Cord did little else of merit in my view.
I will always remember Cord as the white suited CIA man in Airwolf. He was also very good in the British jungle mercenary action film The Last Grenade and the giallo The Dead are Alive.
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I was wondering if there is any news on potential new releases for this film? The Colosseo Film blu ray looks quite badâŚ
It does? I thought it was fine
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And this why âSWDBâ is so wonderfulâŚwe all have differing opinions. 
My mistake, I somehow only saw scenes that were from the cut portions of the film which are super washed out and weird looking. The rest of the film looks fine. I take it back
I might misremember. But itâs a fine edition altogether I would say
I hadnât actually watched it - I only looked at certain scenes which just happened to all be the scenes cut from the US version - those all look pretty bad. But the main film itself looks good
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I compared the 118m âoriginalâ version on You Tube to the 99m American cut.
The long version is titled âDove Vai Ti Ammazzoâ but the Italian posters have a different title. Presumably this is a pre-release title? Was it released with this title?
In the long version only Ugo Liberatore is credited with the screenplay. Albert Band is credited only in the US cut. I suggest Band didnât write or produce this and got his name added once he was involved in the distribution. Dino de Laurentisâs name appears at the end of the longer version - which probably explains the presence of Kennedy and Ryan who were making Anzio for him at the same time.
There is an additional sequence in the American version - at 3m32s to 5m54s in the shorter cut. This comes immediately after McCord and Fred escape down the river. This does not appear to be a flashback but shows McCord killing and disarming the pursuing bounty hunters and getting their weapons and coat. Not sure why this is missing from the longer cut as it clearly belongs in the film.
There is about 22m of extra footage in the longer version. Apart from the 4m30s added to the end (see below), much of this is imperceptible without close examination as it involves removing shots from within scenes and trimming entrances and exits. The âflip cutsâ in the short version are used to hide some of the trims (Iâve seen this done before with these).
Some of the larger or more noticeable trims:
- the sequence at the telegraph office is missing about a minute including the establishing shot and McCord shooting eggs onto the owners. It is also missing the shot of Stefanelli listening to McCord saying where we he off to next which explains why the bounty hunters are waiting for him at the mission
- McCord disarming the young man on guard for the outcasts is missing
- McCordâs entrance into Escondito is trimmed quite a bit reducing the atmosphere. When he talks to Kraut a few reaction shots of henchmen and almost all of Ruby approaching the wagon with the corpses are missing. Near 2m cut here. The later indoor scene between McCord and the girl is also trimmed - flip cut used to hide the cut.
- the scene (40s) in which McCord leaves Escondito for the first time is missing. This cut causes a bit of narrative confusion in the short version since we cut from a night scene in Escondito to a night scene in Tescosa with McCord present in each. In the long version these night scenes are different nights.
- Robert Ryanâs entrance and his snooping around the town is missing several shots
- when Cheap turns up with the food wagon, the scene has been shortened
- Some of McCord riding to Beaverhead is missing
- whole scene in which Ryan fetches the Doctor and Kennedy from Tescosa is missing (1m10s)
- very little of the violence has been cut - although a couple of shots of McCordâs beating prior to his crucifixion are missing as are a few shots from Cheapâs torture and murder
- the only really important trim is to remove the last 4m30s of the movie in which McCord is killed including end credits (no end credits in the short version)
So, the editing is quite clever and done almost solely to reduce the time. There still look to be scenes missing in the long version but one must assume they were not filmed.
I did think the first half of this movie was very good but once Ryan appeared I thought it went to pieces and lost credibility. I couldnât buy a sharpshooting super Gunfighter senator - Ryan and Kennedyâs gun handling in the final shootout left much to be desired - or why Kraut would sacrifice his whole army trying to kill McCord.
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I think it is still unclear where the 2nd Italian title descends from. Maybe it was from a theatrical re-release. I have an old British TV version with the long 118 min version, and it features this title too.
The additional scenes of the MGM version are pretty good, and I wished they were in the long version, but there are always reasons to edit such scenes out. Maybe they felt there was too much repetition in the beginning.
But it is obvious that MGM as co-producer did create their own master not by just cutting down the Italian version, MGM did their own thing.
As someone has posted above, there is also the 89m UK version which includes the original ending so the Brits cut down the 118m version and presumably the TV screening was the original print before all of these cuts.
Several of the scenes missing were BBFC censor cuts which removed several entire scenes and most of the shooting of McCord. Here are the UK BBFC cuts:
A MINUTE TO PRAY A SECOND TO DIE (UK title: DEAD OR ALIVE) (1968)
Classified âXâ for theatrical release in 1968 after the following cuts:
DR1 - Considerably shorten the beat-up of a priest by two men.
DR3 - Remove the whole episode in which a man attacks McCord, has a fight with him and is killed (nb: I assume this must be the fight with Jose Manuel Martin in the girlâs house)
DR4 - Remove the whole scene in which Kraut and his men beat-up McCord.
DR5 - Remove the whole episode in which Cheap Charley is tortured and drowned.
Reduce the shooting of McCord to the shot that knocks him off his horse.
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Pretty precise greetings - as someoneâs surely noticed, Clay McCord returns to his hideout in the high country to what is as near as darnit the big E major blaze near the end of Mahler 4âs slow movement. Getting the sense that Rusticelliâs score, which I like, is pasted together!
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Credit page has been added.
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Not quite sure why this ranks as low as it does. Maybe not many people have seen it.
I thought this was a good movie (sadly saw the 99 min US cut on Amazon Prime). The second half of the film is much stronger than the first half in my opinion but that is also true of The Mercenary and Massacre Time among others. First half didnât seem to flow but that may be due to the missing scenes / cuts. I would certainly recommend this one to anyone who hasnât seen it.
Now need to get hold of the 118 min version!
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Buy the German Blu-ray for 118 min version.
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The US version has some scenes that are not in the longer Italian version. Also, I think I prefer the happy ending of the US version.
The German Blu has these in the extras btw
I agree with Sebastian â very pleased with video/audio quality. And the film itself, found it very powerful.