MovieChat Forums > Topaz (1969) Discussion > when do they speak what?

when do they speak what?

posted 12 years ago by Thomas Dunson
2 replies | jump to latest

Caught a dubbed-into-German version of this in a hotel on television (a weird experience). Apart from the fact that I consider dubbing a crime punishable by death, what struck me as odd in this particular case was that they speak German throughout. What I mean by that, IMDb says "Language: English | Spanish | French | Russian", so with German "standing in" for English, what about the non-English parts? In the original version, were they substantial? Like, were Cubans on Cuba authentically speaking Spanish amongst themselves? – and the French French? (the last confronation between Juanita and villain Rico Parra, Parra and his men, the dinner scene in Paris etc.) Or was it just bits and pieces to add [cheap] color?

Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to (P. Green)

[–] Beau_Buffet (332) 5 years ago

Yeah, the only foreign languages you'll hear is tiny bits not relevant to the plot.

In this movie the Cubans speak English amongst themselves, as does the French family, it's absolutely ridiculous (even if I understand the reasons).

Gotta love Tarantino for keeping foreign languages authentic and just putting subtitles. (I'm way more a fan of Hitchcock than Tarantino, by the way.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

A couple of years after Topaz came out and failed, Hitchcock was willing to diss his own film, saying that he "didn't care for it" (a revelation: a director could recognize his own failure and admit it), but offering a specific reason why it failed: "All those actors of different nationalities speaking English" wasn't believable, he felt. The characters are French, Russian, Cuban, and American. Still, we went along in those days with English for everybody (in American studio films.)

I think Hitch was just looking for an excuse with that assessment, as when he said that Torn Curtain failed because "audiences came expecting Julie Andrews to sing, and when she did not, there was diappoinment." But she hadn't sung in The Americanization of Emily or Hawaii, either.

Hitch was canny that way, running a diversion(Andrews didn't sing; all the characters spoke English) to cover up other flaws in his films. That said, I think that both Torn Curtain and Topaz are better than their detractors say; they are Hitchcock, after all.