Voices of the Spaghetti Western “Lady of the West”

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.

Today we’ll cover “Lady of the West”

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

Samuel Butler/Carras - Michel Simon (G) Walter Sussenguth

Arriana/Ariene - Isa Pola (G) Lu Säuberlich

William Evans/Manuel - Rossano Brazzi (G) Harry Giese

Madge Curtiss/Juanita - Valentina Cortese (G) Erika Goerner

Diego Carras - Renzo Merusi (G) Eduard Wesener

Miguel – Nicola Bressen (G) Werner Scharf

Quebrada – Cesare Fantoni (G) Hanns Eggerth

Lu Säuberlich  (1911 – 1976)

Lu Säuberlich was born in on November 9, 1911. She was a German actress and voice actress. Lu completed her acting training in Frankfurt am Main, where she also received her first stage engagement. This was followed by engagements at three theatre companies in Szczecin and Berlin before Heinrich George brought her to the Schiller Theatre in Berlin in 1939. There she caused a sensation especially as Renate in Max Halbe's “Jugend” directed by Jürgen Fehling. In 1944, she was on the list of the God-gifted of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Even after the end of the war, she remained connected to the Berlin stages. In 1951, with the reopening of the Schiller Theatre. For 25 years she played at the Schiller and Schlosspark Theatres under directors such as Boleslaw Barlog, Walter Felsenstein, Oscar Fritz Schuh, Karlheinz Stroux and Hans Lietzau. Her repertoire included batch and character roles.

In 1944, Säuberlich also made her feature film debut in “The Girl Juanita”. In addition to her extensive stage activities, she has also appeared again and again in film and television productions such as the drama ‘Ein Frauenarzt klagt’ and, the Gerhart Hauptmann adaptation, the Edgar Wallace crime thriller ‘Neues vom Hexer’ and the comedy ‘Morgen um sieben ist die Welt noch in Ordnung’ based on the novel of the same name by Eric Malpass. She also became known to a nationwide audience as Grandma in the early evening series ‘Hier kocht der Chef’.

In addition, Lu Sauberlich worked as a dubbing actress for many years and lent her voice to Ethel Barrymore, Linda Darnell, Greer Garson and Myrna Loy, among others.

In 1963 she was awarded the title of Berlin State Actress for her artistic achievement.

Lu Säuberlich died in West Berlin on August 5, 1976 at the age of 64.