I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin (1970) C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara (original title)

Director:

Giuliano Carnimeo

Writer:

Tito Carpi

Release Date:

7 August 1970 (Italy)

Genre:

Western

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 | Violence

Cast

George Hilton	...	Sartana
Charles Southwood	...	Sabbath
Erika Blanc	...	Trixie
Piero Lulli	...	Samuel Spencer (as Peter Carter)
Linda Sini	...	Maldida
Nello Pazzafini	...	Mantas
Carlo Gaddi	...	Baxter
Aldo Barberito	...	Angelo
Marco Zuanelli	...	Dead Eye Golfay
Luciano Rossi	...	Flint Fossit (as Lou Kamante)
Federico Boido	...	Joe Fossit (as Rick Boyd)
Luigi Bonos	...	Posada Owner (as Gigi Bonos)
Gaetano Imbró
Spartaco Conversi	...	Emiliano
Umberto Di Grazia
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alberico Donadeo
Ettore Arena	...	Man in Front of Sheriff's Bureau (uncredited)
Fortunato Arena	...	Old man (uncredited)
John Bartha	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Armando Calvo	...	Hoagy (uncredited)
Franco Fantasia	...	(uncredited)
Paolo Figlia	...	Mantas Hechman (uncredited)
Furio Meniconi	...	Romero (uncredited)
Sergio Smacchi	...	Mantas Henchman #2 (uncredited)
Massimo Vanni	...	Mantas Henchman #3 (uncredited)

Directed by
Giuliano Carnimeo		(as Anthony Ascott)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Tito Carpi

Produced by
Sergio Borelli	....	producer
Franco Palaggi	....	producer

Original Music by
Francesco De Masi

Cinematography by
Stelvio Massi

Film Editing by
Ornella Micheli

Art Direction by
Stefano Bulgarelli

Costume Design by
Stefano Bulgarelli
Tigano Lo Faro

Makeup Department
Giuseppe Capogrosso	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Sergio Borelli	....	production manager
Ruggero Cappelli	....	unit manager
Fabrizio De Angelis	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Romano Scandariato	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Pietro Vesperini	....	sound

Special Effects by
Gino Vagniluca	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Sergio Rubini	....	camera operator

Other crew
Maria Luisa Rosen	....	script supervisor
Bruno Ukmar	....	master of arms

Production Companies

• Colt Produzioni Cinematografiche

Distributors

• Sinister Cinema (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• BCI Eclipse (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Universum Film (UFA) (video)
• Videoasia (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara" - Italy (original title)
"Sartana's Coming, Get Your Coffins Ready" - USA

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 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Colt Produzioni Cinematografiche

Trivia:

Despite being top billed second after George Hilton, Charles Southwood only appears on-screen after over 45 minutes of the film.

Quotes:

Sartana:I'd like to get a room.
Trixie:I oughta warn you. The beds are full of bedbugs and uncomfortable, too. We ain't got roulette, there's no floorshow, and there's no girls. Our main activity is keeping out of the graveyard.

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.