UK BBFC cinema cuts of spaghetti westerns

Town Hall
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Gulp. Did you see that version? I used to own Gun Law (81m Pal) as well as a bootleg VHS of The Angry Gun (The Return of Ringo) from the same company. Ringo was uncut except for the replacement of the opening credit scene with a computer generated one against (I think) a red background. Neither of these on the BBFC website but were sold in mainstream shops as legitimate releases.

Copies of the Gun Law VHS retail on EBay for about £15! Not sure who’d want to buy this unless you were a completist writing a book about the different versions of Day of Anger.

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‘Gun Law’, as it was known, was on a 1 hour VHS tape … I too had a copy - it starts with LVC and GG running the town … about half way through the original movie - the story made no sense and the quality was horrible. Same with the ‘Return of Ringo’, both looked like they were taken from a 16mm pan scan TV prints … I only recognized what I was seeing because of the Morricone music and theme song.

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Gun Law’, as it was known, was on a 1 hour VHS tape … I too had a copy - it starts with LVC and GG running the town … about half way through the original movie - the story made no sense and the quality was horrible. Same with the ‘Return of Ringo’, both looked like they were taken from a 16mm pan scan TV prints … I only recognized what I was seeing because of the

Maybe my memory is faulty but I am pretty sure that the Gun Law and Angry Gun VHSS I saw were not 60m. I put down the 81m for Gun Law from somewhere.
Possibly you had a different pressing?
Looking at EBay sellers there are releases by both Warad and Moonstone. I had the Warad version.

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The BBFC’s John Trevelyan wrote a memoir called What the Censor Saw, which used to be in my local library when I was growing up. He talks about the violence of spaghetti westerns, and acknowledges that Leone made them well, but still calls the Dollar westerns “disgusting”. He says that at least one film critic expressed surprise that A Fistful of Dollars had been passed for exhibition at all. “I cannot blame him for his criticism,” he says - but then gives an example of the violence which is actually from For a Few Dollars More (Indio wiping out Tomaso and his family).

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The versions I had were in cardboard slipcovers with the same nasty artwork as those on ebay … Got mine at a car boot sale in 1991, and dumped them soon after. They were definitely not full length films.

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Here is the passage. There’s a lot of mistakes (or deliberate misremembering in some cases) in this very interesting but self-serving memoir in which the author can always quote some anonymous (non-existent?) friend or expert to agree with him or give the impression that he has been reasonable and liberal.

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DEAF SMITH AND JOHNNY EARS (1972)

Classified ‘AA’ for theatrical release in 1973 after the following cuts:

R1 - The sequence in which Johnny Ears and Susie make love, near the end of the reel, must stop as he beckons to her and draws her into his lap.

R3 - In the scene in which Johnny peeks through a door which is ajar and sees Susie talking to a man off-screen remove her remark “Listen handsome, you take your clothes off and its 20 dollars” (or words to that effect).

Minor and unnecessary cuts.

Classified’15’ for video in 1987, presumably an uncut version was submitted.

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DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967)

Classified ‘X’ for theatrical release in 1968 after the following cuts:

DR1 - Remove close shot of man being stabbed in the stomach.
Reduce to an absolute minimum the scene in which a man is killed and his wife and daughter raped and killed by several men while his small son, in hiding, looks on.
DR4 - Reduce the scene in which Ryan is kicked and beaten-up.
DR5 - Remove both blows on girl’s face.
DR6 - Remove the whole incident of Pedro forcing Bill to eat salt.

The film was never released as an ‘X’. At the last minute, after at least one press screening, the distributor changed its mind and went for an ‘A’ resulting in a number of extra cuts although the ‘X’ cuts were excessive to begin with.

Classified ‘A’ in 1969 after the following cuts (2m):

DR1 - Drastically reduce the attack on a farmhouse; particularly remove the close shot of a man being stabbed in the stomach and the whole incident of a woman and her daughter being raped by several men and killed. (also ‘X’ cuts)

DR3 - Remove the entire incident in which Bill takes a Coloured man back into the saloon, shoots two or three men there and throws another through a window.

