Western starring Clint Eastwood. A mysterious and laconic stranger rides into the small American frontier town of Lago, and within minutes kills three men who provoke him. Terrified of the gunman, yet even more afraid of a gang who intend to wipe out the town, the townspeople beg the stranger to become sheriff, little realising that this is just the start of their descent into "Hell".
Sex, sadism and the supernatural are loosely bundled in Clint Eastwood's stylishly self-conscious revenge western, which riffs on his man-with-no-name image. Eastwood plays the stranger who looms out of the desert, a mirage of retribution on a town's inhabitants who stood by while their honest sheriff was whipped to death. This was only Eastwood's second go at directing (after Play Misty for Me), and here he seems to be paying off debts to both Sergio Leone, who gave him his break in A Fistful of Dollars and Don Siegel, who directed him in the likes of Dirty Harry. As well as emulating their style, Eastwood namechecks both film-makers on tombstones in the scene set in the graveyard.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| The Stranger | Clint Eastwood |
| Sarah Belding | Verna Bloom |
| Callie Travers | Marianna Hill |
| Dave Drake | Mitchell Ryan |
| Morgan Allen | Jack Ging |
| Mayor Jason Hobart | Stefan Gierasch |
| Lewis Belding | Ted Hartley |
| Mordecai | Billy Curtis |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Clint Eastwood |
