Starring: George Hilton, Charles Southwood, Piero Lulli, Erika Blanc Running Time: 1:33 Country: USA Year: 1970
A Fistful of Lead belongs to the Sartana series, a Santana for the poor so to speak, whose black clad hero forces his way to his enemies thanks to a succession of more or less inventive tricks.
A Fistful of Lead is located somewhere between For A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More. Sartana is a mercenary who's supposed to protect the pay of a town's inhabitants from a band of robbers. But, as is usual in this genre of films, there is a profusion of double plays. The film also reserves some rather foreseeable surprises.
As in many spaghetti westerns, there is an underlying theme of homosexuality that masks a certain misogyny. The two heroes, one in black and the other in white, oppose one another to better attract each other while the film's only woman doesn't have the best part.
The production seems to have saved on the set as well as on the film, since certain sequences are repeated. The action scenes are rarely spectacular but sometimes attempt originality. The acting is less extravagant than the usual but skimpy enough.
A film that won't go down in the annals of cinema history but can be watched with amusement to get an idea of the Sartana series.
The picture quality of the DVD is rather execrable but for $5, it is difficult to complain about.
Fistful of Lead review
