Voices of the Spaghetti Western “Duel at Sndown”

 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 “Duel at Sundown”

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

Don McGow – Peter van Eyck (G) Peter van Eyck, (I) Silvano Tranquilli

Nancy Greenwood – Carole Gray (G) Uta Hallant, (I) ?

Punch – Wolfgang Kieling (G) Wolfgang Kieling, (I) ?

Larry McGow – Terence Hill (G) Thomas Danneberg, (I) Pino Colizzi

Pastor – Carl Lange (G) Curt Ackermann, (I) ?

Old McGow – Walter Barnes (G) Eduard Wandrey, (I) ?

Lord – Jan Hendriks (G) Jan Hendriks, (I) ?

Curt Ackermann  (1905 – 1988)

Curt Ackermann was born Peter Cornelius in Dortmund, North Westphalia, Germany on April 8, 1905, in Dortmund. He was a successful theatre actor on the stages of Berlin. In 1933 he made his film debut but remained a rare guest in film and television productions. In 1936 he starred in “The Mysterious Mister X”.

Between 1946 and 1979, Ackermann worked extensively in dubbing. His masculine voice of a gentleman and his precision in his work were guarantors for well over 500 cast members in dubbing roles. For a long time he was the standard voice of such well-known actors as Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster, Jeff Chandler, Vittorio de Sica, David Niven and Gregory Peck. In addition, he also temporarily dubbed John Wayne and the early films of Robert Mitchum. In 1982, the ARD dedicated a portrait to him as the voice actor of Cary Grant in the series “The German Voice”.

In addition, Curt Ackermann worked as a dubbing writer and dubbing director and wrote, among other things, the German dialogue versions of “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and “A Touch of Mink”.

Curt Ackerman died in Munich, Bavaria, Germany in 1988.