A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die / Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire (Franco Giraldi, 1968)

Fascinating.

I have an 113 Min Pal version form British TV (118 min theatrical).
After the ā€œfineā€ the music ends 10 sec later. Then the credits start 70 sec before the end with new music. But after the black screen apears the music was cut off.

And there is no scene of Fredā€™s death.

Tabernas are you from Germany?

[quote=ā€œTabernas, post:120, topic:271ā€]Hello everybody,

this year I also cut an almost uncut version of A minute to pray a second to die.
I used the German TV version of the film, the french version and the MGM version.

I also suggest that at the beginning of the film is missing part of the scene when Mc Cord and Fred where ambushed by the bounty hunters in the ruin. This scene ends in my version when Mc Cord
fake shots with his pistol on the bandit and walks away. Then you can see the next scene when Mc Cord and Fred sits on the ground/sleep. So my question: Is the scene with the bounty hunters longer or is there a third scene between?[/quote]

I know this scene only from the MGM version. Whatā€™s different in the French version?

The end (fine) comes up and hangs around for about 6 seconds. The end credits then start which run around 1 minute and 14 seconds.

Okay, fair enough. I understand that Cinemageddon is in a pretty shady place legally speaking, so it doesnā€™t want to attract attention.

Thanks Ennioo and Stanton,

so there is missing about 1 minute of the end titles in my recut version. (the end titles are form the french version).

Stanton, in the French and also the German version there is missing the complete scene in the ruin with the bounty hunters, but it is my feeling that also the MGM scene in the ruin is cut a little bit. It is my feeling that it is a little bit strange the way the blend/fade to the next scene was made by MGM. So these could be probably the missing seconds of my reconstruction project.

I hope, that a good DVD company like Koch Media puts efforts in finding an uncut version in its original aspect ratio of this gem.
It is strange that all other movies by Giraldi got an valuable DVD release, if you look at Sugar Colt
or the MacGregors. During my search I didnā€™t found an italian version. This is strange.
Probably it will be also very difficult for a DVD company to find a master in the correct aspect ratio and in the original italian language. Maybe MGM donā€™t give the rights or Giraldi refuses himself a new presentation.

Best regards
Tabernas

Yes, this is the scene with the ā€œflip awayā€ cut mentioned earlier in the thread that we were wondering about. On the MGM disc, whenever a scene transitions to another scene, and a cut is made, the picture flips around. At this scene youā€™re talking about, there is indeed a flip cut which indicates that something is missing. If there is something missing, it is not in the Japanese TV recording either.

[quote=ā€œStanton, post:119, topic:271ā€]But it is still strange that the MGM does contain 2 scenes which are not part of the 118 min version.

Aute you said that in the composite version still some shorter stuff form the Japanese version is missing?[/quote]

I assume the 118 min version youā€™re referring to is your British recording? I guess I wouldnā€™t be able to figure it out without comparing this with the current edit. Or maybe you can give it a look, a bit of a headache without video editing software Iā€™d imagine

I did say that there could be some extremely slight stuff missing from the Japanese version, but not likely. If anything is missing, it would be extremely short cuts, like maybe 1 second scenes that are just a couple of frames.

Iā€™ve also had a fellow messaging me about a French TV recording. Tabernas, is your French version from TV also?

I suppose Iā€™ve made a mistake in claiming it as uncut, since it is uncertain now. I figured that the 118 runtime matches the original theatrical time, so it qualifies, but maybe not.

Also Tabernas, are the German/French recordings PAL?

[quote=ā€œautephex, post:127, topic:271ā€]Iā€™ve also had a fellow messaging me about a French TV recording. Tabernas, is your French version from TV also?

I suppose Iā€™ve made a mistake in claiming it as uncut, since it is uncertain now. I figured that the 118 runtime matches the original theatrical time, so it qualifies, but maybe not.

Also Tabernas, are the German/French recordings PAL?[/quote]

Itā€™s probably as ā€˜uncutā€™ as we ever get. If thereā€™s still anything missing, it might be lost forever, unless weā€™ll have some kind of ā€˜lucky finderā€™ (like in the case with Dryerā€™s La passion de Jeanne Dā€™Arc).

Stanton said this 118 version still makes a cut impression. I donā€™t know. Itā€™s feels uneven, occasionally a bit patchy, but this might be the result of the movieā€™s genesis. Band accepted a script he didnā€™t particularly like and no doubt made a lot of changes. If you donā€™t take the time to ā€˜level outā€™ the stilistic differences in such a case, that what you get: an uneven, patchy work. And then thereā€™s Corbucci. Did or didnā€™t he film anything, and if he did, what did they do with this material? Throw it away? Use it? Use snippets of it, or some ideas?