Remove the shooting of two men on a balcony and of a third man who then rolls down the stairs.

DR4 - Reduce the scene in which Ryan is kicked and beaten-up. (also ‘X’ cuts)

DR5 - Remove the shots of skulls of men who have been buried up to their necks in the sand.

Remove the blows on the girl’s face. (also ‘X’ cuts)

Remove the close shot of Paco’s dead face with a bullet hole in the forehead.

Remove the bull whipping of Bill by Pedro.

DR6 - Remove the whole incident of Pedro forcing Bill to eat salt. (also ‘X’ cuts)

DR7 - Reduce the killings and the violence in this reel, especially in the scenes where Ryan drowns a man in a water trough and where two men are crushed by an over-turning wagon.

Re-Rated AA (in cut A version) in July 1970.

Cuts waived for ‘15’ rated MGM DVD. Also played uncut on BBC TV before this (when I first saw it).

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DJANGO (1966)

Famous cause celebre.

Rejected for theatrical release in 1969.

BBFC report does not mention specific objections but appears that whole tone was found objectionable.

After its original rejection, the film was resubmitted in 1974 but the distributor withdrew the submission after being informed that it could be passed only “…with heavy cutting”.

Classified ‘18’ uncut for video in 1993.

For video, a BBFC examiner flagged the opening whipping, the ear severing and the crushing of Django’s hands. Opening whipping was considered not sexualised and detail of the other two incidents, where it was noted severing out-of-frame and only brief shots of mutilated hands was considered not excessive enough to warrant cutting and film was felt marginal 18.

Interestingly the examiner, who had seen the film abroad many years before, seems rather gobsmacked to discover it was rejected by the BBFC for cinema release (which suggests that the BBFC examiners in 1969 objected to a lot more than the 3 strongest scenes the examiner identified as worthy of comment to justify an 18 uncut). I have found several other examples of video examiners in the 1980s/1990s expressing some bafflement as to the reasons for cuts made to films often as little as 15 years earlier.

2004 DVD was downgraded to ‘15’.

BBFC website has a case study and a podcast on this film.

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Very interesting to read of the shenanigans over Death Rides a Horse’s certification - and yet it seems to have been even more complicated than that.

When it was first shown on BBC TV (in 1981 if memory serves), Phillip French of The Observer noted in his review that “a mere two-minute cut reduced it from an X to an A.” Staig & Williams have it as an A, and I’ve found a UK quad poster online with the A certificate. And yet when it came to my local cinema for a one-night-only showing back in 1979, it was rated AA, and when I check the BBFC website now, that’s what they have for the cinema release as well - classified in 1970, with no mention of previous releases.

(Sadly, although I was then old enough to see an AA film, my parents wouldn’t let me. :cry:)

When I first got the film on VHS, it was rated 12 - but this version soon disappeared from the shelves and was replaced with a 15-rated one, which again is all the BBFC website will admit to, so I’m not sure what happened there.

And to go off-topic for a moment, a part of me is still faintly appalled to think the The Dirty Dozen really is a 12 certificate on DVD, despite being a much more brutal and disturbing film.

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DJANGO KILL! (IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT) (1970 release)

A pre-cut version, missing the notorious ‘gold digging’ and ‘scalping’ scenes among other material, was submitted to the BBFC and classified ‘X’ for theatrical release in 1969 after the following cuts:

DR1 - Remove shots of Mexican ham-stringing horses.

DR2 - Remove the incident of a man having a rope put round his neck as he crouches against a wheel and being shot in the head point blank.

Reduce the shots of hanging corpses, both when the men are hanged and when Django looks at them; especially remove the shots of a man hanging upside down with bloody face and of a man with his tongue hanging out.

DR4 - Remove the incident in which Django breaks a bottle and plunges the jagged end into a man’s face.

DR6 - Remove the shots of a man’s bloody hand resting on a horse’s exposed intestines.

UK theatrical print ran only 101m. Actual BBFC cuts are probably 1-2m so about 15m of pre-cuts.

Uncut 117m version released on DVD and later Blu Ray and passed without cuts. Now ‘15’ rated.

