Sabata Vem para Vingar

This follow-up deals with Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) who finds combating a mean businessman named McLintock (Albertini) . The major Sabata joins forces with a Saloon owner , the Lieutenant , (Reinar Schone). Furthermore, his misfit and strange team : two acrobats (Nick Jordan and Vassili Karis) , and , of course , the old rogue with a drummer (Ignacio Spalla or Pedro Sanchez) . Meanwhile, Sabata gets involved with a Saloon girl (gorgeous Annabella Incontrera) .

This offbeat Western comedy results to be the genuine sequel to ¨Sabata¨ (with Van Cleef , William Berger, Linda Veras and Franco Ressel) , and it's full of intriguing touches , Western action , shootouts and being very amusing . This entertaining picture gets the humorous remarks from Western parody combined to features of Spaghetti such as violent antiheroes , excessive zooms , extreme nasties and spectacular gunfight with high body-count . Appearing usual secondary actors , habitual in Italian Western , such as : Gianni Rizzo , Alberto Dell'Acqua , Rick Boyd, Fortunato Arena , Franco Fantasia , among others . And Pedro Sanchez who acted in the Sabata trilogy and he played similar roles to S. W. secondary idol Fernando Sancho. The movie was well produced by Alberto Grimaldi (Sergio Leone's Trilogy of dollars as producer). Atmospheric and adequate cinematography by cameraman Sandro Mancori. . Lively and jolly musical score by Marcello Giombini with Ennio Morricone influence . The motion picture was professionally directed by Gianfranco Paraolini who often used pseudonym Frank Kramer . It's followed by ¨Indio Black¨ with Yul Brynner , Dean Reed and Gerard Herter . The flick will appeal to Lee Van Cleef fans and S. W. buffs.

Of the three "Sabata" films, "Return of Sabata" is the weakest entry. It was included in the notorious book "The 50 Worst Films of All Time", though I don't think the movie, despite its problems, deserved that dubious honor. I've seen much worse spaghetti westerns. Though I didn't think the movie was all that great. The movie does have a few positive attributes. Lee Van Cleef still makes for an effective anti hero (though who convinced him to wear that awful hairpiece?), the musical score is spirited, and the action sequences have energy and punch. But someone should have sent the screenplay back for a major rewrite before filming stared. To put it bluntly, the movie pretty much makes no sense at all. Though I wasn't really bored at any moment, I simply couldn't understand what was going on. Also, Van Cleef's Sabata character seems in some aspects to be different than the Sabata character he played in the first film; I wouldn't be surprised if the screenplay was originally written to not be a Sabata film. While I guess the movie is essential viewing for spaghetti western fans and collectors, I think even they will find it tough going at times.

The third and last film in the Sabata-series is only slightly better than ADIÓS, SABATA. Lee Van Cleef is back as Sabata and his presence by itself is enough to make this a better movie than the second one with Yul Brynner. Still, Van Cleef can't entirely make up for the awful script and the attempts for comedy. The "gags" in this film are total misfires. Sometimes, Van Cleef is even required to act like a clown. His clothing too isn't as cool as it was in the superior first SABATA. And, excuse me, Sabata as a circus act????????

This all reminded me a bit of the SCREAM-trilogy, with the exception that the second film there was much better than here. The superior first one and the weak third one are however very similar in both series. Why all those unnecessary sequels? Why not leave people with the memory of a good film and not with that of some bad sequels? 4/10

Return of Sabata casts Lee Van Cleef back as the cunning and ruthless sharpshooter, Sabata. Similarities between the first Sabata movie where Van Cleef also played the same role are more than abundant: acrobats, comical sidekicks, greedy villains, double-crossing allies, Sabata shooting off with his cool 4-barreled Derringer and so forth. Lee Van Cleef rocks. He's as cool as ever, and all the other actors do at least fairly decent jobs supporting him.

Everything seems to be as well as in the first movie. Except that this time the plot is more complicated and filled with twists and turns (and plot holes). Unfortunately this is not entirely good thing: in time you lose track of the plot twists and begin to wonder the motives and the logic behind some of the characters behavior. Why did he do that? Wouldn't it been more logical to behave or act some other way? Much like Ocean's 12 or any other snotty "cleverer-than-thou" sequel, Return of Sabata drowns you with twists and turns just for the sake of confusing. This leads to the point that you actually have to watch Return of Sabata at least couple of times before the main plot fully unravels. Of course you do get the big picture in the end of the movie after the first watch, but in order to get all the nuances and small details in place you might want to give it another go. Not that the main plot would magically turn out to be any better: it just rewards you a little bit more since the second time you have a small grasp *why* somebody did something that seemed illogical or strange before. This time you know what's in that characters mind and you also know something about his motives. Then again, I strongly believe that these kind of character traits should have been portrayed clearer in the script (or acting) so you would have realized them during the first view time already.

In short? Return of Sabata offers great characters, but lousy and confusing plot. Still, it's worth a watch. Or two.

After Yul Brunner became Sabata for Indio Black, Lee Van Cleef reprises his original role in this final entry in the Sabata saga. Unfortunately it's also the lesser one, although probably the most expensive.

I've seen many a nonsensical spaghetti western in my life, but Return of Sabata takes the cake. There's probably some semblance of plot underneath all the twists and turns but one hour in and I was completely lost. No matter, it's still entertaining enough to pass the time. The action scenes are all that matters here, there are plenty of gunfights, goofy acrobatics and explosions. Good production values make it easy on the eyes, the sets, costumes and cinematography are all on pretty high standards to the point where this is probably one of the most expensive spaghetti westerns made, this side of Leone. The humour is mostly silly and flat, the acting is average and I've heard better (and worse) dubbings. Lee Van Cleef's usual charming and charismatic persona is another big plus. Watchable but by no means essential.