''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' ( it, Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte) is a 1968 Spaghetti Western film directed by

Gianfranco Parolini Gianfranco Parolini (20 February 1925 in Rome, Italy – 26 April 2018 in Rome, Italy) was an Italian film director. He is often credited as Frank Kramer. Among his films are '' The Sabata Trilogy'', several sword and sandal films, most of the Ko ...

. The film stars

Gianni Garko Gianni Garko (born Giovanni Garcovich; 15 July 1935), often billed as John Garko and occasionally Gary Hudson, is an Italian actor who found fame as a leading man in 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. He is perhaps best known for his lead role as Sartana ...

, William Berger,

Fernando Sancho Fernando Sancho Les (7 January 1916 – 31 July 1990) was a Spanish actor. Biography He was born in Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain on 7 January 1916 and died at Hospital Militar Gómez Ulla in Madrid on 31 July 1990 from a liver failure during o ...

and Klaus Kinski, and features a musical score by

Piero Piccioni Piero Piccioni (; December 6, 1921 – July 23, 2004) was an Italian film score composer and lawyer. A pianist, organist, conductor, composer, he was also the prolific author of more than 300 film soundtracks. He played for the first time on ...

. ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' was the first in a series of Spaghetti Westerns based on the character

Sartana ''Sartana'' is a series of Spaghetti Western films which follows the adventures of the title character, a gunfighter and gambler who uses mechanical gadgets and seemingly supernatural powers to trick his rivals. The series features five official ...

. It was followed by four other official Sartana films: '' I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death'' (''Sono Sartana, il vostro becchino'', 1969), '' Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' (''Buon funerale, amigos!... paga Sartana'', 1970), '' Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming'' (''Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana'', 1970) and '' Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'' (''C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara'', 1970), in the last of which Garko was replaced by George Hilton. The four sequels were directed by

Giuliano Carnimeo Giuliano Carnimeo (born Carmineo; 4 July 1932 – 10 September 2016) was an Italian director and screenwriter, sometimes credited as Anthony Ascott or Antony Ascot. Life and career Born in Bari, Carmineo started his career as assistant direct ...

, Parolini was chosen to direct

The Sabata Trilogy ''The Sabata Trilogy'' is a series of Spaghetti Western films released between 1969 and 1971, directed by Gianfranco Parolini, and starring Lee Van Cleef in the first, '' Sabata'', Yul Brynner in the second, ''Adiós, Sabata'', and Van Cleef retu ...

, after producer Alberto Grimaldi saw his work on the first Sartana film. As with '' Django'' a few years earlier, several directors, such as

Demofilo Fidani Demofilo Fidani (born 8 February 1914 on a steamship bound for Cagliari; died 4 April 1994) was an Italian film director (24 films), set designer (more than 200 films), painter, and a regarded medium and author. As director, Fidani specialized ...

, made unofficial sequels to cash in on the success of Sartana.

History

The name "Sartana" first appeared in the film ''

Blood at Sundown ''Blood at Sundown'' ( it, 1000 dollari sul nero, lit=1000 dollars on the black) is a Spaghetti Western film directed by Alberto Cardone. The picture marks the first appearance of the character Sartana, played by Gianni Garko. It is not, howev ...

'' (''Mille dollari sul nero'', 1967), in which Garko played an antagonist called El General Sartana. The film was very successful in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and known by the short title ''Sartana''. Italian producer Aldo Addobbati noticed the film's success and set up a co-production with a German producer in Italy. Garko was offered a contract and he accepted after inserting a clause stating that the script must be approved by him. In a 2005 interview, Garko said he wanted a subject that would not be based on vengeance, as he had already portrayed characters bent on revenge in ''Blood at Sundown'' and '' Guns of Violence'' (''10.000 dollari per un massacro'', 1967). After he turned down several scripts with a revenge theme,

Renato Izzo Renato Izzo (15 June 1929 – 30 July 2009) was an Italian actor, voice actor and screenwriter. Biography Born in Campobasso to Romolo and Giuseppina Izzo and the second of eight children, Izzo was considered to be among the most popular and inf ...

wrote a story about a smart, non-sentimental character that profits by putting himself between two rival groups. Sartana's use of mechanical gadgets was added by director Parolini, who was a fan of the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

films. ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' then went into production.

Plot

An elderly couple on a horse-drawn carriage is attacked by a gang led by Morgan (Kinski).

