A Stranger in Town - mini review with DVD remarks
Compact-size review of A Stranger in Town with a remark on the old DVD release.
A Stranger in Town
A stranger - but not any stranger, The Stranger - rides into a town, that seems completely deserted. There's hardly anyone to be seen, so he grabs some tequila and a room in the inn. But from his window he can see a bandit and his gang massacre a troup of Mexican soldiers, taking over their uniforms. Trying to be smart, he tells them he knows about a delivery of gold by the US government and how only he can verify the contact person, so he needs him for the hand-over. It all works fine but then they think they can screw the Stranger and keep the gold. Wrong, because The Stranger, even though we are unclear about his motives, is a smart, quick-drawing anti-hero, who will hit back. So there's a cat and mouse game going on, with the Stranger taking serious shit from the gangsters, but in the end not only does he save a pretty Mexican woman and her child, but he also wins part of the gold....
My opinion: Boy was I underwhelmed. It does have its moments, and some of the scenes at the end are certainly not bad. But there's hardly a script, the dialogue is lousy, the characters are flat, and there's not much that makes this film very special, other than that it is a super-intense rendering of the Stranger concept. And for that, it works fine. In hindsight however, I think the movie has very little to offer. Worth seeing maybe, but having never seen this before, I think a bit overhyped.
DVD: The double-feature bootleg that's available in the US has a video transfer that is almost unwatchable, it is almost like watching a movie having dark stockings over your head. The print is very damaged, dark, scratched and dusty, only the sound is alright. I am hoping that someone would release this super-remastered and in a form that will make it easier to re-discover this film. So I was sent a copy of the Japanese disc with the English audio, which looked quite nice. But in its retail version it has no English language options.