CHAPTER 2
The 'Cinematization' of Sound Cinema in Britain and the Dubbing into French of Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
hypothesis concerns a basic factor behind die style of Waltzes from Vienna*, the prodiierrs intent with respect to distribution. Sound films made for export in the early 1930s» In many eases, were made differently from films intended for domestic release, thus affecting film style generally, and in ways commonly recognized in die transatlantic film community at the time. In 1930 an editorialist for The Bioscope captured the dynamic of the situation by proposing that as long as British films were made mainly for domestic release, a theatre-inspired aesthetic would endure as the British cinemas main style option; on the other hand, insofar as British producers aimed for export, the 'cinematization of British film style would result (Lipscombe 1930). The editorialist doubted, that the British film industry would become a film exporter at the level of the industries in the United States and Germany, but the cinemarizarion to which he referred soon began as the latest American and German mulrirrack technologies and methods were adopted in British film studios such as the Shepherds Bush facility of Gaumont British where Waltzes from Vienna was planned and shot (Anon. 1932a).
Charles O'Brien
The project of investigating the history of interaction between British and French cinema brings out important film-historical phenomena ordinarily occluded in much film studies research, in which national cinemas are studied in isolation from one another. In examining British and French film together, it becomes possible to sec how national film cultures entail a significant transnational dimension enabled by the circulation of films made elsewhere and then imported in. In the preceding chapter, for example, Vincent Porter details how French films became the major foreign-cinema presence in Britain in the 1930s, thereby altering the aesthetic context for some British movie audiences. Other cases in which French films provided a key reference for British audiences are discussed in chapters by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and Mehnie Selfe, for example. This chapter on the French-dubbed version of Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna can be said to consider the other side of the equation, as it were: the presence of British films in France. Its emphasis, however, is not on how British films affected cinema in France but rather on a different facet of the transnational film trade, whereby die export of films changes not only the cinema of the target country but that of the source country as well, My concern, in short, is with how die endeavour in Britain of producing films for export affected the British film style itself. The following analysis of Waltzes from Vienna focuses on the specifics of the dubbed version and how the anticipation of its making conditioned Hitchcock's work on the original British film.
The emphasis on the details of style and technique is animated by a broader hypothesis concerning how the project of preparing films for foreign-language export in the early 1930s shaped film style generally, and in Britain specifically. This
Dubbing as a Transnational Practice
The use of mul tit rack technology in the shooting of Waltzes from Vienna enabled preparation of an 'international version of the film, whose dialogue track could be manipulated apart from its music and ambient effects. The separation of sound into separate tracks not only let Hitchcock explore new possibilities with respect to film music, It also facilitated the film's life as an export commodity by allowing the crew at Jacques Halks studio in Courbevoie, where the dubbing of Waltzes from Vienna was undertaken, to preserve the intricacies of the films music track while otherwise changing the film substantially — changes extensive enough to reduce the films running time by one-third. Beyond replacing English with French speech, the changes included eliminating certain shots, scenes and song sequences, as well as rearranging the order of scenes. In addition, to match exactly the actors' lip movements to the duration of the dubbed speech, frames were extracted from, and probably added into, numerous shots.
But the analysis cannot stop at what occurred in France at Courbevoie since much of that was contingent on work undertaken months earlier in England at Gaumont Britishs Shepherds Bush facility, where Waltzes was scripted and filmed. Moreover, Waltzes from Vienna, though not itself a dubbed film,, exhibits a host of stylistic peculiarities linked to dubbing practice in the early 1930s. One can begin with decisions in framing and cutting consonant with recent dubbing-related changes in American filmmaking, as in the dozens of shots in Waltzes from Vienna in which actors* lip movements are concealed in ways designed to ease the voice-synchronization work undertaken months later in Courbevoie. In this respect Waltzes from Vienna was typical of dubbing practice at the time. Though nominally a postproduction activity, dubbing depended crucially on decisions made in planning and shooting (Le Vcrrier 1931). Complicating the situation was the fact
that by 1933 dubbing of sufficient quality typically rook place in a country other chán [he One where die film was planned and shot, thus requiring die film's producers to anticipate mod i ilea dons that might or might nol be perioral cd bier on by agents operating independently in other countries, In assessing dubbings stylistic impact, at least two phases of work on die dubbed version of Waltzes from Vienna require analysis — one of which occurred in England and the other in france — and both of these invite contextualizarion relative to film-technical developments in the United States and Germany, the two film-producing countries at the time most oriented toward the making of films for export..
