The Silent Stranger


The Silent Stranger, also known as The Horseman and the Samurai and The Stranger in Japan, is a 1968 Spaghetti Western jidaigeki film directed by Luigi Vanzi. It is the second sequel to A [Stranger in Town |A Stranger in Town], with twenty minutes excised for its 1975 release. The film is the third in a series of four western films starring Tony Anthony as "The Stranger". Despite being produced in 1968 for MGM, the film was never given an official release until 1975, nearly a decade after the previous film in the series. Tony Anthony stated that he believed the film became the victim of a power struggle at MGM, and the film was re-edited when it was later released by a different studio.

Plot

The protagonist, an American cowboy in Edo-period 19th-Century Japan, becomes trapped in the middle of the strife between two feuding aristocratic Japanese families. The cowboy possesses a priceless scroll, acquired by chance while he was in Alaska, which both warring families want. Violent fighting ensues, involving Samurai swords, a Gatling gun, and a makeshift single-shot blunderbuss. In the end the cowboy returns the scroll to The Princess, a member of the family who are the rightful owners.

Cast

Paul Mavis, of DVDTalk, reviewing the 2015 Warner Archive Collection DVD release of The Stranger Collection, wrote, "While they're not in the league of Leone, Anthony's grimy, sneaky little punk killer is an intriguing addition to the genre. Tony Anthony did some very interesting things with the spaghetti Western genre, including, perhaps, presaging the They [Call Me Trinity|Trinity] movies, while certainly "inventing" the West-meets-East subgenre".