Return Of Sabata

 

Derringer Harbinger

Return Of Sabata
aka 
È tornato Sabata...
hai chiuso un'altra volta!
Italy/France/West Germany 1971
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini
Eureka Masters Of Cinema Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: Minor spoilers. 

“Nine fingered man, four barrell derringer, Sabaaaaaata, he’s the only invincible man in the countryside...” Main title song from Return Of Sabata.

Okay, technically the third film in the Sabata trilogy and, due to that marketing decision, the third and final film in the recent Blu Ray set from the Eureka Masters Of Cinema label... Return Of Sabata sees Lee Van Cleef return in the role for what is actually the only real Sabata sequel (for more on that, see my review of Indio Black, aka Adiós Sabata, right here). And, of course, along with Van Cleef we have Sabata’s trademark gadget, his trick pistol, referred to as a ‘four barrel derringer’ in the main song but, as we all know from the first film (which I reviewed here), it actually also has three additional barrels concealed in the handle, which we also get to see in use again.

And, naturally, a Parolini film means part of his repertory cast such as Aldo Canti performing his usual trampoline tricks and Ignazio Spalla, are on hand to work with Sabata and his new, somewhat untrustworthy ally played by Reiner Schöne. The plot is the usual shenanigans with a corrupt head of a town and various bought elected officials trying to diddle the town with their counterfeit notes while getting all the gold out of the county. Sabata, of course, steps in to try and relieve them of their gold and also help out the townsfolk. And that’s all I’ll say about the plot.

The film itself has been included in a book called The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way) but, honestly, I don’t know why it’s in there and, I have to wonder how many movies the authors have seen if they saw fit to include this one in its ranks. In terms of the three Sabata films (or two if you are a purist), then yeah, it’s the least entertaining of them perhaps... but it is still very watchable and there are some really beautiful sequences in here too.

For instance, the film has a very strong opening pre-credits sequence... probably the best scene in the movie actually, it’s so striking. This film involves various gun men in an enclosed space... a kind of cross between a barn and a fun house... hiding and waiting for Sabata, to take him out. It’s a really wonderful sequence and its very colourful. Amongst the white shirts of the gun men and the red of the blood on them as they each fall victim to Sabata’s guns in elabourate set ups (falling off a level and into a coffin which slides down a beam etc), the lighting is a visually exciting blend of colour washes... greens, violets and reds, which invoke the spirit of Mario Bava perhaps. This set up scene also serves, not only as a rug pull moment, when it turns out everyone’s guns were loaded with some kind of red paint balls, as Sabata has joined a side show troupe... but also serves to set up the logic of a scene near the end where Sabata is shot dead by the bad guy, only to resurrect himself from the grave having loaded the bad guy’s gun with similar paint pellets, once he’s heard the villain’s disclosure of where ‘the gold’ is hidden after his fake death. So it’s a long game Parolini’s playing here with his foreshadowing of one of the end scenes of the movie (the producers and writers of the James Bond films did exactly the same thing with the start and end sequences of The Man With The Golden Gun, of course... reviewed by me here).

There’s some other nice cinematography too, such as a scene where Van Cleef is standing in the middle of the screen ready to draw his gun... the director manages to somehow catch two simultaneous, long strips of lens flare coming from where Van Cleef is standing and thrown off at opposite diagonals from the central character. I’m not quite sure how he managed it and, in general, lens flares in movies have never been my friend... but it does look quite spectacular here, I’d have to admit.

As usual with this director, as well as all the acrobatics, he also works a fair few gadgets into the mix, to go alongside Sabata’s trick derringer. So we have an acrobat using braces stretched from between his feet to fire balls at various guards (with the camera fast zooming in on a target to mimic the journey of the ball bearing as the mark falls over), a blow dart coming from a trick cigar, a magnet cigar to influence the outcome at a roulette table and a guy with a mirror stuck to the inside top of his hat so he can take it off and see who’s approaching from behind.

Now, many people probably don’t realise that Van Cleef has the top of one of his fingers missing. It’s said that he got it taken off while building a play house for his daughter but I don’t think he went out of his way to publicise it. Here, though, Parolini works it into the foreground of the film in three ways. The most obvious, perhaps, being the opening title song from Marcello Giombini’s gorgeous score referring to Sabata as the ‘nine fingered man’. Secondly, it’s mentioned that the injury to the Sabata character was self inflicted, having chewed it off to convalesce in a military hospital in order to get more than a little friendly with a Colonel’s wife for a few months.

Thirdly... and perhaps more interestingly, when it looks like Sabata is about to kill his traitorous, ‘out for himself’ ally right at the end of the movie, instead of killing him he just shoots his trigger finger off, so the other can learn to live with the same disability. It’s a nice but unusual moment, taking a real life but, not that noticeable disability and thrusting it into the limelight, so to speak, like this.

And, yeah, I’ve not got much to add to this one, it has to be said. It may be the least entertaining of the three films but, almost contradicting this, it’s also probably the most lively and the one making the most of the humour, playing fast and loose with the trappings usually associated within the Spaghetti Western. Since the first two Trinity films came out either side of it (the second being released into Italian cinemas just a month after this one), this slow rebellion against the tropes of the genre makes a lot of sense, I guess. Return Of Sabata is definitely worth a look if you liked the first film and, if you’re into the scores on these things, the soundtrack is wonderful.