La brute, le colt et le karaté

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.

As others have said this is a fun little film made late in the Spaghetti Western era and combining the traditional Ravioli oater with the then popular kung fu movie. Spaghetti Western legend Lee Von Cleef plays a gunfighter and bandit who teams up with a martial arts master to recover some gold hidden by the latter's uncle before a Chinese triad or other bandits can get it. To do this they need to put together a map the uncle left which is tattooed on the backsides of his four beautiful wives(thus the Italian title which translates to something like "Where the Sun Doesn't Shine"). This is the funniest part of the movie because all four of the women are sexually frustrated and bitterly disappointed that the heroes are only interested in their "map" (none of which, of course, is very believable). Paul Bartel would later use this exact same hilarious concept in his comedy "Lust in the Dust", but his actresses, played Lanie Kazan and Divine, were of course a little less attractive.

Lee Von Cleef is pretty good here as is the unknown Chinese actor who plays his partner (thankfully, he's not someone like David Carradine but an actual Asian actor). The four women include Erica Blanc, Patty Shepherd, and Femi Benussi. Blanc was kind of wasted as usual (as an actress anyway), but the enigmatic Patty Shepherd, an American who made her entire career in Spain and Italy, always made the most of these small, cameo roles (her most memorable appearance was as the villainess in Paul Naschy's "Werewolf Shadow" where she barely logged more screen time than she does here). Femi Benussi strangely enough is the only one of the quartet who keeps her clothes on, even though taking them off was pretty much her main talent. The fourth wife was played by an attractive but unknown (by me, anyway) Chinese actress. If nothing else though all these actresses can say that in this movie they literally were just a piece of ass.

Really though this movie is pretty tame and innocent both with respect to sex (of which there really isn't any) and violence (especially compared to say Fulci's "Four of the Apocalypse" made a year later). I'd let my kids watch it (if I had any). Definitely recommended, especially to fans of Spaghetti Westerns, kung fu movies, and 70's Eurostarlets.

The movie narrates how a Chinese hero (Lo Lieh) tries to retrieve the money that a feudal lord gave up to his uncle for inversion in America . The uncle dies and the only clue to recover it is leading some tattoo messages on the butts of his fours lovers (Erika Blanc, Femi Benussi, Patty Shepard). The protagonist is helped by an American thief named Dakota (Lee Van Cleef) , both of them track down clues until discover the exciting final surprise.

The picture is a collaboration between Italian producer Carlo Ponti and Hong Kong Shaw Brothers , famous producers of Chop-Socky cinema and in charge of distribution on Asian market . The storyline is embarrassing and absurd but has its agreeable moments here and there . The violence isn't crude but slight and predominates the comedy . Lee Van Cleef is very old and with wig , his interpretation is wooden and graceless (Colonel Mortimer and Providence roles were left time ago). Special mention to secondary cast as Julian Ugarte who plays a traveler priest in a church-roulotte ; besides , three Eurotrash babes as Erika Blanc , Patty Shepard and Femi Benussi . The motion picture takes part a little genre in which during the 1970s achieved splendor and blended Spaghetti Western and martial arts with influence of David Carradine-Kung Fu series (1972-1975) , for example : ¨ Red sun ¨ by Terence Young , ¨Karate law in the west ¨ by Tonino Ricci, ¨ My name is Shangai Joe ¨ by Mario Caiano, ¨ The return of Shangai Joe ¨ by Bitto Albertini , and ¨The white , the yellow and the black¨ by Sergio Corbucci . It's a Spanish-Italian production , a Paella/Spaghetti Western , and was shot in Almeria (Spain) where during the 60s and early 70s were filmed uncountable Westerns . The adjusted cinematography was realized by expert cameraman Alejandro Ulloa (Horror express). The film was regularly directed by Anthony M. Dawson or Margheritti . Rating : mediocre but amusing.

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.