El Puro / La taglia è tua … l’uomo l’ammazzo io (Edoardo Mulargia, 1969)

In which the start of the scene with Mario Brega, Turi Campochiaro and the girl looks cut.


The full technical specifications page on IMDb reports this wrong film length derived from Anica data and in addition a 90min runtime despite the fact that 2750 meters are equivalent to 100 minutes!

I compared the first scene of the Portuguese version with the widescreen version. It seems the secret of runtime of the Portuguese is that it simply runs much too slow. When the credit sequence starts there is already a time gap of 10 sec. And the voices sound very deep cause of that slowness.

I think it’s exactly the same version as the 86 min version. Worthless …

I have also checked again. It seems that 10 minutes of the English version corresponds to more or less 11:48 minutes of the Portuguese. I haven’t seen the 86 min version, but it seems you are right. So that leaves me with a 94 min PAL version, which will correspond to something like 98 min, if I have understood this PAL business right. I don’t know where that version comes from.

I doubt that there is any difference. So you still watched the 98 min version, and the longest we got is between 106 and 107 min. But none of the extra min contains any really new material. There are only scenes longer running, and I think so far the shorter version is the preferable one.
The only real worthwile scene is the longer part in the store, in which we see Aldo Berti newly dressing up, in a blue woman’s skirt, which he wears for the rest of the film, only that without that scene nobody realises that it is a woman’s skirt. And of course without that part of the scene there is a continuity error.
The first scene is now nearly 2 min longer. Well filmed, but as I said we lose this magnificent opening.

I edited my post while you were answering :slight_smile: No, I haven’t spotted any differences. I have checked the English version for every ten minutes, and the running time of the corresponding part of the Portuguese one, and it varies from 11:36 to 11:55 minutes. Anyway, it was a real interesting to see the 98 min version. It’s hard to understand that this film still doesn’t have a decent DVD release.

This version comes from this Yugoslavian VHS: OFDb - El Puro (1969) - Video: Golden Video

The picture quality is according to that site better than the French and the Brazilian DVDs. Which means that both are very poor sub VHS standard.

Is the conclusion (that I find annoyingly hurried) slightly longer after the shot is fired?

Are these two versions of La taglia è tua … identical?
http://www.cultaction.com/film-catalog/spaghetti-western/el-puro-dvd-1969/
http://rarelust.com/the-rewards-yours-the-mans-mine-1969/
I’m not sure whether it’s appropriate to post the links here on the forum. If not, please let me know and I’ll delete them.

I found the information: as I suspected, for Venice 2007 they used a considerably shortened copy (93 minutes from the original 120). This is specified at the bottom of the page. :angry:

http://asac.labiennale.org/it/passpres/cinema/sem-ricerca.php?p=1&scheda=52501

HDCAM? That means a digital version was shown.

Sure, and once you have an HD master with three-quarters of the movie the chances of popularization of the original decrease dramatically, as shown by recent RaiMovie airings.

If the runtimes are correct, no.

The 2nd one seems to be the usual VHS version.

The first one is the the composite version, which a forum member created from the VHS and the longer Italian TV version. They probably stole it, and sell it now. Everybody who pays for this is insane, as everybody can trade it with other fans for (more or less) free.

Only if such an original exists. Or still exists.

Question 1 would be: Why did they show not a longer Version at Venice, if there is one? Film Festivals tend not to show cut movies.
The Venice version seems to be the same as the Rai version, even if there is a small runtime difference of a min. Maybe only a wrong data.

Question 2 would be: Where was the TV version with the extra minutes sourced from? Or wasn’t it a TV version, but an Italian VHS version?

Question 3: Was El puro released in Italy on VHS?

Is there a logo?

Hip, hip, hooray! :disappointed:

Thanks! I thought so.

No logo on the extra scenes, unlike the Rai Movie T.V print which of course has a logo.

The French dubbing is atrocious. Even the translation of the word taglia (from the movie’s original Italian title, La taglia è tua … l’uomo l’ammazzo io) is clearly based on a misunderstanding of its meaning: la rançon est à toi (or la rançon est pour toi on some film posters) translates into English as “the ransom is yours” (or “the ransom is for you”). The common French word for bounty is prime [de capture] – as in chasseur de primes (bounty hunter).

So far, I’ve watched La taglia è tua … dubbed into English and into French. In neither version’s dialogue the protagonist’s supposedly real name, Joe Bishop, is mentioned: Robert Woods’s character is exclusively referred to as “el puro.” Does the Italian version’s dialogue mention the name Joe Bishop? Or is it only to be found in non-diegetic sources (e. g., the screenplay, publicity materials etc.)?

OK, thanks ENNIOO.

El Puro is at one point asked his name(by the Mexican boy) and he doesn’t answer.