Ballad of Death Valley

Calloway helps 3 bandits to escape from prison. The deal is that they shall give him 50 percent of the gold they have hidden. Of course, as soon as they are free, they have little intention to divide the treasure with him. A long ride through the desert "valley of death" seems the perfect opportunity to get rid of him. However, Calloway is like a cat with 9 lives...

"Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi" is a quite methodical movie which develops its story step by step instead of relying on mindless action. Yes, the movie is a bit slower than others of the genre, but since it takes time for its characters, for example the puppet maker, it has more qualities than the average low budget western. Nothing extraordinary, but I was satisfied.

I liked William Berger in this film and I liked the story. The final gunfight was very exciting. It was something like the one in For a Few Dollars More.

The ending wasn't all that funny, though and I thought the film dragged somewhat in the middle. The jailbreak was good and so was the hunt through death valley. I think many of the same people who were in Sabata were in this film although I am not sure.

The theme song "King for a Day" was very good and fitted the film. All spaghettis should have good music and this one does.

This is the first entry I've watched in a long-running series of Spaghetti Westerns revolving around the titular figure, played here by William Berger; as such, he displays no particular features that would make him stand out from similar anti-heroes (such as The Man With No Name or Django) and, in fact, is never even referred to by that nickname! Incidentally, this seems to have been considerably trimmed for American export – given that the running-time is a mere 79 minutes; what remains is a thinly-plotted affair which virtually resolves itself into one long chase! Incidentally, the R2 C'Est La Vie DVD sports German credit titles and even the first spoken bits of dialogue is in that language!

Sartana springs a trio of no-good brothers from jail intending to cut in on a fortune in gold that awaits them; however, the latter soon double-cross him and he's stranded on foot and without provisions in Death Valley (hence the title) – they also get even with their former associates (including puppet-maker Luciano Pigozzi) for letting them take the rap. Eventually, of course, Sartana catches up with the gang – taking some time-out to romance a gal who aided in his convalescence…but she too turns out to be harboring ideas above her station! At the finale, the 'outlaw' is revealed to be a courier for the American cavalry entrusted with a crucial message – and his reward for the accomplishment of said mission is that he gets to keep the brothers' gold for himself! For the record, the song playing over the opening credits "King For A Day" is quite decent and is even warbled, for no good reason, by a blonde bar-room chanteuse at one point in the film.

I found this film quite disappointing. There are some good moments but the pace is pedantic. The storyline involves the usual hunt for hidden gold spaghetti western fare, but was, at times, non-sensical, unless I fell asleep in the middle, which may have happened. The dialogue and acting was quite poor in parts. William Berger's hair colour looked ridiculous and at time he almost looked like a peroxide blonde. The music was quite odd at times and often did not match the mood. The Japanese DVD release version was of surprisingly good quality. Not recommended unless you are a spaghetti western die-hard like me and must see them all.

While "Django" was the most-ripped off name in spaghetti westerns, I think "Sartana" must be in second place. Though the hero of this spaghetti western dresses in black, he is not the fantastic Sartana character John Garko played in several movies. For one thing, he's played by William Berger - pretty appropriate, since this character is an anti-hero. (And he's not even named Sartana!)

The story is pretty confusing, with some bad editing and a lack of explanation in some key scenes (like: where do those explosions on the city street come from?) But the story takes several interesting twists and turns, like how power switches back and forth from one character to another. And it's interesting to see Berger as a kind of hero, after playing the heavy in so many other roles. Movie also has one of the more memorable theme songs - "King For A Day" - even though it doesn't really apply to Berger's character or anyone else!