Film historians estimate that probably more than 550 spaghetti westerns were made in Europe (mostly Italy and Spain) during the height of that cinematic craze between 1961 to 1977. More than fifty per cent of those offerings were mostly forgettable programmers or mediocre genre fare or outright junk. And probably less than twenty-five per cent of the movies were high water marks or masterworks such as the Sergio Leone ‘Dollars’ trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) and The Great Silence (1968) and Sergio Sollima’s The Big Gundown (1967). Yet, there were still more than a handful of spaghetti westerns that were stylish examples of the form or offbeat and imaginative enough to warrant special attention and one of those is Sentenza di Morte (English title: Death Sentence, 1968), directed by Mario Lanfranchi.
The beauty of Death Sentence lies in its eloquent, stripped down narrative that dispenses with unnecessary subplots or a love interest for the protagonist or anything that distracts from the simple premise, which is set up in one brief flashback. Cash (Robin Clarke) is a former drunk whose older brother was betrayed by his four partners over a money scheme and shot down in cold blood. Cash was injured in the process but vows revenge and sets out to kill each man responsible for the deed in a four-act structure that reflects the profession and personality of each villain.
When Death Sentence opens, Cash is closing in on Diaz (Richard Conte) as he pursues him across the desert. Out of water and running low on bullets, Diaz remains defiant in his standoff with Cash and the entire episode plays out as grimly as its harsh, sun blasted setting. There is even a bit of dark humor as Cash gives Diaz false hope that a fresh water well is just over the horizon and spends an evening constructing one out of desert rocks to fool him.
The second act, set mostly in a bar room, has a claustrophobic tension as Cash challenges Montero (Enrico Maria Salerno), a professional gambler, to a winner-take-all, high stakes game. In other words, the one with the winning hand gets to kill the loser. Montero appears to be unbeatable and his armed men are standing by to make sure Cash doesn’t succeed in his quest but…never underestimate a gunslinger who drinks milk instead of whiskey (one of the film’s few jokes about Cash’s current sobriety).
Act three introduces us to Friar Baldwin (Adolfo Celi), a corrupt man of the cloth, who rules his region with an iron fist and arrests, tries and executes anyone who opposes him or gets in his way. Cash runs afoul of Baldwin and is roped, beaten and tortured for information about a buried chest of gold which is only a rumor. Even though he is left with a gun but no ammunition, Cash manages to painfully dig a slug out of his injured leg and reload his gun before Baldwin returns to execute him.
The final act has Cash confront O’Hara (Tomas Milian), an epileptic albino with an obsession for gold and blondes. Cash hires a blonde woman (Lilli Lembo) as a lure for O’Hara and the duo hole up in an abandoned monastery while O’Hara and his men surround the building and the adjoining graveyard. As O’Hara’s men get picked off, one by one, the sneaky albino tries to outsmart his enemy but his strategy is easily transparent.
Throughout the narrative of Death Sentence, Cash is little more than a relentless executioner with a one-track mind. But you have to admire his tough, laconic style, which is obviously modeled on Clint Eastwood’s ‘Man with no Name” figure in the Sergio Leone trilogy. This was American actor Robin Clarke’s debut film and reputedly he was cast in the film because his girlfriend-at-the-time, Ali McGraw, recommended him for the role. Clarke had a spotty film career, usually appearing in minor supporting roles with the rare exception of leading man in the British sci-fi thriller Inseminoid (1981). Otherwise, the actor popped up in guest star roles in TV series such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Hart to Hart and Columbo before leaving the entertainment industry in 1999.
Death Sentence may be somewhat predictable once you realize Cash is going to annihilate the four culprits who killed his brother, but it is nonetheless enjoyable to see their well-deserved demise. Adding additional interest are the atmospheric Almeria, Spain locations, an effective jazz-influenced score by Gianni Ferrio and some fine choreographed action sequences (such as the nighttime shootout in a creepy cemetery in the final sequence).
The real drawing card of Death Sentence, however, is the casting of the four main villains and all four actors shine in their featured roles. Richard Conte, who appeared in his share of Italian-made crime dramas in the final phase of his career, is almost sympathetic as the hunted and exhausted Diaz. This was Conte’s sole appearance in a spaghetti western and he brings an old school Hollywood expertise to the part.
Even more impressive is Enrico Maria Salerno’s cerebral gambler whose performance adds some psychological depth to his cunning Montero. Adolfo Celi and Tomas Milian, on the other hand, give broadly theatrical performances, which are enormously entertaining if somewhat cartoonish. Celi, of course, has played over-the-top villains before in such famous films as 1965’s Thunderball (as James Bond’s nemesis Largo) and cult items like Tinto Brass’s spaghetti western Yankee (1966) as a sadistic land baron.
Tomas Milian has stated in interviews that he considered his work in Death Sentence as one of his best performances but he is clearly self-deluded on that point. It is one of Milian’s hammiest performances but fans of the actors will relish his outrageously mugging and physical appearance here. Wearing a platinum wig and dressed in white with black gloves and dark sunglasses, Milian is a sight to behold as O’Hara and his sweaty, twitchy mannerisms build to a ridiculously protracted death scene.
Death Sentence may not be a forgotten masterpiece in the spaghetti western genre but it is exceptionally stylish and unique enough to stand out from the heap and Mario Lanfranchi’s terse, economic direction and pacing maintains one’s interest through the final fadeout as Cash rides away alone. Lanfranchi was much more famous as an Italian TV director and producer of theatrical plays and operas than he was as a movie director. He is only credited with seven movie credits with his 1967 adaptation of Verdi’s La Traviata starring Anna Moffo acknowledged as his most famous work.
Death Sentence is not currently available on any format in the U.S. but it was released on DVD in Germany by Koch Films in 2005 and later released on Blu-ray by Explosive Media in 2024. Both releases are PAL and you would need an all-region Blu-ray player to viewer them. Both releases come with an audio commentary by the director and a featurette on Mario Lanfranchi (who appears to have an inflated ego about himself). Strangely enough, Death Sentence was retitled Django Unbarmherzig Wie Die Sonne on these releases to take advantage of the popularity of the ‘Django’ franchise and all of the cast members re-dubbed into German from the Italian.
Other links of interest:
https://fondazionemariolanfranchi.it/en/mario-lanfranchi
https://timenote.info/en/Enrico-Maria-Salerno
https://frombeneaththehollywoodsign.com/f/star-of-the-month-richard-conte
https://www.007james.com/actors/adolfo_celi.php
https://westernsallitaliana.blogspot.com/2019/10/who-are-those-guys-robin-clarke.html
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Death_Sentence_Review
Cinema Sojourns 