"Thank you, Alfie."
I lit the fuse, and sure enough...Sartana arrived!

Have you ever had that book or movie that you were dying to finish, but no matter what you did, you couldn't find time for it? I am actually experiencing that as I sit here typing this. Well, it was two movies and a book. I'm feeling a sharp sense of relief just for having gotten one of the movies out of the way. Unfortunately, no matter how much time I have to myself this weekend, I doubt I could get the book squared away...and I'd really like to.

Ahhh..such is life.

My desire for spaghetti westerns has begun to wane as I've managed to acquire so many over the last few months. After all, in the past year, I went from having the Dollars trilogy and a few odds and ends to having a collection of 40+ films. And I ain't like the members of the Wu-Tang clan with the kung fu flicks, I love spaghettis a lot but I have plenty of other stuff I want to see...like crazy Japanese movies from the 60's.

So I'll likely tone back on those for a while and watch some different stuff...but it's not like I'll pass up a deal if I see one.

Last night, of course, I managed to finish one of my two latest (though the other one isn't the one I'm dying to see, that one's a 60's Japanese movie). And today, I'm gonna talk about it. Did you expect any less?

Light the Fuse....Sartana is Coming! (1971, d. Giuliano Carnimeo)

The Story: In a deal turned deadly, a bag of gold and a bag of counterfeit dollars goes missing, and Sartana arrives to sort out who killed who and where the loot went.

The Review: Sartana stands as one of the most fun and iconic characters in spaghetti history. Cut from similar avenging angel cloth as Blondie (Clint Eastwood) from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. He's always in the right place at the right time, his plans go off without a hitch, and he's all but invincible. He still has to figure things out, and if you're really lucky, you might get a punch in. So he's not the total Superman, but he's fascinating in that larger than life fashion.

Unlike Django, who had scores of unofficial sequels and many of those starring everyone but original star Franco Nero, Sartana's five appearances were actually helmed by the same director (Carnimeo) and four out of five featured Gianni Garko in the title role. (The odd one out was It's Sartana...Sell Your Pistols and Buy Your Coffins which starred (yech) George Hilton as the gunslinger.) That isn't to say that a movie or two didn't suddenly feature a character who happened to be named Sartan, just that there were a whole lot less of them. The funniest part was that two of those unnofficials were actually about Django and Sartana in the same flick. Anyhow, Sartana's five movies actually show a coherency almost unheard of in spaghettis. (After all, both original Ringo movies starred Giuliano Gemma and were directed by Duccio Tessari but one had little to nothing to do with the other. Go figure.)

Oh, so enough with the history lesson already.

While this movie might move too slow for fans of Post-Bruckheimer actioner, I found this flick to contain a fantastic balance between mystery solving and action sequences. The story actually had some pretty strong twists and turns, and kept the fun on as the viewer and Sartana are all having to find the mastermind within three different groups of villains. With the exception of the James Bond-style organ shootout in the street at the conclusion, the action was sharp and deadly. Most of that had to do with Garko as Sartana.

Gianni Garko contoured handsome face with light eyes and broad handlebar moustache carries a hard but humored look. He's got that perfect long and lean gunfighter frame and moves with, yes the incredibly clichéed but true, cat-like grace. His almost supernatural ability to disappear and reappear, coupled with his ability to avoid nearly every attack seem more comic book than real-life; however, in the movie world, the actor that looks convinced of his unbelievable abilities can do wonders in convincing you that he can.

As I mentioned, Sartana with all his otherworldliness does function as an avenging angel archetype. Perhaps the primary difference here is that he's the devil in angel's clothing. For all intents and purposes, rather than act as a representative for good, Sartana spends the length of the movie in the company of real scum. Thing is, Sartana's mere presence there assures the audience that everyone gets what they deserve in the end. While it's obviously an idealistic message (and one that's largely faded from recent cinema

The plot functions pretty well, and does a good job juggling the ultimate blame between a handful strong characters. If it fails anywhere, it's merely because the action is so much fun and well executed that one's mind can start to wander waiting for the next shootout. In all, it functions in much the same capacity as good page-turning pulp story. That just means that it's all about the pistols, loot, and beautiful women, and if it happens to rise above that, more power to it. This Sartana entry meets the three criteria, and does manage to rise above.

The copy I watched was yet another clean letterboxed version with good sound which is always so painfully rewarding after so many years of bad video dubs of these movies. I guess even though the digital age has been used to already print so much crap on disk, at least every once in a while some real good comes out of it too. The movie once again made some use out of locations other than the same five desert and mountain vistas that I've spotted time and time again in any number of spaghettis.

Ok, I confess, this is only the second Sartana movie I've seen, the other being the (yech!) George Hilton one. I did, however, receive at the same time as Light the Fuse... a copy of Have a Good Funeral, Amigos....Sartana is Paying! That means, I've only got two more to see.

Of course I have to see the one knock-off if only for the title: One Damned Day at Dawn....Django meets Sartana!

Cheers.