THE MAGNIFICENT STRANGER (1967)

[TWOMULES]

Clint Eastwood made 3 spaghetti westerns in the 1960s, A Fistful of Dollars,For A Few Dollars More and The Good,The Bad And The Ugly but did you know that In 1967 a feature-film cash-in was released in West Germany called The Magnificent Stranger. It was a compilation of two Rawhide episodes in which Rowdy Yates is accused of murder. I first read about this in 2008 in the EMPIRE magazine. I have never seen this film, does anyone own a copy of it and which two Rawhide episodes were used?

[D'Ambrosia]

That’s is correct.  In fact Clint stopped work on The Good The Bad And The Ugly and flew to Rome to file a civil action lawsuit against the company to prevent them of splicing together a couple of episodes of Rawhide, which they aquried the rights to, and stop the release of it.  Apparently Clint’s effort was unsuccessful.

It’s just another great example of sleazy people cashing in on other peoples hard work.  

Has anyone seen this gem?

[KC]

From a post of mine in another thread:

As for El Magnifico extranjero, as the IMDb gives the title (in English, The Magnificent Stranger), it's nothing other than a couple of episodes of Rawhide that were strung together for distribution as a feature film in order to capitalize on Eastwood's sudden fame after his appearance in the "Dollars" movie. Completely without authorization from Eastwood or the producers of Rawhide, of course ... the culprit was Jolly Film, producers of A Fistful of Dollars. According to Richard Schickel (Clint Eastwood, p. 175) ...

Clint was obliged to stop work on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and fly to Rome, where he held a press conference and launched a civil action against his sometime employer, Jolly Film. It had licensed a couple of old Rawhide episodes and was in the process of splicing them together to make a feature they proposed calling ... The Magnificent Stranger.

I can't find out anything further about the fate of this legal action. Eastwood was shooting The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 ... according to the IMDb, The Magnificent Stranger was actually released in West Germany in July, 1967, Publicity materials for it were certainly produced and occasionally turn up for sale in the usual outlets.

And later in the same thread:

The IMDb isn't always accurate. The film it lists as El Magnifico extranjero or The Magnificent Stranger isn't "archive footage," it is two episodes of Rawhide back to back. It isn't a movie. The following information is from the excellent German language reference work Das Western-Lexikon, the expanded edition by Benjamin Hembus of the Joe Hembus work (c1976; 1995 printing). This work lists Westerns under their German release title and for the film in question, that is Maledetto Gringo (obviously, that is Italian, not German; the intent was to sell the piece as an "Italian Western").

Maledetto Gringo
(IL MAGNIFICO STRANIERO)
Italy/USA 1965. Directed by Herschel Daugherty, Justus Addiss ... [and a bunch of other credits familiar to viewers of Rawhide ] Rowdy Yates attempts to prevent a robbery of a fort. The production credit under which this film was released in the Federal Republic of Gemany — "A production of Jolly Film, Rome" — was intentionally misleading. Jolly was one of the three companies that had produced Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars. Before and after this film was shot, Eastwood played the lead in the American television Western series Rawhide, a cowboy named Rowdy Yates. Not content with the millions they earned with A Fistful of Dollars, Jolly bought two episodes of this television series, pasted them together to make a feature film, and gave the product the title Il magnifico straniero; in A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood is called "The stranger without a name" or simply "The stranger." Eastwood sued to prevent the distribution of this film.

From another thread, in which someone wondered whether The Magnificent Stranger could be the "lost Clint Eastwood Western" he thought he remembered:

The Magnificent Stranger was the subject of a legal action by Eastwood and was either never released, or released very briefly in the German market ...

Here are synopses for the two Rawhide episodes concerned:

Season 7, Episode 9: The Backshooter
Original Air Date: 27 November 1964

Rowdy Yates is accused of shooting a man in the back and faces death when he tries to carry out the dying man's last request.

Ramrod Rowdy Yates, thrown from his horse, is found in the prairie by outlaw Sam Jefferson, who cares for his injuries. While doing so, Jefferson is shot in the back. Jefferson, who is wanted for a Wells Fargo robbery, asks Rowdy to claim the $5000 reward offered for his capture and to give it to his wife. In town, Wells Fargo agent John Tasker publicly announces that Jefferson was shot in the back, causing three of Jefferson's friends to suspect that Rowdy was the man who did the shooting. When the three indicate they are going to avenge Jefferson's death, Rowdy is offered help, for money, by the sheriff, which he spurns. Then he collects the reward from Tasker, who tells him that Jefferson was never married. Rowdy now faces two problems: one is to find if Tasker is telling the truth; the other is to fight off Jefferson's three friends.

Season 3, Episode 25: Incident of the Running Man
Original Air Date: 5 May 1961

Rowdy Yates runs into a nightmare of intrigue and suspense when he attempts to warn an Army outpost of an impending attack by a band of outlaws.

While seeking to purchase additional cattle for the Sedalia-bound cattle drive, Yates comes across a man desperately trying to warn an Army outpost of the impending danger. Rowdy doesn't believe his story until the stranger shackles himself to Rowdy, and is later killed by the outlaws planning the strike. With the dead man shackled to him, Rowdy attempts to take over where the deceased left off.

The above synopses are from a complete set of typescript synopses (photocopies) of Rawhide episodes that I own. They would seem to have been prepared by Viacom at the time when that company was syndicating the T.V. series ...

As I mentioned above, whether or not the film was actually released, promotional items were certainly issued, for instance this poster:

[TWOMULES]

Thank you  D'Ambrosia and KC for the information regarding The Magnificent Stranger. The details were a joy to read, cool poster KC and thanks for letting me known which 2 Rawhide episodes were used. I would just like to say," I am new to all this, so thank you D'Ambrosia and The Schofield Kid for moving my topic to where it belongs,cheers".                              TWOMULES

[KC]

You're very welcome, Twomules, and welcome to the Eastwood Web Board!

Don't worry about posting something in the wrong forum. You'll get the hang of it soon enough!