Does anyone know a good source for the Italian language version of "Il grande racket?" I don't understand why the recent dvd release doesn't include the Italian audio, as even Castellari has said that he did not like the English dub, and that this film was actually shot in Italian. I just think this is a great film, with it's one major drawback being the lousy English dub. It deserves more than this..
I think the dubbing is actually pretty good on the English version and you get all the regular voice actors like Michael Forest, Ted Rusoff, Ed Mannix, etc. Unfortunately they go through great pains to never swear in the movie, which is bizarre since the movie is so violent and has two different rape scenes in it. Both Forest and Rusoff claimed not to remember the film when I interviewed them but I guess it was a sort of in-joke to sanitize the language of the movie when a lot of other Eurocrime movies around the same time (see CYNIC THE RAT AND THE FIST) were pretty potty-mouthed. Forest did admit to me that they would fool around and sneak dumb things into the movies on purpose sometimes when they were dubbing movies.
That said, the Italian versions are ALSO dubbed, and often dubbed worse than the English versions. Of all nationalities, the Italians and the Germans were the best at dubbing so sometimes you won't even notice when watching their versions. In an international movie like this, the Italian dubbing is closer to the lip movements of most of the actors, but Castellari was a lot like Margheriti and Deodato where he'd have his actors mouthing their lines in English either way (even the non-English speakers who would have to learn their lines phonetically), since the US was the most important export market.
EDIT - it turns out that this was one of Castellari's very few movies to shoot in Italian and not in English, similar to Sensitiva.
Ok, big question here. Who in the hell is the voice actor who was so prominent in these Italian movies? He’s that guy who was soooo recognizable in all of these films back then. You know who I’m talking about…. Let me think of one….. Ok! I’m pretty sure he did Al Cliver voice in Fulci’s Zombie (1979). I would LOVE to see a picture of what this voice actor looks like. Lol
There's one voice actor in this Italian genre films I hear all the time. He did the voice for the cop in New York Ripper. I think he's in every Fulci English dub.
That was Nick Alexander, who was a British voice actor and dubbing director who could do a pretty good trans-atlantic accent. He dubbed Al Cliver in both Zombie and New Gladiators. He was also Orso Mario Guerrini "Butch" in Keoma.
I take pride in having most of the Italian dubbing voices figured out (and Rusoff helped me ID a few) but there's a few who escape me. William Kiehl and Richard McNamara sound so similar that I've gotten them mixed up a few times.
Wow!! Would you happen to be able to supply a link to this man’s picture? I searched under his name and I haven’t found much, but I’m dying to know what he looks like.
I did a rewatch of Keoma last night and afterwards I went to the film’s board here. You had commented under your same username on the old IMDB forums 16 years ago about this very topic, and I had replied to it. Lol