(Garko) arrives on the scene and kills the robbers except for Morgan who gets away. Soon after, a stagecoach carrying a shipment of gold is robbed by a Mexican gang at the order of General Jose Manuel Mendoza (Sancho), with a gang member posing as a passenger murdering the others. However, the gang is ambushed and killed by Lasky (Berger) and his men. Lasky then tells his gang that he will meet them later. As the men are about to open the strongbox from the coach, Lasky kills them all with a Gatling gun. After opening the strongbox, he finds only rocks instead of gold. Spooked by Sartana's playing one of the murdered passengers' musical watch, he heads to town to meet with Jeff Stewal (

Sydney Chaplin Sydney John Chaplin (; 16 March 1885 – 16 April 1965) was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and director Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager in later life. Through their mother Hannah, they were o ...

), a politician, and Alman (

Gianni Rizzo Gianni Rizzo (1925–1992) was an Italian film actor. Between 1944 and 1986 he appeared in over seventy films and television productions, in a variety of supporting roles. His screen roles included parts in a number of Peplum film, peplum films, ...

), a banker, to collect his payment as part of an insurance fraud. Sartana cleans Lasky out, as well as four other men, in a

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

, and outguns the four when they go after him. Lasky collects a gang and goes after Sartana, who lures them to the scene of Lasky's previous massacre. Realizing what Lasky has done, the gang turn on him and chase him to a cabin which Lasky has boobytrapped with dynamite. Lasky detonates the explosives, wiping out his own men, but the watching Sartana again spooks him and allows him to get away. Lasky then sends Morgan, his now-partner, to kill Sartana, but Morgan fails and is killed himself. Another gang hired by Lasky is wiped out by Sartana, who again deliberately lets Lasky escape. After Lasky blackmails Stewal and Alman and the news about the robbed stagecoach finally breaks, the two inform Mendoza that it was Lasky who killed his men. Mendoza's men capture Lasky and try to make him talk, thinking that he knows where the gold is hidden. Lasky tells him that only Sartana knows the location of the gold. Meanwhile, Stewal, who has been having an affair with the late mayor's widow, plans to escape with the gold, supposedly hidden in the late mayor's coffin, and Alman's wife Evelyn (

Heidi Fischer ''Heidi'' (; ) is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as ''Heidi: Her Years of Wandering and Learning'' (german: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre) and ''Heidi: How She Used ...

). After Sartana tells him that Mendoza is going to dig up the coffin with the gold and keep it all for himself, Stewal goes to check if it is true and is killed by Mendoza's men. Thinking that Mendoza now has the gold, Lasky sneaks into his residence and kills him and his men with his Gatling gun. Sartana also arrives and the two open the coffin, only to discover it filled with rocks and the mayor's corpse instead of gold. Lasky then shoots Sartana and apparently kills him. The gold has been hidden by Alman, who has killed the mayor's widow and now tells his plan to his wife. Evelyn betrays and kills him, then takes Lasky to the gold, which has been hidden in another coffin. Lasky kills Evelyn, but when Sartana appears alive and unharmed the two engage in a final duel. Lasky is killed and Sartana rides out of town with the coffin full of gold.

Cast

* John Garko as

* William Berger as Lasky *

Sidney Chaplin Sydney Earl Chaplin (March 30, 1926 – March 3, 2009) was an American actor. He was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. One of his major roles was in his father's film '' Limelight'' (1952). In theater, Chaplin won the Tony Awar ...

as Jeff Stewal *

as Alman *

as Jose Manuel Mendoza * Klaus Kinski as Morgan * Andrea Scotti as Perdido * Carlo Tamberlani as Reverend Logan * Franco Pesce as Dusty

Releases

''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' was released theatrically in Italy on 14 August 1968. Within nine days of its release the film grossed 30 million

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually ...

. To promote the film at its premiere, the Roman cinema had a Western set presented complete with horses and a carriage. A sequel to the film was announced shortly after the film's release. An unofficial derivative film titled '' Sartana Does Not Forgive'' was released two months after the Italian premiere. Two others followed the next year titled '' Shadow of Sartana...Shadow of Your Death'' and '' Four Came to Kill Sartana''. ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' was released in Germany on 22 August 1969 as ''Sartana - Bete um deinen Tod''. Wild East Productions released this in a now out-of-print R0 NTSC DVD in 2005. It is slated to be re-released by them in a box set with three other films in the series: '' I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death'', ''Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' and ''Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming''. Originally scheduled to be released in late 2013, Wild East ran into licensing issues and shelved the project for a later date. The release date has yet to be announced.

References

External links

* {{Sartana 1968 films 1968 Western (genre) films Spaghetti Western films West German films 1960s Italian-language films Films directed by Gianfranco Parolini German Western (genre) films Films scored by Piero Piccioni 1960s Italian films 1960s German films