No sex, no fellatio (whatever that may be)
I was inattentive, the answer was in an old post by the Rev:
How long is uncut version? 84 min?
I watched it on youtube (74 min).
It’s weird movie, because almost everything is bad, but somehow director managed to create unique atmosphere.
I think that Whistler is interesting character.
In many aspects “Death played the flute” is worse than Fidani flicks.
Surprisingly it was entertaining and my rating is something about 3/10.
According to SWDB, the so-called uncut version runs 84 minutes, but I don’t think it will surface any day.
But then again the anica.it runtime, which here was used, is maybe wrong. Like so often.
Well, the “Hey, those are my balls!” scene with Remo Capitani is undoubtedly (and thankfully?) missing… ;D
Well that would have been something to behold, as the owner of the items mentioned is not Remo Capitani. He is not in the film at all, at least not in the 74 minutes Greek VHS release. The credit sequence, it is true, starts out presenting Ray O’Connors (aka Remo Capitani), Laurence Bien and Thomas Rudy as the big names. But they are nowhere to be seen in the film. The same goes for Michele Branca and Irio Fantini. On the other hand, Antonio Molino Rojo and Franco Borelli, who are in the film, are not credited, unless they are under other names. The same goes for Susanna Levy (she would have had something to say about it herself, as she was living with Panuccio).
More actors mentioned by the SWDB and other places not there are Aldo Berti (which is a shame; the film is up his ally), Victoriana Gazzara, Mario Novelli and Giovanni Petrucci. Luciano Conti, who IMD has down as “Killer (uncredited)” is probably Kid (Ramsoms henchman and the sheriff’s brother), actually he only achieves to get himself killed by Ramsom.
Cast: Giuseppe Cardillo as Steven Tedd (Kimble), Gerald Charlebois as Michael Forrest (John Barton), Susanna Levi (Suzy Barton), Clara Hopf (Lilly Barton), Giovanni Petti (Burton’s father), Franco Borelli (Suzy’s fiancee), Antonio Molino Rojo (Ramsom), Raul Aparici (Reed), Luciano Conti (Kid), Benito Pacifico as Benito Pacifici (Ramsom’s henchman, “second crew”).
As for the rest, I have noe idea.
Quote from: Scherpschutter
“According to Giusti the movie was never finished and Pannacciò must have inserted scenes from another unfinished (probably Spanish) movie to reach an acceptable running-time. It’s all possible, some scenes and faces don’t seem to belong in the movie.”
I’m not sure which are Giusti’s and which are Scherpschutter’s comments here. I can only speak for the Greek VHS. And everything in it is made for this film (except may be a very short silly scene with two girls in a wagon). But not everything and everybody belongs: There is a sequence where Suzy and Simon are out riding, him trying to nurse her back to sanity. All of a sudden they are out looking for her father. They run into five members of Ramsom’s gang. Suzy keeps staring at them: “From the way she kept staring I think she may have recognized us. We never should have left her alive. That’s a mistake we don’t have to make twice. “ They decide to go after her and kill her. Here a lot of things are wrong: The gang did not leave Suzy alive, they left her for dead. None of these guys were even at the Red Ranch. We have seen none of these faces before.
This sequence messes up the story. Take it out, and the story runs more or less coherent, even symmetric, starting out with the assault on Red Ranch, Kimble splitting with the gang, promising Jim that if the gang bothers him, he will hunt all of them down like coyotes, which he eventually goes on to do, keeping his word to Jim by executing him, as the last member of the gang, then we are back on the Red Ranch.
I think this sequence might have been added by Pannacciò after Petrini left the project, along with one or two other scenes. Maybe he needed some more running time. Maybe he thought the film needed some more riding, shooting and ambushing, which it did not. Or maybe he thought it needed more of his girlfriend Susanna Levi in it. Maybe what we need is not the complete version of this film, if there is any; maybe it is a director’s cut, which will not happen. So I have taken the liberty to make myself a 65 minutes copy, and it works just fine.
Has anybody here actually seen an 84 minutes version or an Italian release of this film?
In Italy, at the end of November 1971, Death Played the Flute was rated ALL with the rape of Barton’s daughter shortened and two close-ups (strangled woman and man with his throat cut) removed. The verified film length of this slightly cut theatrical version was meters 2283, equivalent to around 83m30s.
Petrini said that he directed all the scenes in the cut 74 minutes version, but he objects to the film editing.
