Year: 1975
Runtime: 84 mins
Language: English
After being humiliated—hung by his heels, roasted on a spit and even shot from a cannon—he’s determined to get even. The story follows a Spanish princess who, returning from America to her homeland, enlists this reluctant but vengeful hero. Together they embark on a daring quest that pits them against dangerous foes and tests their resolve.
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The Stranger Tony Anthony is dragged into a ghost town by his horse, which collapses the moment they cross its quiet gates. In the dust-filled streets, a family of gypsies and a fortune teller offer him a tempting deal: they’ll pay him $50,000 if he can return Princess Elizabeth Maria de Burgos to Spain, where barbarians are pressing hard against the nation. The Stranger refuses at first, but when a raiding party swarms the town, he fights them off to protect his money and, reluctantly, agrees to escort the Princess to Spain. The fragile bargain sets the stage for a journey that blends danger, deception, and daring escape.
In Spain, the pair find themselves thrust into a brutal clash between the allied Moors and the invading Barbarians. The tide shifts as the Barbarians overpower the Moors and seize both The Stranger and the Princess. To salvage the mission, The Stranger fragments the Barbarians’ confidence by casting doubt on the woman’s identity, insisting she’s not a real princess but a woman who has suffered a head injury and fallen into madness. The Barbarians, initially unconvinced, proceed to bind The Stranger by his feet and drag the Princess away on horseback, while a cannon fire from the enemy fort marks the escalating peril. Left to swing, The Stranger proclaims—through grit and resolve—that he won’t abandon the country until his money is secured, a vow that quickly turns into a deadly game of survive-and-negotiate.
Their capture funnels them toward a conquered castle, where the Barbarians show gratitude to Rodrigo’s stallion as The Stranger is rescued by Morelia, a dedicated member of the Spanish resistance [Mirta Miller]. Morelia carries The Stranger back to consult the Princess’s aging general, who, on his deathbed, declares that only the Princess herself can claim the treasure tied to Rodrigo’s legacy. He also cryptically mentions a temple hidden in the mountains before passing away. Soon after, the Barbarians raid the rebel hideout, forcing The Stranger into action. He scares them off with sudden gunplay and refuses to surrender until he secures the promised treasure, a pledge he amplifies with bold action and a display of courage when he hangs survivors from the castle walls and makes a stand against their siege.
The Stranger moves to negotiate with the Barbarians’ throne room power broker, a ruthless leader whose ambitions know no mercy. In this tense standoff, he courts a wary alliance with the hunchbacked royal Sombra, whom The Stranger dubs “Richard” after Shakespeare’s Richard III, to learn the treasure’s location. Sombra counters by offering other women, but The Stranger insists that the Princess is essential to unlocking the treasure. He frees the Princess from her restraints and together the trio rides toward the mountain temple, where a priest warns that the Princess must endure The Trials of Death to claim Rodrigo’s treasure. The Stranger volunteers to take her place, and as he steps forward, a magical force grips him, guiding him through a hall of dying veterans and past the skeletal echoes of those who failed before him.
The Trials reveal a deadly twist: The Stranger is transformed in a spectral moment into a Black man and challenged by a charging bull, before finally being returned to the temple with the treasure. The Barbarians soon discover The Stranger bears the Scorpion’s Sting, a cursed amulet that spells death to its wearer. They seize him and his crew, and a grim stage is set for a brutal human sacrifice in memory of Rodrigo. Morelia refuses to reveal the treasure’s location, engaging in a fierce duel with Sombra, who drives her sword into him in a decisive clash. The Barbarians prepare to roast The Stranger alive, while Alfonso—the Princess’s general ally and a cunning councilor [David Dreyer]—tries to rescue The Stranger by going behind enemy lines, only to be drawn into a dangerous game of deception that tests his own loyalties.
With the help of the last-minute plan and a cache of explosives, The Stranger fights back in a spectacular showdown. He gathers dynamite, loads a quadruple-barreled shotgun, and arms the castle with incendiary force. The Barbarian warriors are caught off guard as The Stranger’s weapons unleash a deadly rain of fire and shrapnel, while the castle walls crack under the blast. As the fires blaze, the Barbarian chief faces The Stranger in a final duel of cannon against shotgun; the duel becomes a test of will, courage, and fate as Sombra fires into darkness, hoping to end the intruder’s quest. The Stranger’s relentless onslaught culminates in the Barbarian leader’s downfall, his death echoing through the mounting ruins as the castle begins to crumble around them.
Sombra’s cannon fire eventually misfires into a rock-strewn wall, revealing the treasure’s location to the light of sunrise. Sombra is forced to retreat, but not before the radical pair—The Stranger and the Princess—make their final stand together. The Stranger, pursued by pursuit and prey, presses on, riding through the mountains and reclaiming the path back toward civilization. In a last surge of bravery, he confronts Sombra in a tense duel aboard the looming fortress’s shadow. The conqueror’s gun fails to hit its mark, and The Stranger’s shotgun finally ends Sombra’s bid for dominion. With the threat vanquished, The Stranger and Princess ElizabethMaria de Burgos ride toward safety, their journey back to the Americas beginning as the castle erupts behind them and the horizon opens to a new chapter of their shared fate.
Last Updated: October 07, 2025 at 08:25
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