Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin

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.

C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara is the first Sartana film I've watched, and overall, it's not bad. The plot is extremely basic, maybe even a bit too thin - there's really not that much story to follow. Most of the film is made up of gunfights where Sartana obviously always comes out on top, leading to a big twist at the end. It's a very classic spaghetti Western, built around the cool, calculating figure of Sartana. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but it delivers exactly what you'd expect from this kind of movie: style, action, and a legendary gunslinger winning in the end.

Sartana (George Hilton) is a freelance gunman who at the initiation of the film works as a bounty killer . After that , he helps a Mexican family against a ¨posse¨ of cruel bandits (whose leader is Nello Pazzafini) who try to kill and reckoning him . He , subsequently , is hired by a wealthy landowner (Piero Lulli) to guard the miners's payroll that is continuously robbed . Another cocky gunman (Charles Southwood) appears in the city and the confrontation will be inevitable .

The first movie on Sartana is made by Frank Kramer (Gianfranco Parolini) interpreted by John Garco (or Gianni Garco) , besides it was starred by Klaus Kinski and William Berger . After being continued by Alfonso Balcazar (Sartana non perdona or Sonora). Miles Deem (Demofilo Fidani) directed two Sartanas which are considered as awful . Anthony Ascott(Giuliano Carmineo) realized several movies with George Hilton who replaces Garco . Hilton plays more natural and roguish than Garco who was cold and peculiar . In this one Sartana has a partner (Charles Southwood) called Sabbath but he isn't the hero named Sabata created by Frank Kramer with Lee Van Cleef . The movie has typical Spaghetti characters , as the violent facing off , greedy antiheroes , bloody and spectacular showdowns , quick zooms , extreme baddies, and musical score with Ennio Morricone influence . In the picture there are the ordinary Western's secondaries as Folco Lulli , Nello Pazzafini (also usual in Peplum), and the Eurotrash Goddess , the babe Erika Blanc . The Francesco De Masi's soundtrack is nice and atmospheric , he's a good Western musician with enough scores . The movie was regularly directed , but is entertaining.

On the third sequel of Sartana left by Gianni Garko and was replaced by the akin George Hilton ensures the same pattern, somehow we don't perceived the changing over such sameness on both, the plot is about a stolen gold, Sartana as bounty hunter observes the robbery, discerns the modus operandi of the gang and headed to find the truth, who are stealing who and something like that, a bit complex screenplay, Sartana will finds clues until reach at gold prospecting area, the city is handled by a Baron of gold, sustained by a Mexican gang led by the filthy and bloody Mantras, Sartana offers to Baron himself to protect the gold shipment, he accepts but plays on both sides when he also contracts the skillful quick draw Sabata (Charles Southwood), also a female presence of the Saloon's owner the attractive Trixie (Erika Blanc), the producers and the writer willfully an incongruent proposal on Sartana's character, foster an unmatched abilities and tricks that reduces the genuineness and hence the decaying process of likelihood, on early sequence to extinguish the burning dynamite's wick he throw his water canteen and shoot up on it and all water falling down and cease the fire, many far-fetched and contrived sequences like that were scattered along the movie, thus staying shapeless in many senses, stylized nevertheless too much foolish, whoever insert it doesn't was enough smart certainly!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

There's so much insane gun play in this film I was hardly in need of a plot. At one point, there's a bandit lighting matches stuffed between his toes for a laugh, and then along comes Sartana, knocks the guy out by shooting a sign that falls on the guy's head, then Sartana lights the last match by shooting it, then sparks up a cigar using the match! Why didn't this film win dozens of Oscars?

You've got Sartana after gold, the bandits after gold, some shady businessmen after gold, the gold miners after their own gold (how dare they!), and a bar owning chick...after gold. Oh, and another gunslinger called Sabbath after gold. He carries a white parasol, reads Shakespeare's sonnets, and constantly refers to his mother. Again, why no Oscars?

There's also a running gag where the bandits constantly try to get the drop on Sartana, but Sartana's always got a pistol hidden somewhere. I can't think of a single slow spot in this film at all, and Stelvio Massi's hyperactive camera-work coupled with Carnimeo's direction make for one of the more entertaining Italian Westerns.