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On the running time and versions:

The Italian censorship site records the submission at 3040 meters which translates to 144m long. This backs up statements by Sollima that the original cut was about 140m. This is over 30m longer than the longest available Blu Ray/DVD version of 112m.

There are several potential obvious missing scenes as well as Beauā€™s escape from jail. especially in the second half. For example, the Jose Torres character is shot in the bank robbery but appears to mount a horse and start to ride off - but heā€™s never seen again. I also suspect there are exposition scenes missing at the beginning - the transition from the stagecoach crashing, to Brad/Beau at the river to Brad/Beau at the shack and afterwards to Beau recovered is all quite abrupt. The sequence at the plantation seemed short given this was all a new set etc. I also wondered if the train robbery was much longer originally - it must have been expensive to use the train for such a short sequence.

I also thought, contrary to Howard Hughes, that this was set post Civil War not during the Civil War. This is based on Belleā€™s comment to Brad that servants/slaves are basically the same so emancipation didnā€™t matter.

The UK theatrical version was cut to 102m with both distributor and censor cuts to get an A rating so that children could see it if accompanied by an adult. These are the censor cuts which were probably 1m-2m.
DR3 - Remove the whole of Fletcherā€™s attack on Maria. Reduce to a minimum the sounds and shots of a man beating Maria. Reduce to a minimum the fight between this man and Fletcher; and remove all shots of the latter beating his opponentā€™s head against a rock. DR5 - Reduce to a minimum the incident in which Wallace is beaten up and shot, including shots in which he is only tied up.

These scenes were back in for the UK 90m Pal video/DVD releases so that was a different print source to the UK theatrical version which I suspect was the 112m one originally before distributor cuts.

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Iā€™d have to disagree that this is a ā€˜time saverā€™ edit ā€¦ Beau is about to shoot and kill Brad, but passes out ā€¦ and we are all transported to the new location, which is explained by Prof Brad ā€¦ itā€™s a very lovely transition and I believe this is the original cut, otherwise why have Brad explain that he moved them from the crash but became lost.

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We see him again, as corpse over the saddle of his horse brought in by Berger.

I doubt that even in a longer version his actual death was shown.

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I was trying to work out where 30m has come from. Normally, you cut from the beginning of the movie. Looking at some of the editing where it gets very tight:

  • Williams and Taylor - just disappear from movie after that gunfight. Rizzo is billed 5th i think so would have expected more
  • The train sequence. Lots of dressed up extras and a train for about a minute of screen time (although presumably the same extras who were in the earlier brief train scene) and a robbery that is not shown. Surely this would have been longer.
  • Iā€™d say there was definitely more of Beau in or escaping from prison. Very abrupt cut when he looks around in the jail cell
  • I still think something is missing re: Jose Torresā€™ character. He escapes from town but doesnā€™t go with Brad and Maria at Puerto so where has he gone? Not sure of the point of scene in which he is brought in dead afterwards unless there was something missing before that.
  • Linda Verasā€™ character just appears out of nowhere - isnā€™t even named as far as I can tell. The first time I saw this I thought she was the Lydia Alfonsi character reappearing as I had forgotten what she looked like (but her character is left at the plantation and never seen again).
  • when Shawnā€™s men kill the fleeing people on foot, sequence cuts away too quickly in mid shot. I assume this was longer originally.
  • abrupt edit just before final shot of Beau riding off and ā€˜Fineā€™. Probably more shots originally.

Although I donā€™t think the massacre at Puerto was actually filmed, I thought it was very clumsy writing to have all of that exposition delivered by the dying Rusty who conveniently has been left alive by the vigilantes - who have killed everyone else - for the express purpose of telling Beau what has happened. Hammer producer Tony Hinds used to call this kind of scene ā€˜sticky B movieā€™ writing.

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You make some good points, but alas itā€™s all conjecture for all of us, unless there are some ā€˜FACE TO FACEā€™ survivors to tell us about missing or deleted scenes - and actors donā€™t really invest in remembering specifics about a project unless they had some big career making scene end up on the cutting room floor.

I think it was rumoured that Linda Veras was Sollimaā€™s girlfriend, so perhaps she was an afterthought regarding the script, as her role isnā€™t very important - One thing that has bothered me over the years was Nicoletta Machiavelli is credited and no where to be seen ā€¦ So, who knows what that was all about, some love interest for Beauregard Bennett perhaps ?

Itā€™s an interesting topic ā€¦ but maybe the cuts were for the best, as we are left, in the longer version with one of the most fascinating films of the genre.