Indio Black, sai che ti dico: Sei un gran figlio di...

In his one and only venture into the pasta western, Yul Brynner finds himself succeeding Lee Van Cleef as the mysterious gunfighter Sabata who gets himself involved in Mexican politics in trying to overthrow the Emperor Maximilian. There hasn't been a film yet where the Juaristas aren't the good guys, even in Juarez where Brian Aherne made a sympathetic if somewhat naive Maximilian. It's such a clear case of imperialism.

But Yul isn't a total good guy and he teams up with three partners to steal a shipment of gold from the occupiers and give it to the Juaristas ostensibly. Actually the four of them are only as good as they have to be. And they've got another along, an American played by the only American actor in Adios Sabata, Dean Reed, who has an agenda all his own who keeps a positively explosive diary.

As most of us know even those who get their history from films, the Emperor Maximilian was an Austrian, but who was put on the newly created Mexican throne by the French and sustained by the French army. But here we have Austrian occupiers including an Austrian commander who also has a private agenda. I'm betting the producers were thinking that German types make so much better villains than the French.

Sabata's distinguishing characteristic was a rife that he had a long holster for and drew like a revolver. This rife had a unique horizontal magazine from where the bullets came. But the last chamber always had a cigar which Yul would light up after a killing well done.

I'm not a fan of spaghetti westerns and don't usually give them good reviews. It's the American genre and should be done by Americans. This one is no exception. But I will say that Yul Brynner's cynical look throughout the film is quite priceless.

This is not the same "Sabata" character as in the Lee Van Cleef movies. This character was actually supposed to be named "Indio Black" but they changed his name for the English version. Why they thought that a western with a big star like Yul Brynner wouldn't be popular enough on it's own, and tried to cash in on the Sabata name is beyond me, but studios and distributors did a lot of stupid things to film titles back then, especially with the international releases, so it's par for the course.

Yul Brynner is interesting as the protagonist in this film. Too bad he didn't appear in any other spaghetti westerns. He's no Lee Van Cleef, but he does have a style of his own. His accent makes him sound like Arnold Schwartzeneggar in some parts. Gerard Herter is great as the wicked, Nazi-like Austrian Colonel. I wasn't very impressed with any of the other actors in the movie. Dean Reed was especially awful, and his character, "Ballantyne" was very irritating. I kept hoping he would get killed throughout the whole movie, but that damned Indio Black kept saving him.

The music score is OK, but not as good as most of Bruno Nicolai's other work, and there are very long stretches of the film with no music at all where it probably could use some.

The movie drags a little from the middle to the end. There's lots of action, but it just doesn't have the pizazz or suspense of the really great spaghetti westerns. It would probably be better if it was shorter. Some movies, like Sergio Leone's westerns for example, are able to go on for 2 or 3 hours and not have a dull moment, but this movie isn't one of them. It could have been 15 or 20 minutes shorter.

Overall, the production quality is good, and the story is OK, though it's nothing original. This one is worth watching, but probably for spaghetti western fans only.

The manic westerns of Gianfranco Parolini are like surreal comic books with outrageous editing and angles, bizarre weaponry, confusing language, episodic plots where every scene has a punchline, and ridiculous costumes. His films have a sense of tongue in cheek fun that comes through clearly thirty years later. It appears that the circus was his model, unpretentious entertainment pure and simple. There is absolutely no serious intention in his movies. That is why he remains the guilty pleasure of a number of fans of spaghetti westerns and eurotrash films in general. Along with Sabata (1970), Adios, Sabata is one of his "best".

The score by Bruno Nicolai is excellent, though reminiscent of Morricone's scores for the first 2 Leone movies.

The movie was originally intended be about a character called Indio Black, but with the success of Sabata the names were changed.

The five best things about this film: 1)Yul Brynner's black outfit with leather trim, an open vest, and bell bottoms 2)Lines like (spoken by Brynner), "Now let's get moving. Every Austrian in the territory will be looking for us." 3)The devious Colonel Skimmel 4)Every Austrian wears a black suit, tie, and bowler hat, making them somewhat conspicuous 5)The cast of revolutionary characters each with a unique ability or weapon

Top spaghetti western list http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849907

Average SWs http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849889

For fanatics only (bottom of the barrel) http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849890

The film talks about Sabata or Indio Black (Yul Brynner) , a gunfighter dressed in dark buckskin with fringes . He along with a motley group of revolutionary bandits have purports to steal a wagon loaded of gold from a devious Austrian Colonel called Skimmel (Gerard Herter) serving to Emperor Maximiliano during the Mexican Civil War against Benito Juarez . The misfit group is formed by different characters each one with particular ability , as the deaf-mute (Sal Borgese) is an expert thrower of balls , the dancer Gitano or Gypsy (Joseph Persaud) who does a Flamenco dance of death ; besides a fat , ironic Mexican (Pedro Sanchez or Ignacio Spalla acting in similar roles to Spaghetti idol Fernando Sancho) and a cocky , ruddy young man (the singer Dean Reed , early deceased) .

The picture contains Western action , gun-play , comedy , tongue-in-cheek and a little bit of violence . The film gets the comic remarks from Western parody united the features of typical Spaghetti as violent confrontation , ambitious antiheroes , bloody and spectacular showdown with several deaths , quick zooms and extreme baddies . This was not originally a Sabata film , the original Italian title translates as "Indio Black, you know what? You're a big son of a..." . Indio Black being the character played by Yul Brynner , but the title and Brynner's character name were changed for the American release to cash in on Sabata (1969) , the original film . Yul Brynner as a tough gunfighter with technical weaponry (like a Western James Bond) is enjoyable , similarly the previous Sabata : Lee Van Cleef , who was playing the role as 'Chris' in the following to first entry ¨The Seven magnificent¨ whose starring was the famous bald . At the same time Brynner filmed ¨Catlow¨ by Sam Wanamaker also in a lookalike role and similar plot , but it also narrates the robbing a Mexican gold shipment . Gerard Herter as a nasty and cruel Austrian officer with monocle named Colonel Skimmel is magnificent , but he repeats the role who starred in ¨The big gundown¨ (by Sergio Sollima with Lee Van Cleef) also with Nieves Navarro , here playing a very secondary role as a gorgeous saloon dancer . Bruno Nicolai musical score is lively and atmospheric , he's an usual collaborator to Ennio Morricone . The picture was well produced by Albert Grimaldi (¨Trilogy of dollars¨ producer) . The film was professionally directed by Frank Kramer (pseudonym of Gianfranco Parolini) who made the original and best ¨Sabata¨, continuing with ¨The return of Sabata¨ ; besides directing another Spaghetti hero : ¨Sartana¨ with Gianni Garco and Klaus Kinski, and his last Western again with Lee Van Cleef : ¨Diamante Lobo¨ . The flick will appeal to Yul Brynner fans and Spaghetti Western enthusiasts.

Yul Brynner and Dean (The Red Elvis) Reed team up with a group of Mexican revolutionaries in order to steal a shipment of gold belonging to the invading Austrian army and use it to buy guns for the resistance. However, the vicious Austrian occupiers have a few tricks up their sleeves and so does Brynner.

Yul's only real spaghetti western, his performance, flamboyant outfit, and neat gun-play elevates this very much typical, though well-made production to a higher level than it otherwise would have been. It's still too bland though.

The score by frequent Ennio Morricone collaborator Bruno Nicolai is pretty good.

From the producers and director of the earlier Sabata, this similarly themed film only became a sequel in the dubbing booth.