When outlaw Clay McCord learns the Governor of New Mexico has offered an amnesty to all who apply for it at the town of Tuscosa, he is intrigued but suspicious. He circles the vicinity, weighing the offer and encountering other outlaws, all the while troubled by occasional "spells" resembling the epileptic fits which plagued his father. Eventually McCord reaches Tuscosa where he clashes with the local marshal, Roy Colby. The Governor then arrives and tries to calm the situation, knowing that if McCord asks for amnesty, other outlaws will follow. Events lead to a shoot-out with McCord, Colby, and the Governor on one side while a band of outlaws comprise the other. "Sugar Colt" director Franco Giraldi's above-average Spaghetti western "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die" is grim and cynical with a trio of Americans: Alex Cord, Arthur Kennedy, and Robert Ryan. Composer Carlo Rustichelli contributes an atmospheric score, and "Keoma" lenser Aiace Parolin makes everything look Euro-western cool. All the shots are perfectly composed with regard to the players on camera and the arena of action. Louis Garfinkle, who later provided the story for Oscar-winning Vietnam epic "The Deer Hunter," Ugo Liberatore of "The Tramplers," and Albert Band of "The Hellbenders" have written an exciting western about an outlaw, Clay McCord (Alex Cord), on the dodge. Bounty hunters flock after McCord and his partner Fred Duskin (Giampiero Albertini of "Commandos") and beat them at a mission. McCord knows Father Santana who runs the mission, and he is bringing him a bottle of whiskey. Two bounty hunters, Jesús María (Aldo Sambrell of "Navajo Joe") and Sein (Antonio Molino Rojo of "A Bullet for Sandoval"), kill the monk in cold blood. These bounty hunters are so bad that they remove the body from the head and stuff it into a bag rather than drag an entire corpse around with them. The bounty hunters try to ambush them. Sein masquerades as a priest, but Clay is too quick for them. He guns down Sein, and Fred takes care of Jesús. The fly in the ointment is that Clay suffers from tremors of the right arm, like the John Wayne character Cole Thornton did in Howard Hawks' "El Dorado." Clay takes refuge in the border town of Escondido. Incidentally, Escondido is run an imposed hombre named Krant (Mario Brega of "A Fistful of Dollars"), and he is no friend to McCord. The scene where Clay is walking with a bottle in his hand that casts the reflection of a desperado posed to shot him in the back with a rifle is neat. The story is peppered with flashbacks, and we learn how Clay turned into a swift-shooting, crack-shot of a gunslinger. Clay's poor ailing father is ridiculed and dragged unceremoniously through the streets while suffering a seizure. Clay snatches a six-gun and blasts away at the bastards. In most Westerns, the protagonist is mentally healthy. He may have a single-minded obsession about something, like John Wayne's character in "Red River" and in "The Searchers," but that is just part of his manliness. There are a few Westerns, however, in which the protagonist is mentally ill. There is Sterling Hayden's character in "Johnny Guitar," who is gun crazy, and there is Charles Bronson's character in "Once Upon a Time in the West," who does not simply want revenge against the man who killed is brother, but is an obsessive-compulsive, who keeps playing the harmonica that was in his mouth when his brother died, and he even wears clothing similar to what he wore on that day. In such movies, the music is usually in a minor key.<br/><br/>"A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die" is in that subgenre. The protagonist, Clay McCord has, or at least thinks he has, epilepsy, and is haunted by memories of his father having fits. When his gun hand starts acting up in moments of temporary spasms and paralysis, he thinks it is just a matter of time before he will meet with the same fate. Even though he needs his partner to help him out when his hand freezes up, he parts with him because he cannot stand the idea of someone else seeing him in that way.<br/><br/>He realizes that his days as a gunslinger and bandit are coming to an end, and so he decides to apply for amnesty, which is being offered in the territory of New Mexico. It turns out that he does not have epilepsy, but rather has been bothered by a bullet lodged near his spine, which is removed. Nevertheless, he applies for the amnesty anyway. But it is hardly a happy ending, because he still seems to be troubled by his past.<br/><br/>The movie is marred by a couple of absurdities. After being rescued from Escondido by a government agent, he rides with him in his wagon until a couple of riders approach. McCord kills both of them, and then tells the agent to unhitch one of his horses, because he needs a horse to go his own way. But the two men he just killed were riding horses, which are now saddled and ready for use, and all McCord has to do is get on one of them. As one of the horses is unhitched, however, we see the two dead men in the background, but not their horses, for some strange reason.<br/><br/>Second, McCord decides to hide out in a place called Beaver Head, which is a nice cabin, completely unoccupied and stocked with rifles and dynamite just sitting there for the taking. No explanation is given for the existence of this place, or why, with all the bandits around, it remains unmolested.<br/><br/>All in all, this is the best Spaghetti Western not directed by Sergio Leone.
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