Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely Fantastic

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

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.

When Dakota(Cleef) blows open a bank, Wang, the man whose riches were supposed to be there is killed in the explosion... and the vault is empty, other than pictures and papers. The nephew(Lo) is sent to recover the treasure by a warlord, and thus we have our two leads united to seek out... I kid you not... the writings on specific girls asses(did I mention there's a little female nudity in this? And crude material). This is in the middle of the three movies with this plot... well, *I* know of at least two others, one that I've watched myself from this period, a Danish one, Me and the Mafia(the other being the one that it was a remake of, the British Ooh... You Are Awful). Ah, but what about an antagonist? Fear not, an Al Pacino-look-alike Jesus freak comes to the rescue. This self-righteous dude allows them to make fun of Christianity(...I honestly didn't realize that happened much in these). He is also on the lookout, or one could say, on the leerout. This combines spaghetti Western with martial arts, though since the blows don't seem to actually connect, I'm going to have to assume that what is knocking them out must be the wacky sound FX or disorientation from the camera which tends to be too close or excessively far away during fight scenes(in general this is poor, such as the framing(maybe this has been altered for the release) and how tight the shots are). The climax is pretty cool. This is funny in how bad it is, other than that, the humor is really goofy and overdone. We get forced obligatory "jokes" about cultural differences. It does confront racism some. The version I watched of this is 95 minutes long. There is bloody violence and disturbing content in this. The DVD comes with the entire shorts of The Tree in a Test Tube and Malice in the Palace(that I have reviewed on their separate pages here on the site), a trailer for The General and one for other works from the period. I recommend this lukewarm(in more ways than one) piece to fans of the two sub-genres. 6/10

"Blood Money", also known as "The Stranger and the Gunfighter", is an interesting combination of gun play and flying fists. Lee VanCleef may not be at the top of his game, but the unusual and entertaining story makes up for any edge he might have lost. I found more humor here than in any of the "Trinity" films. If you look at the entertainment value alone, I would say this is about on a par with "Death Rides a Horse" or "Kid Vengeance". It is definitely inferior to "The Good the Bad and the Ugly", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Big Gundown". Overall, I would recommend "Blood Money" as a must see for Lee VanCleef fans. - MERK

"Là Dove Non Batte Il Sole" aka. "The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is certainly not a very good Spaghetti Western, but it's a very funny one. A Chinese Kung-Fu warrior named Ho Chiang comes to the American Southwest to find his late uncle's treasure. His Family is held hostage by a powerful warlord back in China until he will return with his uncle's fortune. After Ho Chiang saves a gunslinger named Dakota (Lee Van Cleef) from the gallows, the two keep on searching the uncle's fortune together. The Chinese stranger and the gunfighter soon find out that the tattooed bottoms of four ladies are the key to the secret treasure."The Stranger And The Gunfighter" is a Spaghetti Western with a nice touch of Comedy and Action. The characters are quite funny, especially the main villain, a psychopathic religious fundamentalist gunfighter and preacher who comes to different towns to "preach the word of God", and and shoot those whom he considers to be sinners. Lee Van Cleef (one of my personal favorite actors of all-time) stars as the gunfighter Dakota, Martial Artist Lieh Lo plays his ass-kicking Chinese buddy Ho Chiang. This Movie is great fun, especially for Spaghetti Western fans like myself. Definitely worth watching!