Waitms from Vieum as a Sound-film Experiment
The sophisticated soundtrack of Waltzes from Vienna merits emphasis in light of the films low status in critical writing on Hitchcock, Nearing the end of his long and productive career, Hitchcock, in a famous interview with Francois Truffaut> disparaged Waltzes from Vienna as a low point, labeling the film a low-budget * musical without music' that had nothing to do with my usual work* (Truffaut 1975: 91). Anyone searching for informadon on Waltzes from Vienna will encounter Hitchcock's damning comment, which still echoes through much of the critical writing on the director. One exception to this critical trend has been Charles Barr, who regards Waltzes from Vienna as a breakthrough film io Hitchcocks use of music. Hitchcock had adopted recorded music effectively in earlier sound films, Barr observes, *but It is not until Waltzes from Vienna that music becomes a serious structural element' {Barr 1999* 127—31)» deeply integrated into the films visuals and narrative logic. Echoing Bans assessment is critic Jack Sullivan, who details how the films use of music - its narrativizatiort of musk* one might say — anticipates many features that would come to define the soundtracks of Hitchcocks later and more celebrated films (Sullivan 2006: 20-30). The positive evaluation of Waltzes from Vienna advanced by Sullivan and Barr finds corroboration in a 1934 interview with the director, who stressed die films value as a film-music experiment: * Waltzes from Vienna gave me many opportunities for working out ideas on the relation of film and music. Naturally every cut in die film was worked out in the script before shooting began. But more than that, the musical cuts were worked out W (Hitchcock 1995: 244).
The film's music track is indeed complex and carefully edited, the preplanned use of multitrack technology allowing Hitchcock to achieve a variety of effects difficult if not impossible to reach otherwise. Exemplifying music-image integration are scenes showing stages in the composition of the 'Blue Danube Waltz in which Hitchcock and Gaumonts British music director, Louis Levy, extract from the great Strauss tune myriad narrative implications for the films image track. One such scene, singled our for praise by critics at the time for its use of music to suggest a characters thoughts, depicts Schanis visit to the pastry kitchen, where die films nondiegetic score suggests that Schani hears in die bustle of die bakers' activity the rhythm needed for his walt2-in-progress. Also notable are the many moments when
orchestral music provides mickey-mouse mimicry of die narrative action - as when Prince Gustav, dreaming he is fighting a duel, tosses and turns in bed, his wild gesticulations punctuated by die orchestra's violin section. In mobilizing music for dramatic and comic effect, Hitchcocks collaboration with Louis Levy, die film-savvy musical director responsible for the score for Waltzes from Vienna., was essential (Levy 1949). With Levy involved in the project from the planning stage, Hitchcock was able to design the image track widi a clear knowledge of what would happen musically, thus making possible the tight synchronization of sound and image needed for the films stylistic embellishments.
The music technique of Waltzes fr'om Vienna thus inclines in the direction not of theatre-affiliated films made for the home market - ""musicals" which interpolate "numbers** rather than employ music*, as Hitchcock put it - but of the sophisticated cinematic operetta (Hitchcock 1995: 242). The top export genre of the time, the operetta included the Chevalier-MacDonald vehicles directed by Lubitsch for Paramount, as well as many European-made films — from the films produced by Erich Pbmmer in multiple languages for Ufa in Germany to the musicals directed by René Clair at dieTobis studio near Paris. These music-defined films required special technical expertise as well as careful planning. A related attribute of die film operetta, likewise evident in Waltzes from Vienna, was a sophisticated self-awareness regarding its own artifice, manifest in comic moments when the material conditions of the film's making, ordinarily a subliminal force, surface in the films story-world in die form of jokes and gags alluding to the technology behind the film. Pertinent to the topic of dubbing is the scene in Waltzes from Vienna featuring the comic, long-take performance of the servants playfulíy translating a conversation between the Countess and Prince Gustav. The latter remain off screen, on opposite sides of the room supposedly, while the amorous servants in between* framed in a two-shot* kiss and fondle each other while mockingly 'dubbing* their masters, mistranslating each line of speech.
