As per user x5gb on the blu-ray.com forums, on the extended cut disc if you press right on the ‘play with grotto scene’ option in the special features, you can select a secret cut of the disc which includes 2 additional scenes.
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There is also an easter egg on the theatrical cut disc too, as per blu-ray.com user SpacemanDoug:
“There is in fact an easter egg on the menu, if you go to the special features and highlight the “back” arrow (DO NOT select it) and then hit the right arrow button on your remote, it’ll take you to a compilation of a couple of raw dailies of shooting the cemetery sequence.”
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I watched it minus the grotto scene but with the extended torture scene (which now has the extra overhead eye gauging shot which I believe was missing from this when an extra on the previous DVD release). I prefer it without the grotto scene. I would have liked an option to use the Italian credits rather than the English credits as the Italian credits introduces the 3 protagonists properly pre-title via gunshots (I had always thought the English credits began oddly with Van Cleef’s name after title and Wallach’s moved to the end - assuming Eastwood’s agent insisted he was the only one credited pre title on the English print).
Didn’t spot that Easter Egg - had watched that material on the deleted scenes section.
Also noticed that in the Mike Malloy extra there are several shots with Italian dialogue from the Italian version including the use of ‘Sentenza’. Malloy’s section also refers to the deleted Angel Eyes/Blondie dialogue scene after they leave the PoW camp and discuss the plot - and a still is shown - which is not mentioned anywhere in the ‘deleted’ material.
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This is definitely the way I will be watching the extended version in future. A few seconds more of Angel Eyes at the Steven’s farmstead, and Blondie in the desert, is a bonus…
Just one observation, though; IMHO, I wish that they had also thought to give you the option of including the intermission cards…just to make the viewing experience as complete and close to the original Premiere experience as possible…
It would also give me a legitimate opportunity to pop out to the kitchen for another ‘San Miguel’ beer…or three. 
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Can someone write up a very concise instruction manual on what to do to access all the versions and options, and what the result is, and also what’s closest to the premiere cut etc.? With super few words, something I could post on SWDb social media channels. Could be very helpful for all the folks out there who might be missing out on this because they didn’t read up on it
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Just found this on the internet…it may prove helpful, for now.
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helpful yes, but what I’d love is something like
“For version X (xxminutes), click XZY on your remote. For version Y (xxxminutes), click XZY on your remote - adds X scene but minus the Y scene, which fans consider closest to the italian premiere.” etc… so a manual for the easter eggs, expanded to give newbies a full quite quick-reference to what to do to end up with which version approximation
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I’m at work so cant do a full guide but for the two Easter eggs:
Extended cut with the 2 added deleted scenes:
On the main menu of the Extended Cut disc, go into special features > Choose the ‘Play film with uncut torture scene option’ > On the next set of options, hover over but do not press on the ‘Play with grotto scene’ option > Press right on your remote and text saying ‘…and more!’ will appear and be selected > Press confirm/ok on your remote and the version will start.
Extra cemetery scene dailies:
On the main menu of the Theatrical Cut disc, go into special features > Go down to the return arrow underneath the 'Trailer Gallery’s option and hover over it without selecting it > Press right on your remote and it will play the dailies
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The first version of TGTBTU I saw was on UKTV in the 1970s - the second BBC screening - and was a 157m version which was the 161m International Cut less the 4m of BBFC censor cuts made in 1968. The extra distributor cuts for the 148m UK theatrical print (gunsmith scene and scene between Angel Eyes and Union officer at PoW camp among others) had been restored to the BBCs version. I think at the time there was an agreement that the BBC wouldn’t should scenes that the BBFC had censored for an X (although this was relaxed for older films). Most of the beating-up of Tuco was excised (over 3m - IIRC correctly it cut from Blondie’s PoV shot of the cabin to Tuco’s confession; the BBFC instructions asked vaguely for a ‘significant reduction’ but were explicit that the eyeball gouging had to go), the beating-up of Maria was edited so the first slap was then followed by her confession and Tuco banging Wallace’s head against a rock was missing entirely with the scene edited to look as if Wallace had been killed in the fall.
In the 1980s I saw the 148m UK theatrical version at a University cinema. The print was in poor shape with little bits missing including Blondie’s shooting of the 3 bounty hunters in his intro scene (there is a splice and suddenly they were dead). The extra cuts made by the UK distributor to eliminate the Union Commandant entirely made the intro to the PoW camp very choppy with most of the roll call missing so you lost the music build up to Angel Eyes’s appearance. I think Alex Cox prefers this print but these extra distributor edits were not very smooth unlike those made when the International Print was assembled. I saw this a second time at the Scala Cinema and it was exactly the same print with same little bits missing so obviously the distributor only had 1 to go round to reperatory cinemas in the 1980s.
The third version of TGTBTU I saw was the initial UK pre-cert video release which was the complete 161m International Cut; Having seen the film a few times by now, I immediately recognised that the PoW beating of Tuco was much longer. I am pretty sure this print also had the Italian captions ‘Il Buono’, ‘Il brutto’ etc rather than the English captions. This Italian captions English language print is mentioned on the Blu Ray as a variant.
Maybe one day we will get a seemless branching to do all dozen or so different versions.
Having been brought up with the International Print the 161m version I’d probably give the edge to that over the longer version. And both over the censored 148m version. Watching the longer version again, even minus the grotto scene - where I think they’ve ‘fudged’ the score on by lifting it from elsewhere and the dubbing seems awkward - it did seem to drag a bit in the middle where most of the extra scenes pop up. But then the trouble is I have seen this about 20 times now in various versions so difficult to know what i like best objectively.
