Saturday, February 3, 2018

I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin (1970)

Original title: C'e Sartana...Vendi la Pistola e Comprati la Bara!

Director: Giuliano Carnimeo

Writer: Tito Carpi

Composer: Francesco De Masi

Starring: George Hilton, Charles Southwood, Erika Blanc, Piero Lulli, Linda Sini, Nello Pazzafini, Carlo Gaddi, Aldo Barberito

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Sartana lights the fuse and all hell breaks loose!

Plot: Sartana, bounty hunter and gunfighter, witnesses the robbery of a shipment of gold. He finds his way into town where he meets with a lot of suspicious stares from the locals. He also meets with Samuel Spencer, who seems to own the company in this company town. The gold shipments are being stolen, so Spencer agrees to hire Sartana to protect the next gold shipment. Numerous dull-witted villains make attempts on Sartana's life, but he survives. Eventually, Sartana's nemesis Sabbath rides into town. With a showdown inevitable, Sartana and Sabbath square off to settle the score.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

The anamorphic widescreen version I saw was a German print where someone did the nice thing and married it to an English dub.  The German title translates to DJANGO AND SABATA...LIKE BLOODY VULTURES whereas the original Italian title translates to THERE'S SARTANA...SELL THE GUN AND BUY THE COFFIN.  There is no one in this film named Django (which was typical as a lot of movies capitalized on the super hit DJANGO (1966)) George Hilton plays Sartana and Charles Southwood plays Sabath (in the English dub).  There's a lot of confusion if you pay attention to the this crap which I generally don't but it's interesting in some mundane way to point it out.   It's a slightly above average Spaghetti Western which is surprising considering the talent involved where most of the cast and crew had done a lot of them by this point.  Sartana is trying to be too cool for school but he comes off more of a joke than a badass.  Lee Van Cleef can pull it off but not Hilton.  He's got the look but the dub, story and dialogue diminish it.  There are a few little turns and surprises which makes it a little more interesting than the average Spag but it's not enough to save it.






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