If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death

The Man with No Name Dollars trilogy, Trinity, Django, Sabata, all characters that have their own series in the spaghetti western genre. I've seen at least parts of all those character series, and recently jumped into another, the Sartana series, starting with 1968's If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death. 

A stagecoach has been robbed, and all its passengers lay dead. As the robbers loot the bodies, a mysterious gunman, Sartana (Gianni Garko), steps in front of them and guns them down. Not long after, a second stagecoach is attacked, this time carrying a huge gold shipment for a town up the trail. The only issue? The strongbox doesn't contain any gold at all....it's just heavily loaded with rocks. Who's up to something? Sartana seems to know, pitting all sides against each other. Another gunman, Lasky (William Berger), has been well-involved with all the robbery, murder and betrayal and is suspicious of what Sartana is up to. Sartana has too many enemies though as he investigates the disappearance of the gold. His only option is simple; pit all sides against each other and swoop in at the opportune time.

This spaghetti western is everything that's both good and bad about the genre. When it's entertaining, it's very entertaining (movie specific: this one's bad but entertaining). When it's bad.....it's very bad. For director Gianfranco Parolini, 'Pray' plays more like a test run for his infinitely better 1969 spaghetti classic, Sabata. The basic premise is almost entirely the same story. Garko's Sartana is a younger Sabata (played to perfection by Lee Van Cleef). The tone is light with some acrobatic gunmen and generally goofy atmosphere. The music from composer Piero Piccioni is pretty forgettable, a disappointment considering how good some of his other scores (The Deserter) were. There are some cool locations although the movie hamstrings itself by using the same locations repeatedly. I swear Sartana rides through the same hilly sand dune at least four different times.

Belonging in the short list of coolest spaghetti western title characters, Sartana is a pretty cool anti-hero gunfighter. He's a gentleman and dresses the part, favoring a suit, vest, cravat and overcoat that resembles a cape. He uses a long-range Winchester rifle and a multi-barreled derringer pistol. Sartana is a gambler as well as an accomplished gun, an ability that plays well in an early card game. Mostly I like the character because it hints -- in not so subtle fashion -- that Sartana is some sort of angelic killer, an angel of death. He seemingly can't be shot (check out the opening scene HERE) or hurt by enemies while appearing at will out of thin air. I like Garko a lot in the role, one he would play three more times, bringing a lighter touch to the anti-hero gunslinger. He's smooth with a gun and a bit of a smartass with whoever he meets. It's different, and I liked it a lot.

Spaghetti western diehards will eat this one up in the casting department with some really odd and really cool casting. Berger is over the top and goofy as Lansky, a brutally efficient hired gun with murder and blackmail on his mind. He's also completely undone whenever Sartana plays the tune from the watch of a man Lansky has killed. Klaus Kinski shows up in a bizarre cameo as Morgan, a knife-throwing killer with little bells for spurs. He's around for about 3 minutes, but it's Kinski so it's cool. Fernando Sancho does what he does best, playing a slimy, greasy, cackling Mexican bandit/general -- here General Tampico Mendoza -- who gets caught up in the killing. Sydney Chaplin and Gianni Rizzo play the two conniving businessmen in town who are up to something, Heidi Fischer playing Rizzo's equally conniving wife. Spaghetti western regular Salvatore Borghese makes a too quick appearance as Moreno, one of Sancho's main henchman.

There is a part of almost all spaghetti westerns that are inherently stupid, but you just go along (well, if you're a fan at least). Unfortunately, 'Pray' has so many of these moments it's hard to take even remotely serious. I liked the movie, but I can appreciate it and all its badness. If you did a drinking game after every time someone maniacally laughs, you'd be drunk in minutes thanks to maniacal laughing coffin maker Dusty (Franco Pesce). Sancho cackles and laughs, eating the same greasy piece of chicken in countless scenes. Berger's Lansky literally crumbles at just the sound of a musical watch. The script is pretty bad in itself -- Sartana's bedroom kinkiness a highlight -- and doesn't offer much of a story. The "story" requires people to connive and worry, Sartana shows up, plans are thrown out and started over. An impressive body count here with some fun action scenes too. It's bad. No doubt about it, but I was entertained throughout.     

