Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “The 5-Man Army”

 As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to be paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed.

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe these actors are as well-known as the actors they voiced.

Today we’ll cover – “The 5-Man Army”

[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English]

 

Dutchman – Peter Graves (I) Pino Locchi, (S) José Luis Sansalvador, (G) Michael Chevalier, (F) René Arrieu. (E) Peter Graves

Augustus – John Daly (I) Bruno Persa, (S) Rafel Luis Calvo, (G) Wolfgang Amerbacher, (F) Michel Gudin (E) John Daly

Mesito – Bud Spencer (I) Glauco Onorato (S) Pepe Mediavilla, (G) Alexander Welbat, (F) Claude Bertrand

Luis Dominguez – Nino Castelnuovo (I) Massimo Turci, (S) Manuel Cano, (G) Christian Brückner, (F) Maurice Sarfati, (E) Nino Castelnuovo

René Arrieu  (1924 – 1982)

 

René Arrieu was born in Paris on March 22, 1924. He was a pupil of Julien Bertheau, then of André Brunot at the Conservatory, which he left in 1946.

He distinguished himself in the theater in numerous tragic or dramatic roles and in various styles (note his interpretations of Hugo, Shakespeare, Musset or Claudel, among others, without forgetting the comedy with Molière).

Naturally, he appeared in such films as “l'avare”, "les Précieuses ridicules", "le Navire noir", "les Perses" and "On ne badine pas avec l'amour".

He lent his vocal talents to some illustrious dubbing. In the cinema, he will notably be the voice of the perfidious General Zod in "Superman 2". For TV, we will remember his interpretation of the President of the Interstellar Government in "Captain Flam", as well as that of his first villain: the emperor of space.

Arrieu died in Paris on June 6, 1982 at the age of 58.