Generally Italian films would have a scratch audio track recorded on set. Unusable for the actual release due to background noise, but potentially a helpful guide for the re-dubbing. Maybe Leone didn’t bother because of the difficulties recording audio on location. (True, American productions did this all the time, but the Italians rarely felt the need to, so they may not have had the equipment or experienced sound personnel readily available.)
I recall an interview with the person in charge of re-dubbing Leone’s westerns. (Mickey Knox, I think). He had to consult the original script, but also watch and re-watch the footage to try to figure out dialogue that would match their lip movements. (They were not often fastidious about sticking to the original script or saying exactly the same thing every take.) He loved working with Eastwood because Clint took precise notes throughout, and could always provide the exact dialogue for any of his takes.
Based on that anecdote, Leone did not generally record audio on his Westerns.
Heh, that was my dad’s favorite movie so I have always been intimately familiar with it. I don’t think it’s as bad as people say, but it sort of disappeared in cultural memory (When that bit was on the Simpson I felt seen). I eventually came to realize it was just the wrong time for that sort of movie. As an adult, what really stands out to me is the Oregon filming location- while the choice was responsible for all sorts of problems, you can really tell from the forests it wasn’t filmed in the usual SoCal/Southwest locations, which as a child of the PNW I appreciated.
Not sure about Leone’s films, specifically, but… My recollection is that this applies to most Italian films (not only those with multilingual/non-Italian casts), at least into the 1970s.
It’s been over 20 years since I watched, so I don’t remember whether Once Upon a Time in New York was dubbed (or, how well). Different director, but I don’t recall Corrupt being dubbed. Both of those were early-80s though.
Also recall that Fellini would go way off script by the time the actors dubbed their lines.
Luchino Visconti made a film in which the lead (Burt Lancaster) was dubbed into Italian, or alternatively, everyone but the lead was dubbed into English
This woman certainly was and a lot of the foley has that overly insistent Italian feel, but maybe the rest of the cast weren’t. (Or they just did a really good job at dubbing themselves. It does happen a lot in American and UK films, too. We often don’t notice it because American and UK audiences demand a higher standard of dubbing, so the dubbers are forced to try harder.)
Love that one - I tend to watch DYS (as well as the other ~3 hour Leone/Morricones, GBU and Once Upon a Time…) about once a year. Every so often, our local reperatory theater will screen a print, too - which is a real treat.
I enjoy the other two Dollars films a lot, but each of these three gets a slightly different flavor with a different big-name Star protagonist/antagonist/wild card.
Voice over: While they are all saying “the comfy chair”, here is question one of our special sound quiz.
Question one: What famous person is this, getting up in the morning?
Sounds: Alarm clock. Yawning. Steps (slippers). Tinkling in the toilet. Flushing. Toothbrush. Steps (slippers). Electric razor. Steps (shoes). Front door slamming. Steps in stairwell.
Voice over: Yes, it was the film director Visconti, 5 points. And “italian film director” is not sufficient.
Man I love me some spaghetti western - dad got me hooked on them and I remember watching them on tv whered they be like an 8hr event (or seemed that way to me as a kid).
I dont remember too much about “Once Upon a Time in the West” but I recall this scene:
