This is an entertaining as well as comical Chorizo Western that packs stirring adventures , shootouts , riding chases , vengeance , treason and is pretty amusing . Paella/Ravioli Western starred by ordinary actors and a plethora of familiar faces in the support cast . It deals with a duo of robbers called Sabata (Anthony Steffen) and Mangosta (Eduardo Fajardo) who carry out a bank robbing . They assault a bank and escape by car . The newspapers publicize ¨the bandits took 5.00 dollars from bank assaulted¨. But they learn the bank cashier called Peter (Peter Lee Lawrence) has taken some dollars . Peter is a card player who has an abundant debt to a powerful owner called Garfield (Alfredo Mayo) . Sabata and Mangosta go after Pedro who is caught , they then form an amusing trio to proceed hold-ups and assaults . As Pedro agrees with them to assault an armored stagecoach . They take money and gold but a posse led by Garfield pursues them . The threesome decides to hide the gold at a mine . Later on , the trio is detained and about to be hanged , but they are spontaneously freed by the posse .
This forgotten S.W. packs thrills , action , humor and lots of shots and gunplay . All in all, this film is predominantly a Spanish film rather than an Italian one. It's a two country co-production but is clearly dominated by the Spanish contingent and the traditional leanings of the Spanish producers of the time have their stamp on the entire proceedings . There is plenty of action and humor with tongue firmly in cheek , guaranteeing shoot'em up , riding pursuits or stunts every few minutes . It's an exciting SW with breathtaking showdown between the protagonists Steffen/Lee Lawrence/Fajardo and the enemy led by Alfredo Mayo and his hoodlums , including a thrilling ending when happens shootouts , surprises and double-crosses . The picture is well starred by Anthony Steffen-Antonio De Teffe- , he plays Sabata but no relation to Lee Van Cleef's Sabata role ; Steffen began playing secondary roles into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s as sword and sandal epics , comedies, adventures and was with spaghetti westerns that renamed achieved worldwide stardom . His acting is often accused of being wooden, but in many manners is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the genre . His others successes include well liked features as ¨Seven Dollars to Kill¨ , ¨The last Mohican¨, ¨Train for Durango¨, ¨Gentleman Jo¨ , ¨Four dollars for Django¨, ¨Shango¨, ¨Arizona colt¨, ¨Apocalypse Joe¨ and several others . Blond German youth Peter Lee Lawrence, who made his uncredited debut in Sergio Leone "For A Few Dollars More" (1965), was the hero in many Spaghetti Westerns. His short cinematographic history can be enclosed in nine years of Italo-Spain co-productions such as "More Dollars for the MacGregors" , ¨Winchester justice¨,"Pistol for a Hundred Coffins", ¨The man who killed Billy the Kid¨ , ¨Fury of Johnny Kid¨ and several others . However , Eduardo Fajardo steals the spectacle as a likable Mexican with moustache , earring and knitting, being magnificently interpreted by this veteran Spanish secondary actor . In addition , there appears usual secondaries of Spanish/Italian Western , including customary actors such as Alfredo Mayo , Chris Huerta , Tito Garcia , Alfonso De La Vega , Rafael Albaicín , Jose Canalejas , Alvaro De Luna , Jose Riesgo , Miguel Del Castillo , Xan Das Bolas , Emilio Rodriguez , Luis Induni and many others .
There are many fine technicians and nice assistant direction and excellent production design , a magnificent scenario on the villages , ranch , and barren outdoors , rocky mountains , dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets filmed in Manzanares Del Real , Colmenar Viejo and La Pedriza , Madrid . Evocative cinematography by Aldo Rizzi , showing marvelously the habitual Manzananes Del Real and Pedriza outdoors , but no Almeria . Marcelo Giombini composes a vivid Spaghetti soundtrack and well conducted , including a jolly leitmotif ; it's full of fun sounds and lively score . Definitely a worthy topic but, well done correctly interpreted and euro-western of the final period which, although far from the postulates Leonianos .
This is one of the uncountable Western that the Spanish producers pioneers were joined by Italian producers , who established around Madrid , especially to shoot the exteriors, a new stable center for filming westerns . The Argentinian , nationalized Spanish writer/filmmaker Tulio Demicheli so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next . He directed other Gazpacho Westerns such as ¨Tequila¨, ¨1 , 2, 3 Dispara otra Vez¨, ¨Un Hombre Un colt¨ and ¨Gunmen of Rio Bravo¨. Demicheli had a long , prolific career , working from the 40s , he directed all kind of genres as drama as ¨Herida Luminosa¨ , Thriller as ¨Ricco¨ , adventures as ¨Son of Captain Blood¨, ¨First adventure¨ , Spy sub-genre as ¨¨Il Nostro Agente a Casablanca¨, ¨Dirty game in Panama¨ , ¨Misión Lisboa¨ , Giallo as ¨Coartada en Disco Rojo or Two faces or fear¨ , Horror as ¨Monstruos De Terror¨ or ¨Assignment Terror" . His best movie was ¨Carmen of Ronda¨ with Sara Montiel . ¨Arriva Sabata¨ results to be a passable Paella western with acceptable production , adequate cinematography , ordinary players and catching musical score . Rating : 6 .
