Passa Sartana... è l'ombra della tua morte

Passa Sartana... è l'ombra della tua morte

Another SARTANA movie starring the blond-haired Jeff Cameron. This one's yet another cheapie but told with flair and style despite the lack of money, and the reason it works is due to the amount of action in the story. Sure, they don't have a lot of money to play with here, but that doesn't matter when there's always a shoot-out or fist-fight going on. Add in stunts galore, some nice scenery and a high level of danger and suspense throughout, and you have an enjoyable little movie.

Sartana (Jeff Cameron) is an outlaw wanted for 1000 dollars. He is called by a judge in a small town in Texas. The judge with two assistants hire Sartana to free the territory from some dangerous outlaws, especially Randall's band. First of all he finds the sheriff Logan (Dino Strano), who many years before had wrongly accused him of theft of horses. Thus, Sartana kills Logan in a duel. Sartana give his way back and begins to kill all the bandits of the territory. At the end, he takes a fight with Randall (Dennis Colt), who dies accidentally (by himself gun) during the scuffle. Finished his task Sartana goes back to the judge, and he gives him the amnesty. This western is the third directed by Demofilo Fidani, though in my opinion, it is difficult to understand which of them ("straniero… fatti il segno della croce, "One Damned Day at Dawn... Django Meets Sartana!" and "Sartana and His Shadow of Death") was shot first. I remember that Fidani in an interview, said the films were prepared one after the other. The plot is not bad and the actors either. Unfortunately the screenplay is weak. Sartana goes from one side to the other and when he meets the outlaws he kills them, even if they are more numerous than him. The story goes on with scuffle and gunfights, using the same scenarios (one of this seems to be "il canale della Tolfa" near Rome). The soundtrack is the same in the aforementioned films and the editing is poor. Following the fashion of the period all the actors are Italians with English pseudonymous. If we pay attention we can see some errors. In the film the same actor (D. Colt) appears in three different roles: as a one-eyed Mexican, as a kidnapping cowboy and above all, as Mr Randall himself!! Again when Sartana kills the sheriff, he goes down with his arms open. In the next scene the arms are closer.

This Fidani Sartana movie is a cheap but also a very funny movie. As all the other Fidani movies it's only a real fun for fans. It has nothing do to with the other Sartana movies with Gianni Garko as protagonist, here the stuntman Jeff Cameron plays Sartana. You can also see a few other stuntman who have played in the most of Fidanis western like Benito Pacifico, Dino Strano, Luciano Conti his daughter Simonetta and you can also see the master himself with incredible big glasses. The soundtrack from Lallo Gori is also really great. The movie is very enjoyable, a must see for Trashfans.

Jeff Cameron is hardly an A-lister among Spaghetti Western heroes, or any of the dudes playing a Sartana. But I liked the simplicity of this barebones mission to kill a slew of bad guys in exchange for removal of the bounty on his own head. The handsome, yet charisma-impaired, star does the taciturn terminator with very little distraction from the fleeting appearances of eye candy, or other compadres; and even less subtlety. Shoot-'em-ups rarely remain so focused. Who really cares if he kills six guys with seven rapid shots from his six gun? This aims for one's testosterone, not the intellect.

Bandits are spreading terror and fear across the land. The marshal is an old man with no chance to stop them, therefore desperate citizens suggest to ask a wanted man for help: Sartana (Jeff Cameron) who has a price on his head. Sartana makes a deal with the marshal and starts hunting the bandits. Rather weak sequel of the Sartana series, scripted and directed by Demofilo Fidani who had a certain reputation for his very cheap flicks, yet several of those are clearly better than "Passa Sartana...". Note that Fidani himself appears in the movie as one of the citizens at the marshal's office - wearing a pair of modern blueish glasses obviously not from the wild west!