Clint Eastwood sued to stop the release of his final Spaghetti Western The Magnificent Stranger – though there’s a sneaky way to watch it in 2025. Eastwood’s career was forever altered by Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, which supercharged the stagnant Western genre and made Clint a movie star.
Eastwood pᴀssed on further Leone Westerns like Once Upon a Time in America to focus on becoming a star in America. Of course, Eastwood had plenty of experience with “Oaters” before working with Leone, thanks to long-running series Rawhide and the fairly terrible Ambush at Cimarron Pᴀss.
It’s interesting to look back on Rawhide and see how much of a goody two-shoes Eastwood’s character Rowdy Yates was. The character had his share of angry moments, but Yates is a far less complex character than the likes of Eastwood’s Man with No Name or Unforgiven’s Will Munny.
It was around the time he was filming The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that Eastwood learned that Jolly Films – a production company behind A Fistful of Dollars – had put together a movie called The Magnificent Stranger. This was being sold as a new Clint Eastwood Western – despite his total lack of involvement.
The Magnificent Stranger Is Sтιтched Together From Two Rawhide Episodes
In reality, The Magnificent Stranger took two Rowdy-focused Rawhide episodes and slapped them together to make a “new” film. Jolly also doubled down on the links to the Dollars series, mocking up posters to make Eastwood resemble The Man with No Name, while The Magnificent Stranger was the original тιтle of A Fistful of Dollars.
It was less of a film than a compilation, but Jolly was preparing to sell it as an original Eastwood Western. This would have technically made it Clint’s fourth Spaghetti Western outing – had The Magnificent Stranger actually been released.
It speaks to how wildly popular the first two Dollars movies were that the distributor was so desperate to put together another Clint Western. Just the image of Eastwood squinting while firing a revolver would have been enough to lure viewers in, even if Rawhide is the tonal opposite of Sergio Leone’s Westerns.
Clint Eastwood Sued To Stop The Magnificent Stranger’s Release
Eastwood was actually working on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when he heard about The Magnificent Stranger. According to Clint Eastwood: A Biography author Richard Schicker, Clint then flew to Rome and launched a civil suit against Jolly to stop the distribution of the Western entirely.
The Magnificent Stranger has become lost in the decades since. There are reports of the Western having brief runs in Italy and West Germany during the late 1960s, but these are unconfirmed. What is known is that the Western hasn’t been seen since, having never received TV airings or home video releases.
Clint Eastwood’s first leading role in an American production was Hang ‘Em High.
To Clint fans, there might be a certain allure to his “lost” Western, but The Magnificent Stranger is essentially a Rawhide double bill. The dub may have added or dropped story beats from the episodes themselves, but without the involvement of Eastwood or Leone, all it could ever be was a blatant cash grab.
As for Eastwood and Leone themselves, the two fell out after Clint pᴀssed on Leone’s later Westerns. They did make peace in the year leading up to Leone’s pᴀssing, with the Italian legend planning to offer Clint a featured cameo in a Western miniseries he was developing.
Had things gone to plan, Colt would have opened with Clint as a mystery gunslinger who has a special revolver custom-built. However, he would have been gunned down shortly after taking it, and the show would have revolved around the gun pᴀssing between different owners. Following Leone’s 1989 death, the show has yet to happen.
Clint Fans Can “Watch” The Magnificent Stranger By Viewing These Rawhide Episodes
It’s tough to find any solid details surrounding Eastwood’s The Magnificent Stranger lawsuit, but it was obviously a success since it kept the film locked away for nearly 60 years. There could be a print of it collecting dust somewhere in Italy or Germany, but it’s unlikely the Western will ever resurface.
For anybody eager to see The Magnificent Stranger, all they need to do is watch Rawhide’s “The Backshooter” and “Incident of the Running Man” back to back. The latter episode involved Rowdy trying to warn an outpost of an impending attack by outlaws, whilst being accused of killing a deputy sheriff.
“Incident of the Running Man” came from Rawhide’s third season, while “The Backshooter” was a season seven outing. This saw Rowdy getting into more mischief when he is chased by more outlaws who wrongly believe he killed their friend.
Both episodes were logical picks for The Magnificent Stranger, since their focus is almost solely on Rowdy and they’re departures from Rawhide’s standard formula. Still, they’re also lacking in the cinematic style and raw edge of the Dollars saga, and the film would have been a letdown for audiences expecting something similar.
Leone seemingly never voiced his thoughts on The Magnificent Stranger, though he probably aligned with Clint. While Eastwood never returned to Italy for another Spaghetti Western, he did bring their sense of style (and brutality) to his American Westerns like Hang ‘Em High and High Plains Drifter. He also dedicated Unforgiven to Leone, alongside his American director mentor Don Siegel.
Source: Clint Eastwood: A Biography
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Clint Eastwood
- Birthdate
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May 31, 1930
- Birthplace
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San Francisco, California, USA
- Height
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6 feet 4 inches
- Notable Projects
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Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, The Good
- Professions
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Actor, Director, Producer, Composer
Discover the latest news and filmography for Clint Eastwood, known for Dirty Harry and Unforgiven.
