The Stranger and the Gunfighter | |
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American film poster
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Directed by | Anthony Dawson |
Produced by | Carlo Ponti |
Screenplay by |
Giovanni Simonelli Antonio Margheriti |
Story by | Barth Jules Sussman |
Starring |
Lee Van Cleef Lo Lieh Patty Shepard Femi Benussi |
Music by | Carlo Savina |
Cinematography | Alejandro Ulloa |
Edited by | Giorgio Serrallonga |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (US) |
Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
Country | Italy United States Hong Kong Spain |
The Stranger and the Gunfighter is a 1974 kung fu Spaghetti Western comedy film produced by the Shaw Brothers in collaboration with an Italian company, and filmed on location in Hong Kong and Spain. It was directed by Antonio Margheriti starring Lo Lieh (at the time one of Hong Kong's most famous action stars) as Ho Chiang. For English-language release, the film was retitled The Stranger and the Gunfighter and Blood Money.
Martial arts expert Ho Chiang journeys to America's Wild West in order to retrieve his late uncle Wang's missing fortune. Ho must free his uncle's murderer, Dakota (frequent Spaghetti Western star Lee Van Cleef), the only man who knows Wang's final resting place. Upon recovering the body, the pair discovers clues pointing to buried treasure. Notes on the dead man's body promise that the location of the treasure will be illuminated by a map, divided for security into four segments, each one tattooed on the buttocks of one of the uncle's four mistresses. Armed with photographs of the women, Ho and Dakota form an uneasy alliance and set out in search of the map tattoos and the promised riches.
El kárate, el Colt y el impostor was produced at a time when the Shaw Brothers were attempting to branch into more international co-productions, often genre-bending. The same year also saw the Shaw Brothers Studio teaming with the UK's Hammer Studios to produce The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a kung fu gothic horror film.