Ballad of Death Valley (1970)

William Berger is Lee Calloway, an outlaw with a $10,000 price tag on his head and several folks — male and female — eager to collect that bounty.

He also has an old debt to collect from a banker named Norton. He collects it successfully, then flees town, leaving three bodies in his wake.

During his getaway, he’s approached two riders, representatives of the federal government. They’d like his help in recovering a gold shipment and some precious documents stolen by the Craig brothers.

Problem is, the Craig brothers have a date with a hangman’s noose. And, once dead, they won’t be able to tell anyone where the stolen gold is hidden.

So Calloway breaks them out of jail, supposedly for half of what they’ve stolen.

But it doesn’t take him long to discover the Craig brothers are no more trustworthy than he is.

In fact, Jason Craig (Wayde Preston) would sacrifice the $10,000 reward on Calloway’s head in return for knowing his body has been blown to bits.

Review:

With a poorly executed plot device and some lovely ladies with very little to do, this Spaghetti plays as though the script was written in 24 hours.

There’s so little going on that even the 79-minute English language print seems bloated with filler. A full 10 minutes is spent watching Calloway stagger through Death Valley with Jason and Copper Craig (Aldo Berti) trailing behind, watching him suffer.

What’s missing from that shortened English print?

A subplot that finds Jason Craig’s younger brother Slim falling for Juanita, a pretty lady Jason considers his property. Plus a flashback sequence showing how Jason Craig kidnapped Juanita and her young son from a hacienda the brothers attacked, killing her husband in the process.

As for that plot device … one of the Craig’s former partners, a man named Preacher, makes musical dolls. They show up frequently in the film, including at the site of the final showdown between Calloway and the Craigs.

How did Calloway know where to put the musical doll? Well, that makes about as much sense as a scene earlier in the film in which he’s cornered in town and escapes by firing bullets into the street, detonating pre-planted explosives. He must have known just where to put those too.

Directed by:
Robert Mauri

Cast:
William Berger … Lee Calloway
Wayde Preston … Jason Craig
Aldo Berti … Pete “Copper” Craig
Jolanda Modio … Juanita
as Iolando Modio
Carlo Giordana … Slim
Franco De Rosa … Willie Craig
Josiane Marie Tanzilli … Clementine
Luciano Pigozzi … Preacher
as Allan Collins
Pamela Tudor … Esther, widow
Betsy Bell … Saloon singer
Franco Ressel … Norton
Bruno Arie … Chuckles

Also with: Gaetano Imbro, Claudio Aponte, Franco Ukmar, Clemente Ukmar, Sergio Testoi, Alfonso Giganti, Roberto Danesi, Antonio Danesi, Tony Casale

Runtime: 78 min. / 102 min.

aka:
Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi
Sartana in the Valley of Death

Music: Augusto Martelli
Song: “A King for a Day” by Betsy Bell

Memorable lines:

Saloon patron: “In this country, a beer dries up before it gets to the bottom of a man’s belly.”

Lee Calloway, about a card player who’s just been shot: “Looked for gold, but only found lead.”

Willie Craig, as he and his brothers await their hanging: “What the hell’s keeping Slim? Is he going to wait til our eyeballs are hanging out. What’s the bastard waiting for? There ain’t much time to go.”

Copper Craig: “Single bullet, trouble’s over.”
Jason Craig: “There’s plenty of time. I feel like having some fun first. Let’s keep him around.”
Copper: “Yeah, like playin’ with a mouse.”

Jason Craig: “Don’t count too much on your luck, Calloway. It might turn tail on you.”
Lee Calloway: “Luck and me are on the best of terms. She wouldn’t do me dirt like that.”

Jason Craig: “Looks like lady luck’s still with that bastard. He’ll pay for Willie’s death, if I have to follow him to the end of the earth.”

Trivia:

* William Berger played Lasky, one of the top-billed roles in the first official Sartana film, 1968’s “If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death. That was apparently enough of a connection for this to be marketed as a Sartana film in many regions, though no one in the film is ever referred to by that name.

* This marked the final Spaghetti Western — and one of the final films — for Pamela Tudor. She plays a widow who runs Gunluck Ranch and shamelessly lures Lee Calloway into her bed. Ah, but she has an ulterior motive. It’s revealed in one of this film’s better scenes.

* And for one of those pretty faces with little to do, there’s Betsy Bell, who appears briefly near the end of the film, sitting on a table in a saloon, strumming a guitar and singing the theme song, “King for a Day.” According to IMDb, this was the last of seven films in which she appeared. She was the female lead in the much better 1968 Spaghetti “Taste of Death,” starring John Ireland and Andrea Giordana.

Betsy Bell as the saloon singer in Ballad of Death Valley (1970)

Franco Ressel as Norton, the banker who owes outlaw Lee Calloway money in Ballad of Death Valley (1970)

William Berger as Lee Calloway finds comfort in the arms of a widow named Esther (Pamela Tudor) in Ballad of Death Valley (1970)

Wayde Preston as Jason Craig admires one of the preacher’s musical toys in Ballad of Death Valley (1970)

Brothers Copper Craig (Aldo Berti) and Jason Craig (Wayde Preston) wonder what to do about their new partner in Ballad of Death Valley (1970)