Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming

Last updated
Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming
Cloud of Dust... Cry of Death... Sartana Is Coming.jpg
Directed by Giuliano Carnimeo
Screenplay by
Story byEduardo Maria Brochero [1]
Starring
CinematographyJulio Ortas [1]
Edited by Ornella Micheli [1]
Music by Bruno Nicolai [1]
Production
companies
  • Devon Film
  • Copercines [1]
Distributed by Titanus [1]
Release date
  • 24 December 1970 (1970-12-24)
Running time
99 minutes [2]
Countries
  • Italy
  • Spain [2]
LanguageItalian

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming (Italian : Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana, lit. "Cloud of dust... cry of death... Sartana is coming", Spanish : Llega Sartana, also known as Gunman in Town and Run, Man, Run... Sartana's in Town) is a 1970 Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western film directed by Giuliano Carnimeo and starring Gianni Garko as Sartana. [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

After killing a corrupt sheriff and his deputies in the town of Sandy Creek, Sartana surrenders himself to Everglades Penitentiary under the guise of a convict with the purpose of meeting Granville, a man imprisoned there. Sartana helps Granville escape from prison. Granville claims to have been double-crossed by his casino business partner, Horace Johnson, in a deal with the outlaw Monk and Joe, the younger brother of corrupt sheriff Manassas Jim. The deal was for Monk to obtain two million dollars in counterfeit money from Joe in exchange for half a million dollars in gold. Johnson's role, as a banker, was to legalize the transaction, but he killed both Monk's representative and Joe instead and framed Granville for it. Johnson was later found dead in the casino while the counterfeit money and the gold disappeared, thus leaving Granville as the prime suspect who was captured and imprisoned by Manassas Jim.

The loot is hidden somewhere in the town of Mansfield. Granville convinces Sartana to help locate the gold, with the intention of splitting it with him. Sartana goes to Mansfield alone and learns that there are more people after the gold with different versions of how the murders in the casino took place. Manassas Jim's story is identical to that of Granville's, while Monk insists he witnessed only two corpses in the gambling house and insinuates that the sheriff killed Johnson, and placed his body nearby the other two. Sartana also meets Belle, the supposed widow of Johnson, who says her late husband used her money in dirty deals, claiming ownership of the legitimate currency in return. Sartana informs each of them individually that he plans to split the gold with them, without the others knowing about it, and sends them to Sonora where Granville is hiding, with the purpose of manipulating them against one another. His plan succeeds and Granville makes it out alive during the shootout.

Plonplon, an elderly man whom Sartana befriended in Mansfield, is found murdered in a stable after deducing where the gold is hidden. As Sartana arrives to find the body, the killer makes an unsuccessful attempt on his life, but flees the scene before getting discovered. Searching for clues, Sartana pays Belle a visit and finds Johnson's boots covered in crystalline dirt. Sartana later digs up Joe's grave and examine his boots, which confirms his suspicion regarding the location of the counterfeit money. Sartana comes across Sam Puttnam, an undercover federal agent who also is after the gold, believing it is a property of the U.S. government. Puttnam examines the crystalline dirt on the boots and tells Sartana to rendezvous with him at the town's Turkish bath. Before making it to the meeting place, Sartana finds Puttnam murdered, with his last uttered word being "Apache". Manassas Jim's men ambush Sartana at the Turkish bath, but he manages to kill them all and flees to the nearest Apache cave.

Sartana confronts Manassas Jim there, kills him and burns the counterfeit money. Sartana travels back to Mansfield to strike a deal with Belle whom he tells that he has found out where the gold is. Belle, however, secretly informs Monk in hopes of splitting the gold with him if he kills Sartana. Sartana, knowing that Belle would betray him to what she thought would be the stronger side, awaits the arrival of Monk and his gang in Mansfield. A gunfight ensues and Sartana comes out on top. Granville and Belle, who were having an affair behind Johnson's back, were the orchestrators of the entire scheme. Belle, Plonplon's killer, secretly attempts to kill Granville, who shoots her first, having seen through her double-cross. Arriving at the casino, Sartana deduces Granville's scheme: Johnson had never betrayed him but was played for a fool by Granville, who later killed him after hiding the loot in separate locations, with the gold being at the gambling house. Left with no cards to play, Granville faces Sartana in a standoff and dies. Sartana takes the half-million dollars in gold and departs Mansfield.

