The Stranger in Japan / The Silent Stranger / Lo straniero di silenzio (Luigi Vanzi, 1975)

The Warner Archive release?

I believe it’s open matte so you don’t lose anything in the sides but actually gain something in the top and bottom department.

I have the Warner disc so if someone can supply screenshots from the NEW disc we can compare.

There a some strange green blur effect near the end in a couple of shots like in the old Cut Throat’s Nine disc

Couldn’t match the second shot. Undeniably better image quality, but quite a lot cropped off at the top.

Learned a bit about this one from the Get Mean extras…

Anything about plans or even possibilities of a release of the original cut?

I’m not sure if anybody is interested, but I’ve had a small mini crusade of trying to locate a copy of the original master tapes to the film going on for about the past two months. I’ve made some headway in finding out that they are not in the United States, but that now leaves Italy to scrounge through.

I talked to Claudio Fuiano, he mentioned that the tapes were not found at ABKCO’s vaults when working on getting the Blindman soundtrack together.

I then went and asked Ron Schneider, who told me that MGM controls all of it.

After that I asked Lukas Kendall, as he had spent time at the MGM vaults finding and restoring a few Spaghetti scores. He tells me MGM’s library was bought and moved to Warner. He does me a wonderful favor and asks a contact at the Warner Vault if there’s any trace. No trace.

Now I’m a bit stuck. It’s for sure in Italy. But where? Stelvio Cipriani kept the scores for his other films, that’s why they’ve been re-released. I’ve got two or three places I guess I can check, Forum Studios(where it might have been recorded and where they might have copies of the tapes), and asking Groupo Sugar (they own the CAM library).

I might update this if I find anything. Wish me luck.

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That’s a dedicated effort mate. Hope you get a result.

Great movie, originally I watched back in the 70’s and again this year and still has the magic of a great spaghetti western

Thanks man, I hope I do too. I’d like to add, if you or anyone else has any information or could possible help in any way I’d be deeply indebted.

Most sources claim that Raf Baldassarre is in the film, but I couldn’t detect him. Does he play a Japanese character? In any case, he is not one of the three bandits at the beginning of the film.

I think his scene was cut out of the film.

Yes, most likely. Or did we both miss him?

He is nicknamed in the movie as White-eye, but I have no idea what to make of that.

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Neither have I. If I’m not mistaken, there are only five white/Caucasian/non-Japanese characters in the entire film: the three cutthroats at the beginning, “the American” played by Lloyd Battista, and Anthony’s Stranger. Neither the German nor the English opening and closing credits mention any other actors besides those two and the Japanese cast.

The first one of the three bandits could be Gaetano Scala.

There is a second extensive thread on Lo straniero di silenzio, where @Squonkamatic wrote years ago, “Tony Anthony […] even managed to find a little part for Raf Balda[s]sarre.” I also wonder what the source is for the information that Raf Baldassarre’s character is called White-Eye. Help! Who knows more about this? Maybe @Carlos and @JonathanCorbett?

Yes, there’s not much room for him to appear after the Klondike scene.

Scala for sure, not sure about the other two, although Bandit 2 reminds of Mario Dionisi, but no Raf.

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Some fresh thoughts on the flick by @pkazee

Stranger in Japan has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…

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