Dig Your Grave, Friend … Sabata’s Coming (1971)

Richard Harrison is Steve McGowan, who returns home after the Civil War to find that his father has been recently gunned down by henchmen under the direction of a land-hungry tycoon named Miller, boss of the nearby town of Tombstone.

Caught trying to get revenge, McGowan is tossed in jail, where he’s reunited with the bandit Leon Pompero (Fernando Sancho).

As he returned West, McGowan’s stage was held up by Pompero and his men.

The two escape together, then form an alliance to bring down Miller.

That mission is made both easier and more complicated when a stagecoach they steal turns out to contain Helen Kendall, Miller’s finance.

She’s not exactly a willing or cooperative companion — well, at least not at first.

Meanwhile, Miller sends for a hired gun — the dressed-all-in-black Sabata (Raf Baldassarre), who shows up with his own set of gunmen.

Turns out Helen was just marrying Miller to save her family’s ranch. And when she learns what kind of man he really is, she decides to help McGowan and Pompero instead.

Review:

Rather droll affair, until Tania Alvarado arrives on the scene as Helen to add a touch of beauty and humor. She tries to escape our heroes multiple times to no avail.

Finally, they decide to abandon her in the middle of the wilderness. Lugging a trunk of clothes behind her, she desperately tries to keep up.

And while this film is lacking lots of the style of the early Sabata outings, there is a scene in which Pompero is lashed to a wagon wheel and spun. Sabata stands back and tries to shoot the spokes, without hitting Pompero. In another scene, Sabata decides he’ll shoot his prey over his shoulder as he watches in a mirror.

You’ll enjoy the film a whole lot better if you watching it expecting a tongue-in-cheek Spaghetti. That’s clearly where the filmmakers had their tongues planted for much of the script.

One note about this copy: It slips into Italian in two spots. Obviously, they were lost or never translated into English.

Directed by:
Juan Bosch

Cast:
Richard Harrison … Steve McGowan
Fernando Sancho … Leon Pompero
Raf Baldassarre … Sabata
Alejandro Ulloa … James Miller
Gasper Indio Gonzalez … Todd
Luis Induni … Sheriff
Gustavo Re … George McGowan
Tania Alvarado … Helen Kendall
as Joan Rubin
Ricardo Moyan … Morgan
Fanny Grey … Blonde saloon girl

Also with: Fernando Rubio, Jarque Zurbano, Tomás Torres as Bob Tatum, Luis Oar, Juan Fernández, Carlos Ronda, Joaquin Blanco, Juan Torres, Juan Velilla, Esteban Dalmases, Irene D’Astrea, Isidro Novellas, Leontine May, Brizio Montinaro

aka
Abre tu fosa amigo … llega Sabata

Score: Enrique Escobar

Memorable lines:

Pompero to McGowan, as they’re being locked in prison: “You got a smoke for me, hombre?”
McGowan: “No, I don’t have any tobacco, but I’ve got a death sentence. You can have it if you want it.”

Steve McGowan as Helen plays dead: “Yeah, you’re right, let’s just leave her here.”
Leon Pompero: “You mean, you want to leave her here to be eaten by the vultures?”
McGowan: “Poor creatures. They’ll be poisoned.”
Which, of course, prompts Helen to react.

Steve McGowan to shopkeeper: “Don’t reach for that rifle, or I’ll have to send you to that old general store in the sky.”

Pompero: “Senor, Cockroach. I mean Senor Sabata. The way I stink, you don’t want to travel with me. You’d be offended. I mean it. So why not let me go?”
Sabata: “You’ll smell worse when they string you up in the sun.”

Trivia:

A Sabata film in name only. Yeah, Raf Baldassarre is dressed all in black. But he’s not even the lead character in this affair. Nor is he nearly as clever as the Lee Van Cleef/Yul Brynner Sabata.

Raffaele Baldassarre, who plays Sabata here, appeared in about three dozen Spaghetti films during a 30-year film career that stretched from 1957 to 1985. Usually cast in supporting parts, he played a Mexican general rescued by Tony Anthony in “Blindman” (1971) in another of his more prominent roles. He died in Rome at 1995 at age 63.

Tania Alverado appeared in just five films, but three of them were Spaghetti Westerns. She also had roles in “Django Defies Sartana” (1970) and “They Believed He Was No Saint” (aka “Too Much Gold for One Gringo” / 1972).