.:    . *!»{B.v.':if:- - •
K% It.., lJL %
3ÍÍ^ .,Á-
Figwjre 2,1; Waltzes from Vienna {1934), This shot shows servants in the act of translating their off-screen masters and is among several in Waltzes from Vienna that seem to allude to the ultimate production of a dubbed version of the film.
Dubbing Practice in France
Waltzesfiom Vienna marks a crucial dubbing-related change in sound~ftlm technique: the adoption of multirrack sound technologies. The change began in 1930 as Hollywood shifted away from foreign-language versions and towards dubbing as the main means of preparing films for exporr. The change would have been difficult to predict in early 1930, when dubbing was often characterized as useless for preparing films for foreign-language release. In February a British Journalist reporting from Hollywood commented as follows: "'Dubbing" is becoming more and more a thing of die past [for foreign-market distribution], and after experience with die showing of "dubbed* versions all over die world it is becoming recognized that this is merely a makeshift method' (Bclfragc 1930). Change was underway, however, and dubbing technique, spurred by work at Metro Cioldwyn Meyer (MGM) and Paramount, was evolving rapidly. By the summer of 1930 these Hollywood studios, soon joined by others, began phasing out the making of separate foreign-language versions in favour of exporting the Hollywood originals in dubbed form- The new dubbed movies, moreover, were received well in France, a country where they had done poorly previously (Lehmann 1931; M- 1931; Morieiwal 1931). French audiences in the provinces* in fact, were reported to prefer dubbed imported films over subtitled (Anon, 1933b).1 Para mount's studio in St-Maurice-Joiiiville had previously been used to make French-language shorts and features; however, in 1932 it was also given over to the dubbing of films shot in the United States.
In 1932, die 496 films distributed in France included sixty-six that had been dubbed (Anon. 1932b). At die end of 1933, as American films were increasingly released In dubbed form, the number of dubbed films circulating in France had doubled, and would continue to climb over the next years; 'The import [into France] of dubbed films has increased from 143 in 1933 to 251 in 1935» reported Sight and Sound (Anon. 1936, p. 5).1 The increase followed a French law passed in October 1932 requiring that the dubbing of films for the French market take place in France. The law had a significant impact on the French cinema by stimulating the quick development in Paris of a thriving dubbing industry. In the summer of 1933 dubbing-related work was estimated to provide employment to some 4,000 French people, including some 1,200 dubbing 'artistes (T 1933; Anon. 1933a; Anon, 1934a). During the summer of 1934, the trade Journal La Cinematogmphiejrun$aise reported that fourteen studios devoted solely to dubbing and postsynchronization were operating in the Paris area (Anon. 1934b).
At this point, with dubbed imports more popular in France than subtitled original versions, dubbing acquired new status as a form of employment — notwithstanding hostility in France towards dubbed movies from critics and film producers. A report on die Paris situation in the German publication Film-Kurier characterized 1933 as a turning point in dubbings history in France, where until very recently, dubbing had been seen as the lowest sort of film work? now, however, *[i]t has suddenly become fashionable for popular, recognized actors to do the dubbing. The wages for this work, of course, have increased' (Anon- 1933b). With name
actors performing the dubbing, it had become possible at this point, a French journalist noted (Richard 1935), to speak of 'dubbing stars1 [' vedettes du douhkge], actors who enjoyed a modest celebrity from dicir work dubbing imported films. Dubbings improved status is reflected in die credits of La Chant du Danube, which lists the French actors who did the dubbing in the same font size used for the original English actors. An additional title page lists the technical crew* identifying prominently the authors of the French continuity, song lyrics and dialogue along with the sound engineer and editor.
