is an enjoyable film in its own right. It lacks the class of Leone, and the cool of Eastwood, but Anthony and Director Luigi Vanzi never tried to mimic these aspects, concentrating instead on the action and violence. Indeed, Anthony's Stranger never appears invincible, and remains likable throughout what is a very simplistic story.

The star of the show however is Frank Wolff - a man that does not know the meaning of a bad performance. Based largely on Volente's Ramon, Aguila is equally as barbaric, but just a little more clumsy. And "a fair man!". Of course!

There is very little dialogue in the whole movie, playing on the cliché of what we (or I imagine, more realistically, what the general American audience of that time) expect from a Spaghetti Western. Quite intentionally. The fact that there are few words puts great pressure on the quality of Benedetto Ghiglia's score - which thankfully stands up to this task.

All in all, A Stranger in Town makes up for what it lacks in class and story with entertaining characters and good fight sequences. The beginning sequence where the Mexican soldiers are led into town by a group of singing monks - who soon cast off their robes and reveal themselves as Aguila and his gang - immediately persuades the viewer that this will be an enjoyable film. The final confrontation between the two main stars is equally as effective.

It is not (and doesn't pretend to be) one of the greatest Spaghetti Westerns. In fact, Aguila would probably proclaim it as a "fair" film. And this time he wouldn't be lying. Good fun, and recommended.

Decent Genre Movie

[boblipton · 6/10 · 28 June 2008]

Although this movie has a reputation of being absolutely awful -- apparently Roger Ebert rates it a bomb -- and, while it is clearly a rip-off in every imaginable way of the Leone-Eastwood collaborations, down to Tony Anthony -- playing 'The Stranger' dressing in a poncho -- the technical work on this movie is quite decent and makes for a pleasant enough afternoon. The cinematography by Marcello Masciocchi is top notch; in fact, the long, dialogue-free sections of the movie flow very well, thanks to the camera-work and the editing, for which we can credit Maurizio Lucidi, who later went on to helm a few movies.

If the story holds few surprises for fans of Sergio Leone -- well, when did Westerns ever do much in the way of innovation? Go see this movie for the traditional strengths of a western -- which means a decent show and some beautiful pictures -- and you'll have a good time. Not every movie must be a great classic, after all.

Mediocre Spaghetti Western.

[iaido · 4/10 · 31 August 2001]

Making no apologies in borrowing from the Man With No Name mystique, Stranger in Town has wormy Tony Anthony as the poncho clad, nameless drifter. Anthony's Stranger is the Man With No Name equivalent of Frank Stallone in Rocky instead of Sylvester. He is greasy instead of grizzled (literally, he looks like they dunked him in a batch of olive oil before every take.), and doesn't possess the enigmatic presence and deadliness to fully pull off the role. He lacks the confident squint of Eastwood, the cold eyes of Franco Nero, and the reptilian stare of Van Cleef.

The Strangers saunters into a town overrun by bandits waiting to steal a cache of gold. He convinces their stock villain bandit leader to let him help them by impersonating officers and easily getting the gold handed over. The plan is successful and there is the subsequent double cross by the bandits, the Stranger narrowly escapes and follows the bandits to their hideout- this is something they clearly see, and he makes clearly known, yet they don't kill him? Basically he gets captured again, beaten up, narrowly escapes (again), and then backtracks to the abandoned town for the big showdown (making it pretty obvious the low budget, only two real locations, both abandoned towns). The ending is pretty weak and sloppily executed, so his `outwitting' of the bandits throughout the town doesn't really come off very cool or smart.

One thing is for certain, they didn't have to pay the voice dubbers or dialogue writers very much, because for a solid twenty-five mins of the film (when he arrives at the bandit hideout) there are only a handful of sentences spoken for the duration, and it becomes agonizingly dull, and the soundtrack theme so annoying you want to strangle the composer.

A Spaghetti Western curiosity in that it was successful enough to spawn two (better) sequels. I'd say Stranger in Town is for completists only.

Fistfuls of violence

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 18 September 2018]

A STRANGER IN TOWN is a well-made, very visual example of the spaghetti western film. Tony Anthony plays the titular stranger in the Clint Eastwood mould; he gets involved with a gang of bandits to steal some gold, but ends up double-crossed and beaten to within an inch of his life as a result. The story doesn't end there and what follows is very familiar, but slick and well-directed with lots of interesting action photography and the like to see it through. With little dialogue to distract the viewer, this is a film about sun-drenched streets, harsh characters in a harsher landscape, and fistfuls of violence.

The Man With No Name Part Deux

[JohnSeal · 5/10 · 9 July 2008]

There's not a lot I can say about A Stranger In Town that other reviews haven't already mentioned, but I'll toss in my two cents worth for good measure. If you're expecting a straight rip-off of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti oaters you will be disappointed, because this film is a gritty, filthy little affair miles away from Leone's mytho-poetic masterpieces. Richard Anthony isn't much of an actor, but his performance as the titular anti-hero brings a level of realism to the proceedings that Eastwood's Man With No Name never had. In addition, the decision to fore-go dialogue for much of the film is a very wise one, as Anthony is allowed to play to his strengths as a physical performer. It's not a great film by any stretch--it certainly can't begin to equal the artistic and emotional heights of Leone's films--but A Stranger In Town is still a very satisfying genre entry.

fantastic and way under-rated

[spider89119 · 9/10 · 20 September 2005]

This movie rocks! Tony Anthony is the other "man with no name." He is great in this movie. His performance is every bit as good as Eastwood in "A fistful of Dollars," but he'll never get as much recognition because he's not a square-jawed pretty-boy like Clint. Frank Wolff is also in top form in this film, as usual.

