Brad Harris is Django, and he has some problems on his hand.
First, he’s forbidden to be seen with his girlfriend Marianne because of a clause in her inheritance that forbids her from “going around with men” until her next birthday.
That’s only a few days away. In the meantime, Django decides to head into the hills for a week or so.
But he’s quickly snatched up by the sheriff of Silver City, accused of stealing the money intended to build the town’s church and school.
Django winds up in jail alongside Santo (Jose Torres), a revolutionary who steals a bit for himself, but mostly to guy weapons for the revolutionary forces in Mexico.
He busts out of jail and takes Django along, figuring he’d be a welcome addition to the gang.
Django has other ideas. He wants to find the stolen loot to clear his name.
And suspects in the theft include the bandits with whom Santo keeps company or those working for an old enemy Scott Miller (Vassili Karis).
Django blames Karris for the murder of his brother and his family years earlier. It’s an old score he’s yet to settle.
Brad Harris as Django, looking to clear his name and settle an old score in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Jose Torres as Santo, the revolutionary and bandit who breaks Django out of jail in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Review:
Give director Roberto Mauri an “A” for effort as he cobbles together footage from two previous films he made with Harris, adds a bit of new footage and creates an entirely new movie.
The result is miles from classic Spaghetti. Harris, approaching 40, doesn’t look like a Spaghetti hero. And Jose Torres is on hand, hamming it up like a poor man’s Tomas Milian.
But there’s some clever dialogue and it’s far better than Demofilo Fidani’s efforts to recycle old film footage in turkeys like “The Django Story.”
The two films Mauri steals from here are “Wanted Sabata” (1970) and “Durango is Coming, Pay or Die” (1971).
Top-billed female Maretta Procaccini played Jane Sullivan, a settler’s daughter with a crush on the Brad Harris character in the “Durango” film. Here, with mostly identical scenes, she becomes Django’s loving neice Susan.
Vassili Karis as Scott Miller, a corrupt businessman plotting ways to get rid of Django in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Matilde Antonelli as Marianne, bidding farewell to Django until her birthday in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Directed by:
Roberto Mauri
as Robert Johnson
Cast:
Brad Harris … Django
Jose Torres … Spirito Santo
Vassili Karis … Scott Miller
Maretta Procaccini … Susan
as Maretta
Zara Cilli … Giselle
Roberto Messina … Bill Perkinson
Franco Pasquetto … Bill’s brother
Matilde Antonelli … Marianne
Emilio Messina … Pedro
Pietro Fumelli … Sheriff Benson
Also with: Mariella Palmich, Irio Fantini, Gino Turini, Ivo Scherpiani, Emilio Zago, Fulvio Pellegrino, Vincenzo Maggio, Maria Luisa Sala, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Gaetano Scala, Domenico Cianfriglia, Sandro Scarchilli, Arnaldo Dell’Acqua, Virgilio Ponti, Omero Capanna, Fortuanto Arena, Attilio Dottesio, Artemio Antonini
Runtime: 86 min.
aka:
Seminò morte… lo chiamavano il castigo di Dio
Django … Adios!
Music: Vasili Kojucharov
Maretta Procaccini as Susan, Django’s niece, concerned when he comes home wounded in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Sandro Scarchilli as bandit leader Ramon with one of his men in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Memorable lines:
Marianna: “You know what’s going to happen if I break the conditions of Uncle Frederick’s will, darling. I only get the ranch, and of course this house, under the crazy condition that before I celebrate my next birthday, I’m forbidden from going around with men.”
Django: “He must have been a terrible old bastard to act like that. What made a man so mean and onery?”
Scott Miller: “Here, let’s drink to the poor, dead sheriff.”
Spirito Santo, laughing: “When did you ever start feeling sorry for poor, dead sheriffs, senor Scott.”
Spirito Santo, to his men after a stagecoach robbery: “Come on, muchaco, keep looking. If he (a dead man) carried two guns, he must have been defending something.”
Django, letting his prisoner Santo slip off into the woods for a bathroom break: “Tell you what you can do, amigo. You don’t have much of a voice, I know. Still, I’d rather you sang so I can hear ya. I’d feel a mite easier.”
Santo: “Damn you, gringo, you ask too much of a man. I cannot sing from both ends at the same time.”
Scott Miller: “I could put a quick bullet in you, Django. A bullet in your brain. But that’s too simple, too merciful. I swear you’re going to beg me to kill you before I’m finished. You’re gonna beg me, you bastard.”
Roberto Messina as Bill Perkinson, one of Scott Miller’s henchmen, on the lookout for Django in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Franco Pasquetto as Bill’s brother, one of Miller’s henchmen in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Trivia:
This marked Harris’ last Western. He got his start as a star in a pair of 1961 sword and sandal films and returned to the genre — still looking remarkably muscled — in a pair of 1983 films, “Hercules” and “The Seven Magnificent Gladiators,” both of which starred Lou Ferrigno and Sybil Danning.
Harris died in late 2017 at age 84. After leaving acting, he owned a company called Modern Body Design Harris, where he invented and marketed fitness equipment, daughter Sabrina Calley said in his obituary.
Sabrina Calley was the daughter of Harris and Olga Schoberova, his wife from 1967 to 1969. They appeared together in the Westerns “Black Eagle of Sante Fe” and “Massacre at Marble City” (both 1964). She also starred in the odd Czechoslovakian film “Lemonade Joe,” a musical comedy set in the West.
Vassili Karis as Scott Miller discusses his Django problem with girlfriend Giselle (Zara Cilli) in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Maretta Procaccini as Susan, urging her uncle Django (Brad Harris) to be careful in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Jose Torres as Santo, cooking up something devious in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
Brad Harris as Django, contemplating a coming showdown with Scott Miller in Death is Sweet from the Soldier of God (1972)
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