If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death (1968): ** 1/2 /****

The Boss

And now for those readers who have made it through two reviews of sleazy B-movie Italian crime thrillers, here's a third! Wrapping up director Fernando Di Leo's loosely linked Italian crime trilogy comes 1973's The Boss, the weakest of the three but with enough positive to mildly recommend. Fans of both The Godfather and Scarface should get some enjoyment/entertainment out of it for sure.

Having worked as a trusted enforcer for Don Giuseppe (Claudio Nicastro), a powerful mob boss, stoic Nick Lanzetta (Henry Silva) has been put in a spot with no easy out. With a mob war brewing because of successful hit he pulled off, Lanzetta is caught in the middle. He's loyal to Don Giuseppe, but he also sees more of a chance for advancement if he listens to the big boss in town, Don Corrasco (Richard Conte), Giuseppe's superior. As the bodies continue to pile up, Lanzetta must make a decision. Does he stick with what he knows or try to rise up in the aftermath of the bloody mob war?

Having watched all three of Di Leo's crime trilogy in less than a week, I came away impressed with a couple things. Through all three movies, I was entertained even if there were some sluggish parts (more on that). Mostly though is the downright brutality and cynicism of these worlds. Maybe it's the European audience and market wanting a more reality-based crime story, but everyone....everyone...is a bad guy. It's just shades of bad. When someone gets beaten, it looks, sounds and feels like they're actually getting beaten. Kids, women, pets? Not exempt from some rather graphic deaths. Like I mentioned in The Italian Connection review, Di Leo just don't give a damn. He doesn't care if he offends some. He just wants to entertain a lot of folks and for the most part, accomplishes that.

'Boss' does differ from the previous two movies in the Di Leo trilogy in that it isn't exclusively on the small-scale, low-level hoods. There's a bigger picture here, crime families duking it out for supremacy in the underworld. We hear a lot about 'The Family needs...' and 'The Family must...' when talking about a lot of people making a difficult decision. The Godfather was an obvious influence here -- down to the Conte casting, a role similar to his Barzini -- with 'Boss' hitting theaters just a year after the 1972 American classic. Everyone is betraying everyone, and no one is safe.

A definite bright spot in 1972's The Italian Connection, Silva one-ups himself here. He's the best thing going for 'Boss' by a long shot as Lanzetta, the steely-eyed, ice water in his veins hit man. Silva was a huge presence with a truly intimidating glare when he stared someone down. The hit man is business-like about his job and brutally efficient. To me, it seems like an obvious influence on the Skull, Tony Montana's killer in Scarface. He wears almost exclusively black clothes and rarely shows an ounce of human emotion. He's cold-blooded but highly intelligent and calculating, able to see two or three steps ahead, knowing when trouble will arise. Conte is all right, Gianni Garko is wasted in a supporting part as a police officer on the hunt, Pier Paolo Capponi hams it up as Cocchi, the mob rival, and Marino Mase plays Pignatoro, a former partner of Lanzetta's.

What's disappointing is that for lack of a better description, 'Boss' is boring. If Silva isn't on-screen, the story grinds to a halt. Garko's scenes with his condescending superior (Vittorio Caprioli) serve no purpose and drag on endlessly. Whole scenes are just characters talking back and forth, the camera stationary as if its trying to make us fall asleep. Other times, 'Boss' is just trying too hard, like Giuseppe's daughter (Antonia Santilli) being kidnapped and joining in orgies with her captors just for the movie to have an excuse to have her naked. A nympho hippie? Yeah, right, especially when she jumps into bed for a week with Lanzetta. I liked the movie, but the parts that didn't work truly flopped. Mostly worthwhile for Silva's lead performance.

The Boss <---Opening scene (1973): **/**** 

They Call Him Cemetery

Names like Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Franco Nero, and Tomas Milian are always closely associated with the spaghetti western craze of the 1960s and 1970s.  There were countless other stars -- American, Italian, international -- that left their mark on the Italian westerns, some lucky enough to be a part of their own successful franchise.  A star of the Sartana series, Gianni Garko was one of those secondary stars without the name recognition to the average fan, partially because his movies are harder to track down. He wasn't exclusive to the Sartana series (making four official franchise entries), and I'm glad I was introduced to him starting with 1971's They Call Him Cemetery...although it's known by several other names.