This is sort of a minimalist spaghetti western. The story is simple but great. It never gets boring. There is very little dialog, and that works well in this film, giving it an ultra-cool vibe without being too slick. Yes, there are a few small similarities to "A Fistful of Dollars," but it is by no means a copy of that great film, as some other reviewers might have you believe. This movie has a personality all its own, and the situations here are very different.

The music score is incredible. It manages to be great, and very stylish in a spaghetti western sort of way without owing anything to Ennio Morricone. It is really quite memorable and original, and one of the few non-Morricone scores that would be worth owning the soundtrack to.

There's lots of great lines and cool action in this movie. Tony Anthony really "takes a licking and keeps on ticking." One of my favorite parts involves the lovely Gia Sandri as "Maruca," a butch looking (for the 1800's) S&M babe. Anthony kills her by using her fetish to his advantage. I also love how Frank Wolff's great line "I'm a fair man" comes back to haunt him later. It's classic stuff all the way.

If you like spaghetti westerns, you've got to see this one!

What kind of movie is this ? A fair one !

[Moeydimples · 9/10 · 21 October 2004]

"Un dollaro tra i denti" is a great spaghetti western, marked out by a good showing from Tony Anthony and -as usual- a show stealing performance from Frank Wolff. Jeah, there are just a few sentences spoken in this one, but that's not a big problem. However, when there are dialogs, they are great, funny and full of sadism. The story is not that spectacular, but the actors are doing their best. Frank Wolff, armed with a machine gun, shoots, shoots and shoots. However, he is not able to stop the stranger(Tony Anthony). And Tony takes revenge with his sawed-off shot gun. Moreover, "Un dollaro tra i denti" has a wonderful music score by Benedetto Ghiglia.Just breath-taking. This is definitely not a bad spaghetti-western. Let's say an underrated masterpiece. But keep in mind, you have to see it UNCUT. Otherwise it will be really boring.

The typical spaghetti western ingredients in a nutshell

[unbrokenmetal · 8/10 · 16 October 2004]

There are few films that can demonstrate in a nutshell what spaghetti westerns are about. The particular strength of "Un dollaro tra i denti" is that everything that isn't required was stripped off. Here you get the basic ingredients straight in your face: a mysterious stranger (Tony Anthony) arrives in a town. He is not a hero - his only motivation is money, and he offers the villain (Frank Wolff) a deal. After the deal isn't kept, i.e. the money isn't shared, the stranger will have his revenge. Nobody talks very much, the first minutes are without any dialogue at all. The musical theme is returning again and again, supplying the feeling that whatever is going to happen will be inevitable. Doomed to die with his boots on, Wolff may fire as many bullets with his machine-gun on Anthony as he likes, there's no escape...

Under Rated Film

[whpratt1 · 10/10 · 28 June 2008]

This is a very unusual film dealing with a stranger, (Tony Anthony) who has a double reason for picking out this lonely abandoned looking town and finds some tough and rough looking characters who are really a bunch of cut-throats. The Stranger is looking for wanted men for a reward and also a gold shipment which is suppose to take place in this town. The Stranger keeps hidden and manages to watch everyone, even a woman who is a bi-sexual woman who has a man named Aguilar, (Frank Wolff) and a young girl with a baby. The Stranger gets caught and he makes a deal with Aguilar to give them some of the gold when it comes to town. There is very little conversation throughout this film and sometimes long periods of silence which keeps you anxious as to who is going to be beaten to death or killed. Don't miss this film, it has a great musical score and it seems like a film you have seen with Clint Eastwood as the star. Enjoy.

A great little-known (extremely little-known) spaghetti western!!!

[remo4512 · 10/10 · 18 July 2008]

I must admit I first heard of this movie after playing the game Red Dead Revolver for the PlayStation, as the game producers used the Stranger's theme song during one of the levels. I thought the tune was pretty cool, and scoured the internet for its name, and then came upon a website dedicated to spaghetti westerns. When I first saw shots of this film on the site, I was a bit apprehensive that Tony Anthony could actually pull off being a hero in one of these films. Then I bought the film off Amazon along with its sequel "The Stranger Returns." At first, I couldn't get into Anthony. He reminded me of a Mob informant from Jersey on TV crime dramas from the 70s rather than a cool and calm spaghetti western hero. But, when he gets the living daylights beaten out of him and goes on the rampage, my view changed. I have to say this is one of my all-time favorite films, along with its sequels and the immortal 'Blindman'. It's no Leone work, that's for sure, but it has its own unique quality. It's simple and violent, and I think that's all that really matters. If you're looking for something like Unforgiven or Open Range, move on. But if you want a bare-bones precursor to action films, this may float your boat.

Even spaghetti westerns fans will be bored

[Wizard-8 · 6 October 2001]

I love spaghetti westerns, but this one was extremely tough to sit through. It's a really cheap FISTFUL OF DOLLARS imitation, so cheap that apparently they were only able to afford a few bars of music to be composed! (And as you might have guessed, they play them over... and over... and over... and over, until you want to kick a shoe into your TV.

Tony Anthony is one of the least charismatic cowboys even to grace the screen - half the time he looks like he's drunk, and the other half of the time he seems like he's going to burst into tears! And as the previous poster mentioned, his character doesn't act very cool and smart. Though I can only dream of being as sleek as The Man With No Name, The Stranger does some really dumb things that even I would be careful not to do!