Post-synchronous sound was (and still is) common in Italian
film. A good description of the practice for the westerns is in
Frayling's book Spaghetti Westerns which describes a film where the
actors spoke English, Italian and German during production. In
the English subtitled version of La strada, Quinn is speaking Italian in
my opinion. The Italian version of A  Fistful of Dollars loses a great
deal without Clint Eastwood.

Carlo Celli
Bowling Green State University

On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Ron Hoffman wrote:

> In showing my classes "foreign film" videos I always choose subtitled
> versions.  However, I need some advice concerning Fellini's La Strada.  As
> I understand it, the film was made with a cast speaking both Italian and
> English, e.g. Masina--Italian, Basehart--English.  What about Quinn?  Is he
> speaking English or Italian.  The problem I face is that if Quinn is
> speaking English and the Italian version of the film is dubbing the
> Italian, and further, since Masina speaks very little throughout the film
> (her great performance being essentially mime), then the majority of the
> dialogue is in English, and it would make sense to use the dubbed-in
> English version rather than the subtitled one.
>
> I would appreciate any help in this matter.  Thanks in advance.
>
> Ron Hoffman
>
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