''Sartana'' is a series of
Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
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 entries: ''
If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death
''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. The film stars Gianni Garko, William Berger, Fernando Sancho and Klaus Kinski, and ...
'' (1968) ; ''
I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death'' (1969) ; ''
Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'' ; ''
Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' and ''
Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming'' (all 1970). The first film was 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 Kommi ...
, with the remaining four 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 ...
. Sartana is portrayed by
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, ...
in all films in the series except for ''Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'', in which he was portrayed by
George Hilton.
The name "Sartana" was first used for Garko's character 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 ...
'' (1966), which proved very popular on its release in Italy and Germany, leading to producers to develop a new series around the Sartana character. Garko took creative control of the character, and gave him unique abilities to differentiate him from other spaghetti Western characters such as
Django and the
Man with No Name
The Man with No Name ( it, Uomo senza nome) is the antihero character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "''Dollars Trilogy''" of Italian Spaghetti Western films: ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), '' For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), ...
. ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' was a financial success; aside from its four sequels, it inspired a host of unofficial films made throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as ''
One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana!
''One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana!'' ( it, Quel maledetto giorno d'inverno... Django e Sartana all'ultimo sangue, "''That Cursed Winter Day: Django and Sartana to the Death"'') is a 1970 Spaghetti Western directed by Demofilo Fidan ...
'' ; ''
Sartana Kills Them All
''Sartana Kills Them All'' ( es, Un par de asesinos) is a 1970 Spanish crime comedy western film directed by Rafael Romero Marchent, written by Mario Alabiso and Santiago Moncada and starring Gianni Garko
Gianni Garko (born Giovanni Garcovich; ...
'' (both 1970) and ''
Alleluja & Sartana are Sons... Sons of God'' (1972). The unofficial films bear little resemblance to the original character and occasionally do not even feature a character named Sartana, such as ''Sartana Kills Them All''.
In ''
Film Comment
''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...
'', Bert Fridlund described the financial performance of the ''Sartana'' films as "fairly successful, with an Italian box office reception well above the average for spaghetti Westerns", although they did not match the success of Parolini's rival
''Sabata'' trilogy or
Enzo Barboni
Enzo Barboni (7 July 1922 – 23 March 2002), sometimes credited by his pseudonym E.B. Clucher; the surname of his grandmotherp. 115 Wong, Alzia S. ''Spaghetti Westerns: A Viewer's Guide (National Cinemas)'' Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (15 ...
's
''Trinity'' duology.
Overview
In the official ''Sartana'' films, Sartana is a gunfighter and gambler who appears to empowered with supernatural abilities which he uses to trick his rivals. These include Sartana appearing in improbable and even physically impossible places, such as in ''
I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death'', when Sartana is seen by the banker Sims through a window in the distance, and then suddenly enters the room.
Of all the
Spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
characters, Kevin Grant wrote in his book ''Any Gun Can Play'' that Sartana's personality and traits are sustained and developed among the official films. Film historian and critic Roberto Curti noted that Sartana loses some of his more menacing traits featured in his first film, but still retains his catchphrase "I am your pallbearer". In the second film, Sartana was described by Curti as being a "conjurer of the Wild West" who was able to turn various objects into weapons, ranging from spoons to a wheel of a cart. In the third film the series, Sartana's appearance changes with the character now having a black bow-tie and often resorts to disguises. Sartana would continue to resort to his conjurer tricks in the film making his tiny pistol appear out of unexpected places including a hat, a boot and a loaf of bread. In the fourth film, Sartana has a moustache and continue to eschew ordinary objects as weaponized gadgets such as his razor sharp playing cards.
The plots of the ''Sartana'' films mostly revolve around short-term alliances and betrayals between groups who are attempting to get money or objects of value. These acts of duplicity occur continuously between various characters, which Bert Fridlund of ''
Film International
''Film International'' is a quarterly academic journal (with a companion site, FilmInt, containing exclusive content) covering film studies. Established in 1973 (in Swedish), ''Film International'' became an English-language journal in 2003. It is ...
'' described as "producing quite complex stories".
Rather than following a continuous storyline, all films in the series are
stand-alone and do not require knowledge of the plots or characters of earlier entries. In the first film, ''
If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death
''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. The film stars Gianni Garko, William Berger, Fernando Sancho and Klaus Kinski, and ...
'' (1968), Sartana arrives in a small town that is rife with corruption where several criminals are after a chest of gold and often double-cross and black mail each other to get it. They are continuously interrupted by Sartana who makes away with it. The second film, ''I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death'' (1969), finds Sartana as a wanted man after a bank robbery which he is framed in committing. Sartana tries to avoid several bounty hunters who are after him while unravelling who is behind who has framed him. In ''
Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'' (1970), Sartana arrives in a mining town where he gets involved with several double crosses involving a stolen shipment of gold. He often meets with a character named Sabata, a white-clad gunman who quotes Shakespeare and Tennyson who foils several of Sartana's plans. The character of Sabata in this film is not the same character from the
1969 film of the same name. In the fourth film, ''
Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay'' (1970), an owner of a goldmine is murdered, leading his daughter to arrive in town to claim the property. She finds herself thwarted by several criminals and the sheriff in town to who all have their eye on the gold until Sartana arrives to interfere with their plans. In the last film in the official series, ''
Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming'' (1970), Sartana helps clear the name of Grandville Fuller, who he assists in a jailbreak after he is accused of murder. The two head to the scene of a crime to unravel the situation.
