C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara (1970)

Director:

Giuliano Carnimeo

Writer:

Tito Carpi (writer)

Release Date:

7 August 1970 (Italy)

Genre:

Western | Action

Plot:

Sartana, bounty hunter and gunfighter, witnesses the robbery of a shipment of gold. He finds his way...

Plot Keywords:

Sartana | Gold | Gold Shipment | Parasol | Spaghetti Western

Cast

George Hilton	...	Sartana
Charles Southwood	...	Sabbath
Erika Blanc	...	Trixie
Piero Lulli	...	Samuel Spencer (as Peter Carter)
Linda Sini	...	Mantas' Wife
Nello Pazzafini	...	Mantas
Carlo Gaddi	...	Baxter
Aldo Barberito	...	Angelo
Marco Zuanelli	...	Dead Eye Golfay
Luciano Rossi	...	Flint Fossit (as Lou Kamante)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fortunato Arena	...	Old man
John Bartha	...	Sheriff
Federico Boido	...	Joe Fossit (as Rick Boyd)
Luigi Bonos	...	Posada Owner (as Gigi Bonos)
Armando Calvo	...	Hoagy
Spartaco Conversi	...	Emiliano
Umberto Di Grazia
Franco Fantasia
Gaetano Imbró
Furio Meniconi	...	Romero

Also Known As:

Fistful of Lead
I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin (USA)
Sartana's Coming, Get Your Coffins Ready (USA)
Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin

Runtime:

Italy:93 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Colt Produzioni Cinematografiche

Movie Connections:

Edited into Spaghetti Western Trailer Show (2007) (V)

somewhat bewildering, but very entertaining

This is a fun movie with interesting characters, and lots of spaghetti western style. I found it very entertaining, although it has some story elements that don't seem to make a lot of sense.

George Hilton does a fine job of portraying "Sartana," the bounty hunter/detective/vigilante more often played by Gianni Garko. Hilton's style is slightly different, but he plays the part equally as well as Garko. The real show-stealer here is Charles Southwood as "Sabbath," a bounty hunter who dresses in all-white, carries a white parasol, and lives by the values taught to him by his mother. Sartana and Sabbath are both oddballs, each in his own way, but Sabbath is so eccentric he makes Sartana look normal. One of the many amusing parts of the film is when Sabbath comes riding into town with his parasol, and one of the townsfolk sees him and says "what's the west coming to?" Sartana and Sabbath play off of each other quite well, and their interactions are fun to watch, especially when they square off near the end of the film.

A great music score by Francesco DeMasi, along with some excellent camera work, help make this euro-western above average in the style department, but the somewhat muddy plot doesn't do it justice. It's basically about how a crooked town boss is taking gold from the local mines and replacing it with sand before it is shipped. Then he hires Mexican bandits to "rob" the shipments so that nobody will know that they were ever replaced with sand. In comes Sartana to save the day, though his motives for wanting to find the gold are selfish. A little while later, Sabbath shows up, supposedly for the same reason. That much is pretty cut and dry, but the problem is with the details. While the basic idea of the scam going on with the gold is easy to understand, some of the actions of the characters in the story don't make any sense, or perhaps aren't explained very well. Maybe the American version is poorly edited. That would explain a lot, but I don't know if it's the case.

The best way to watch it is to sit back, relax and enjoy the cool characters and style of this spaghetti western without trying to make sense out of everything that happens. When viewed with that attitude, it's actually one of the more memorable and entertaining films of the genre.