Touches You

The Worst Film Ever

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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.

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.

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...

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!