Led by En Plein (Dan Vadis), a gang of bandits known as Treasure of the Border — because of the bounty on their collective heads — is plotting to steal a stagecoach full of gold by blackmailing a postmaster known as Good Jim (Daniele Vargas).
Tony Anthony is The Stranger, who happens to be riding through the area just as the plan is about to unfold.
He finds a postal inspector dead in a water trough and promptly dispatches of three gunmen who are hanging around and threatening to put him in a grave as well.
That puts The Stranger in bad standing with En Plein, but also smack dab in the middle of the search for the gold.
And he’ll get a big assist from the Prophet, who lends him fireworks and a four-barreled shotgun to help even the odds.
Tony Anthony as The Stranger accesses the odds in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Dan Vadis as En Plein, the bandit leader, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Review:
Someone grew a sense of humor between the first and second Stranger film, and this movie benefits as a result. Example 1: The Stranger’s horse is named Pussy and helps hunt rabbits. Example 2: In an early scene, the Stranger is bending down to examine a body when he spies the bad guys by looking through his legs. He later guns down one from the same posture.
An obviously bigger budget, a more complex plot and another interesting score help, too. Former strongman Dan Vadis heads the outlaw gang; American actress Jill Banner is the young daughter of Good Jim, seemingly forever in danger of losing her virtue to an outlaw named Austin.
There’s even a neat twist for an ending.
Daniele Vargas as Good Jim, the stage manager, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Marco Guglielmi as The Prophet in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Directed by:
Luigi Vanzi
Cast:
Tony Anthony … The Stranger
Daniele Vargas … Good Jim
Dan Vadis … En Plein
Marco Guglielmi … The Prophet
Jill Banner … Caroline
Marina Berti … Ethel
Raf Baldassarre … Chrysler
Mario Novelli … Austin
as Anthony Freeman
Ettore Manni … Lt. Stafford
Giuseppe Addobbati … Donald Stanley
Also with: Renato Mambor, Franco Scala, Mario Dionisi, Arnaldo Mangolini, Roberto Chiappa, Fred Coplan, Filippo Antonelli, Luciana Antonelli, Silvana Bacci, Aysanoa Runachagua, Antonio Danesi, Amerigo Castrighella as Mario Castrichella, Fortunato Arena
aka:
Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola
Shoot First, Laugh Last
A Man, a Horse, a Gun
Score: Stelvio Cipriani
Raf Baldassarre as Chrysler, one of En Plein’s henchmen, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Mario Novelli as Austin, one of En Plein’s henchmen, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Memorable lines:
Austin, to pretty Caroline: “You sure don’t look like the daughter of your father. Your mother grabbed somebody who looked like me.”
Lt. Stafford: “You’ll pardon me for saying so, inspector, but there are two kinds of people I don’t like. Those who claim they know nothin’. And those that claim they know everything.”
The Stranger: “And you’ll pardon me for saying so, lieutenant, sir. But hard-headed men like you either have big careers, or they die young.”
The Stranger, after getting a four-barreled shotgun from the priest: “Well, old man, we’re going to raise some hell in Moon Village tonight.”
Priest: “You going back there?”
The Stranger: “Fact is, I like places that smell like trouble. Something good might turn up.”
Jill Banner as Caroline, Good Jim’s daughter, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Marina Berti as Ethel with her husband Daniele Vargas as Good Jim in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Trivia:
The female lead is played by American actress Jill Banner, who was trying to resume her career in the early 1980s when she was killed in an automobile accident with a drunk driver at age 36.
Dan Vadis, leader of the Treasure of the Border gang, was also American and came to a tragic end, dying of a drug overdose in California at age 49. He got into films with the help of fellow muscleman and Spaghetti star Gordon Mitchell.
The second of four “Stranger” films starring Tony Anthony, this was preceded by “A Stranger in Town” and followed by “The Stranger in Japan” and “Get Mean.”
Ettore Manni as Lt. Stafford, head of the cavalry detail, in The Stranger Returns (1968)
Tony Anthony as The Stranger, a man who doesn’t mind trouble in The Stranger Returns (1968)
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