Death Sentence / Sentenza di morte (Mario Lanfranchi, 1968)

Yep thatā€™s it. The transfer came out pretty good, and the subtitles work well.

Phew!

I agree and that comes from a guy who still buys vhs tapes :slight_smile:

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Finally watched this recently, and I canā€™t be the only one who couldnā€™t stop comparing Milianā€™s costume and hair to Colonel Sanders. But yes, good film!

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Iā€™ll never be able to watch the film the same way again now :laughing:

I bought a set of lobby cards (fotobuste) of this great flick from Italy. They are in great shape and seem old enough but one thing puzzles me. The copyright date in small print reads ā€œ1977.ā€ Does anyone know if this movie was re-released for its 10th anniversary? Apparently so.

You should post some of them here, and if they arenā€™t already on the page for Death Sentence you should definitely put them up there as well.

I donā€™t know.

In Italy public screening was authorized at the end of December 1967, and on this one the year is correctā€¦

Koch should release this as part of the Western Helden Collection with an English dub!

I received my Koch Media DVD with Death Sentence today and have just watched it with Italian audio and English subtitles. Probably it meets my request for a 7 out of 10 rating (which I apply for now). I think it is a somewhat deviating from the norm in a rather similar way as Johnny Hamlet and maybe also Requiescant (both 7/10) are, even if these three SW also differ from each other.
It starts a bit slow in the beginning shot at the sand dunes of Cabo del Gata near the Almeria southwest coast line, where I think The Good, The Bad And The Ugly also had its weakest part - too long. But overall it is an entertaining revenge film without comedy, and with fine Almeria landscapes. The music is very held back and not the normal type but it suits this SW well. I think I heard a nice theme that reminded me of a certain ā€œprogā€ music from 1970Ā“s.

I saw it years ago, two or three times actually. I can still remember major points of all four episodes. The first one is probably the best. The hero is torturing the bad guy really badly. The shootout at the hacienda is one of the highlights of the movie. Great camera shots, angles, etc. One feels almost sorry for the baddie but you should not get too sentimental. The next one, poker episode, is super cheesy, simple and quite predictable. Because of the lack of any surprise (we know the point from the very first moment) there is no tension, it is rather a weak episode but the music, direction and cast (Salerno) makes out for it. It almost feels like the episode was directed by QT. The third episode with Celi as a villain is the most violent and nasty. The re-used bullet really got me but otherwise it drags a little. The last one did not leave much impression even though Iā€™m big Tomas Milian fan. It has a weird atmosphere and not very coherent plot, Everything about it just screams they wanted to make something out of this universe. Well they succeeded, unfortunately it does not work too well, typical filler. The cast is excellent, direction as well but the fragmented episodes require taste. I think it really suffers the most from hardly any backstory (I think it was about a revenge for the heroā€™s brother but Iā€™m not sure anymore)

After the probably 4th time watching it in 4 months I still think Death Sentence is a 7/10 and ranked as number 21 on my SW Top 40 just behind Johnny Hamlet/The Wild And The Dirty and Requiescant/Kill And Pray.
The soft slow main theme is different but nicely played with different instruments.

Of my last 12 SW purchases 3 has qualified for a 7/10 and 9 for (at least so far) 6/10 in spite of rather carefull research before buying, but not to much surprise and I shouldnā€™t expect a better outcome.

The shooting of the film began towards the end of August '67.

The lead actor Robin Clarke was chosen by Lanfranchiā€™s wife, the American soprano Anna Moffo. In the late 1970s somebody compared him to Steve McQueen.

I didnā€™t know this connection! By coincidence, I just watched Moffo in The Weekend Murders (a sort of giallo-lite with an Agatha Christie set-up) only a few hours ago!

Thumbs-up for Death Sentence.

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Four assassins, four vendettas and four acts. Iā€™ve always found this SW more interesting than many of its better known and more lauded contemporaries. Many of the standard SW tropes (aside from the cold-hearted protagonist) are absent and thereā€™s a harsh, remorseless inevitability as Cash carries out each vendetta. The bleak, dilapidated sets match the fatalistic dialogue and the action scenes are quick and brutal.
The acting is good even allowing for MiliĆ”nā€™s excessiveness in the weaker fourth act. Thereā€™s some striking cinematography in the first act and the jazzy noirish score is well suited to the stage dynamics of the second act. Although one is left to ponder why such a disparate band would ever assemble for a heist in the first place - but then again this is the Italian West.
The French Seven 7 DVD for me is the best of a limited bunch of official releases. This one is long overdue an upgrade and ideally with the long withheld English dub.

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Definitely. With all the great releases weā€™ve gotten lately or should be getting soon, it wouldnā€™t surprise me if we heard something on this one, especially from Explosive.

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@Carlos has upgraded this movieā€™s page in the SWDb to the new ā€œSWDb 3.0ā€ format .
Please have a look and let us know if thereā€™s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).

New poll at the top of the page.

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Not everyone seems to have seen the BluRay news
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Sentenza_di_morte/BluRay