I pretty much agree scherp. The one thing that leaves me wondering is this enigmatic flip cut as McCord walks away laughing after holding the gun to the bounty hunterā€™s head. Perhaps they just used this flip transition to change scenes, but the fact this technique seems to have only been used for scenes where cuts were made makes a pretty good case that there is something missing here.

It doesnā€™t seem this mystery scene is contained in any known versions though, so maybe they just made use of the flip since it changes from a night scene to a day scene or some other reason.

I think Stanton is mainly wondering about the fact he has a 118 minute version of the film which is missing scenes from the MGM 98 minute version, which would seem to suggest that there must be more than 118 minutes total if all scenes are included from both of these versions. I wonder also, but I think its maybe more likely that there is some other aspect to account for this, such as the runtime including non-film footage or some slight detail. Such as the length of the end credits, intro/logo screens of MGM/Paramount/whoever, and blank video.

As I already said a composite version of mine would run 120 min and 20 sec. from the Columbia logo to the ending credits. The UK version is a Pal recording according to Any DVD amnd must for that have 25f r/sec which results in a runtime of more than 120 min.

But how comes that Tabernas has a 126 min runtime? Plus the missing min from the credits plus another min for the Pal speed-up for about 28 min not taken from the MGM. (Thatā€™s if he used the MGM not only for the 2:20 min missing from all the other versions).

Aute if you still have fun to complete the puzzle I can sent you a copy of my UK version.

Or maybe it is exclusively only in the MGM version. Maybe MGM gave money and created their own version from the footage and not from the Italian version. There are some other SWs which have different scenes in different countries.

A shame anyway as it is one of the best scenes of the film. It is only a bit strange that we have there now 3 short scenes in a row with McCord and Fred resting.

I wouldnā€™t mind having a look, just to attempt to put the mystery to rest. I can also ask the guy Iā€™ve been talking with if he can send me the French version, or maybe I can find it online somewhere.

But then thereā€™s also this German TV version Tabernas speaks of

I havenā€™t found anything in the German version which is not in the long version. But I did not made a complete check, so who knows ā€¦

Iā€™d like to have a look at this French version. Can Tabernas give me a link? I tried a few torrent sites, but couldnā€™t find anything so far.

The guy Iā€™ve been talking to says he can mail me a disc of the French version he has. He said he recorded it himself off of TV, it is in English with hardcoded French subtitles. Fullscreen, slightly better quality than the Japanese recording

Actually I see him online here now, perhaps he has something to chime in with :slight_smile:

Itā€™s mind boggling how many edits/ cuts this film has :o . Itā€™s a pity weā€™ll probably never see a uncut restored DVD or Blu-Ray. If there was, I suspect this films reputation would grow significantly.

[quote=ā€œTabernasā€]Hi,

the French Version has a running time of 1:44:23 and runs 25 pics per second with a Biterate of 128 KBits. At the beginning there appears the logo:
Columbia presenta

It has no TV channel logo so I canā€™t recognize the source. Maybe it was from a video tape.

The German TV Version was recorded in Pal on video Tape and was very badly cut but for the reconstruction also useful, because of some scenes.

The discussed scene with the strange fade of MGM, I supose, is only uncut in the original but not available italian version.

So I see all country versions of the movie were differently cutted.
Regarding with the eyes of nowadays this is a shame and a nearly maniac method of ruining a
perfect movie.

So good the picture quality of the MGM DVD is, nevertheless there is cutted a lot of the picture above and below. This you can particularly see in the scene where Mc Cord is tortured hanging on the rope and the bandit crawls over the bar.

Again there is hopefully Koch Media which can make the dream of so many Spaghetti Western enthusiasts come true and save this masterpiece for the fans.

Regards
Tabernas[/quote]

Hello (first post)

Iā€™m indeed the one who contacted autephex regarding my tv recording from Cine Classic in the second half of 2010. (TT 1:45,25)

I havenā€™t had the time, nor will i have it in the near future to have a look at this film twice and do a minute or scene by scene comparison.

Nevertheless if thereā€™s a scene where yo think there was a cut let me know and iā€™ll check my version.

iā€™m sending a copy of my version to autephex so he evt can do an upgrade whenever he wants to.

Any questions, shoot !

[quote=ā€œautephex, post:129, topic:271ā€]I pretty much agree scherp. The one thing that leaves me wondering is this enigmatic flip cut as McCord walks away laughing after holding the gun to the bounty hunterā€™s head. Perhaps they just used this flip transition to change scenes, but the fact this technique seems to have only been used for scenes where cuts were made makes a pretty good case that there is something missing here.

It doesnā€™t seem this mystery scene is contained in any known versions though, so maybe they just made use of the flip since it changes from a night scene to a day scene or some other reason.[/quote]

Autephex, around what timemark is this?