Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay (1970)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Gianni Garko is back as Sartana, and this time he's sporting a thick blonde Swedish- style moustache! I'm also beginning to think he's some sort of jinx, as yet again he witnesses the massacre of a bunch of miners by some bad guys and gets mixed up in some sort of land grab treachery involving crooked bank managers we've all seen a million times by now.But who cares? It's Sartana, and it seems the longer the series goes on, the more ridiculous (and therefore enjoyable) the films get! He's still dressing in goth fashion and he still has his four chambered Derringer, but this time round he's also got a pack of cards with sharpened edges! You tell me if a film is meant to be taken seriously when Sartana flicks a card across a room into a bible, at the exact page he wants the bad guy to read!The crooked bank manager (and his many crooked employees) is pretty good too, sending wave after wave of hired killers after Sartana, only for Sartana to waste them, then pay for their funeral, only for the bad guys to use that funeral to try and kill Sartana. Sartana also acts like some sort of ghost in this one, seemingly teleporting anywhere he wants to, which just adds to the strangeness. Plus he can light fireworks by firing a gun at them, at night. No Mexicans in the one strangely, but we do have George Wang as some mystic casino owner who spends the entire film in a chair only to reveal he's not crippled, he's 'just very lazy'.I might have to track down Sartana The Gravedigger, Light the Fuse...Sartana is Coming and any other I've missed.

Smooth and wily gunslinger Sartana (superbly played by Gianni Garko) arrives in the small town of Indian Creek to take care of various bad folks who all want to get their greedy hands on a seemingly worthless chunk of land. Director Giuliano Carnimeo, working from a clever and engrossing script by Roberto Gianviti and Giovanni Simonelli, relates the enjoyable story at a steady pace, stages the frequently shoot-outs with rip-roaring brio (moreover, we also get a rousing rough'n'ready brawl), and further spices things up with a sharp sense of spot-on sarcastic humor (there's a deliciously ironic twist at the very end that's good for a laugh). The villains are a perfectly despicable bunch of treacherous back-stabbing vultures: Antonio Villar as shifty banker Ronald Hoffman, George Wang as shrewd casino owner Lee Tse Tung, the ravishing Helga Line as snoopy barmaid Mary, Luis Induni as the gruff, crooked sheriff, Ivan Staccioli as equally corrupt deputy Blackie, and Franco Ressel as the slippery Samuel Piggott. The lovely Daniela Giordano is solid and appealing as the smart and sweet Abigail Benson. Franco Pesce supplies amusing comic relief as a jolly undertaker. Bruno Nicolai's twangy and harmonic score hits the stirring spot. Stelvio Massi's crisp and lively widescreen cinematography gives an impressively rich and vast look. While more playful and less hard-edged than other movies in this series, it's nonetheless loads of fun just the same.

Sartana is part of a series and is not meant to be on the level of Eastwood films. It does not have to be. All though there are 5 official films in this series 4 of then star Gianni Garko. This is the third one. Sartana does nothing more except want money money and more money. He can shoot and scheme is way out of anything. The throwing of cards is a wonderful idea if one really understands spaghetti westerns. The score by bruno nicolai is incredible, it is one of his finest scores. The gunplay is awesome. That is the idea, Sartana is not supposed to get hurt. He is somewhat of a mystical figure, and this particular film has more humor than the ones in the rest of the series. I highly recommend it. Other titles in the sartana/series are I AM SARTANA YOUR ANGEL OF DEATH LIGHT THE FUSE SARTANA IS COMING and the first one IF YOU MEET SARTANA PRAY FOR YOUR DEATH.

Garko and Carnimeo cooperated in some good Italo-Westerns in the late 60s/early 70s, most remarkable is the "Sartana"-Series. This is definitely one of the best Sartana-Movies; tough, cynical and with a lot of humor, seasoned with all herbs of an excellent italo-western. The plot has some twists, good shoot-outs and a decent body count. The soundtrack's fine, good work done by Bruno Nicolai. The cast is standard with lot's of Italian b-movie heroes (ruffini, dell' acqua...) I had a lot of fun with this movie and it's worth watching it more than one time. Check out "Gli fumavano le Colt... lo chiamavano Camposanto",another good movie with Garko.