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Finally watched my Warner Archive DVD of the uncut 110m version (although the box incorrectly states 105m). First time I had seen the opening 5m section with Nino Casteluvo crossing the US border. I can see why this was cut though as it is unnecessary and has no purpose. The 4 man army seem to be able to cross the border back into Mexico without the need to go through a checkpoint! :
- UK got the 105m version and this version was also later shown on UKTV. As it was ‘A’ rated, equivalent to PG so children could see it in cinemas, it was shown on TV at a prime time 7-8pm slot several times, which is when i first saw it. This and The Mercenary/ A Professional Gun were the two main non Leone Italian westerns shown on UK TV. Love the Morricone score over the opening credits. One of my favourites.
- It looks as if the MGM version, with the archive Mexican revolution footage over the opening credits, was shown in quite a lot of jurisdictions. The Italian version - more like TGTBTU credits - was possibly shown only in Italy. Interesting that the Italian credits embedded above in one of the posts is also missing the opening 5m and instead starts with Bud Spencer walking out of the shack. Was the 110m version ever shown theatrically? Did the Americans produce their own edit from a master and then chop it out only to add it back for TV screenings?
- Where is Jose Torres? I couldn’t see him yet he is billed quite high. He usually languishes in a jail in Zapata westerns. Credited as ‘Mexican Spy’ but no such character. However, no explanation is given for how the government troops locate the 5 man army when they turn up at their hideout. was this due to missing Torres?
- Very tiny role for Giacomo Rossi-Stuart - virtually non-speaking and hiding behind a cap and a tash - as a Mexican officer. He was usually very high billed, e.g. the villain in Gunfight at Red Sands,
- I am surprised Daniela Girodano’s brief nudity survived the Italian censor who gave it an uncut unrestricted rating. It is not on the list of BBFC cuts for an A either although it was definitely missing from UKTV screenings.
- Definitely the weakest of the various Zapata westerns I have watched (I’d also put it below Killer Kid). It’s missing something and Peter Graves is too bland as the lead. But enjoyable none the less.
BBFC cuts for an A in December 1969 (105m version submitted):
R1 - Near the end of the battle with the soldiers, remove close up of screaming man’s bloody face, and the shot of a rifle with a bayonet fixed to it, striking a man in the chest.
R3 - Remove the shot of the captain’s bloody face after he has been slashed by the samurai’s sword.
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The German BluRay is excellent for offering all the versions, I think (minus whatever may have been an Italian version only shown in Italy)
At least for A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die MGM made their own version which included flip cuts and 2 scenes not to be found in the uncut Italian version. And it had a very different ending by cutting the original end.
Still in the UK the longer Italian version was released with a complete dub, and it seems the MGM edit was only distributed in the USA.
So MGM did sometimes their own version with exclusive footage.
Yes - I have seen both versions of A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die.
When I first saw it, it was the US cut version and I knew that Cord should have been killed, as I had read the UK MFB review (the UK version had the original ending but ran even shorter than the US version) and initially I thought that he was killed by Robert Ryan because Ryan looked at him in an odd way while holding a gun and then it cut away to Cord riding somewhere else. And then I saw the longer version and the ending was totally different to what I had antiicpated.
It was shorter? But a complete English version exists.
The German version was also cut down from the Italian version, also shorter than the MGM, and also with the correct ending.
Unfortunately these 2 scenes exclusively in the MGM version are amongst the best of the film, at least one of them.
The film was submitted to the UK BBFC as Dead or Alive in a 95m cut. The BBFC cut 6m from it before awarding an X rating including much of the repeated shooting of Clay by the bounty killers at the end so the extended ending was in this abbreviated edit.
The MFB report an 89m version for the print released to cinemas. The MFB review also mentions the ending in which Clay is killed.
I never saw this print.
My first time watch today for this movie, with the Plaion blu ray. Great blu ray release!!, with very good quality!
I really enjoyed the movie. The pacing was perfect! Nothing was rushed and it never got boring. I found myself getting more and more involved with the interesting characters. The only disappointment was it felt more like a robbery movie than a spaghetti western. But still a very good one! It took spot #20 in my Top 20.
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Just watched this one. SW#99 for me.
I agree with Meceita. The pacing is good - it wasn’t rushed and that helped build the tension during the train robbery. I thought the cinematography was also good - the film has a “quality” feel. Bigger budget than most SWs?
It is not the greatest story and definitely more of a heist caper than a classic SW but enjoyable none the less.
Just be my luck to watch an absolute stinker as my 100th SW.
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It’s strange for me as an ‘oldie’ hearing of someone’s first viewing … specifically graded as a SW, being judged against other films greater or less, when as a young fella pre teens, this film was on TV quite a few times in the 1970s, and it was just watched and enjoyed on it’s own terms
… Certainly it had an exotic vibe to it … but, as designed it was just high spirited entertainment, rather than something that ticks boxes for it’s ‘Spagginess’
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This premiered on UK television in October, 1976, about six months after the first broadcasts of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and ‘A Professional Gun’. Interestingly, when the film was repeated on BBC1 in 1978 and 1981 (that one must have passed me by), it was shown at 18:50 rather than the usual late night screening.
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Even stranger for someone who is even older than that… 
And bloody good it was, too! The early days of discovering ‘Spaghetti’…good memories!
This was one of the very first Ennio Morricone LPs that I ever bought, and still have.
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I started watching SWs in the early eighties (and only the Eastwood and Van Cleef ones at that). I clearly missed this one and am only catching up with it now! Better late than never!
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The German BluRay is really solid
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Saw all of those films for the first time on those screenings except TGTBTU which I missed and watched it on second screening.
BBC showed the UK theatrical prints except for TGTBTU which restored the distributor cuts (eg the gunsmith scene) but not the censor cuts as I think there was an agreement that the TV companies wouldn’t show 18 rated movies in uncensored format. A Professional Gun and 5 Man Army also post BBFC cuts.
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I first saw this on British TV in 1976. As one of the first SW I ever saw it holds fond memories and became one of my favourites. I managed to obtain a (bootleg) VHS of the uncut version in the early 1980’s. Whilst I accept that there are better SW films this will always be in my personal Top Ten. I’ve just bought the * Die fünf Gefürchteten Blu-ray version and I intend to translate the German subtitles on the comedy version to English if I can.
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