Cross-Atlantic Connections
The producer responsible for the French-dubbed version of Waltzes from Vienna was Jacques Haik, a key figure m the French dubbing industry of the time (Anon. 19324) and also a frequent collaborator with British film companies. Haiks business connections in England dated back to 1910, when he first entered the film industry as a teenage employee of British companies (Anon. 2008a). In 1929 Haik established himself as a leader in France's nascent sound-film industry by financing die making of one of die first French-language talking films: die shipwreck epic Atlantic (din Jean Kcmm, 1929), filmed in England at the Elstrce studio of British international Pictures in separate versions in Frenchř English and German (Clarrtcrc 1930a). Besides coproducing British films Haik also dubbed various British films for French release (Anon. 1932d). In 1931 Haik and Adolph Osso were described in the London-based trade weekly Bioscope as the two French producers who had made 'serious efforts' since the coming of sound \o cooperate with British production firms and studios' (Chrriěre 1931).
Haiks role as a leading French producer, exhibitor and distributor of sound films ended in 1933 when he was unable to sustain his costly luxury theatres in the race of a steep decline in ticket sales. In March 1933, Haik turned over the management of the theatres to Gaumont-Franco-Film-Aubert (Choukroun 2007: 172). Haik soon secured new bank loans, however, and in 1934 formed Regent Film, a smaller firm whose principal production activity during its five years of existence was die shooting of some one dozen films as well as the dubbing of various foreign films into French. In mid 1940 Haik, a Jew targeted by fascists and Nazis, fled France after producing the anti-Hitler film Aprés Mein Kampf mes crimes (dir. Alexandre Ryder, 1940), returning to his native Tunisia where he hid during the war (Anon. 2008a).
The majority of the dubbed films prepared by Regent Film were probably from the U.S.A., since in the mid-1950s U.S. films made up over 70 per cent of the dubbed films circulating in France. All the same, the number of dubbed films from England increased during this rime, climbing from eleven in 1933 to nineteen in 1935 (Choukroun 2007:190-1). Waltzes from Vienna offered significant commercial potential for the making of a French version since it was based on a major stage production that had opened in Paris in October 1933 (Anon. 2008b) after successful runs in other European cities including Vienna (1930), where it had premiered, and London (1931). A French stage adaptation, called Valses de Viemte, opened in Paris
in October 1933 while Hitchcock was shooting Waltzes from Vienna in England, By purchasing Hitchcock's film for French adaptation Halk stood to benefit from publicity related to the current stage production in Paris.
Halks project as a producer of dubbed films was contingent on double-bill exhibition, which became common in France in 1932 as the economic depression cut deeply into the movie box office, and the large cinemas — including the Rex and the Glympia, two major Parisian houses owned by Halk until his financial crash in 1933 - began struggling to draw people in (Morel 1932; Choukroun 2007: 157» 163—5)» The prevalence of the double-bill format In France over the following years explains the peculiar running rime of La Chant du Danube* which clocks in at a mere fifty-one minutes versus the seventy-six minutes of Waltzes from Vienna, In France dubbed films were typically slotted into the opening half of the double bill, a purpose for which 1 films de moyenne mitrage - medium-length films such as La Chant du Danube - were more useful rhan conventional features (Anon. 1932c; Rose 1937: 73-4).
What Wis Removed from the French Version?
The question of how the French dubbers managed to cliop from Waltzes from Vienna an entire twenty-five minutes — roughly one-third of the film's total running time — involves considering how Halk had sized up the commercial potential of Hitchcock's film for the French market. The availability of both the English and French versions of the film allows for the identification of the cuts, which fall into two basic categories: whole scenes and sequences, on the one hand, and individual shots, or bits thereof, on the other. The scenes and sequences come in two blocks- The first begins in the orchesrras rehearsal hall, where Rasi (short for Teresa), played by music-revue star Jessie Matthews,tries to help Schani by delivering to Johann Strauss Sr her copy ofSchanis 'Blue Danube* score. When Rasi s claims for Schanis greatness are dismissed out of hand by Strauss Sr, she burses from the rehearsal hall in tears. In die next shot Rasi runs up to die camera and freezes in close-up just as Schartt can be overheard performing Ills waltz-in-progress for the Countess, Rasfs rival for Schanis affections. Rasi next confronts die couple and learns diat Schani has dedicated the waltz to die Countess. This sequence of three scenes, pivotal to the romantic triangle of die British film, is omitted entirely from die French version.
