21/10/2013 6:45 pm  #1


1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Hi, new to the forum. I was recently having a conversation about a German recording of White Christmas and wondered whether the 1954 remake of Holiday Inn included Bing Crosby's original voice recording, or whether it was dubbed for German audiences. It seems almost unlikely they would have dubbed Der Bingle, but then I realized I don't really know. The song was quite popular in Germany, thanks to the Bruno Balz version. And surely Bing Crosby would have had a German voice actor dubbing the rest of his dialogue. Does anybody know? Was it replaced and if so, by whom? Who would dare be Der Bingle's German singing voice? ;-)

Thanks!

 

21/10/2013 7:39 pm  #2


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Believe or not, I once saw a German version of White Christmas. They used Bing's singing voice but an actor did the rest of the dialogue in German.

 

21/10/2013 9:20 pm  #3


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Hello MusicFan, "White Christmas" is no remake of  "Holiday Inn". It has a total new story with a collection of Irving Berlin´s evergreens and few new songs composed for that film. "White Christmas" is a beautiful film  thanks to Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney, but "Holiday Inn"  is a superb movie, with the better musical score and naturally Bing´s partners Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds. There are a bad German dubbing of "Holiday Inn", I believe it´s not on DVD (or VHS) available. On some German dubbings of Bing movie they cut scenes, especially musical numbers, for example on "Riding High" (with the idiotic German title "Lach und wein mit mir") the best number "Sunshine Cake" was cut, on Bing´s cameo appearance by "Let´s Make Love" they cut "Incurable Romantic" with Yves Montand, showed only handshake. (song on DVD not cut!). If possible watch the original English versions of the films, it´s more fun and authentic, although when you sometimes will not unterstand every word.

Last edited by Dieter (22/10/2013 9:50 pm)

 

22/10/2013 12:04 am  #4


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

I personally very much dislike dubbed movies, something which is quite common both in Spain and Germany but not so much here in the United States, where most foreign films are usually not dubbed. I have always felt that, no matter how good the actor that does the dubbing may be, he or she could never be as good as the original actor. The practice is particularly ridiculous in the case of musicals. where dialogue is usually dubbed but the songs aren't, and so the voice of the actor is totally different when he sings and when he speaks, not to mentions that he speaks in a language and sings in another, which really makes no sense.

Unfortunately, there are some musicals (those aimed at a younger audience and at kids) whose songs have also been dubbed in Spain, usually with disastrous results. Some examples are The Sound of Music (translated as Sonrisas y lagrimas, i.e., Smiles and Tears, don't ask me why) and Mary Poppins, which means that Spanish kids get to understand what the songs are about but they are robbed of the beautiful voice of Julie Andrews. Another example is Pinocchio, which is too bad because the songs by Cliff 'Ukelele Ike' Edwards, as well as his voice for Jiminy Cricket (Pepito Grillo, i.e., Little Pepe the Cricket), are wonderful.

I totally agree with Dieter—I much prefer watching the original version of a film (with subtitles in English) even when the movie is in a language that I don't speak, like Japanese, Russian, or Swedish, for example.

Last edited by Anton G.-F. (22/10/2013 12:05 am)

 

22/10/2013 12:51 am  #5


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Malcolm Macfarlane wrote:

Believe or not, I once saw a German version of White Christmas. They used Bing's singing voice but an actor did the rest of the dialogue in German.

Well that is sort of what I thought. Thank you for confirming.

     Thread Starter
 

22/10/2013 4:35 pm  #6


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Bing's singing (in English) was already popular in Germany, so dubbing his singing with a different person's voice might have been very disappointing to a German audience.  While many Germans have studied English in school, dubbing the non-singing dialogue might still be helpful. Many people find reading subtitles very difficult.  Getting the humorous timing in a scene might be especially difficult if looking at the subtitles you missed some of the action.

Perhaps Bing's French and Spanish were good enough that he could have rerecorded songs for the movie in those languages with little difficultly, but could each of the others who sang in the movie have done the same?

 

22/10/2013 7:33 pm  #7


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Dieter,
Nice to see your name 'in lights" again.
Been a long time since we've heard from you.
Trust you are well and look forward to reading more comments from you.

 

22/10/2013 10:09 pm  #8


Re: 1954 "White Christmas" German Dub Version

Hello! On ,,Ichabod" (the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, 1949) not only Bing´s narration, also Bing´s singing was dubbed into German.The singer is far  from Bing.  On DVD it´s possible to select the original version  with and without German subtitles. But on DVD-case or on (German) film credits is no mention of Bing.
,,Ichabod" won the Golden Globe Award; Best Cinematoggraphy 1950.

 

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