MovieChat Forums > Il gatto a nove code (1971) Discussion > Original Language?

Original Language?

posted 16 years ago by littlefuzzy
3 replies | jump to latest

IMDB shows this as Italian, but when I listen to the English track, the scenes with the English actors don't seem to be dubbed (or if they were, it was redubbing of their original English lines...)

On the other hand, it's set in Italy, signs etc., are in Italian, and I feel that some actors aren't speaking English but are dubbed instead.

I know that many times with these Italian films (horror, western, gialli, etc.,) that they would just film some actors in one language, and others in a different language, then just redub all or most of the film into the release language.

I've even heard that some of these films (or Hong Kong films because of Cantonese/Mandarin) are just filmed without sound, and then dialogue is dubbed in later.

[–] MyKroberts 16 years ago

You're right on. Pretty much all giallo films were filmed without sound, with actors of all different nationalities and dubbed differently for each release. It is highly likely that this was done that way.

[–] Rvrgm 12 years ago

Clint Eastwood talks about this on the Fistful of Dollars DVD - Italian movies in that time period did not record nat sound at all - the entire soundtrack was done by foley and looping. That's why they have such disconnected sound. Actors spoke many different languages on set and would just do their lines in their own language. Often, scripts weren't even followed. Some scenes in some movies are completely different depending on which language dub you watch, because the dubbing studio would rewrite the entire script.

[–] ToMakeEachDayCount 11 years ago

^ Could be just me, but I kind of find the disconnected sound associated with the audio of Italian films to be quite charming.