Monday, December 30, 2019

HAVE A GOOD FUNERAL, MY FRIEND… SARTANA WILL PAY (1970) ** ½


Sartana (Gianni Garko) strides into a western town in possession of a valuable deed.  As he tries to return it to its rightful owner, the greedy townsfolk, crooked sheriffs, and other assorted cutthroats crawl out of the woodwork to make sure that won’t happen.  Naturally, he becomes romantically involved with the sexy heiress.  

Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay was the fourth Sartana adventure (or fifth, if you count $1000 on the Black in which Sartana was a villain) and it lacks some of the playful zest that made the other entries in the series crackle.  It also feels more like an assemblage of western clichés in search for a home than an honest to goodness Spaghetti Western.  

Still, it has its moments.  (There’s a great bit where Sartana walks into a Chinese gambling hall and busts up a crooked blackjack game armed only with a pocket watch.)  However, many of these moments are short lived (like when Sartana gets into a Kung Fu battle) or overused (like when he throws playing cards like Gambit from the X-Men).  There are enough of these odd touches to distinguish Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay from your typical western, but not quite enough to make it rise to the heights of the previous Sartana films.

AKA:  Have a Good Funeral on Me, Amigo—Sartana.  AKA:  A Coffin from Sartana.  AKA:  A Present for You, Amigo… A Coffin from Sartana.  AKA:  Gunslinger.  AKA:  Stranger’s Gold.  

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