Light The Fuse, Sartana is Coming (1970)

In my opinion the second best of the Sartana series. Here Sartana is trying to solve the mystery about the aftermath of a dodgy deal, turned double-crossing, in which some counterfeit money was to be traded for a lesser value in gold, but all the parties were killed and the money hidden. The plot just about hangs together but - as is typical for Sartana films - gets a bit difficult to follow in the middle. The best bits therefore are the start, where the plot still makes sense and there's a reasonable amount of tension in the jail escape, and the end, where the plot no longer matters.

Most of the staples of the series are present: the eccentric old man (who's killed surprisingly early), the various double-crossing widows and sheriffs, and the self-styled General (who probably isn't Mexican this time). Bits of the film probably go too far into ridiculousness, especially the toy robot Sartana inherits. However, the organ scene at the end, where Sartana transforms his portable church organ into a canon/machine gun, is great fun however over the top in seems.

The music is fairly generic (and sounded suspiciously familiar), but had an appropriately spaghetti western feel.

The Franco Cleef unofficial DVD version is reasonable, although presented as a widescreen image in a 4:3 picture, and the English soundtrack is clear throughout. Occasionally the edges of the picture seemed out of focus, but this probably reflects the original source.