James Hayter's voice (May not make sense to Americans)

I think a lot of Americans familiar with classic films are familiar with James Hayter. Personally, I know him from many pictures: The Blue Lagoon, Morning Departure, Trio, The Crimson Pirate -- my favorite, and one of his most enjoyable performances -- Four-Sided Triangle, The Pickwick Papers, Beau Brummell, Seven Waves Away/Abandon Ship!, The 39 Steps (1959), several others.

So the funny thing is that, until I read that Robert Rietty had dubbed his voice in Land of the Pharaohs, it had never occurred to me that this wasn't James Hayter speaking. I could tell the voice was looped in, but so were many actors' voices in this film, which was quite common. But nothing ever struck me about Hayter's voice, and I've seen this film many times over the past 50 years. Having first seen it as a child, I probably just accepted the film as is, so that things like that never occurred to me later on.

Once aware of it, I listened again and realized that it wasn't Mr. Hayter, as I know his real voice well from many other movies. Why he was looped over by another actor I can't say. Usually this is done when an actor's real voice is for some reason deemed to be unsuitable in the film (which makes you wonder why he was hired in the first place), or if post-production work is extensive and the actor is no longer available to loop in his own voice. As I said, this was a common practice. Still, while not unusual, neither is it usual to have an actor's entire performance dubbed in, especially a well-established actor.

I'm not really familiar with Robert Rietty or what he sounds like, but I have to strongly disagree that Hayter was dubbed by George Coulouris, who had a very distinctive and familiar voice. Hayter's "voice" sounds nothing like Coulouris's, whose tone was smoother, more cultured and distinct in his enunciation. Hayter's sounds a bit raspier, somewhat "stuffy" or "fogged" if you understand what I mean, not the clear diction Coulouris always had. I can't state anything for a fact, of course, but there is nothing I hear that indicates this is Coulouris.

Land of the Pharaohs was basically an American movie (funded and released by Warner Bros., though made by a production company called Continental set up to make this one picture), but in fact most of the cast and crew were European. Except for Dewey Martin (and, I suppose, Sydney Chaplin), the principle actors were mostly English, Scottish, Greek or Italian, and several voices were dubbed by others. The film was shot in Egypt, with interiors and post-production done in Rome (where looping in all sound is the norm), so it's sort of a multi-national hybrid to begin with.

As to the subject of miscasting, I don't quite agree that Jack Hawkins or James Robertson Justice -- or James Hayter -- were miscast. Hawkins (one of the most popular British actors in America as well as Britain in his day) was an unusual choice for the Pharaoh, but no more so than other actors who have played pharaohs or other ancient rulers in other movies. I think he makes for a much more interesting choice than many other actors would have, or did. The same with Robertson Justice, and Hayter. Granted, they didn't look like ancient Egyptians, but then who in the cast of this or any other film about the ancient world really looked their parts? As with all such films, the actors, the music, the costumes and the rest conform more to modern sensibilities than reality. Not to mention, of course, that, as far as their accents go, none of their characters would have been speaking English to begin with!

While as an American I never saw the TV ads (as we say) with Hayter hawking Mr. Kipling's cakes, my wife is English and well remembers those commercials. I happen to like Mr. Kipling's products, very different from the kind of pastries we have here in the States, with a particular fondness for Battenbergs. I confess to being amused by their packages' boast that Kipling's are exceedingly good cakes -- wow, and by their own admission, too! You seldom see such blatant use of self-praising adjectives on American products, though TV ads are another matter.

It occurs to me that, in so far as product spokesmen went, having Hayter hawking Kipling was preferable to having Hawkins hating Kipling. Now, if only they'd co-starred in The Charge of the Light Brigade, the aptness would have come full circle.