A man who looks just like Sartana robs what has been - up until now - impossible to steal from. Now, bounty hunters are trying to cash in on the bounty on our hero's head.
Giuliano Carnimeo (The Case of the Bloody Iris, Exterminators of the Year 3000) takes over the directorial reigns from Gianfranco Parolini with this film.
Sartana becomes less of an angel of death and more of a magician here. Yet he still seems supernatural. Surely he's been shot so many times that only a dead man can survive having that much hot lead pumped into him!
The movie takes places in Poker Falls, a town devoted to gambling, and the bank robbed at the beginning actually has a gang of killers that seek out potential thieves and kill them before they get the chance to try to take money from them. Throw in Klaus Kinski as a card shark named Hot Dead and you have quite the pickle for Sartana!
This is the only film where Sartana has Buddy Ben as his assistant. Also known as Sartana the Gravedigger, this one didn't grab me as much as the original. It's certainly anything but boring, but I really liked the darker tone of the first one. Also, the theme music seems to reference "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" but in a Western banjo way, which seems quite odd to me!
I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death
1969 [ITALIAN]
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Western
Plot summary
Sartana is falsely accused of robbing a bank, and must find the real robbers and clear his name.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
July 06, 2018 at 02:58 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
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Sartana the Gravedigger
Another worthy entry in the series
Wily top gunslinger Sartana (a typically excellent portrayal by Gianni Gark) gets falsely accused of robbing a bank. Sartana must find the real robbers in order to clear his name. Meanwhile, a bunch of ruthless bounty hunters are eager to bag Sartana in order to collect the hefty prize money placed on his head. Director Giuliano Carnimeo, working from a clever and involving script by Tito Carpi, Enzo Dell'Aquila, and Ernesto Gastaldi, keeps the crafty plot moving along at a constant swift pace, maintains a playfully quirky tone throughout, further spices things up with a nice sense of wickedly amusing sardonic humor, and stages the thrilling shoot-outs with considerable skill and brio (the opening bank robbery set piece is especially daring and exciting). The cast have a field day with their colorful roles: Frank Wolf contributes a lively and engaging performance as Sartana's loyal fellow sharpshooter partner Buddy Ben, the always interesting Klaus Kinski is a sleazy treat as slimy and effeminate luckless gambling addict Hot Dead, and Gordon Mitchell makes a strong impression as the fearsome and lightly crazed Deguejo. Giovanni Bergamini's crisp and agile cinematography boasts a lot of fierce whiplash pans and crazy tilted camera angles. The twangy and dynamic score by Vasili Kojucharov and Elsio Maneuso hits the rousing spot. A very solid and satisfying spaghetti Western.
Kinski again, but different
So Kinski is in this one too, as he was in the first official entry of the Sartana movie series. But the movie is a bit different than the first one, as is his role and his credited name (the first one listed him as Kinsky). What remains the same is the thirst for getting rich. Who can blame them? It's always about Gold or money in general isn't it? Especially in Spaghetti Westerns, where there seems to be no other motivation.
Although our "hero" here does seem to have some sort of morals. And the body count does pile up. If you like shootouts, you will like this. Setting is clear, goal is pretty simple and in contrast to the first one, this plays quite confined. There are more character moments without too much "twist" to it. It's ok for what it is, and that is what you should expect - of course if you haven't seen a movie like this before you might be and feel bewildered