The second deleted section lasts a full eleven and a half minutes and makes up almost the entire ending of Waltzes from Vienna. This section begins almost where the French film ends: at the conclusion of Schanis victorious 'Blue Danube' performance at the St Stephens festival. It then continues through several short scenes leading to a clandestine meeting between Schani and the Countess, interrupted once more by jealous Prince Gustav. Next comes Rasis reconciliation with Schani, and a short coda featuring the older Strauss, who adds 'Sr,* when signing his autograph for a young fan, thus acknowledging for the first, time his sons achievement as a musician. This block of scenes, the coda excepted, is entirely missing from the French version, in which the festival performance leads immediately to Strauss Srs act of signing the autograph.
Making sense of these two massive cues requires factoring in a further editorial choke by Hatks team: a rearrangement of the plot via a shift in the placement ot a sequence of three scenes: (1) the rehearsal hall scene in which Strauss Sr humiliates Schani in front ot the musicians; (2) the scene at the Countess' when she and Schani sing the pop tunc 'Like a Star in the Sky', intercut with Rasi, tclcpathically singing the same tune in a distant garden; and (3) the first of the scenes where the Countess and Schani are confronted by the sudden arrival of Gustav. The same rec-sccne sequence occurs in the French film, too - but much later. In the English film, it begins roughly one-quarter of the way into the films running time, whereas in the French version it occurs almost halfway into the film. In stressing the filial conflict at the expense of subplots involving secondary characters such as the Countess, Halks team approached the editing of La Chant du Danube in line with the prevalence in French films of the 1930s of narratives centered on powerful fathers or father-like figures (Vincendeau 1989).
Besides the excised and reshuffled scenes, the French film differs from the English one in a further respect: its scenes are often shorter as a consequence of the removal of whole shots as well as pieces of shots. Intriguing from the standpoint of dubbing technique are the partial excisions, as in the sequence of three scenes beginning with Schanis squabble with his father in the rehearsal hall, which ends with Schani quitting the orchestra* In Waltzes from Vienna these scenes add up to some eight minutes and forty seconds of screen time, whereas in La Chant du Danube they work out to seven minutes twenty seconds — almost one minute-and-a-half less.J Sequences in both versions contain the same thirty-three shots. In the French version, however, the shots are often shorter. The insert of Jessie Matthews performing 'Like a Star in the Sky counts as an extreme case: the shot lasts forty-five seconds in the English film but only five in the French version. This excision is consonant with the handling of Matthews* other singing performance, the early musk-lesson scene when Rasi sings 'With All My Heart* while Schani accompanies on the piano, which was cur entirely from the French version. A rising star in Britain, Jessie Matthews was at this point apparently unknown in France - a circumstance La Chant du Danube probably did little to change.
A furdicr dubbing-related stylistic quirk is the many jump cuts in La Chant du Danube resulting from tlic removal of a piece of a shot. The extraction of frames from, as well as their addition to, dubbed films was common practice in the 1930s for fixing synchronization errors. As explained in the London-based The Bioscope. If a player takes nine frames to pronounce a word and the actual speaker takes eleven, two extra frames are spliced in and vice versa' (Anon. 1930b), Close-ups especially raised difficult synchronization problems (Autre 1932; Turpin 1935). To bring dialogue into synch in a feature film could involve shuffling ten thousand frames or more. A report in Variety noted that '(i]n one experiment by RCA 16,000 different frames were shifted, it is understood, in getting the desired result' (Anon. 1930a). This figure works out to over eleven minutes of screen time - roughly 13 per cent of the total running time for an average feature film of the time.4 Halk, a few years before founding Regent Film, had contracted with RCA to outfit his studio, which
Figure 2*2i Waltzes from Vienna {1934). This shot Is among numerous shots In the film whose compositions are contrived to conceal the actors' lip movements and hence Facilitate i
the films eventual dubbing.
raises the possibility that the RCA people had introduced the frame-shifting technique to Haiks team.
