Richard Basehart
How in the world did Richard Basehart, a very American actor from Ohio, get cast in this movie?
shareI don't know, someone hopefully has the answer. Quinn isn't really known particularly for doing films in Italy at this time either, I don't think, so I guess they brought them both over. Someone who's a big fan of the movie might know. My guess is that it was done to help sales in the U.S., and that people in the U.S. might have seen an English dubbed version when the film was first shown here. That might be totally wrong though, I'm curious myself. I just thought Basehart did a really good job here, much better than in most of the American films I've seen him in where he's often rather boring.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
If you look close you'll see both Basehart and Quinn are speaking English. Fellini just let the actors speak and he dubbed in Italian for these two Americans. You can see Basehart is saying "you broke my watch" when they have their last fight.
shareUm no, Quinn spoke fluent italian, and he did his own voice. Basehart though spoke in english.
"Hey you smokin Mother Nature, this is a bust!"-The Who
"The Legend will Never Die!"-Soul Calibur
That explains things, I thought Richard Basehart was speaking English. Fellini did the same thing Sergio Leone did with Clint Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy. You could see Quinn was definitely speaking Italian, he was very convincing.
"The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest."
No, Quinn was speaking English, too.
shareUm no. Quinn and Basehart actually spoke their lines in english during the filming and were dubbed by Italian actors Arnoldo Foà and Stefano Sibaldi. Quinn and Basehart re-dubbed their parts for the english version.
shareActually, Quinn is Mexican-American and spoke Spanish, not Italian. Once he married Cecil B. DeMille's daughter, he was often cast as an Indian, or Mexican, or, here, Italian.
shareI can believe Basehart being dubbed but Quinn looked like he spoke Italian or the actor dubbing his voice was a very good soundalike.
It's that man again!!
Italian isn't too hard to speak, or even fake, if you are fluent in Spanish. You can read a menu, for sure.
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