Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay (1970)

Lack of good storyline.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I Wish there was a pristine print of this movie or I had seen this in the theater. It's just a nifty movie with the plot twisting and turning to the end. I always get a chuckle near the end when Sartana states, "I thought you were an invalid?" The other man replies, "no am I just a lazy man." In this scene Sartana is actually caught off guard for a few moments by some martial arts moves. The music is memorable. Whenever I watch this I always find myself humming the two note when the main them is playing. Then there is the song near the end where it is brass initially and ends with a few notes of a solo guitar. It's as pretty as Abagail.

Smooth and wily gunslinger Sartana (superbly played by Gianni Garko) arrives in the small town of Indian Creek to take care of various bad folks who all want to get their greedy hands on a seemingly worthless chunk of land. Director Giuliano Carnimeo, working from a clever and engrossing script by Roberto Gianviti and Giovanni Simonelli, relates the enjoyable story at a steady pace, stages the frequently shoot-outs with rip-roaring brio (moreover, we also get a rousing rough'n'ready brawl), and further spices things up with a sharp sense of spot-on sarcastic humor (there's a deliciously ironic twist at the very end that's good for a laugh). The villains are a perfectly despicable bunch of treacherous back-stabbing vultures: Antonio Villar as shifty banker Ronald Hoffman, George Wang as shrewd casino owner Lee Tse Tung, the ravishing Helga Line as snoopy barmaid Mary, Luis Induni as the gruff, crooked sheriff, Ivan Staccioli as equally corrupt deputy Blackie, and Franco Ressel as the slippery Samuel Piggott. The lovely Daniela Giordano is solid and appealing as the smart and sweet Abigail Benson. Franco Pesce supplies amusing comic relief as a jolly undertaker. Bruno Nicolai's twangy and harmonic score hits the stirring spot. Stelvio Massi's crisp and lively widescreen cinematography gives an impressively rich and vast look. While more playful and less hard-edged than other movies in this series, it's nonetheless loads of fun just the same.

Sartana blows into town just after a local prospector, Joe Benson, has been murdered. Suddenly, there seems to be no shortage of buyers for the old man's land that most describe as nothing more than a pile of worthless sand. The two men who seem to want the land the most are the local crooked banker and the Chinese gambling parlor owner. But why? With Sartan's help, Benson's niece and heir plays the two potential buyers against each other looking to get the most for the land. Will she succeed? The only thing that's certain is that Sartana's going to do whatever he cam to make sure he comes out ahead.Certainly not what I would call a top of the line Spaghetti Western, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend . . . Sartana Will Pay (let's shorten that to Have a Good Funeral for the rest of this comment) is still an enjoyable enough installment in the Sartana series. Gianni Garko is back as Sartana. He's excellent in the role and provides the character with just the right amount of mystery to throw doubt on his motivations. Even among the super human feats of other SW heroes, Sartana's abilities with a gun, a deck of cards, or being in the right place at the right time are unmatched. The supporting cast features a number of familiar faces – Helga Line and Franco Ressel being chief among them. But I was most impressed with Daniela Giordano and George Wang - the latter seemingly enjoying himself as much as anyone. Giuliano Carnimeo's direction is more workmanlike than artistic, though he does provide a visual flourish or two as Have a Good Funeral progresses. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. And even thought the man behind the killings is easy to spot for anyone who's seen enough of these movies, it's still fun to watch Sartana figure things out. Finally, Bruno Nicolai's score is definitely a high point of the film, even if it is eerily reminiscent of some of his other work. Overall, not a bad example of what I'm going to call a lesser SW. Trust me, you could do a whole lot worse.

The first Sartana (1968), by Gianfranco Parolini, is such a dark and brooding spaghetti western gem, that I can't help but wonder what could have happened to the rest of the Sartana entries in his, admittedly, more skillful hands.Gianni Garko returns for the fourth time to play the titular black-clad anti-hero, after being replaced by the suave George Hilton for A Fistful of Lead. Garko is typically good as the amoral Sartana, in a plot that combines in typical Carnimeo fashion, mystery and action. After old prospector Benson is killed, several people try to get their hands on his land. Nuggets of gold, discovered in his burnt down shackle, suggest that the old prospector hit a motherlode. A corrupt banker and a Chinese saloon owner each will try to convince Benson's niece, now the sole heir of the property, that the land is nothing but acres of sand and therefore worth nothing. Sartana, as usual, is out for himself and will try to play everyone. Of course, things are not always what they seem. There are enough twists and turns to keep things adequately interesting plot-wise.But plot is barely the reason I love spags. It's the pure style that I look forward, those little moments of pure cinematic gold scattered in the form of stylish shootouts, off-beat characters, weird angles and close-ups, and style-wise, there isn't enough to go around here. The production seems kind of rushed, which probably was, given the low production values. With this being the 4th Sartana entry, everyone seems to be on autopilot by now, and Carnimeo just gets things over in a workmanlinke way. Which is why I wish Parolini would have worked on the sequels. Carnimeo, never an A-list name even by spaghetti standards, seems to be more of an employee instead of an artist, just getting things on budget and on schedule for the producers.Anyhow, suffice to say there are lots of better spaghettis out there. If you're a seasoned veteran, and need a quick spaghetti fix for a Sunday afternoon, Have a Good Funeral Amigo will do just fine. Just don't expect anything mind-blowing.