Curti described this final film to have elements of other genres such as the ''
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
'', where Sartana is a detective who investigates and solves a mystery. Curti also noted that the film features a near-cartoonish amount of irony that was only touched upon in previous entries to the series.
Production
The character of Sartana was first created by screenwriters
Ernesto Gastaldi
Ernesto Gastaldi (born 10 September 1934) is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular gen ...
and Vittorio Salerno for 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 ...
'' (1966), directed by
Alberto Cardone
Alberto Cardone (1920–1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, second unit director and film editor of the 1960s.
Cardone is best known for his Spaghetti Western films of the 1960s. He is best known for directing the films ''Seven ...
. Played by
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, ...
, Sartana is portrayed here as a villain who frames his brother for murder.
The character of Sartana proved to be so popular that when ''Blood at Sundown'' was released in Germany, it was re-titled to simply ''Sartana''. A German producer wanted Garko to continue making films as the Sartana character, but as a hero rather than a villain. The producer proposed two scripts, neither of which interested Garko as he was looking to portray a different type of character compared to those he had played in ''
Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre
''10.000 dollari per un massacro'' (internationally released as ''$10.000 Blood Money'' and ''Guns of Violence'') is a 1967 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Romolo Guerrieri.
The film was one of the unofficial sequels of '' Django'', a ...
'' and ''
Per 100.000 dollari ti ammazzo'', which were not very popular with audiences.
The Sartana character in ''Blood at Sundown'' does not have the look or demeanour that the character that would eventually exhibit, beginning with the film ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death''.
Garko stated that the new interpretation of the character was influenced by the film's director,
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 Kommi ...
, whose interpretation of Sartana was inspired by
Lee Falk
Lee Falk (), born Leon Harrison Gross (; April 28, 1911 – March 13, 1999), was an American cartoonist, writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the comic strips ''Mandrake the Magician'' and ''The Phantom''. At the ...
's
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
character
Mandrake the Magician
''Mandrake the Magician'' is a syndicated newspaper comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloon ...
, a black-caped illusionist. The character would also use mechanical gadgets similar to those used by
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 ...
in his
film series A film series or movie series (also referred to as a film franchise or movie franchise) is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series.
This article explains what film series are ...
. Contrary to characters such as
Django or the protagonists of the ''
Dollars Trilogy
''Dollars Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia del dollaro), also known as the ''Man with No Name Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia dell'Uomo senza nome) or the ''Blood Money Trilogy'', is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Weste ...
'', Sartana is entirely money-oriented and typically succeeds in securing his sought-after riches. Sartana also has a flashier wardrobe and browses saloons with lush interiors compared to the typically ragged appearances and simple surroundings of earlier Spaghetti Westerns and their characters.
Garko spoke later about the creation of the character in 1990, stating that cartoon strips were "like film, are part of ''arte d'imagine'' and therein lie
artana'scultural roots". He specifically consulted with the writers of each film to preserve the character's integrity and would later claim that he had a clause in his contract with producer
Aldo Addobbati that the scripts had to meet with his approval. Garko would portray Sartana in all the official films except for ''Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'' due to a scheduling conflict with his commitment to
Enzo G. Castellari's film ''
Cold Eyes of Fear
''Cold Eyes of Fear'' ( it, Gli occhi freddi della paura) is a 1971 Italian-Spanish thriller film directed by Enzo G. Castellari, starring Fernando Rey.
Plot
A handsome young playboy (Gianni Garko) picks up a pretty Italian girl (Giovanna Ralli) ...
'', which led to
George Hilton portraying Sartana. Director
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 ...
stated that for ''Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'', the producers decided to develop the project as a ''Sartana'' film despite the change in casting due to the character's popularity with audiences.
Crew
Reception
The directors of the ''Sartana'' films would later declare their fondness for their entries in the series, with Carnimeo proclaiming that ''Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin'' was "perhaps
isbest film", describing Hilton as a better fit for the role than Garko due to the increasingly "absurd" situations Sartana would find himself in. Parolini stated that ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death'' was "the film I love the most and gave me the most satisfaction." According to Garko, Parolini left after the first film for the opportunity to work with
Lee Van Cleef
Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of Italian Spaghetti Westerns, partic ...
on ''
Sabata''. Van Cleef's Sabata was compared to being similar to Sartana by Grant, noting the character's penchant for gadget-like firearms, and that Sabata is referred similarly to Sartana in the films as a "pallbearer". Bert Fridlund described the financial gross of the ''Sartana'' films as "fairly successful, with an Italian box office reception well above the average for spaghetti westerns" while not as popular as ''Sabata'', which had grossed over 1 billion lire, or Barboni's ''
They Call Me Trinity
''They Call Me Trinity'' ( it, Lo chiamavano Trinità...) is a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film written and directed by Enzo Barboni (under the pseudonym of E.B. Clucher) and produced by Italo Zingarelli. The film stars Terence Hill and ...
