A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die

Rating:
Summary: Another good spaghetti western
Review: A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die is another worthwhile spaghetti western to have in your collection. It stars Alex Cord as Clay McCord, an outlaw seeking amnesty from the territorial governor. McCord believes he has epilepsy since he has these fits where his right arm goes paralyzed. The outlaw is being chased down by a corrupt sheriff and a group of bandits that both want him dead.

This is an exciting western that is one of the better spaghettis. Cord gives a good performance as do Robert Ryan and Arthur Kennedy. Mario Brega brings yet another role as the greasy bandit. Nicoletta Machiavelli stars as McCord's brief love interest. Aldo Sambrell even makes a brief appearance as a bounty killer. Excellent score by Bruno Nicolai. Overall a good movie that deserves a better presentation.

Rating:
Summary: Another good spaghetti western
Review: A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die is another worthwhile spaghetti western to have in your collection. It stars Alex Cord as Clay McCord, an outlaw seeking amnesty from the territorial governor. McCord believes he has epilepsy since he has these fits where his right arm goes paralyzed. The outlaw is being chased down by a corrupt sheriff and a group of bandits that both want him dead.

This is an exciting western that is one of the better spaghettis. Cord gives a good performance as do Robert Ryan and Arthur Kennedy. Mario Brega brings yet another role as the greasy bandit. Nicoletta Machiavelli stars as McCord's brief love interest. Aldo Sambrell even makes a brief appearance as a bounty killer. Excellent score by Bruno Nicolai. Overall a good movie that deserves a better presentation.

Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric Spaghetti Western
Review: Alex Cord is excellent as the stoic outlaw Clay McCord in this atmospheric Spaghetti Western. Hunted by both the law and the lawless he manages to overcome seizures that paralyze his gun-hand. Flashbacks give insight into the psyche of this unlikely hero. Arthur Kennedy, Mario Brega and Robert Ryan also star in this interesting movie but Alex Cord's performance is the real high point of this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Good "Spaghetti" Western
Review: As a western I give this show a "5", as a movie maybe a "3", but this is a western from 1967 and I think it's as good as the ones Eastwood was doing then. Alex Cord plays the role of "Clay McCord" well. A gunfighter with bad memories of his Pa, who had epilepsy when McCord was a kid. Cord is an outlaw with blazing guns, lightning quick speed and accuracy. The law and bounty hunters are after him and his partner. He's worth 10,000; dead or alive. But McCord has a big problem: He's getting the "shakes", like his Pa used to have. At times he loses the use of his right arm due to this. This isn't good because he's right handed and anytime he has these "attacks" he is totally vulnerable. But the governor of New Mexico (Robert Ryan) has offered amnesty to any outlaw who turns himself in. He offers them a second chance and a clean slate. McCord is interested in obtaining amnesty, his problem is only going to get worse and he knows that eventually someone is going to get him when he becomes disabled with the shakes, especially when he puts a strain on his right hand.

Rating:
Summary: solid sixties spaghetti western
Review: This was originally released to the English speaking world as Dead or Alive - which makes a lot more sense when you consider the storyline concerns bounty hunters, a town full of outlaws and a crooked sherrif offering amnesty. Alex Cord (whose big chance at stardom with Stagecoach came to grief two years before this film was made) plays an outlaw who's lightning fast on the draw, until he's wracked by shaking fits. Flashbacks reveal his father was an epileptic, and Cord is terrified that the same fate is in store for him. Although it's not up there with the classics (Django, Texas Adio, Keoma, The Bounty Killer), this is an enjoyable example of the sort of westerns the Italians were churning out in the sixties: silly dialogue, plenty of gunfire, lashings of sadism (the villains drowning a hapless civilan in a pool of oil; Cord being beaten to a pulp before being suspended by ropes above the town; a priest being tortured and gunned down) and the ubiquitous Mario Brega and Aldo Sambrell as leering, sweating bad guys. My only complaint is that this is the edited version - from the reviews I've read that were written in the 1960s, the film had a downbeat ending that sounded similar to The Great Silence.