Lo Straniero Di Silenzio (The Silent Stranger) [Original Film Score] (1968)

Lo Straniero Di Silenzio (The Silent Stranger) [Original Film Score] (1968)
Composed by Stelvio Cipriani (1937-2018)

Tracklisting:

1. [00:00] Stranger In Japan
2. [01:35] Main Title
3. [02:17] Getting To Know
4. [05:13] Ballad In A New Land
5. [06:51] Face To Face
6. [09:00] Night Suspense
7. [09:38] Going In
8. [10:58] Afraid From
9. [11:38] Checking Out
10. [12:52] Shooting
11. [14:18] Village's Attack
12. [15:07] Resisting
13. [16:15] Striking Back
14. [18:05] Private Weapon
15. [18:49] Machine Gun
16. [20:25] Abduction
17. [22:15] Time For Revenge
18. [23:02] End Titles

Directed by Luigi Vanzi (1925-1992), this Italian / Japanese / American co-production western film stars Gaetano Scala, Kanji Ohara, Kyôichi Satô, Lloyd Battista, Rita Maura, Tony Anthony, Yoshio Nukano, Hitoshi Ômae (-2011), and Raf Baldassarre (1932-1995). Actor Tony Anthony not only wrote the story but also produced it, and brought in screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami (1940-2013) to finish directing when Vanzi had fallen ill during the shooting. Also known as 'The Horseman and the Samurai' and 'The Stranger in Japan', the film is the third in a series of four westerns starring Tony Anthony as 'The Stranger'. These films are extremely entertaining, and a fitting tribute to both Tony Anthony and director Vanzi's contributions to the Euro-Western. This mix of western and old-school samurai is simply fantastic, whilst the beautiful Japanese scenery (filmed in Kyoto) captured by Mario Capriotti not only adds to the adventure but is absolutely stunning.

The film opens with The Stranger (Tony Anthony) traversing the Klondike goldfields when he stumbles upon a miner's shack and finds a couple of bandits attempting to rob a young Japanese man of an important scroll. The Stranger manages to kill the bandits, but in the process the Japanese man receives a bullet. Before he dies, he asks The Stranger to deliver the scroll to a certain Matori (Kin Ōmae) in Japan, informing him that if he should do this, he will be paid one million dollars. The Stranger (along with his horse) boards a ship for Japan. Upon arrival, he slowly explores the unknown territory and quickly discovers that he understands nothing of what he hears and little of what he observes. He only understands that he needs to get paid for the errand he has undertaken, and without a common language, nobody can fully be trusted, especially when he finds himself trapped in the middle of strife between two feuding families vying for control, and both parties claim that the scroll is rightfully theirs. The Stranger soon realizes that the only way to save his hide is to play both sides against each other...

Beloved Italian composer Stelvio Cipriani provides the score, as he did for 'The Stranger Returns (1967) and 'Blindman (1971), but here his music is darker, dissonant, disjointed and even avant-garde at times. During one sequence, the music is accented by a scissoring sound not unlike the sharpening of knives. Truly a unique, one-of-a-kind Spaghetti western soundtrack.

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