[hr]
As for the actors, interestingly Remo Capitani, Thomas Rudy and Laurence Bien are in the cast of Porno Erotico Western. This is confirmed by the poster, while as you can see the Italian poster for Death Played the Flute correctly lists as main actors Steven Tedd, Michael Forest, Chet Davis - that is Franco Borelli - and Susanna Levi. So maybe the opening credits of the version called Requiem for a Bounty Killer are messed up…
Michele Branca is regularly in the film, you see him on the right in the screenshot below together with Fidani’s faithful friend Luciano Conti a.k.a. Lucky McMurray.
[/url]Lastly, a thing it is good to clarify once and for all: causing confusion, an old book said erroneously that Franco Borelli’s stage name Chet Davis was the pseudonym adopted by Victoriano Gazzarra (or Gazzara), when in fact Vic Gazzarra is itself a pseudonym adopted - for instance in 1971 TV Mini-Series La vita di Leonardo da Vinci - by Italian actor Giancarlo Sisti* (Sam Hawkins in The Stranger’s Gundown). Both actors were in Today It’s Me… Tomorrow It’s You, in which Borelli was credited as Stanley Gordon.
- [url=http://western-maniac.forum-pro.fr/t4901-second-role-giancarlo-sisti]http://western-maniac.forum-pro.fr/t4901-second-role-giancarlo-sisti[url]http://postimage.org/[/url]
So there is – or was - an 84 minutes version after all. I wonder what is left out in the 74 minutes version. It’s certainly not shy on riding and shooting. But at some points it seems to be short on dialogue. I still find it hard to believe that the sequence where Suzy is out looking for her father was in Petrini’s script. In the scene immediately before Suzy’s encounter with the five gang members we have not seen before, Ramsom shoots Kid, and you have the following dialogue:
Reed: Kid was the sheriff’s brother. Now you got us all in real trouble.
Ramsom: All who? Out of the whole gang, how many are left now?
Actually the answer is five, Ramsom included, but, lo and behold, out of nowhere five new gang members are emerging.
As for the cast, I agree completely on Chet Davies being Franco Borelli. Michele Branca then is Jim, and Luciano Conti is Al. I got Luciano Conti wrong then, unless he played two parts, both Kid and Al, who are never to be seen together in the film. A couple of weeks ago I watched parts of the Italian release of Sei una carogna… e t’ammazzo! A lot of the actors from DPF are in this film, including Cameron (the one with the balls), I also think I spotted this guy in Los buitres cavarán tu fosa.
I have tried to insert some images in this post, but it didn’t work. What is the trick?
A long time ago you could insert images but not anymore. You need to upload to an image host, for example Postimage[/url] or ImageBam[url]http://postimg.org/, and link to the pic, or search (free) image hosting for a suitable site.
Thanks. So this is something I need to speak to my daughter about. 
If anyone can help me, I’d really like the Greek VHS for my collection. Send me a message if you have a copy to spare!
Italian version must have more dialogue than the english. There’s few weird scenes where nothing happens for a while and obviously there should be dialogue still going on. In one scene you can actually see that Whistler is moving his lips but without sound.
Pannacciò butchered the Italian version of another film he produced, A Rope at Dawn, see
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/A_Rope_at_Dawn_Review
morgan checks in with a down and dirty evaluation of this rather gloomy effort from the latter days of the genre. Check it out for yourself…
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Death_Played_the_Flute_review_(morgan)
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Caught me red-handed there. Yes, I have been trying for a couple of weeks to do a review, working on a SWDb page not linked anywhere, so I thought nobody would notice.
I must admit I have been quite intrigued by the film since I first watched it, and have wanted to try a slightly different take on it. The review wasn’t quite finished, byt now it is.
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You’ve done a very good job.
Surprisingly, Centini’s recollections concerning Porno erotico western does not appear to be entirely compatible with the plot summary in the censorship certificate, which reveals a light hearted content including three guys nicknamed Father, Son and Holy Spirit (presumably Capitani, Rudy and Bien) fucking dancers and performing fake exorcisms for sexual purposes!
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I agree, and I think you put it mildly. There seem to be no similarities whatsoever to the 1972 films. Also, there is the fact that none of the actors of the 1972 films are credited with Porno erotico western, and none of the actors credited with it where in the 1972 films.
There are a couple of bed scenes in Una cuerda al amanecer that might have fitted with the project, and then you have the pink oboe scene in Lo ammazzò, which might have been elaborated on. But I’m not convinced that Cenini’s recollection is accurate either.
The original source to this information (Lo ammazzò being edited into Porno erotico western) seems to be Weisser, and I’m not entirely convinced by him either.
If there is info from Weisser’s fairy book, you better doubt it. There are few books which are less accurate regarding its content. Or to say it more directly: Weisser’s book is filled with totally wrong data.