... If You Meet Sartana Pray For Your Death (1968)

The first of the Sartana films, and obviously the lowest budget. Much of the film is spent in quarrys in Italy. The film features many of the trademarks of the Sartana films, including the complicated plot, handheld camera, and Sartana’s friendship with a local undertaker. It also has many of the trademarks of the spaghetti western in general: the roving bands of Mexican banditos, the eccentric undertaker, close ups of people’s eye, the pocket-watch (stolen from For A Few Dollars More).

As is typical of the Sartana films, the plot is confusing. In this case it involves two rival gangs: Lasky’s (led by William Berger) and the gang of Mexican bandits (the leader played by Fernando Sancho) which disappear for much of the middle section of the film and reappear at the end. They are being used by two bankers who are trying to “lose” some gold, claim it on their insurance and escape with their new-found wealth. Unfortunately, they can’t help double-crossing each other, egged on by the young wife of one of them (who’s also in love with Lasky, until he double-crosses her). Sartana himself merely serves to encourage the various double-crossings and nudge things along towards their eventual conclusion. As a rule, the plot doesn’t all tie together, but this is par for the course for the Sartana series (and for lower budget spaghetti westerns in general). Additionally, Sartana seems to have an uncanny ability to survive being shot several times for no good reason (one survival is explained at the end, but two others “just happen”).

Gianni Garko is well suited as Sartana, although isn’t asked to do much except smoke cigars and look mysterious. William Berger is almost always good in his Western appearances, although the character is too ambiguous for it to be his best role (his best role is probably Keoma, although his appearance with Garko in “They Call Me Cemetary” is also excellent). Klaus Kinski has a small role as another gunfighter/bandit, although he is killed off fairly early, and it’s never entirely clear where he fits in; this is fairly typical of Kinski who often seems to appear in token roles for name value.

The music is generally unremarkable, although the title theme is quite enjoyable, in a generic spaghetti western way.

The Wild East DVD is watchable, but not great. The picture is stretched to the wrong aspect ratio (this can be adjusted by playing with the widescreen setting on the TV). The image is interlaced - sometimes obvious during scene transitions - and comes with some print damage such as vertical lines and wobble. The audio (English) is understandable, although not particularly strong. A new Wild East DVD is soon to be available, and promises a better print.