Content: In the peaceful little town of Goldspring there are some honest citizens, doing their own dirty thing. The bankers Hallman (Gianni Rizzo) and Stewal (Sydney Chaplin) have stolen a big amount of gold and hidden it in the coffin of the just deceased mayor. Other players are Evelyn, Hallman’s wife, and Jane, the mayor’s widow, both playmates of Stewal, what is not simplifying the whole thing. To cover their theft, the rogues carmouflage a box, filled with stones, as a gold-transport and engage “General” Tampico and his bandidos to assault the stage-coach. To delete the Mexicanos, they hire Lasky and his gang, who later on kills his own men with his mobile gatling-gun to dispose of witnesses and the stones. Things work out fine: The gold is pocketed unnoticed and waits for his evacuation with the corpse of the mayor, furthermore Hallman and Stewal await the insurance benefit for the “robbed” gold. But then Sartana (Gianni Garko) appears in the town, a mysterious and extremely claivoyant gunslinger, who obviously knows many details of the plan, apart form the hideout of the gold. Besides General Tampico is back in game, greedy for gold and angry about the loss of his men after the coach assault. With smart (mis)informations and pedalling several involved, Sartana drive the sharks into changing alliances and making mistakes. Furthermore he survives every attempt of killing him. So the squad of teamplayers is thinned out increasingly, especially because Evelyn emerges as an expert in benefitting from greed and hornines of her partners.
| The Gunslinger says: This joint is the birth of Sartana as a returning charakter, because the film by Cardone, made two years earlier, has setted the charakter completely different. Sartana handles technical gimmicks and prestidigations, resembling a bit to Sabata, created by Parolini too, who is however much more extreme in this way. I don’t share the quite popular point of view, to put Sartana in a supernatural context up to the interpretation, that he’s a being outta the twilight zone.
Sartana queues with the long row of gunmen in the SW without past and future, but in fact he has something mysterious, symbolized by the rising wind, whenever he appears. Quite often he shows up without making a noise: In one of the first scenes he stands behind some bandits, who don’t’remark him until he steps consciously on a dry twig. Then he bumps them off without hesitating long. He seems completely deadhearted, only interested in optimising his monetary situation. Sartana doesn’t want to know the reasons behind the committed crime, unless he can benefit of this knowledge, or to expiate it. In contrast to the following sequels by Giuliano Carnimeo, Parolini’s contribution is comparatively serious. Furthermore we have the great camera-guidance by Sandro Mancori and good acting efforts, compensating the suggestingly existing “gravel-pit-atmosphere”, if you know, whatti mean, folx, and the labyrinthine plot.
| Rating: $$$$
| Bodycount: ca. 45 Gringos, ca. 30 Mexicanos, 3 Women
| Explicit Brutalities: - Lasky kills his men to hide the vanishing of the gold, who had before bumped off a bunch of Mexicanos, who had raided a stage-coach and killed all passengers at the beginning to get the gold. Comprende?
- Tampikos men beat up Lasky to find out the hideout of the gold
- Fernando Sancho’s „Minipli“, a sort of special perm, creating extreeeeemly small curls
| Luv': Love for gold: 8/10
| Gore: 2/10
| Specials: - Sartana possesses a small four-barrelled pistol
- Sartana is clearvoyant, which saves his life several times … together with his resourcefulness
- A small metal-badge in the front of his hat saves him from Lasky’s bullet, who uses to shoot his opponents in the head: reminiscence to „A Fistful of Dollars“
- Lasky only feels comfortable behind his mobile gatling: reminiscence to „Django“
| Trailer: by |
| OT:
Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua Morte
AT:
Sartana (F)
Year: I/D/F 1968
D: Gianfranco Parolini (“Frank Kramer”)
S: Adolfo Cagnacchi, Luigi de Santis, Werner Hauff
C: Sandro Mancori
M: Piero Piccioni
with: Gianni Garko, William Berger, Sydney Chaplin, Franco Pesce
 | Sidney Chaplin and Gianni Rizzo can't hardly count to three, ...
|  | Gianni Garko even helps to count to four
|  | Telling nice stories: Gianni Gark o amuses William Berger
|  | Needing some grease for his mini-curls: Fernando Sancho
|  | | I'm your angel of death, your undertaker |
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