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.

This Spagnetti Western treasure hunt movie hit the bottom. By bottom, I meant the whole plot of this movie by Antonio Margheriti with help from the Shaw Brothers is having a gunfighter Dakota (Lee Van Cleef) and a martial artist Ho Chiang (Lo Lieh) search for treasure by searching for tattoos marking on the bottoms of naked women. I would tap that ass of a movie! How weird is that! Still, it's one over the top entertaining movie, just a little crappy. That's if you can find this rare film. The movie goes by many titles from "The Stranger and the Gunfighter", 'East meets West" to "Blood Money" due to the movie being translate from Italian to whatever language, its being shown. The English dubbing isn't that great in my opinion. I know some of it was lost in the translation, but gees, the synchronization is bad. Also, some of the characters English names is pretty laughable. Ho Chiang's fat bald uncle name happens to be Wang, and he has four mistresses that hide his hidden long treasure. How can you not find something funny about that!? Anyways, the 1970's Kung Fu craze was still in high gear, but Lo Lieh isn't no Bruce Lee. The fight scenes are just awfully choreographed with over the top rewind film jumping and not even near close kicks and hits. Lo Lieh is nothing special playing the stereotypical Chinese guy who happens to be a kung-Fu master. At less, he's a bit charming, even if I can't understand what he is saying in some scenes. While, not fighting random people. Ho Chiang and Dakota are chased by over the top Bible-quoting madman Yancey Hobbitt (Julian Ugarte) and his Indian sidekick. Julian Ugarte reminds me of Roger Rees from 1993's Robin Hood: Men in Tights with his delivery. He was just interesting to watch. Dressed all in black with a long leather duster, gloves, and wide brimmed hat, looks like mix with Al Pacino and Jesus. The character is just as quick to use a gun as quote passages from the bible to any sinners, he seek unfit to live his lifestyle. He has cool bad guy written all over him. While, Lee Van Cleef looks pretty old in the film, as his hair plug is barely hanging on his head. It really does like Lee Van Cleef is just having fun overacting. What other Western movie has the main character autograph a woman's butt? The women in the film, Erika Blanc, Femi Benussi, Patty Shepard and Karen Yeh were pretty sexy in their roles, but this film doesn't had anything, more to the female characters than parading their sexy butts and had the girls sexually frustrated that men only have interest in the map. The movie makes them into young, dumb, female with little to no personality. If you like pointless nudity, you might like this film. The music is by Carlo Savina, nothing interesting. It gets annoying when the same theme plays over the action. The music sounds like some type of Blaxploitation film. The sound effects like whistles, bells, and whip cracks seem really canned. The print is surprisingly good, considering the film's age and obscurity, and fans of more lighthearted Spaghetti Westerns should be pleased. Still, in some versions of the film depending if you're watching it on DVD, on the internet, or just had on VHS. A few scenes are missing like the basement distillery fight. Most DVDs should have this scene. Still, if you don't. You're not missing much. It was badly shot, anyways with it being too dark. The running time is only 102 minutes, but after a while watching it; it does get kinda boring due to the hammy material. The humor is hit and miss. We get forced obligatory jokes about cultural differences and confront the racism at the time. I do like, the dog scene a lot. Overall, this was Shanghai Noon (2000) of its day. Just a little bit more obscure low-brow tongue-in-cheek comedy western.