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The BBC TV broadcasts had the Italian captions, but the VHS release had the English ones - I miss seeing the Italian, because as a kid I didn’t recognize the words, and thought it some sort of code.
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Aldo, I clearly remember this. In 1976, on Easter Monday, when I first beheld the light by watching the ‘GBU’ on BBC1, one of my brothers commented on the captions being in Italian, rather than English. Somehow, this made the experience of viewing this supremely stylish Western even more memorable and mind-blowing in my eyes…
I also remember my Mum coming back from the local pub, part-way through the film, because she was desperately faffing about trying to put together a Easter bonnet for the pub competition…I remember that briefly irking me while I was trying to enjoy the film. I suppose that was my early initial introduction to the film’s original ‘Intermission’… 
Happy days… 
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Nice memory, Toscano … which has reminded me that at the time of this broadcast my granny was looking after my siblings and I, as my parents must have been socializing somewhere - Good old Gran let us watch this, when my Mum and Dad almost definitely would have sent us to bed.
As I may have mentioned, we only got to see the start and end, with an hour long gap missing, thanks to power cuts in N. Ireland due to political strike action from followers of Ian Paisley … what a fecking philistine he and his supporters were.
Many years later that same ignorant cunt went on to be made a member of the house of Lords, due to the British policy of pacifying the loudmouth troublemakers. The same person today would be jailed for hate crimes.
… but interrupting GBU is a pretty big crime in my book!
PS: On a lighter note … Seeing the non Italian captions just looks wrong now to me.
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Lee Broughton’s book chapter ‘Restoration, restoration, restoration: charting the changing appearance of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on British home video’ from 2017 details all of the different versions of GBU over the years:
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Thanks. I’ve always hated that scene. I still have a hard time believing Leone actually made it and not somebody else.
I’ll give it a look when I get chance in the coming weeks. Hopefully it’s finally the way it should be.
For this version, Arrow is including both the 1967 international cut and the 2003 English-language extended cut. Yet they’ve added a few new wrinkles. To begin with, the extended cut can be played with or without the grotto scene that Leone deleted after the Italian premiere. Then, they’ve added back in the full uncut version of the scene where Corporal Wallace tortures Tuco, and this extended-extended version can also be played with or without the grotto scene. (The extended cut with the uncut torture scene but without the grotto scene is essentially an English-language version of the final Italian theatrical cut, although even that isn’t quite so simple since it was tweaked a bit later.)
But wait, there’s more! There’s also a hidden “kitchen sink” cut that adds back a few extra shots during the first scene with Angel Eyes, as well as the moment in the desert when Blondie tries to grab a bone to defend himself from Tuco. So, it’s an extended-extended-extended cut that closely approximates the original Italian premiere version minus any of the later deletions and alternations. (Note that one brief line of dialogue is missing, but it’s been replaced with subtitles.) That means there’s a whopping six different variations of The Good, the Bag and the Ugly in this set. The only thing that’s missing is the actual Italian theatrical cut with its Italian-language dialogue and titles, but Arrow couldn’t secure the rights to the Italian language tracks, although the titles themselves are still included as an extra.
Still with us? Here’s a breakdown with the running times as they appear on the discs:
- International Cut (161:46)
- Extended Cut with Grotto Scene (178:43)
- Extended Cut without Grotto Scene (175:25)
- Extended Cut with Uncut Torture Scene and Grotto Scene (180:32)
- Extended Cut with Uncut Torture Scene but without Grotto Scene (177:15)
- Extended Cut with Everything Including the Missing Shots (181:57)
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‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ opened in the United States in Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago and Washington D.C. on December 20 1967; followed by Boston, Dec 22 1967 and Cincinnati, Dec 25 1967. IMDb’s Dec 29 1967 presumably refers to the general release date. The reviews were mixed with the ‘sadistic violence’ and length of the picture being the main target of criticism.
Sources below: (2) (Houston Post, December 30, 1967) (7) (Atlanta Journal, February 19, 1968)
In the UK it premiered at New Victoria Cinema (now Apollo Victoria Theatre) on 29th August 1968, before going on wide release in London on 8th September 1968. As per usual for an Italian-made western the reviews in the more ‘highbrow’ newspapers were negative, best summed up by Sean Day-Lewis’ (brother of Daniel Day-Lewis) opening paragraph in the Daily Telegraph: “Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (New Victoria, A), is an Italian “Western” about three free-lance gunmen hunting for treasure and each other against a background of the American Civil War. It is a story that could easily be told in five minutes, but is morbidly swollen by the director’s unimaginably slow pace to 149 minutes - not including the “blissful” intermission.” However the reviews in the regional newspapers were more balanced and consequently have aged far better.
The film made its TV debut on Easter Monday 19th April 1976 (BBC1 21:30 - 00:00).
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Thanks for that - interesting that a lot of those regional reviews are quite favourable and seem to get what the movie is all about (although several seem to think that the film is incredibly violent - have they not seen Django or Navajo Joe in which the kill count is far far higher). I guess these critics don’t have to toe some kind of consensus party line that critics working for higher-profile publications seem to have to do.
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‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ is my favourite SW/film of all-time, so thank you Montero for posting this gold-mine of reviews and memorabilia…it’s very much appreciated. 
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