Bandits are terrorizing Clayton City, and they just aren’t stealing money, they’ve started kidnapping leading citizens and holding them for princely ransoms.
Mayor Frank Colony (Franco Ricci) pays the $15,000 ransom demanded for pretty Susy Prescott (Simonetta Vitelli), but no sooner is she freed than the bandits snatch Ricky, the young son of two other well-off residents of Clayton City.
With all other plans to capture the bandits spoiled, including an ambush gone awry, Sartana is recruited to bring justice to the area.
The mysterious leader of the outlaws immediately recognizes him as a threat and puts all thievery on hold until he’s eliminated.
And to make sure that happens, he travels far and wide to hire four specialists, the whip-wielding Buffalo, the knife-throwing Ramirez, the champion strongman Sullivan and a fast gun named Silky.
Even if Sartana survives all those attempts on his life, he still has to uncover the ringleader of the problems in Canyon City.
Somehow, director Demofilo Fidani clearly came up with a bigger budget this time around. One tip-off is the size of the cast.
Unfortunately, it’s also clear he didn’t know quite what to do with so many actresses and actors at his disposal. So he introduces us to lots of folks, then leaves the character development to our imagination.
That said, if you’re going to spend time with a Fidani film, you can do worse that this one. Cameron is in the lead role of Sartana again, sporting much longer hair time time around and still eschewing the garb we typically associate with the character.
We also get lots of pretty females, including the director’s daughter, a well-done final showdown and a villain dressed like a Mormon. He gives orders to his men from behind a painting that has the eyes cut. That way no one knows his true identity.
Directed by:
Demofilo Fidani
as Miles Deem
Cast:
Jeff Cameron … Sartana
Franco Ricci … Frank Colony
as Anthony G. Stanton
Benito Pacifico … Silky
as Dennys Colt
Celso Faria … Ramirez
Pietro Torrisi … John L. Sullivan
as Peter Torres
Roberto Danisi … Buffalo
as Robert Dannish
Simonetta Vitelli … Susy Prescott
as Simone Blondell
Umberto Raho … Von Krassel
Grazia Giuvi … Fanny
Paolo Figlia … Donovan
as Frank Fargas
Paolo Magalotti … Sheriff Benson
as Paul Carter
Amerigo Castrighella … Pete
as Custer Gail
Mariella Palmich … Von Krassel’s lover
Anna Liberati … Trudy
Runtime: 87 min.
aka:
…e vennero in quattro per uccidere Sartana!
The Four Who Came to Kill Sartana
They Came to Kill Sartana
Score: Italo Fischetti
Memorable lines:
Tom, Sartana’s friend: “To think of poor Miss Susy being dragged off by those outlaws makes my blood boil. I don’t know what the devil’s gonna happen to this country.”
Trudy, Tom’s daughter: “Ain’t there somebody who can help us out?”
Seconds later, Sartana knocks on the door.
Saloon girl Fanny, after two men try to kill Sartana in a saloon brawl: “It’s evident that someone doesn’t like you.”
Fanny: “Two men have tried to kill you. You know, there might be more. You’d better come up to my room and rest a while.”
Trivia:
Director Fidani appears in this film. He’s the guy in shaded glasses sitting near the head of the dinner table in an early scene. When gunfire rings out, he comforts his wife. He does the same in another scene later in the film after their child, Ricky, has been kidnapped.
Fidani’s daughter Simonette Vitelli is the film’s first kidnap victim and his wife Mila Vitelli Valenza is listed as the producer for this film. So Spaghetti Western fans — is there any chance Fidani’s wife in the film is his real-life wife? (See photo below.) That role doesn’t show up in any cast listings I’ve seen.