A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die | |
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Directed by | Franco Giraldi |
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Cinematography | Aiace Parolin [2] |
Edited by | Alberto Gallitti [2] |
Music by | Carlo Rustichelli [2] |
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Languages | English, Italian |
Budget | $280,000 [5] |
Box office | $885,000 (US) [5] |
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (Italian : Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire) is a 1968 Italian Spaghetti Western. It is the fourth and last western directed by Franco Giraldi. [6] It was originally intended as being directed by Sergio Corbucci and the cast was to include also Raffaella Carrà and Renzo Palmer. [6] The American version of the film was heavily cut, with a runtime 16 minutes shorter than the original version and featuring a different ending. [6]
Clay McCord is a wanted criminal. He frequently suffers with fits which hinder him to defend himself. His condition seems to deteriorate continuously. Seeking shelter he enters the lawless town Escondido although it is currently under siege by a high-ranked law enforcement officer. There he gets to know the young Laurinda and finds a doctor who discovers the reason for his fits. Unlike he feared he's not epileptic and can be cured for good. Yet he's still an outlaw and that is in the end his downfall.
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die was released in 1968. [4] According to ABC records, the movie made a loss of $165,000. [5] The film has also been released as Dead or Alive, Outlaw Gun, and Escondido. [4] The film's title was A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die on its distribution in Canada and the United States, while foreign prints, released by Columbia Pictures, extended the film's runtime and featured a different ending. [7] The film was released on VHS and Betamax in 1988; it is the only release on the Playhouse Video label to be rated R by the MPAA.
In a contemporary review, "Murf." of Variety stated that like other Italian Westerns, "brutality is laid on with a trowel, but herein with at least a modicum of taste and plot motivation." [7] A review in the Monthly Film Bulletin noted that "there are moments in this rather rambling Western which suggest that, given a more coherent script, Franco Giraldi might at least emerge as a front runner in the Italian imitation stakes" noting an "imaginatively directed gun battle set in a church" in the beginning of the film. [8]
The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero, known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film Django (1966), which made him a pop culture icon and launched an international career that includes over 200 leading and supporting roles in a wide variety of films and television productions.
Carlo Rustichelli was an Italian film composer whose career spanned the 1940s to about 1990. His prolific output included about 250 film compositions, as well as arrangements for other films, and music for television.
The Great Silence is a 1968 revisionist spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci. An Italian-French co-production, the film stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Vonetta McGee and Frank Wolff, with Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Marisa Merlini and Carlo D'Angelo in supporting roles.
The Big Gundown is a 1967 spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Sollima, and starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian.
Tomas Milian was a Cuban-born actor with American and Italian citizenship, known for the emotional intensity and humor he brought to starring roles in European genre films.
Giraldi is a surname, and may refer to:
George Hilton was a Uruguayan actor well known for his many spaghetti Western performances. Sometimes credited as Jorge Hilton, he appeared in over 20 Euro-Westerns as well as several giallo and action films.
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A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof is a 1968 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film.
Seven Guns for the MacGregors is a Technicolor 1966 Spaghetti Western. It is the directorial debut film of Franco Giraldi, who was Sergio Leone's assistant in A Fistful of Dollars. The film gained a great commercial success and generated an immediate sequel, Up the MacGregors! (1967), again directed by Giraldi,
Up the MacGregors! is a 1967 Italian spaghetti Western directed by Franco Giraldi. It is the immediate sequel of Seven Guns for the MacGregors, still directed by Giraldi. The film has the same cast as its predecessor except for Manuel Zarzo and Robert Woods, who refused the role due to his conflicts with the leading actress Agata Flori, the wife of producer Dario Sabatello.
Franco Giraldi was an Italian director and screenwriter.
Duccio Tessari was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns.
Payment in Blood is a 1967 Italian Spaghetti Western film. It represents the official film debut for director Enzo G. Castellari of Few Dollars for Django. The film stars Edd Byrnes and Guy Madison.
Hit Squad is a 1976 Italian "poliziottesco"-comedy film directed by Bruno Corbucci. It is the second chapter in the Nico Giraldi film series starred by Tomas Milian.
10.000 dollari per un massacro is a 1967 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Romolo Guerrieri.
Joaquín Parra was a Spanish film actor, fencing master and stunt performer. He played Pícaro in Yo soy la revolución (1967), Pedro Henchman in Johnny Yuma (1966), Mendoza in The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), and he also appeared in A Bullet for the General (1969), and Pistol for a Hundred Coffins (1968).