MovieChat Forums > Eye of the Needle (1981) Discussion > Awful overdubbing of kid's voice

Awful overdubbing of kid's voice

posted 13 years ago by LCShackley
9 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this film again after almost 30 years - it still holds up well as a wartime thriller. But I was annoyed over and over again by the horrible job the sound department did in dubbing the little boy's voice.

First of all, it's clearly a woman's voice, not right at all for the size and age of the boy. Occasionally, you can see that the kid actually tried to say the lines, but you can see by his lips that he didn't say them clearly so he had to be post-dubbed.

OK, so that's fairly common - having a female voice actor do a kid's voice. But why oh why did they feel the need to put in all sorts of other unnecessary sounds in the phony voice? There are little grunts, giggles, "mommies," and other sounds that seem to be there only to remind us that the kid is still alive. It would have been better to leave them out entirely.

[–] LightningLad 13 years ago

Good points...I'm so used to weird-sounding kids' voices in movies I practically block it out, but I guess they are there a lot of the time. I agree they could have left it out pretty much.

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Reason is a pursuit, not a conclusion.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jbart39-1 13 years ago

I interviewed residents of the Isle of Mull, in Scotland, which became Storm Island. The little boy was actually played by twin boys alternating scenes. The idea was to prevent overworking them as they were so young. This doesn't pertain to the dubbing. But I thought it might be of interest.

[–] pinbackwiggly 12 years ago

I'd also have trouble speaking all my lines if I was sitting in a tub with a 1981 Kate Nelligan.

[–] jejozi 12 years ago

Using twins is a very common practice. Children are limited by law on the amount of hours they can work on set. Using twins, obviously, doubles that time

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] jejozi 12 years ago

Almost as bad as the German dub of Southerland when he was trying to contact the sub.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] movies789 10 years ago

Yes, the kid's voice was pretty annoying. But I disagree with jejozi; I think that was Sutherland's voice using the radio in German, not a dub. The German transmissions seemed to be short & simple enough for an experienced actor to be able to learn & say, and it did sound like his voice, to me. But the thing I found MOST annoying was that terrible music. But, that's for another thread.

[–] Don-the-Lamplighter 7 years ago

Both scenes where Sutherland uses the radio to attempt to contact the U-boat sounded dubbed.

In the second one, they definitely used Sutherland's own voice. But the first one? I don't know whose voice that was, but they could've used Wolfman Jack or Ethel Merman and it would've sounded closer to Sutherland's.

[–] Jane2005 9 years ago

I thought it was just me! That is an incredibly annoying child voice. Why did they over-dub?

-Jane