Terence Hill plays Django, a gunman who decides to quit working for a politician named David Barrett (Horst Frank) and settle down with his wife instead.

But they have the misfortune of traveling with a wagon train that also carries a gold shipment — a shipment Barrett wants. And so the wife is killed; Django wounded when Barrett’s henchmen, led by Lucas (George Eastman) attack.

Django recovers and sets out to even the score. He becomes a hangman, in Alvis County, where Lucas is operating. But instead of hanging the men Lucas frames, he rigs up a harness so they survive their date with a rope. Then he enlists them to help strike back.

All is well, until another gold shipment tempts the very men Django has freed, and until he finds himself a captive in the hands of the very men he blames for his wife’s death.

Terence Hill as Django, explaining the goal and mission to the men he’s saved in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Horst Frank as David Barrett, explaining his ambition to Django in Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Review:

Decent film. Supposedly, Franco Nero was supposed to reprise the Django role until he was lured to the U.S. to star in Camelot.

No matter. This film has the coffin. It has the machine gun. It has the muddy streets. And it has Terence Hill, playing it straight in his pre-Trinity days. He even looks a lot like Nero.

Neat title tune: “You’d Better Smile”

Jose Torres as Garcia, the once-condemned man out for gold while his wife awaits the gallows in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Barbara Simon as Mercedes, Garcia’s wife and a woman saved from hanging in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Directed by:
Ferdinando Baldi

Cast:
Terence Hill … Django
Horst Frank … David Barrett
George Eastman … Lucas
Jose Torres … Garcia
Pinuccio Ardia … Orazio
Guido Lollobrigida … Jonathan
as Lee Burton
Barbara Simon … Mercedes
Gianni Brezza … Alvarez
Remo De Angelis … Barry
Luciano Rossi … Yankee Jack
as Edward G. Ross

Also with: Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia, Andrea Scotti (Lucas henchman), Roberto Simmi, Lucio De Santis, Giovanni Di Benedetto, Angela Minervini, Spartaco Conversi, Franco Balducci, Adriana Giuffrè, Franco Gulà, Omero Capanna, Paolo Magalotti, Alberigo Donadeo, Gilberto Galimberti, Attilio Severini, Tino Scotti

aka:
Preparati la bara!
Get the Coffin Ready
Django Sees Red
Viva, Django

Score:
Gianfranco Reverberi
Title tune: “You’d Better Smile”

Runtime: 88 min.

George Eastman as Lucas, the man who does David Barrett’s dirty deeds in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Gianni Brezza as Alvarez, right-hand man to Lucas in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Memorable lines:

Django, to the newly elected Barrett: “If you don’t relax, you’re new job is going to get you down — six feet under.”

Django to Barrett, the politician: “Give up this kind of life. Think how nice it would be to have a wife, children, a fine ranch. Wait peacefully for the last judgment.”
Barrett: “No, Django. Oh, no. All that’s not for me. I’m too ambitious, it’s true. It’s like having something burning, always, inside your mind.”

Old man, to freshly beaten Django: “Come on, Django. They sure turned you into a mashed potato.”

Django: “My wife’s life was worth a lot more.”
David Barrett: “That was an accident. She was a woman. Why worry? There are plenty of others like her.”

Orazio: “Have you changed your mind? I thought you were going to blow them up.”
Django: “There’s someone inside who’s more interesting alive.”

Barrett to Django, when the former’s gunmen show up at unexpectedly, and Django looks to a man who’s supposed to be on his side: “No, he didn’t betray you. It was you and your obstinate idea that I’m stupid, like you.”

Guido Lollobrigida (Lee Burton) as Jonathan Abbott, one of the men Django saves from a hangman’s noose in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Luciano Rossi (Edward G. Ross) as Yankee Jack, one of Django’s men in Django Prepare a Coffin (1968)

Other tidbits:

* This film was supposed to star Franco Nero, the original Django, but he decided to go to Hollywood and play Sir Lancelot in Camelot instead.

* Three key participants in this film — producer Manolo Bolognini, cinematographer Enzo Barboni and screenwriter Franco Rossetti — worked on the original “Django” film, directed by Sergio Corbucci.

* Barbara Simon, the female lead here, appeared in just five other films. One was a Spaghetti — 1963’s Gunfight at Red Sands.