If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death
Italian theatrical release poster
Directed byGianfranco Parolini[1]
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Luigi De Santis
  • Fabio Piccioni
  • Adolfo Cagnacci[2]
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySandro Mancori[1]
Edited byEdmond Lozzi[1]
Music byPiero Piccioni[1]
Production
companies
  • Paris Etoile Film
  • Parnass Film[2]
Distributed by
  • Paris Etoile Film (Italy)[2]
  • Nora (West Germany)[3]
Release dates
  • 14 August 1968 (1968-08-14) (Italy)
  • 22 August 1969 (1969-08-22) (Germany)
Running time
97 minutes[3]
Countries
  • Italy
  • West Germany[1]

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (Italian: 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 features a musical score by Piero Piccioni.

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

The Sabata Trilogy, after producer Alberto Grimaldi saw his work on the first Sartana film.[4] As with Django a few years earlier, several directors, such as Demofilo Fidani
, made unofficial sequels to cash in on the success of Sartana.

History

The name "

Guns of Violence (10.000 dollari per un massacro, 1967). After he turned down several scripts with a revenge theme, Renato Izzo 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 films. If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death then went into production.[5]

Plot

An elderly couple on a horse-drawn carriage is attacked by a gang led by Morgan. Sartana 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, with a gang member posing as a passenger murdering the others. However, the gang is ambushed and killed by Lasky 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, a politician, and Alman, 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, 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. 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

Releases

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death was released theatrically in Italy on 14 August 1968.

Four Came to Kill Sartana.[6] If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death was released in Germany on 22 August 1969 as Sartana - Bete um deinen Tod.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Sartana - Bete um deinen Tod". Filmportal.de. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d "Se incontri Sartana, prega per la tua morte (1968)". Archviodelcinemaitaliano.it (in Italian). Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Sartana - Bete um deinen Tod" (in German). Filmdienst. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  4. ^ Erickson, Glenn. "The Sabata Trilogy". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  5. ^ Garko, Gianni (2005). "Interview with Gianni Garko". If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death DVD (Interview). Interviewed by Inga Seyric. Wild East Productions.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Curti, Roberto (2018). "If You Meet Sartana...". The Complete Sartana (Booklet). Arrow Video. p. 22. FCD1762 / AV151.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=If_You_Meet_Sartana_Pray_for_Your_Death&oldid=1181511241"