Django Defies Sartana

(1970) Django Challenges Sartana/ Django defies Sartana/ Django sfida Sartana DUBBED SPAGHETTI WESTERN MYSTERY

Written and directed by Pasquale Squitieri that has Django (Tony Kendall) and his posse taking on Cuervo and his gang. And when news hits, Django becomes the talk of the town just as soon as Sartana (George Ardisson) comes into town. Head banker, Phillip Singer (Bernard Faber) asking one of it's employees, Steve Farrell (John Alvar) who happens to be Django's brother to personally deliver $3,000 over to him so that he won't rob the town's bank. Sartana becomes insulted and kicks Steve out of his rented room. And when the head banker, Phillip Singer gets shot, and the banks money goes missing, it is then assumed Sartana conspired with Django's brother to steal the town's money. Leading the entire town to lynch and hang Steve by the townspeople. By the time Django shows up, and finds out what happen he vows retribution assuming that that was exactly what may have happened. What ends up happening is that the head banker, Phillip Singer was alive all along and that it was a scheme to steal the town's money. All he did was change his name to Don Fellippe, both him and his wife succeeded in fooling the townspeople. Django seeking retribution to what happened to his brother with Sartana wanting to clear his name coming with them is a mute named Loco (José Torres).

Watchable quickie mess that consists of an interesting set up that gets bogged down with uninteresting shoots outs and a mediocre fisticuff sequence between Django and Sartana. And like if that was my brother who was falsely accused like Django's brother was, beside the head banker and his wife, I think I'd also go after some of the townspeople who participated in that lynching via "Hang Em High", I assumed the writer and director of this movie by the name of Pasquale Squitieri may not have seen that movie.

The most dangerous gunman Sartana is in town, everybody expects the worst after he spectacularly taught a young wannabe a lesson. And to nobody's surprise, within a few days the bank has been robbed, Sartana disappears and Django's younger brother Steve as suspected to have helped him. Steve is hanged by the enraged citizens, although he swore he was innocent. Django follows Sartana to avenge his brother and find out the truth about the bank robbery...

This is a rather good movie, not one of the best, but among the upper half of the countless Django flicks. Especially Ardisson impressed me as Sartana - a professional, cold as ice! Django is portrayed more emotional by Kendall. The wild, jazzy music by Umiliani is almost over the top sometimes. "They call him Django" is a rather traditional title song, though.

While Django is away, the town bank is cleaned out and the bank president killed. Django's brother is lynched by an angry mob, who believe he and Sartana responsible, sending Django on a mission of vengeance...against Sartana!

This has a few effective moments, like when Django discovers his brother's corpse and his first encounter with Sartana. Most of the time though, it's just plain slow, with forgettable title performances by Tony Kendall and George Ardisson. Things pick up in the final third of the movie, though not nearly enough for a recommendation.

If you ask me, Django doesn't get nearly enough revenge here. He should have made like Clint Eastwood in Hang 'Em High and High Plains Drifter, by violently killing the lynch mob and burning the whole crummy town to the ground!

Django (Tony Kendall) is in a search party hunting down the criminal Carlos. Meanwhile, Sartana (George Ardisson) arrives in his town, and the bank owner Philip Singer (Bernard Farber) asks his clerk Steve (John Alvar), who is Django's brother, to offer three thousand dollars to Sartana for him to leave the town. Sartana does not accept the offer and Steve leaves his hotel room and meets a prostitute to party with her. When Singer and his niece are kidnapped on the road and the bank's safe is found empty, the locals believe that Sartana and Steve robbed the bank. A group of vigilantes catch Steve, hang him and leave his corpse in the rain. Then Django returns, he meets his mute friend (José Torres) and finds the body of Steve. Django buries Steve and heads with Mute to seek out Sartana. They fight each other and Django learns that Sartana is innocent and has neither kidnapped Singer and his niece nor robbed the bank. Django, Sartana and Mute team-up and look for the real thief.

"Django sfida Sartana" is a spaghetti western with a simple storyline of revenge, but very entertaining. Like other Italian western from the 70's, the edition is poor, the acting is wooden and the weapons do not need to be recharged. But who cares, the film is not bad and amuses. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Django Desafia Sartana" ("Django Challenges Sartana")

If you are familiar with the spaghetti western genre, you have probably correctly guessed that "Django Defies Sartana" was a cash-in, naming its protagonists after the heroes of past popular spaghetti westerns. Actually, the Sartana character in this movie does have some resemblance to the original Sartana character, though the Django character does not (no machine gun, among other things.) But I didn't care if the movie was a rip-off or not, I just wanted it to be entertaining. The movie does get to a slow start, with the plot not starting until a quarter of the running time has passed. But when the plot kicks in, the movie does manage to keep some interest in the viewer, with some action and various plot twists. I'm not saying this is a GREAT spaghetti western, but fans of the genre will probably find it decent enough. And it's the closest we'll ever get to uniting Django and Sartana in the same film!