One Damned Day at Dawn, Django Meets Sartana (1970)

Fabio Testi plays Jack Ronson, who arrives in the town of Black City to become sheriff. He’s arrived in hell, a townsman warns. Jack’s unimpressed. “Sounds kind of colorful,” he says.

Black City is hell because of an alliance between town boss Bud Wheeler and a vicious Mexican bandit named Paco Sanchez. They take what they want, murder anyone who stands in their way and establish a gun-running racket with the town as their base.

Ronson (secretly Sartana) is challenged to a showdown by Wheeler. But a mysterious stranger hanging around town (Hunt Powers as Django) knocks Ronson out, locks him in his own jail, dons the sheriff’s duster and hat and calmly guns down Wheeler and all his men.

Had to do it, Django says. He needed to avenge the death of his sister’s husband.

Wheeler’s demise gets Sanchez madder than a hornet, and he charges into Black City with his men. This time, Ronson’s determined to handle the gun play without help … OK, without much help.

Review:

Mundane Spaghetti film by Demofilo Fidani, here directing under the alias Miles Deem. Nothing original about the script, the film or the score. In fact, the plot is razor thin, sacrificed for the sake of fight scene after fight scene after fight scene.

These characters can’t look at one another without throwing a punch. Though there’s lot of footage of them sitting in the bar, just looking at one another too.

Simone Blondell, the director’s daughter, is at the heart of one of the more ridiculous scenes. The sheriff wants information; she’s being hysterical. Imagine that: Her husband was just gunned down and she’s been attacked. So the sheriff gives her a vicious slap.

Jack Betts (Hunt Powers) as Django in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Fabio Testi (Stet Carson) as Jack Ronson (Sartana) in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Directed by:
Demofilo Fidani

Cast:
Jack Betts … Django
as Hunt Powers
Fabio Testi … Jack Ronson (Sartana)
as Stet Carson
Dino Strano … Bud Wheeler
as Dean Stratford
Benito Pacifico … Paco Sanchez
as Dennis Colt
Simonetta Vitelli … Widow Sturges
as Simone Blondell
Mariella Palmich … Dolores
Franco Pasquetto … Peter Sturges
Attilio Dottesio … Willy
as Dany Reesy
Luciano Conti … Joe ‘The Worm’ Smith
as Lucky McMurray
Celso Faria … Frank Culter

aka
Django Meets Sartana
Django e Sartana
Quel maledetto giorno d’iverno … Django e Sartana all’ultimo sangue

Score: Lallo Gori

Dino Strano (Dean Stratford) as Bud Wheeler in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Benito Pacifico (Dennis Colt) as Paco Sanchez in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Memorable lines:

Willy: “Well, stranger, this here is Black City. You just arrived in hell, my boy.”
Sheriff Ronson: “It sounds kind of colorful.”

Willie: “Sanchez is plum loco. In Mexico, there’s a big price on his head. And believe me, where he goes, goes death.”

Django to The Worm: “You don’t hear so good. Maybe your ears need cleaning out.” He presses his gun barrel against the man’s right ear.

Bud Wheeler to Ronson : “Be out of here by tomorrow morning, or I’ll meet you on the main street at 6 o’clock. It’s kind of cold out there in the morning, but I think some nice hot lead will warm you up.”

Mariella Palmich as Dolores in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Simonetta Vitelli (Simone Blondell) as the widow Sturges in One Damn Day at Dawn, Django Met Sartana (1970)

Trivia:

Jack Betts, who plays Django here, had roles on “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza” and “General Hospital” prior to his Spaghetti Western days, and roles on “Frazier,” “Friends” and “The Young and the Restless” afterward.

Gordon Mitchell appeared in several Demofilo Fidani films, and this one was filmed mostly at the Cave Film Studio Lot, a Western set Mitchell had built on property he owned in Italy.

Director Demofilo Fidani borrowed the Sartana name for several of his films. In this one, he finally found a Sartana-like costume with a wide-brimmed black hat and a black cloak. So what did he do? Put the all-black duds on Django, of course.

Pretty Mariella Palmich adorned several Fidani Westerns, usually in bit roles, like the subservient grape-eating lover of a man who trains gunfighters in “Four Came to Kill Sartana.” Here, she gets a bigger role than normal, as a saloon girl forced to endure the advances of Sanchez. But that doesn’t keep her from spilling all his secrets to Django.