Sartana Does Not Forgive (1968)

George Martin is Sartana (aka Uriah in some prints) and what he doesn’t forgive is the rape and murder of his wife at Los Alamos Ranch.

So these days, he’s a bounty killer, specifically searching for a man named Starkey and a dressed-in-black gunman named Slim Kovacs (Jack Elam), both of whom were present at her death.

Sartana tracks down Starkey, who offers to be taken prisoner. But when Sartana spies his two friends preparing an ambush … well, bringing them all back dead seems like a better option.

Tracking down Slim proves more difficult. And when he finally does, he finds Slim surrounded by an outlaw gang led by a bandit named Reyes and under the protection of a fast gun named Kirchner (Gilbert Roland).

But Sartana winds up with some unexpected help, from a Mexican named (Jose). Once a member of Slim’s gang, he was double-crossed by the outlaw and left for dead.

Now he’s determined to get even, with a grudge every bit as personal as the one Sartana is carrying.

Review:

George Martin is the vengeance seeker and Jack Elam is the snarling villain in a film filled with Spaghetti -style showdowns and shootouts and even a Spaghetti-style flashback sequence to set it all up.

The wildcard here is Gilbert Roland as a third gunman. His code of honor is simple: Once he’s been paid to do a job, he’s going to see it through, no matter who the victim.

Add the Jose character to the mix – Slim double-crossed him to escape a posse – and you have enough combatants for plenty of twists and turns as the film builds to a final showdown.

Sartana sympathizes with Jose because he has the family life – a pretty young wife and children – that he craved and was on his way to enjoying before his own wife’s murder changed the course of his life.

And when that time arrives, Roland’s character oversees a twisted version of Russian roulette where each gunman is given a pistol with just one bullet. And, sometimes, one of those bullets is a blank.

Directed by:
Alfonso Balcazer

Cast:
George Martin … Uriah / Sartana
Gilbert Roland … Kirchner
Jack Elam … Slim Kovacs
Antonio Monselesan … Jose
as Tony Norton
Gerard Richy … John Sullivan
Donatella Turri … Jose’s wife
Rosalba Neri … Hostage
Tomas Torres … Reyes
Oscar Pellicer … Starkey

Other credited cast: Miguel de la Riva, Gustavo Re, Augusto Rocha, Jose Paloma, Carlos Musto, Fernando Rubio, Juan Garcia, Oswaldo Genazzani, Jose Ecribano, Ricardo Navarro, Manuel Brochard, Carlos Ronda, Carlos M. Sola, Jose M. Pinilla, Victor Villanova, Alfonso Balcazar

Runtime: 96 min.

aka:
Sartana non perdona
Sonora
Three Gun Showdown

Music: Francesco De Masi
Songs:
“Maybe Somewhere, Maybe Somebody” sung by Franco Morselli
“Sogni Ed Ombre” sung by Vania

Memorable lines:

Kirchner to the undertaker, then pointing to a table in the saloon: “Show this (catalogue of coffins) to my friends. Tell them to pick a model. It’s my treat. And don’t worry. It’s a joke.” (It really isn’t, of course.)

Slim Kovacs to Kirchner: “Always be right beside me. I want to feel safe among these dirty Mexicans. They’d kill a friend for a couple of dollars.”

Kirchner: “Who could be interested in killing you?
Slim Kovacs: “There are too many to count.”

Slim Kovacs to Sartana / Uriah: “Ever been to Los Alamos ranch? Pity if you haven’t. That was a real woman.”

Slim Kovacs of his ally Reyes: “When it’s all over, I’m going to fill that useless pig with lead.”

Trivia:

Rosalba Neri’s role in this film is a one-scene bit part. She’s a stage passenger, marched into a saloon after the Reyes gang takes over a town. Sartana / Uriah comes to her defense when a Reyes’ gang member starts manhandling her.

Other than his memorable role at the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West, this was the only Spaghetti Western for Jack Elam. Unlike some of his Spaghetti colleagues, he had no trouble finding work stateside as a character actor in Westerns and Western TV series.

Antonio Monselesan, aka Tony Norton, was a boxer “discovered” during one of his matches in Rome. He’s best remembered as the actor Terence Hill strikes repeatedly during the memorable barroom showdown in “Trinity Is Still My Name.”