A Distinctive Mix Of Western And Martial Arts

That includes a Western icon and a Nineteen Seventies martial arts star, The Stranger and the Gunfighter served as a singular and memorable mix of two totally different genres. Launched in 1976, The Stranger and the Gunfighter was a extremely uncommon movie for Lee Van Cleef, an actor with a detailed affiliation with the Western medium.

Greatest recognized for his function as Angel Eyes in The Good, the Dangerous, and the Ugly and Mortimer in For a Few {Dollars} Extra, Lee Van Cleef made a multitude of Westerns throughout his profession. They weren’t as high-profile because the Spaghetti Westerns he made with Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone, however some proved to be entertaining entries into the style nonetheless.

After his work with Eastwood and Leone on the Dollars Trilogy, Van Cleef starred in a slew of Nineteen Seventies Westerns, showing alongside a number of different recognizable actors, together with Carrol Baker, James Mason, and Jim Brown.

Many have been fellow Western actors, whereas some amounted to uncommon partnerships – working example being his involvement in The Stranger and the Gunfighter, which teamed him with an Indonesian actor recognized for his roles in a few of the finest kung fu motion pictures of the Nineteen Seventies.

The Stranger and the Gunfighter Is A Western Group-Up Between Lee Van Cleef & Lo Lieh

In 1974, Italian film studio Harbor Movies partnered with Shaw Brothers, the largest identify in Hong Kong’s kung fu film trade, for a movie titled The Stranger and the Gunfighter. The joint Hong Kong-Italian manufacturing represented a mixture of two distinctly totally different genres, kung fu motion pictures and Spaghetti Westerns.

To that finish, an actor related to every style was final for its two lead roles, with Spaghetti Western veteran Lee Van Cleef getting one spot and the opposite going to Lo Lieh, one of many many actors in Shaw Brothers’ secure of martial arts stars.

Lo Lieh made a reputation for himself by starring in 5 Fingers of Dying, which beat Enter the Dragon to the title of the primary kung fu film to grow to be a world hit. Through the years, he starred in nicely over 100 martial arts motion pictures, taking part in villains most of the time. This included Clan of the White Lotus and thirty sixth Chamber of Shaolin, two of Shaw Brothers’ best movies.

The Stranger and the Gunfighter leans on the 2 stars’ backgrounds, with Van Cleef taking part in a gunslinger and martial arts star Lo Lieh taking up the function of a Chinese language immigrant and kung fu knowledgeable. Within the film, Lo Lieh’s character, Ho Chiang, involves the American Wild West to seek out buried treasure that is getting used as leverage in opposition to him by the movie’s villain.

To this finish, Ho Chiang groups up with Lee Van Cleef’s Dakota, with the pair having to mix their respective abilities to beat various challenges and get their palms on the treasure.

Having a personality utilizing martial arts on his enemies is a shocking however entertaining departure from normal Western motion pictures, contemplating that saloon brawls and old school slugfests are the form of fights usually anticipated from Westerns.

The Stranger And The Gunfighter Is not Lee Van Cleef’s Solely Martial Arts Western

As distinctive as The Stranger and the Gunfighter could seem for each actors, it was the primary – however not the final – martial arts Western to characteristic Lee Van Cleef. Within the following 12 months, he appeared in Take a Exhausting Experience alongside Enter the Dragon star Jim Kelly, whose martial arts experience was utilized to the portrayal of his character, not not like The Stranger and the Gunfighter’s use of Lo Lieh.

Whereas The Stranger and the Gunfighter and Take a Exhausting Experience solely emphasize the kung fu expertise of Lee Van Cleef’s co-stars, it is price noting that the actor had greater than his justifiable share of martial arts data. He received to place his personal abilities to the take a look at within the 1980 Chuck Norris-led martial arts movie, The Octagon, in addition to NBC’s 1984 martial arts TV present, The Grasp, the place Van Cleef performed the principle protagonist.