[quote=“Sundance, post:20, topic:131”]There are actually atleast 5 DVDs of Any Gun Can Play available:
VCI (USA)
Miracle Pictures (USA)
UAP (Germany)
Guillotine Films (Canada?)
NWL? (Brazil)
Guillotine Films and NWL discs should both be in widescreen although I have no idea about the aspect ratio if its cropped some way. Both discs have english soundtracks. No idea about cuts or if they use the same transfer as the VCI disc (could be possible I guess).
The Miracle Pictures disc is listed as only 93mins long and no idea about aspect ratio. And the german disc by UAP is cut I suppose and fullscreen and only german audio?
Can anyone give any info on the cuts in the VCI discs of Any Gun Can Play and Bullet For Sandoval, please? How much is missing, what kind of scenes, where in the films should the scenes belong to?[/quote]
Here goes, Sundance; post is taken from MHVF and I sadly don’t remember who made this comparison. Just wanted to make clear that I take no credit for this comparison
As promised, here’s a comparison between VCI’s ANY GUN CAN PLAY and Monterey Home Video’s GO KILL AND COME BACK. To further clarify some of the confusion, I also popped in the New Pacific Pictures VHS release of ANY GUN CAN PLAY. While VCI’s disc restores much of the footage missing from this earlier VHS release, it still comes up short when compared to the Monterey tape.
ANY GUN CAN PLAY (New Pacific Pictures VHS, EP recording) runs a total of 87 minutes and 44 seconds. It is missing the 4 minutes and 10 second pre-credit sequence entirely and seems to be culled from a television broadcast. Immediately following the credit sequence, “In Stereo Where Available” pops up on the screen, and then at around the 82 minute mark a “KABC-TV 7 Los Angeles” station ID appears at the bottom of the screen. The title of the film is video generated in red lettering, but the rest of the sequence features the original English language credits superimposed over shots of a moving train. The titles appear onscreen with a series of wipe effects. I only scanned through this tape, but it seems that some of Kareen O’Hara (Stefania Carredu)'s part is missing.
VCI’s ANY GUN CAN PLAY DVD runs a total of 97 minutes and 17 seconds, and restores most of O’Hara’s footage as it appears in GO KILL AND COME BACK. The DVD begins with the entire pre-credit sequence intact, but features a different credit sequence. The shots of the moving train are identical, but VCI’s print only features the title and credits for the four main players (Edd Byrnes, Gilbert Roland, George Hilton and Kareen O’Hara). There are no wipe effects at all and the font is different. The complete opening credits as they appear on the New Pacific tape and the Monterey tape have been transposed to the ending (in place of the proper end credits), where they are optically superimposed over the shot of the gold coin. The first obvious difference between the DVD and the earlier tapes is that the picture on the DVD has a bluish tint to it. The VHS prints are a dry and dusty, sunbleached color, while the DVD almost looks like it’s trying for a day-for-night effect in some scenes. Also, the disc has much hotter fleshtones, with some faces appearing bright pink. Overall, the colors are richer and more pleasing on VCI’s disc, but many scenes look quite different than they did on the earlier tapes. The second obvious visual difference is that the picture on the DVD is slightly squeezed horizontally. The distortion is very noticeable when doing an A/B comparison, but probably won’t bother anyone viewing the disc alone. The disc is not 16x9 enhanced, so it’s not a player issue that’s to blame for the distortion. Also worth pointing out is that the sound on the Monterey tape is much fuller and stronger than the VCI disc. Surprisingly, there is also much less hiss on the VHS soundtrack.
On to the missing scenes: I compared Monterey Home Video’s GO KILL AND COME BACK (99 minutes, 23 seconds total running time) directly with the VCI disc and there are a number of minor differences that are worth noting. Firstly, GO KILL AND COME BACK features the same wipe-effect opening credit sequence as the New Pacific VHS, albeit with a different video generated title. The remaining differences between the VCI disc and the Monterey tape are as follows (timecodes are taken from the DVD):
9:05 - Monetero (Gilbert Roland) approaches Kareen O’Hara and says, “$300,000 in gold, Guapa…for me.” Followed by a shot taken from behind the train’s steam engine. This 10 second scene is missing from the VCI disc.
34:33 - The Sergeant (Marco Mariani) says, “I’d feel I failed society if I spared that man. I’d call that a poor luck medal.” The Monterey tape omits the first line of that dialogue. This cut adds back 10 seconds in favor of the VCI disc.
49:49 - After Samson jumps out from behind the curtain and says, “Bang, bang,” there is a 10 second snippet missing from the VCI disc. The Stranger (George Hilton) jokingly says, “Now suppose you belong to Monetero’s gang.” Samson holds up his arms and says, “No, senior…Senior–” before his wife (?) interrupts.
53:30 - As Clayton (Edd Byrnes) leaves the Del Sol, Samson’s farwell “Bang, bang” is missing from the VCI disc. There is a dissolve to the next scene instead of a clean cut, eliminating about 5 seconds of the following shot (The Stranger in his longjohns by the creek).
1:01:08 to 1:01:13 - VCI’s disc features an extra shot during Clayton’s fight with Monetero’s men.
1:19:30 - After the bath house brawl Monetero tells Clayton that he’s going to kill him. Clayton’s fearful reaction shot is missing from the VCI disc. Other shots throughout their subsequent discussion are shortened. About 15 seconds total is missing.
1:20:02 - A 1 minute and 35 second scene is missing from the VCI disc. It begins with a long pan across the mountain landscape, ending on a close-up of Monetero and Clayton on horseback. Monetero holds a small bunch of flowers and sniffs and licks them.
Monetero: "$300,000…that would take care of everything."
Clayton: "You’re wrong. $150,000 and you have to share with your peones."
Monetero: "No I won’t. They won’t get one peso."
Clayton: "That’s strange. I heard they get paid for a robbery."
Monetero: "Maybe not. I’ve done enough for them. They’ve been living off me for years. Now I’m through. After this I go away. I take the gold, go to Mexico City and have one hell of a time. And when I die, somebody will bury me…And if they don’t, what’s the difference? Who gives a damn, huh?"
Clayton: "Well, in a way I admire you. We’ll do all right, me and you, I bet."
The VCI disc picks up this scene at the very end, as they are riding down the hillside, but it eliminates the following 10 second shot of the pair riding past a creek before arriving at the mission. It patches this hole by relocating a shot of the mission tower that the Monterey tape places after Monetera gestures toward it and Clayton says, “Well, why not?” Another 10 seconds of the two riding around the outer wall of the mission is also missing.
1:20:43 - An additional 10 seconds are trimmed from their ride into the mission. Their walk into the chapel is tightened up by about 5 seconds as well.
All in all, the discrepancies are pretty incidental. There’s only one full scene missing from the VCI disc, and it’s not exactly vital. There are other 1 or 2 second differences here and there, all in Monterey’s favor, but VCI adds a bit more to its running time simply because the end credits (which are actually the opening credits) last longer than the VHS end credits. At any rate, the letterboxing on the VCI disc is essential to getting the most out of the movie, even if the picture is slightly squeezed. Finally, for the sake of completeness, I’ll note that the Monterey tape also features trailers for the Ursula Andress comedy LOADED GUNS, the excellent Roland/Hilton Spaghetti Western THE RUTHLESS FOUR, and the US Western KENTUCKY RIFLE.
The big question now is where did the 105 minute running time come from?