The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians 1978

On a train carrying passengers and money, an ambush erupts as Indians disguised as riders strike, cutting down the car with ruthless efficiency. The bandit boss rides along the car, stealing the uniform from the corpse of a Colonel Wilkinson to impersonate him, while real Indians observe the chaos from a distance. In the same moment, the Brad family, Transylvanian immigrants trying to carve out a life in the Wild West, crosses paths with the danger, accompanied by Bob [Ahmed Gabbany], a former slave who now speaks a little Romanian, and June [Tania Filip], an orphan girl rescued by Johnny Brad and engaged to Romulus Brad [Mircea Diaconu].

The Brads reach a town and check into the Grand Hotel de Paris, a stop that will pull them deeper into the unfolding conflict. Johnny Brad [Ovidiu Iuliu Moldovan] finds himself in a bar brawl with Mr. Green [Alöd Kiss], and Traian Brad [Ilarion Ciobanu] confiscates Johnny’s gun, signaling the uneasy lines between law and violence in this rough land. In the town, a circus troupe stages a show featuring a sharpshooter [Marcel Iureș] and Anabelle Lee [Rodica Tapalagă], an actress and singer who seems to radiate Parisian charm. Traian and Bob watch the performance, and Traian falls hard for Anabelle, drawn to her presence even as the stage lights blur the line between performance and peril.

The excitement of the show is shattered by the news that the Indians have attacked the train, and a posse is formed to track the massacre, finding the passengers slaughtered and scalped. Traian sheds his Transylvanian shepherd’s garb for an elegant suit and courts Anabelle with Bob acting as translator, but the grim truth soon surfaces: Anabelle and the troupe are part of the bandits, and she is the lover of the false colonel. Realizing the Indians were not responsible for the assault, a scout visits their camp and convinces chief Black Falcon and his son Fast Arrow [Constantin Brînzea] to ride into town to clear the mistaken blame. Yet when they arrive, the trio is shot by the bandits and the townsfolk who have been misled.

Fast Arrow escapes and ends up in the Brads’ room, where they offer him refuge and shelter from the chaos swirling around them. Romi, working as a blacksmith’s apprentice, travels to the circus camp and speaks to Anabelle in broken English, urging her to stop seeing Traian, while June endures abuse at the hands of Mr. Green. The tension tightens as the troupe prepares to move on to another train, and Anabelle cunningly manipulates Traian and the bank manager into opening the bank safe for her, setting the stage for a calculated robbery. The danger intensifies when Johnny, spurred on by Fast Arrow, takes up his gun and convinces the sheriff [Mihai Oroveanu] that the troupe are the real bandits, turning the town against the performers.

A ferocious gunfight erupts, the artists are decisively defeated, Anabelle is captured, and the Colonel’s death seals the ruthless outcome. With the danger behind them and the town’s cheers ringing in their ears, the Brads depart, their lives forever altered by the blend of treachery, courage, and stubborn resilience that defined their voyage through this volatile Western landscape.