China 9, Liberty 37 / Amore, piombo e furore (Monte Hellman, 1978)

You dislike my x-mas avatar? :wink:

I would re-watch Logan’s Run for the same reason …

Is there any Blu Ray release anywhere in the world or a really good high quality DVD release of Monte Hellman’s “CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37”?

The Spanish DVD under the title, ‘Clayton Drumm,’ isn’t too bad.

Thanks for the info!

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Got 2 versions of this, both English prints and pan and scanned and with washed out colours:

98m version from UK EBay seller. Don’t know whether speed is 24pfs or 25pfs. This appears to be uncut or at least has a load of nudity and sex scenes, probably the record for an Italian western. Jenny Agutter is starkers from about 10s on her first shot…why they had to give her an Irish accent though I don’t know as it wasn’t needed for the plot.

92m version from Mill Creek. Possibly a US TV print as missing all the nudity and sex scenes (yes 6m of these). Some shots have been zoomed in and a couple of dissolves added to hide the cuts.

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Now I want a 4K UHD of this :stuck_out_tongue:

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There is at least a good looking widescreen print around.

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Warner keeps uploading clips Let’s all comment below it to demand a BluRay :slight_smile:

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The You Tube versions are the cut version. In case any anyone is wondering what’s missing in the cut version:

  • Jenny stripping naked in her first scene and going in the river (quick dissolve added to hide cut)
  • Much of Jenny lying in the river, half asleep with her breasts visible under the water (30s-1m). The cut version reduces this to the minimum for continuity, as she needs to see Fabio on the riverbank, and zooms the image so that her breasts are below frame
  • When Jenny takes off her top to rub down Fabio, the image has been zoomed again to keep her breasts below frame
  • Following 2m approx sex scene in the water excised completely
  • Jenny getting out of bathtub in hotel bedroom cut
  • Following scene in which she starts kissing Fabio zoomed in again to remove nudity and shortened
  • Entire 2m approx subsequent sex scene on bed, accompanied by the Joan Baez-type pop song, has been cut
  • The prostitute taking her clothes off in Fabio’s bedroom cut. I think they removed some other shots of nudity when she sits next to him too

There is also an interview with Hellman on You Tube. He explains he was invited to Rome and offered a script written by the two Italians credited in the Italian print but didn’t like it and had Jerry Harvey and Doug Venturelli re-write it. He says the Italian producer was OK with the re-writes so they went ahead. Apparently, Elliot Kastner was involved originally from the USA end but then dropped out. It’s a short interview and doesn’t deal with things like the casting of Jenny Agutter or who commissioned the soundtrack as the interviewer seemed more interested in whether Hellman owned a house near Sam Peckinpah or not. Hellman says Peckinpah was originally going to play the sheriff but doesn’t explain why he played the writer instead. Personally, I am not sure why Peckinpah was hired at all - the cameo is needless and irrelevant to the narrative and hardly anyone in the audience would have recognised him. At the time Peckinpah had just made Convoy, his most successful film at the BO but didn’t direct another film for several years.

To UK teenage boys in the 1970s and early 1980s Jenny Agutter was a goddess and always seemed to take her clothes off, even in Logan’s Run. I’m not sure who has seen Equus but that has a lot of nudity as well (Peter Firth as well as Jenny and thankfully Richard Burton stays clothed) - probably the only reason to watch it as its pretentious drivel. Although of course, China 9, Liberty 37 wasn’t screened in the UK.

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An uncut version of China 9 Liberty 37 can be viewed on Amazon Prime in the UK. Not the greatest picture quality but acceptable!

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