Adiós, Sabata (1970)

Adiós, Sabata (Italian: Indio Black, sai che ti dico: Sei un gran figlio di..., roughly translated as Indio Black, you know what I'm going to tell you ... You're a big son of a ....) is a 1970 Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western film directed by Gianfranco Parolini. It is the second film in The Sabata Trilogy by Parolini. Yul Brynner takes over the lead role from Lee Van Cleef, who stars in the first and third films.

The film was originally going to be entitled Indio Black, but the title was changed after the first Sabata film proved successful and had inspired many imitators. Van Cleef had been offered the starring role in the film, but had to decline because he was committed to The Magnificent Seven Ride in the role of Chris Adams, which Brynner had made famous in The Magnificent Seven.

Sabata carries a sawed off lever action rifle with a side-loading magazine containing seven .30/30 Remington rimfire cartridges...and one cigar. Guns based on a horizontal loading slide magazine were called harmonica guns (the magazine resembling a harmonica). There is no record of a lever action harmonica magazine rifle, so this gun was almost certainly a prop creation. Harmonica guns generally required a cocking action plus a manual advancement of the magazine, hence the lever action in this gun to cock it and the visible position of Brynner's hand to advance the magazine to the next cartridge position.

Synopsis

Set in Mexico under the rule of Emperor Maximilian I, Sabata is hired by the guerrilla leader Señor Ocaño to steal a wagonload of gold from the Austrian army. However, when Sabata and his partners Escudo and Ballantine obtain the wagon, they find it is not full of gold but of sand, and that the gold was taken by Austrian Colonel Skimmel. So Sabata plans to steal back the gold.

Actors