ma-cortes
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
spider89119
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!
unbrokenmetal
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...
iaido
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.
