Sartana in the Valley of Death / Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi (Roberto Mauri, 1970)

Spaghetti Westerns 🎬
101

This movie feels like playing a 3D game with 30° FOV. Dizziness and stomach issues guranteed. It is just horrible. Unwatchable.

103

Good movie in my opinion :slight_smile:

1 Like
104

Credits page has been created for Sartana nella valle degli avvoltoi (Sartana in the Valley of Death)

3 Likes
105

I found this one a struggle although I watched the short version in a German print in English. I then checked out the much longer French version posted here (thanks for that) which cleared up a lot of the continuity problems but added its own problems.

Here’s a fuller comparison:

French version is 94m37s ignoring about 45s of blackness at the end
DVD version is 79m41s
so about 15m difference
(assume both are Pal so longer version runs about 98m in NTSC)

  • when Calloway is faced by two opposite lines of posse members on horseback in the town the short version omits the shots of Calloway placing sticks of dynamite on the ground. When Calloway then shoots the dynamite sticks, the explosions are reduced and also his escape from the town and the explosion which stops the posse pursuing is also trimmed. These cuts are inexplicable as they render the short version incoherent yet are only about 15s-20s so cannot be for length.
  • In the scene in the jail, after the camera pans into a close-up of Jason’s face a cut back or flashback which introduces Slim and Juanita at the Craig family ranch is missing. This establishes Slim’s desire for Juanita. (length of cut 1m. This is removed because the later subplot involving the two is also removed)
  • About 6m have been removed from the long sequence, based on TGTBTU desert sequence, in which Jason and Copper (or is it Cougher) stalk Calloway in the clay pit posing as a desert. There are about 4-5 separate cuts here ranging from 2m to about 25s. None really add anything to the plot. The longest cut, about 2m, comes just before Calloway collapses (easily spotted because of a music ‘jump’) and intercuts shots of the brothers drinking water with Calloway’s parched and broken lips.
  • When Jason and Copper gate crash Calloway’s hotel room a close up of the message left by Calloway on his coat has been cut causing a minor jump in the visuals. I assume this was cut because it was in Italian and no French/German/English version produced. The message states that Calloway has upped his proposed share to 75%.
  • As noted above the longest excision, 7m in total, comes about 5m before the end of the movie in the short version. In the short version, Jason digs up the money chest and then the bad guys hear/see the musical ballerina, Calloway appears and a rather abrupt shoot out begins. You can tell something has been cut because the location has changed (the graveyard when the money was buried is missing) and the money chest is subsequently seen tied on the side of a horse when it was previously in Jason’s hand about 2s before the shoot out started. In the long version (a) we see the chest being opened and Copper picks up gold bars (b) Slim exits the family ranch with Juanita and her child and Juanita speaks to Slim (d) There is a flashback to several years previously. The four brothers carry out a home invasion of a Mexican family. Jason finds Juanita in a back bedroom and forces her to come with him by threatening to murder her very young son. At least two other family members are murdered before the brothers ride off (e) Slim decides to elope with Juanita and her child and they get on a buggy and drive off (f) Cooper arrives at the ranch and discovers they are missing and chases them on a horse (g) Cooper catches up with the buggy. Slim, Juanita and boy dismount and hide in the rocks. Slim and Cooper exchange shots at Cooper is hit in the arm. (h) Jason and the other two turn up. Jason shoots Slim who dies. They pick up Slim’s body at which point the musical ballerina starts playing and we resume as per the short version. The subsequent shoot-out has been slightly abridged in the short version to remove about three cut-aways to Juanita and her child, including a shot of them scarpering.

I can see why this whole subplot was removed because it comes far too late in the narrative and doesn’t really affect the main plot since you are asked to engage, at the end of the movie, which characters you have hardly seen before. . But it does eliminate Juanita’s entire part except for a couple of shots and she doesn’t speak at all in the short version.

I’d echo some of the points above about character names - it does sound like ‘Galloway’ in English although it is ‘Calloway’ on the wanted poster (same name as Mortimer’s prey in FAFDM) and Calloway in the French dialogue. I was also confused by Aldo Berti’s name (not sure who Pete was) or even why Berti was coughing as there was no pay-off to it but I guess that cos he’s an eccentric spaghetti western actor and he is trying to keep the audience and himself interested and he wasn’t allowed to wear a dress this time. If you watch closely he has all sorts of tics suggesting a possible education at the Klaus Kinski oratory school for ham actors.