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Yes - Death Rides a Horse was re-rated AA when the certificates changed on 1 July 1970. So was The Big Gundown and Once Upon a Time in the West. I’ll update for that.

There was a big kerfuffle about these A to AA re-ratings which happened overnight when some of the films were in mid release.

Because the A rating changed from requiring an adult present with the child to being advisory only (so kids could go unaccompanied), the BBFC decided to re-look at virtually all A’s issued in the past 2 years. According to Today’s Cinema 43 films were re-rated from A to AA. In many cases these films had been cut to avoid an X and some of those cuts could have been reinstated for an AA. However, with all the prints already stuck and cut this was impractical so never happened.

On the flip side, the BBFC did not look at any old marginal X films to see if they could be downgraded to AA now that the new X was for 18s and over. The distributor had to resubmit the film and ask for a re-rating. A few did this but not that many (The Graduate was one).

Here’s the MFB review of the X rated Death Rides a Horse and their addendum noting the change to A rating a couple of months later. Note they flag the ‘wrong’ Anthony Dawson in their cast list. This was the real Anthony Dawson.

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As things go that’s quite a favourable review. UK critics of the time tended to parrot the opinions of their U.S. counterparts in regard to spaghetti westerns. Here’s a particularly condescending review of the same film by the late Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/death-rides-a-horse-1969

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DJANGO SHOOTS FIRST (UK title: HE WHO SHOOTS FIRST) (1966)

Classified ‘AA’ for theatrical release in 1973, titled He Who Shoots First, after the following cuts:

R2 - Considerably shorten the fight, in particular removing kicks and attack upon Django with a chain.

R3 - Considerably shorten the fight, in particular removing kicks, and savage punches in close shot.

R7 - Remove all but four of the shots of horses falling.

R8 - Drastically shorten the final fight between Django and Ward, in particular removing kicks and the lashing of Django with a belt.

Pretty harsh cuts there and a very late theatrical release (7 years). UK version, He Who Shoots First, was English language print.

Subsequently passed ‘PG’ uncut on DVD. The UK DVD is Italian language with English subtitles (unlike the UK theatrical print).

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DJURADO (1966)

Classified ‘X’ for theatrical release in 1969 after the following cuts:

R2 - Very considerably shorten the massacre at the farm.

R3 - Remove the whole beat-up of Djurado after he has been hit over the head with a bottle; remove also the two kicks he receives when he is lying on the ground.

Shorten Djurado’s fight outside the hotel, especially removing the kicks.

Remove the whole scene in which Mitzi is bullied, beaten and whipped.

Remove the shots of Barbara fighting with a woman and knocking her out with a broken bottle.

R4 - Shorten the fight between townsman and gangsters.

R5 - Shorten Djurado’s struggle with a man who has a whip.

The MFB has this at only 78m although that seems consistent with the You Tube version. I’ve not seen it.

No subsequent UK release.

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Reading the examiner’s report on the BBFC website makes me wonder about the criteria for cutting horse falls. The one they were concerned about is Major Jackson’s horse being shot from under him - yet in the scene where Django escapes with the gold, the riderless horses galloping past the machine gun are obviously tripped (Watching it on a cinema screen, you can see the tripwire), but this doesn’t seem to have caused a concern.

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Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears did get a UK VHS release.

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Yes - you are correct. Missed that.

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The BBFC is a bit of a mess on this. They seem to have missed loads for original cinema release up until the late 1970s. Easier on video due to freeze frame ability.

Have you ever seen the Errol Flynn Charge of the Light Brigade? Must hold the record for the largest number of cruel horse falls. Some of them look really bad with horses sumersaulting over. The BBFC won’t certify it for home video as they would have to cut so much out of the climax (although I’d argue that as the film was made in 1936 it predates the Act and therefore should be exempt.) The climatic charge is available on You Tube. And film freely available elsewhere.

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I read that review years ago, and like many I always considered him an intelligent critic, but obviously didn’t agree with him on DRAH. I never knew what he was talking about when Law’s shadow covers a hillside either. I’ve watched the film with that in mind several times and couldn’t see what he was talking about…does anybody have any idea?

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