The Sartana series made Garko a star, and his main character here sounds like an off-shoot of his infamous gunslinger.  It is similar to the Sabata series and even had me thinking that possibly this character was intended as a younger Lee Van Cleef. Right down to the same clothes and similar arsenal of guns and trick shots, Sartana (or here Ace) and Sabata could be son and father.  But that's just an observation and nothing more. This isn't a hard-hitting, cynical spaghetti western. It's all about the cool factor, the smooth gunfighters, the evil, backhanded villains, the goofy sidekicks, and just a touch of comedy.  This is not on the level of the classic Leone westerns -- few are really -- but it's an underrated spaghetti that deserves more of a following.

Having grown up in the east, the McIntire brothers, John (Chris Chittell) and George (John Fordyce) move west to help their crippled father run the family ranch. They are immediately struck by the violent culture that rules the west, everyone carrying guns and ready to shoot it out at the drop of a hat.  All the local ranchers are even being forced into paying protection to a gang of local bandits.  The McIntire brothers don't see the need, and immediately put themselves in danger by humiliating one of the lead bandits.  Now they must fend for themselves, or seemingly so, when a mysterious gunman, Ace (Garko), arrives in the territory and teaches them how to use a gun effectively.  No matter their ability though, the odds are stacked against them with an army of hired guns waiting to pick them off, including an infamous hired killer, Duke (William Berger), brought in to finish the job.    

One of the best things to come out of the spaghetti western success was the crazy, off the wall, eccentric gunmen in lead roles. We're talking blind, mute, crippled, you name it. There's a western with it.  Named the Ace of Hearts, Garko's gunfighter is relatively simple. He's decked out in black clothes, including a wide, flat-brimmed hat, wears his gunbelt low on his hip, and sports an epic, awesome Fu Manchu mustache.  A cool backstory about Ace is explained early on, giving the character the feeling of a guardian angel hovering over those he's trying to protect. Where many spaghetti leads are amoral, Ace is a hired gun for a reason, looking out for those who need it. It's my first introduction to Garko, and I was very impressed. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of his movies.

My one complaint from a movie I really enjoyed was that Garko and co-star William Berger are underused, neither making an appearance until almost 15 minutes into the movie that only runs 87 minutes (or at least the version I saw). Much of the story focuses on the McIntire brothers which isn't an awful thing because eventually they become interesting characters after a rocky start. Garko's Ace is the means to their characters becoming interesting, but I would have liked less of the brothers and more of the supremely cool Ace. A comedic element is added with the inclusion of two Mexican peons working with the McIntires, Sancho (Ugo Fangareggi) and Pedro (Raimondo Penne), who are also expert knife throwers. With Ace, it's a cool, little motley army of gunmen. They're not boring or annoying, I just liked Garko more than these four.

Balancing Garko and matching him step for step is Berger as similarly talented hired gun, Duke.  Berger was one of many American actors who made a name for themselves heading to Europe as part of the spaghetti craze.  He was rarely the star and more often the secondary character, someone you're never sure if he is a good or bad guy.  Playing the well-dressed gunfighter, Duke, he's a slightly older gunman to Garko's character.  Like Van Cleef and Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More, there's the younger vs. older element which is never boring to watch. Friendly rivals who respect each other despite being on opposite sides, you know a showdown between the two equally matched gunmen is looming.  The ending even hints at a sequel with the two men, but unfortunately it never came along. Still, it's a ton of fun to watch Garko and Berger go at it.

This is another example of being surprised with what I bought when I purchased 44 spaghetti westerns for $14.99.  Three movies in, and all three have been very watchable widescreen presentations.  The sound wasn't great, and the image is a little blurry, but that's nothing compared to some of the horrible prints I've seen with hard to find movies.  The locations are great -- especially the finale in a church's ruins on a very green hillside -- and Bruno Nicolai's score is a notch above the rest, especially the main theme which you can listen to over at Shobary's website HERE, just scroll down to the MP3 link.  A very pleasant surprise overall, and a great spaghetti western.

They Call Him Cemetery <---trailer (1971): *** 1/2 /****