Sabata
Director:
Gianfranco Parolini
Cast:
Lee Van Cleef …. Sabata
William Berger …. Banjo
Ignazio Spalla …. Carrincha
Bruno Ukmar Alley Cat
Franco Ressel …. Stengel
Antonio Gradoli …. Ferguson
Linda Veras …. Jane
Adios Sabata
Director:
Gianfranco Parolini
Cast:
Yul Brynner …. Sabata
Dean Reed …. Ballantine
Ignazio Spalla …. Escudo
Gerard Herter …. Colonel Skimmel
Nieves Navarro …. Saloon Singer at Kingsville Texas
Sal Borgese …. September
Franco Fantasia …. Ocano
Joseph P. Persaud …. Revolutionary who does Flaminco dance of death
The Return of Sabata
Director:
Gianfranco Parolini
Cast:
Lee Van Cleef …. Sabata/Major
Reiner Schöne …. Clyde/Lieutenant
Giampiero Albertini …. Joe McIntock
Ignazio Spalla …. Bronco (as Pedro Sanchez)
Annabella Incontrera …. Maggie, Saloon Girl
Jacqueline Alexandre …. Jackie McIntock
Vassili Karis …. Bionda, acrobat (as Karis Vassili)
Aldo Canti …. Angel
Steffen Zacharias …. Donovan
The Movies
Like Shaw Bros.’ Chop Socky and 1970’s Samurai Flicks such as the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Spaghetti Westerns are films set in the past, but don’t take place in actual history. Instead, these films take place in a mythical landscape where humans can develop preternatural skill and fight to the death with each other for revenge or a huge pay off. The best films of the genre, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West, are both operatic masterpieces that had Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson as one man armies. Neither wore white hats, but ended up as two of the most celebrated antiheroes in cinema.
While not the best the genre has to offer, The Sabata Trilogy (1969-71), is fun for anyone familiar with the Italian made pictures. Typical to the genre, the main character Sabata is a drifter and a loner. His habits include a penchant for gambling and women, but he always helps the smaller man. In all of these films Sabata is also an expert marksman and uses guns that look like they’ve been modified by Q branch from the 007 films.
Sabata
In the trilogy’s first installment, Sabata the main character is played perennial genre star Lee Van Cleef. Sabata enters the town of Daugherty where of course evil is afoot. Stengel (Franco Ressel), a local town magistrate, has stolen a huge box of money from the U.S. Military with $500,000. Unfortunately for Stengel, his team of thieves crossed paths with Sabata.
Van Cleef seems to be having a grand old time in this film. He gets to play up his tough but cultured gun fighter to the hilt. The action is over the top with Van Cleef sporting a derringer that shoots out of its handle and a rifle that can shoot hundreds of yards. Joining him is Ignazio Spalla’s Carrincha, a rotund knife thrower who likes to reminice about his days in the Civil War and Bruno Ukmar’s Alley Cat, a high jumper and acrobat. Together the three take on Stengel’s forces which end up amounting to a small army.
Score: 7.5/10
Adios Sabata
The Trilogy’s second film, Adios Sabata featured a new actor taking the lead role. Yul Brynner’s take on the role cuts the character’s class by half, but doubles the machismo. Casting away Van Cleef’s suit and ties, Brynner opts for an unbuttoned shirt and more fringe than most 1980’s WWF stars. Brynner’s new look Sabata is completely different on the outside, but just as fun.
This time out Sabata takes on the forces of Austria, who are fighting a war with Mexican revolutionaries for control of the country. The Austrians are lead by Gerard Herter’s Colonel Von Skimmel, a sadistic madman who executes his prisoners one at a time by shooting them from his balcony. Von Skimmel would be right at home in a Bond film as he seems to love having portraits painted of himself and has a proclivity toward killing his enemies with funny gadgets. The man is obviously evil, which is made even more evident the moment he puts on his monocle.
Unfortunately for Von Skimmel, Sabata gets wind of a shipment of gold that the Austrians plan to smuggle out of Mexico. With a small crew of rebels including a returning Ignazio Spalla (playing a completely different role), Sabata sieges the Austrians’ fortress in order to steal the gold for his favorite charity; himself.
Going completely over the top, this is the best the trilogy has to offer. Brynner has enough masculinity for ten men and when evil doers are in his sight, they don’t last long. The funny thing is, is that this film was not originally intended to be a Sabata film at all. Brynner left the Magnificent Seven series to make a film entitled Indio Black, but when Sabata became a hit; the title and film were changed. Interestingly enough, Van Cleef ended in Brynner’s role as Chris in The Magnificent Seven Ride, the last of that series.
Score: 8.5/10
The Return of Sabata
Lee Van Cleef returns in the trilogy’s finale as the gun toting gambler. Sabata ends up in the town of Hobsonville, posing as a sharpshooter in a circus act. The town is completely run by a gang of Irishmen known as the McIntocks, and when they swindle Sabata out of $5000, he goes for revenge.
This is the least of the trilogy, but still really entertaining. Perhaps the best sequence in the film is the opening shootout. You can really see the transition of Italian cinema here as the traditional Spaghetti Western score gives way to music that sounds more like Goblin’s soundtrack to Dario Argento’s Suspiria or Deep Red. The sequence is also shot as if Sabata were a killer in a Horror film, with bright colors and weird angles. The scene could have possibly been the forerunner to the “hall of mirrors” sequence in The Man with the Golden Gun. Also of note is the film’s catchy opening theme, which will completely get stuck in your head way after the movie is over.
The supporting players from previous films return in the third chapter of the Sabata saga. Ignazio Spalla is yet another character in this film as well as Bruno Ukmar playing another acrobatic character. Another funny return is Gianni Rizzo, who played different villains in the previous Sabata films and does so again here. Helping is the presence of the ravishing Annabella Incontrera, who adds a nice female element to a trilogy that had nearly been void of it up to this point.
Score: 7.0/10
These are all entertaining examples of Spaghetti Westerns. With their top notch action, macho demeaner, and outlandish antics these films are great for filling up a Saturday afternoon with some fun gunslinging. They aren’t Leone quality, but they’re not too far behind.
The DVD:
The Video
The picture quality here is serviceable enough. Each of the pictures are in 2:35.1 Letterbox format and look good enough for 30 year old films.
Score: 7.0/10
The Audio
The soundtrack here is Dolby digital 2.0 and sounds pretty good. The odd sounds effects and bad dubbing come in as clear as possible.
Score: 7.0/10
SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailers
Trailer: With Sony purchasing MGM, the company can now pimp out all of their collective Westerns, and you get plenty here. You get trailers for Silverado, Glory, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Major Dundee and seemingly 15 others. Unfortunately, this encompasses all of the special features.
Score: 2.0/10
