Sabata

He's the man with the gunsight eyes! Sabata is directed by Gianfranco Parolini (AKA: Frank Kramer) and Parolini co-writes the screenplay with Renato Izzo. It stars Lee Van Cleef, William Berger, Ignazio Spalla, Aldo Canti, Franco Ressel and Antonio Gradoli. Music is by Marcello Giombini and the Technicope/technicolor cinematography is by Sadro Mancori. Ace marksman Sabata (Cleef) teams up with a banjo-playing drifter and a Mexican tramp to foil the town leaders of Daugherty, Texas, who want to steal $100,000 from their own bank to buy land that the approaching railroad will cross. The first of what would become a trilogy of films featuring the character of Sabata, picture is a whole bunch of high energy action and cool fun. First off the character himself is easy to warm to, where in Cleef's genre perfect hands Sabata is the guy you want on your side. Smartly attired in black suit and hattage, he can shoot the leg of the chair from underneath you, blast your dice off of the craps table, hell he can even toss a silver dollar through the air to feed the jukebox. He's supremely confidant and can even be seen to leaping off of buildings and landing perfectly on his feet ready to take aim on some bad guy. Naturally here in Spaghetti world there's serious money issues bubbling away, where pretty much everyone in the plot is occupied by thoughts of it - or have dalliances with it. The lead villain is wonderfully effeminate, but dangerous and sharply confident himself, whilst Banjo the character (his instrument of course doubles as a weapon) has some complexity about him to make him constantly interesting. Other side-kicks join in the fun and bravado, so although there's no great depth on show the characters - including wonderful acrobats as well - are ever enjoyable. Perhaps unsurprisingly the sound mix is poor and pic veers very close to caricature, but it does stay on the safe side of things to not make this one big joke Spaghetti Western. The musical score is a jaunty cocktail befitting the carnival atmosphere, where even the Xylophone (or could be a glockenspiel) gets a good airing, and the Technicolor photography is rich and most pleasing on the eyes. Finally we find Parolini dabbling in off kilter camera angles to further enhance the town's schizophrenic heartbeats. 7/10