Cast

Release

Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming was released on 24 December 1970. [5]

Reception

In a contemporary review, Verina Glaessner ( Monthly Film Bulletin ) reviewed an 89 minute English-dubbed version of the film titled Gunman in Town. [2] Glaessner found the film to be "a thickly and incomprehensibly plotted Western" with "various devices resurrected from the Dollar films help to make it reasonably watchable". [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ward Bond</span> American actor (1903–1960)

Wardell Edwin Bond was an American character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956). As a character actor, Bond frequently played cowboys, cops and soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom London</span> American actor (1889–1963)

Tom London was an American actor who played frequently in B-Westerns. According to The Guinness Book of Movie Records, London is credited with appearing in the most films in the history of Hollywood, according to the 2001 book Film Facts, which says that the performer who played in the most films was "Tom London, who made his first of over 2,000 appearances in The Great Train Robbery, 1903. He used his birth name in films until 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renato Terra</span> Italian actor (1922–2010)

Renato Terra, also known by the alias Ryan Earthpick, was an Italian actor and later a poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hart (actor)</span> American actor

John Lewis Hart, also credited as John Hilton, was an American film and television actor. In his early career, Hart appeared mostly in westerns. Although Hart played mostly minor roles in some fairly well known films, he was probably best known for playing the character Hawkeye in the TV series Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans and replacing Clayton Moore in the television series The Lone Ranger for one season (1952–53).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Mitchell</span> American actor (1923–2003)

Gordon Mitchell was an American actor and bodybuilder who made about 200 B movies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Fix</span> American film and television character actor (1901–83)

Peter Paul Fix was an American film and television character actor who was best known for his work in Westerns. Fix appeared in more than 100 movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career between 1925 and 1981. Fix portrayed Marshal Micah Torrance, opposite Chuck Connors's character in The Rifleman from 1958 to 1963. He later appeared with Connors in the 1966 Western film Ride Beyond Vengeance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gianni Garko</span> Dalmatian Italian actor

Gianni Garko, often billed as John Garko and occasionally Gary Hudson, is a Dalmatian Italian actor who found fame as a leading man in 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. He is perhaps best known for his lead role as Sartana, starting with the first official film If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death and starring in three sequels as this character, the role played by George Hilton in the third film in the series.

<i>Sartana</i>

Sartana is a series of Spaghetti Western films which follows the adventures of the title character, a gunfighter and gambler who uses mechanical gadgets and seemingly supernatural powers to trick his rivals. The series features five official entries: If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death (1969), Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay and Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming. The first film was directed by Gianfranco Parolini, with the remaining four directed by Giuliano Carnimeo. Sartana is portrayed by Gianni Garko in all films in the series except for Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, in which he was portrayed by George Hilton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Bridge</span> American actor (1891–1957)

Alfred Morton Bridge was an American character actor who played mostly small roles in over 270 films between 1931 and 1954. Bridge's persona was an unpleasant, gravel-voiced man with an untidy moustache. Sometimes credited as Alan Bridge, and frequently not credited onscreen at all, he appeared in many Westerns, especially in the Hopalong Cassidy series, where he played crooked sheriffs and henchmen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Moran</span> American boxer and actor (1887–1967)

Francis Charles Moran was an American boxer and film actor who fought twice for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, and appeared in over 135 movies in a 25-year film career.

<i>Face to Face</i> (1967 film) 1967 film by Sergio Sollima

Face to Face is a 1967 Italian/Spanish international co-production Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Sollima and produced by Alberto Grimaldi. The film stars Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger, and features a musical score by Ennio Morricone. It is the second of Sollima's three Westerns, following The Big Gundown and predating Run, Man, Run, a sequel to the former. Milian stars in a lead role in all three films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massimo Serato</span> Italian actor

Massimo Serato was an Italian film actor with a career spanning over 40 years.

<i>If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death</i> 1968 film

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federico Boido</span> Italian actor (1938–2014)

Federico Boido, was an Italian film actor who appeared in many horror films, Spaghetti Westerns, and sword and sandal movies. He also acted in the Sadistik photo novels and related his experiences in the film The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Curtis</span> American actor (1902–1952)

Richard Dye, known professionally as Dick Curtis, was an American actor who made over 230 film and television appearances during his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Braña</span> Spanish actor (1934–2012)

Frank Braña was a Spanish character actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isarco Ravaioli</span> Italian film actor (1933–2004)

Isacco Ravaioli, best known as Isarco Ravaioli, was an Italian film actor.

Cheyenne Wildcat is a 1944 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and one of the 23 Republic Pictures Red Ryder features. The film, starring veteran western actor, Wild Bill Elliott as Red Ryder, was based on the comic strip "Red Ryder" created by Fred Harman (1938–1964), and licensed through a special arrangement with Stephen Slesinger. Costarring as Little Beaver, was actor Robert Blake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furio Meniconi</span> Italian actor

Furio Meniconi was an Italian film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortunato Arena</span> Italian stuntman and actor (1922–1994)

Fortunato Arena was an Italian stuntman and actor who appeared in more than one hundred films from 1954 to 1989.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Una nuvola di polvere... Un grido di morte... Arriva Sartana (1970)". Archiviodelcinemaitaliano.it (in Italian). Retrieved September 25, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Glaessner, Verina (1975). "Nuvola di plvere . . . un grido di morte. . . arriva Sartana, Una (Gunman in Town)". Monthly Film Bulletin . Vol. 42, no. 492. p. 266.
  3. Marco Giusti (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori, 2007. ISBN   978-88-04-57277-0.
  4. Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia. Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film. Gremese, 1991. ISBN   8876059695.
  5. Curti, Roberto (2018). "If You Meet Sartana...". The Complete Sartana (Booklet). Arrow Video. p. 30. FCD1762 / AV151.