"The Return of Sabata" is not quite as bad as some reviewers make it out to be, nor quite as good either. It's not quite funny enough to be a comedy, or dark enough to be a drama. Its primary characteristic is the confusion of the plot; it's not that there are many twists and turns, as much as the basic points of the plot never make much sense. Some reviewers suggest watching it a couple of times to unravel the strands of disorder – but it is not really good enough to watch more than once.
If you read this before watching the movie, here is what you should think about as you view it: the bad guy, Joe McIntock, has three sets of hard assets: the real money, the counterfeit money, and the gold. How are they related? What exactly are McCintock's and Sabata's goals and plans regarding them? I was not able to figure it out in one viewing. But I did not even realize these were the issues until it was too late.
All spaghetti westerns are deliberately odd, but there are some noteworthy things to look for here:
1. In the original Sabato, Lee Van Cleef is bald, his natural look. In the one scene in which he appears without a hat here, though, he has a lustrous head of silver hair.
2. Pedro Sanchez, who appears here in his third Sabata movie (he is Van Cleef's chubby sidekick), was dubbed in the first two Sabatas by an actor with a Mexican accent. Here, however, he has an American-Western accent, but occasionally slides back into a slight Spanish accent. It is all very disconcerting.
3. The theme song states emphatically that Sabata is "nine-fingered". IMDb suggests that this is not quite accurate, that actually he was missing the "last joint of his middle finger".
4. The movie features the most beautiful dance hall girls of any western I have ever seen. McIntock's wife, played by Jacqueline Alexandre, an only occasional actress, is also stunningly beautiful.
In sum, "The Return of Sabata" is nothing great, but watching Lee Van Cleef is never a waste of one's time.
If you read this before watching the movie, here is what you should think about as you view it: the bad guy, Joe McIntock, has three sets of hard assets: the real money, the counterfeit money, and the gold. How are they related? What exactly are McCintock's and Sabata's goals and plans regarding them? I was not able to figure it out in one viewing. But I did not even realize these were the issues until it was too late.
All spaghetti westerns are deliberately odd, but there are some noteworthy things to look for here:
1. In the original Sabato, Lee Van Cleef is bald, his natural look. In the one scene in which he appears without a hat here, though, he has a lustrous head of silver hair.
2. Pedro Sanchez, who appears here in his third Sabata movie (he is Van Cleef's chubby sidekick), was dubbed in the first two Sabatas by an actor with a Mexican accent. Here, however, he has an American-Western accent, but occasionally slides back into a slight Spanish accent. It is all very disconcerting.
3. The theme song states emphatically that Sabata is "nine-fingered". IMDb suggests that this is not quite accurate, that actually he was missing the "last joint of his middle finger".
4. The movie features the most beautiful dance hall girls of any western I have ever seen. McIntock's wife, played by Jacqueline Alexandre, an only occasional actress, is also stunningly beautiful.
In sum, "The Return of Sabata" is nothing great, but watching Lee Van Cleef is never a waste of one's time.