This lightweight international co-production between Hong Kong's Run Run Shaw and Italian producer Carlo Ponti amalgamates chop-socky martial arts combat with gritty Spaghetti western violence. An Asian kung fu master teams up with an American gunslinger to find his uncle's treasure. Variously known as either "Blood Money" or "The Stranger and the Gunfighter," this tame 'East Meets West' oater is predictable but amusing nonsense. The humor that lies at the bottom of the plot is that four women have tattoos on their backsides that reveal the whereabouts of a fortune in gold. "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" director Antonio Margheriti and scenarists Miguel De Echarri and Barth Jules Sussman have incorporated a sex comedy in this Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. The running joke is that our heroes must obtain permission from four women to eyeball their butts. Veteran western villain Lee Van Cleef twirls his six-gun, while the often outnumbered Lo Lieh performs gravity-defying kung fu. Incidentally, Lieh emerged as the first martial arts superstar before Bruce Lee.Martial arts movies were increasingly going mainstream by the early 1970s, and "Blood Money" exemplified one of a handful of Italian westerns with Kung Fu. Not only did producer Run Run Shaw co-produce this hybrid horse opera, but he also co-produced the Hammer vampire epic "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" during the same year in 1974. Mind you, "Blood Money" premiered in Spain in 1974, but illuminated American screens two years later in 1976. Initially, the Tony Anthony western "The Silent Stranger" should have qualified as the first 'East Meets West' Kung Fu/Spaghetti western. Produced in 1968, "The Silent Stranger" was not released by MGM until 1975, so it beat "Blood Money" to the draw. Earlier, James Bond director Terence Young had helmed a European western with Charles Bronson as an outlaw who reluctantly joins up with Japanese samurai warrior Toshirô Mifune to recover the Nippon ambassador's valuable ceremonial sword. Director Mario Caiano's "Shanghai Joe" (1972) followed "Red Sun" and concerned a Chinese immigrant Chin How (Chen Lee) who helps Mexican laborers from their sadistic boss. Sergio Corbucci even got into this genre in 1975 with "Shoot First... Ask Questions Later" (1975) as a samurai warrior helps a lawman find a treasure.Dakota (Lee Van Cleef of "Barquero") arrives in Monterey by train. A conductor confronts our protagonist as he slips out from under the passenger coach. Before the conductor can do anything to him, Dakota escapes in a cloud of steam. Breaking into the local bank, Dakota picks the lock to the safe but he finds only photographs of women. Meantime, one of those women alerts Wang (Al Tung), a short fat Asian fellow that somebody is in the bank. Wang scrambles over to the bank. Dakota relies on explosives to blow the vault. As the dynamite explodes, Wang is blown off his feet. Dakota finds a fortune cookie and the photographs. He queries Wang about the contents, but Wang has died. The authorities arrive and arrest Dakota. Meanwhile, in Asia, kung fu teacher Ho Chiang (Lo Lieh of "Five Fingers of Death") is escorted by the warlord's troops to his headquarters. The warlord questions Ho's father about his deceased brother who left behind nothing valuable. The warlord confronts Ho. "I was tricked by your uncle. Unwisely, I entrusted him with a vast fortune and all he did to repay me before he died was to send me that wooden figures." The warlord indicates the statue of a noble Plains Indian chieftain. Since nobody can satisfy the warlord's curiosity, he gives Ho's sister to the guards. Ho intervenes but to no avail. Nevertheless, Ho's martial arts skills impress the warlord. "You're brave and intelligent and I believe you can be useful in recovering my fortune," he informs Ho. "Find my gold in one year or all of you will --," the warlord completes his sentence with a slashing motion at his throat.Ho arrives in Monterey. He meets with Wang's lawyer and learns his uncle left behind a $1000 and four photographs of women. According to the lawyer, Wang's death was ruled accidental. Nevertheless, the authorities sentenced Dakota to swing. The lawyer (Paul Costello of "Cannibal Apocalypse") adds that Dakota's trial lasted several months. Not surprisingly, Ho encounters racism in a saloon and defends himself against two gunslinging bouncers. The sheriff (Barta Barri of "Horror Express") arrests Ho for hitting him. Ho lands in a cell next to Dakota. Dakota assures Ho that he didn't murder his uncle. Moreover, Dakota acquired no fortune. The sheriff releases Ho. Later, the Asian rescues Dakota as he stands poised on the gallows' trapdoor with his noggin in a noose. Together, Dakota and Ho embark on an unusual search for Wang's four mistresses. Along the way, they incur the wrath of a hypocritical preacher, Yancey Hobbitt (Julian Ugarte of "Autopsy"), who wears a long, black duster with a ridiculous hat. Yancey quotes scripture and wields a devastating six-gun. Yancey abducts the Chinese mistress (Karen Yeh of "The Iron Dragon") with the aid of a Mexican bandit (Ricardo Palacios of "Return of the Seven") and his gang. They take her to an old mission. Dakota and Ho follow. Calico captures Dakota and whips him to get information about Ho. Ho helps Dakota escape, and Dakota appropriates a Gatling gun to exterminate half of Calico's gang, while Ho releases the Chinese mistress. Yancey has tried to torture her to translate the tattoos.Margheriti directs with customary aplomb. Everything unfolds fluidly. Clocking in a 107 minutes, "Blood Money" looks like a Spaghetti western, but the sex comedy often undercuts the usual high body count violence. The ending may surprise those who aren't expecting it. "Goliath against the Giants" lenser Alejandro Ulloa gives everything a larger-than-life grandeur. "Secret Agent Fireball" composer Carlo Savina drums up a snappy, non-western orchestral score. Savina's music has nothing in common with the quintessential Ennio Morricone Spaghetti western music with whistles, bells, and whipcracks.

"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!