This spaghetti Western is Italian moviemakers at their nonsensical niftiest and Lee Van Cleef at his bulletproof best.
A mysterious black-clad stranger called Sabata (Van Cleef) rides into a Texas town just after the bank was robbed. The men who did the job were hired by a rascally landlord, Stengel (Franco Ressel), who offers a $5,000 reward to throw the townsfolk off his scent.
Sabata goes out and shoots all the crooks, bringing back their bodies and the safe. When he finds out who masterminded the robbery, he demands $21,000 – to get out of town.
The film then becomes a struggle between Sabata and Stengel, who finally gets an ultimatum for $60,000. In the meantime, we run into a three-faced judge (Gianni Rizzo), a doublecrossing banjo-playing troubadour with a misty past (William Berger), a mute Indian (Nick Jordan) with more acrobatic skill than acting ability, and a drunken knife-thrower who gives Sabata a hand now and then (Pedro Sanchez).
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi, who did Fredrico Fellini’s Satyricon, Sabata was followed by two sequels – one of them starring Van Cleef, the other starring Yul Brynner.
Sabata
Lee Van Cleef Banjo
William Berger Stengel
Franco Ressel Jane
Linda Veras Carrincha
Ignazio Spalla (Pedro Sanchez) Judge O’Hara
Gianni Rizzo Ferguson
Antonio Gradoli (Anthony Gradwell) Indio
Aldo Canti (Nick Jordan) Oswald
Claudio Undari (Robert Hundar) Slim
Spartaco Conversi (Spanny Convery) Nichols
Carlo Tamberlani (Charles Tamblyn) False Father Brown
Luciano Pigozzi (Alan Collins) Sharky
Marco Zuanelli Captain
Franco Marletta Daniel
Andrea Aureli
