Missing scenes?

afterthebattle.com has provides details on what was cut from The Victors in terms of the:

* Original Release
* Re-cut Roadshow version
* VHS and DVD releases

http://www.afterthebattle.com/thevictors.pdf

I saw The Victors on its initial release in a downtown theater. At that time,a film played in only one theater in larger cities and only after it was played out did in open in multiple local neighborhood venues. Depending on the popularity of the film,that could be one week or one month later. Occasionally, a film would be cut in neighborhood showings if it was on a double bill. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World had several scenes cut or shortened. In the case of The Victors I remember one odd cut that had nothing to do with length. In the scene involving the execution, just after the deserter was shot, a Christmas carol,Hark the Herald Angels Sing, was played on the soundtrack. That song was excised from the later neighborhood showing.

Dave Greene: Although my only experience with viewing the missing scenes occurred over fifty years ago, a few weeks after its premiere, I still vividly remember many of them. There was a short sequence that was deleted when Eli Wallach was filling canteens at a fountain, near the top of the film. He is approached by a frighteningly emaciated little old woman in rags who is begging for food. When he gives her a chocolate bar, the shot of her incredibly wrinkled face as she ravenously devours the candy speaks volumes about the devastation that the war has brought to Italy's civilian population. There are many minor moments which enriched and deepened the impact of the movie which were clumsily deleted, probably just to shorten it. The most radical cut involved the removal of an entire episode involving a young French boy, who manages to befriend American G.I.s. They do what they can to help him with food and a few minor material goods. One night (and this scene was created with great subtlety and taste) one of the soldiers awakens to discover that the boy is trying to reward his benefactor with sexual favors. The soldier reacts with horror, causing the boy to flee in embarrassed fear. In his flight, the boy rushes into a minefield where an explosion kills him. The G.I.s are aghast and deeply remorseful over this loss. They quickly realize that, previously, German occupying troops had conditioned the boy to perform this kind of act with them. There were other unfortunate deletions, including the cutting of more detailed sequences in the story late in the film, of the relationship between the soldier (George Hamilton) and the German woman who is desperately depending on him amid her family's post-war hardships. In all, the original edit, when seen back in 1963, made the movie feel more like a stately, thoughtful European film, than the shallower, more pace-conscious American movie fare of that era.