'' and ''
Trinity Is Still My Name
''Trinity Is Still My Name'' ( it, ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità, lit. "...they kept calling him Trinity") is a 1971 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Enzo Barboni. Starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, it is a sequel ...
''.
Retrospective reviews of the series include Amy Longsdorf of the ''
Courier-Post
The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscriber ...
'', who stated that "of all the Spaghetti westerns which arrived in the wake of Clint Eastwood's
"Man With No Name" trilogy the "Sartana flicks
..ranks as some of the best." James Evans of ''
Starburst'' found the films to be "convoluted and occasionally plodding" but in certain cases, such as ''Light the Fuse… Sartana is Coming'' they could be "still convoluted but nevertheless entertaining, well-directed and atmospheric films that combine action, humour and invention throughout."
Legacy
Comparing the character of Django to Sartana, Carnimeo noted that the former solves his issues with high levels of violence, and that while the latter was embroiled in revenge-themed storylines, his more ironic edge and use of humorous weapons served as a precursor to full-blown comedic Spaghetti Western characters such as Trinity.
Unofficial Sartana films
Although the name "Sartana" would be used by characters in other filmmakers' works, the official films by Parolini and Carmineo had few direct imitators.
As Gastaldi and Salerno did not use the name of the character in the film's title for ''Blood at Sundown'', they could not copyright the name. This led to several films being released with "Sartana" in their titles, with only
George Ardisson
Giorgio Ardisson, best known as George Ardisson (31 December 1931 – 11 December 2014), was an Italian actor.
Life and career
Born in Turin, Ardisson debuted in a minor role in Mauro Bolognini's 1959 film ''Arrangiatevi!''. After several s ...
in ''Django Against Sartana'' (1970) being a notable example due to the character's resemblance to the Sartana from the official films. In a 1995 interview, Gastaldi commented claimed to have never seen the other ''Sartana'' films.
The first unofficial ''Sartana'' films appeared shortly after the release of ''If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death''. Two months after the release of the film,
Alfonso Balcazar's film ''Sonora'' (1968) was distributed under the title ''Sartana Does Not Forgive''. In 1969, director
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 spiritual medium, medium and author.
As director, Fi ...
directed two unofficial Sartana films: ''Shadow of Sartana... Shadow of Your Death'' ( it, Passa Sartana è la ombra della tua morte) and ''Four Came to Kill Sartana'' ('' it, ...e vennero in quattro per uccidere Sartana!''). Fridlund described Fidani's ''Sartana'' films as not having very involved plots and contained simply orchestrated fight sequences where "the bad guys (and their director or script writers) can seldom come up with anything more clever than to, one at a time, make an open rush against the sneaking hero and consequently get shot."
In 1970, several more unofficial ''Sartana'' films were released: ''Django Defies Sartana'' and another film directed by Fidani titled ''
One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana!
''One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana!'' ( it, Quel maledetto giorno d'inverno... Django e Sartana all'ultimo sangue, "''That Cursed Winter Day: Django and Sartana to the Death"'') is a 1970 Spaghetti Western directed by Demofilo Fidan ...
''. Other film included
Roberto Mauri
Roberto Mauri (born 1924) is an Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
Life and career
Born Giuseppe Tagliavia in Castelvetrano, Trapani, Mauri began his career as a film actor in low-budget films, occasionally even playing main roles. He d ...
's ''
Sartana in the Valley of Death
''Sartana in the Valley of Death'' ( it, Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi, also known as ''Ballad of Death Valley'') is a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western film written and directed by Roberto Mauri and starring William Berger.
Plot
Cast
* ...
'' and ''Sartana Kills Them All''. In the English version of ''Sartana in the Valley of Death'', titled ''Ballad of Death Valley'', the hero is referred to as Lee Calloway and never as Sartana.
''Sartana Kills Them All'' starred Garko as a character called Larry Santana who is dressed in a brown leather jacket with fringes, not a black suit and long coat, and he does not use special weapons or tricks.
Fidani made another unofficial ''Sartana'' film in 1970, titled ''
Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End''. In 1971, other films baring the name were released such as ''Let's Go and Kill Sartana'', where the titular character does not appear in the film. Two more films followed in 1972 with ''Trinity and Sartana are Coming'' and ''
Alleluja & Sartana are Sons... Sons of God''. The two latter films were comedy-oriented films that followed the success of ''
They Call Me Trinity
''They Call Me Trinity'' ( it, Lo chiamavano Trinità...) is a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film written and directed by Enzo Barboni (under the pseudonym of E.B. Clucher) and produced by Italo Zingarelli. The film stars Terence Hill and ...
''.
References
Sources
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{{Sartana
1960s in film
1970s in film
Spaghetti Western films
Fictional gunfighters
Italian film series
Film series introduced in 1968