Ballad of Death Valley

Sartana in the Valley of Death (1970) I found was much better then most have reviewed. It was nice to see William Berger in his only SW lead role as Calloway. This is not a Sartana film as they tried to market it as to draw a larger crowd. I watched the 78 minute cut version which was not bad and most have viewed this version I am getting the original 98 minute version soon and will follow-up. The 78 minute people have to take in consideration that with 20 minutes gone we have problems like Calloway shooting in the ground and it blowing up also when Calloway meets with the one Craig brothers it was grossly edited and it rushes into Calloway going into the Sheriff's office.

The lead score "A King for a Day" by Augusto Martili at first made me laugh then it grew on me like cancer and got stuck in my head for three days. This song reminded me of a untalented Italian Elvis impersonator singing.

The main annoying problem, I had with the film one was everyone kept calling Berger's character Galloway and on the wanted poster it shows Calloway. All in all for a low budget SW it was a nice flick about Calloway, who is a gun for hire that wants 50% of the loot the Craig brothers stole and hide in order for him to break them out of jail. They decide to play cat and mouse games and double cross him in order to keep whats theirs. The opening scene of the movie shows how Calloway is worth every red cent and if you double cross him you die...

Ice cold outlaw William Berger frees three brothers on the verge of execution in exchange for fifty percent of their unrecovered loot. Unfortunately for him, recovering the money isn't as easy as he'd hoped for, having not accounted for the double-cross the brothers have planned.

What could have been a run-of-the-mill spaghetti western is made more watchable by an interesting performance by Berger, who plays his role with no emotion whatsoever, making the few times he shows any joy or compassion look like the mimicry of a sociopath!

As far as everything else goes, direction and production values are adequate, though it's the gun-play and seeing how the aloof Berger reacts to different situations and challenges that really makes the film fun.

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.

"Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi" (English translation: "Sartana in the Valley of Death") AKA "The Ballad of Death Valley" (1970), is one of the hordes of unofficial sequels to "If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death", directed by Gianfranco Parolini, who made the interesting "God's Gun" (1976). This offering is directed by the competent Roberto Mauri, who stages some nice action scenes, and gets the great William Berger to do some cool business with a gun. The supporting cast is fine, and the photography frequently uses some neat angles, but the real problem with the movie is the exteriors. There are repeated shots of people riding across green and moist hills, covered in grass. This is supposed to be set around the Mexican border! The only "desert" scene is the sequence in Death Valley, which looks like it was filmed in a quarry. This aspect really let the film down for me, and it's a shame, as the rest of the movie is quite good.