MovieChat Forums > The Night of the Generals (1967) Discussion > The Guy on The Loudspeaker When Tanz is ...

The Guy on The Loudspeaker When Tanz is destroying the city

posted 9 years ago by deangriffiths
5 replies | jump to latest

Although this film is far from perfect it's always been a bit of a favorite of mine since the first time I watched it 20 odd years ago.

However one thing that I have to say really annoys me is the guy who is doing some sort of commentary when Tanz is destroying part of Warsaw. The guy has such a broad american accent which just doesn't fit with the rest of the film.

Most of the actors portraying Germans in the film are British & speak with British accents so we assume the British accents make them German. The only non Brits playing Germans are Omar Sharif who pretty much does a British accent as does Irishman O'Toole, Joanna Pettit is the only american in the main cast and her accent at worst can be described as a touch middle Atlantic. Then there's the Canadian Christopher Plummer who always sounds British anyway. So I just don't get why they thought it would be a good idea to have this one really broad American accent in among all the British ones doesn't make sense.

[–] liberius 9 years ago

Yes, I was struck by that, too. Not that I mind an American accent at all, but it did seem out of place. The only reason I can think of is that since the actor is playing the part of a radio commentator the director thought a prototypical American radio voice might be a wink in the right direction or an in-joke of sorts. But it was glaringly out of place. It could also be a badly miscalculated overdub added after the director made final cut but that's very unlikely.

But it is strange what we accept as authentic accents. All Romans, Greeks and many other ancient civilisations sound like upper class Brits, as indeed do Germans in many movies. Connery gives us a Soviet Scot in Red October. On an on.

[–] Severian-6 9 years ago

The irony is that the actor in question was a very well known *British* character actor by the name of Valentine Dyall.

"Nobody {¥€|$ with the Jesus"

[–] peter-00885 9 years ago

Although the IMDb credits Valentine Dyall with the voice work, I remain unconvinced. To my ear (ageing and unreliable!) it doesn't have the deep resonance of Mr Dyall. I am probably alone in this, but as Google would say, citation needed.
I do agree though, that it pulls you up short while watching the movie to have a Stateside accent in the middle of the Warsaw pogram.

[–] John-367 8 years ago

Certainly Dyall re-voiced one or two other smaller roles but I agree that the commentator's voice doesn't sound like him at all.

Regarding the American accent, it's always possible that the recording, as it is obvious propaganda, is for foreign english-language use and so is actually being spoken in English, quite possibly by a German who has lived in the USA long enough to sound American and so seem like a more objective observer.

[–] AureliaBuendia 8 years ago

I agree they would deliberately use an American or British accent to broadcast propaganda, a German accent just wouldn't work. Remember the British traitor Lord Haw-Haw who broadcast Nazi propaganda, he had a very upper-class English accent.