Lit Chant du Danube includes at least six dubbing-related jump cuts, by my count. Certain of the cuts involve enough frames to be easily detected by the viewer. An example occurs in the scene in the Countess* bedroom, in the two-shot showing the maid, angled toward rhe camera on frame left, and the Countess on frame right, visible in silhouette only.The dubbers reduced this shots duration by more than half-from fourteen seconds down to six. Also noteworthy h the shots peculiar mise en scene, whereby the Countess* the main speaker, is hidden behind the curtain through the entire shot. This sort of framing, whereby the speakers lips are concealed,, surfaces in dozens of shots in Waltzes jwm Vienna. In die early scene showing Schanis arrival at the dance school, for instance* a shoe depicts die faces of die women peering silently dirough die window and toward die camera. In die next, reverse-angle shot, however, in which the women are seen from behind, they chatter away. Later, Gustavs short conversation with dtc servant he lias thrown down the stairs is depicted in a shot in which Gustav is shown at the stairways top, visible below the knees only, while the servant is at the bottom, die back of his head peaking into the frame. Recall, too, the strange shot of the servant at the St Stephens festival who speaks while concealed behind a massive beer barrel.
Such shots are easy to dub and they prepare the viewer for other moments when voices come untethered from lip movement, thus naturalizing the technique. Filmmakers other than Hitchcock had already gone down this path, as is suggested in a report in 1933 in the New York Times on Frirz Langs work on his film M (1931) in anticipation of the eventual making of an English-language version;
In making this picture Fritz Lang, believing that it would have a wide circulation in English-speaking countries, took into consideration the fact that the English voices would have to be dubbed, therefore he avoided close-ups of actors talking to the audience, and some scenes were produced ;
specidlly for the dubbed version. The characters in speaking sometimes hide the movements of their lips, eidicr by lighting a cigar or by ruming rheir heads (Hall 1933)*
What Lang had done in 1931 with M could be said to have become standard practice in transnational cinema by 1933 and the shooting of Waltzes from Vienna: as muititrack technologies and techniques became standard in studios in Britain and other countries, films were shot in ways which would case the dubbing later on at other studios in other countries.
In crafting their films in light of an eventual dubbed version, Lang and Hitchcock acted in accord with methods of framing and scene construction that became standard in Hollywood in 1931 when multitrack sound was introduced throughout the studio system. Before then American films routinely depicted speaking actors in ways emphasizing the legibility of lip movement, with speech always sourced in the image. Once the Hollywood majors switched to dubbing as die main means of preparing films for foreign-market release, however, a new approach was instituted. At MGM, for instance, it was decided for die 1930-1931 film season that *[Uong and medium shots will be tricked so that at no time will the lip movement be discernible' (Anon. 1930b).
French journalists in the summer of 1931 noted in recent dubbed films from Hollywood the new approach to shots with synchronous speech. An article in La Ci/iematographie franfaise reported that American filmmakers now favoured 'shots depicting actors whose lip movements were not visible' (Anon. 1931). Exemplifying the ^nouvelles versions eurapienei was Cceurs b rules > the dubbed version of Paramount? Momem: when one hears an actor speak one is shown nor this actor but the actor who listens and whose demeanor is necessarily mure* (Morienval 1931). Whatever Hitchcock's intent regarding his work on Waltzes from Vienna, the peculiar framings were consonant with current export-film practice.
Conclusion
The project of investigating British and French cinema in terms of their interaction with one another can entail encountering phenomena, such as dubbed films, that arc difficult to grasp within the familiar national cinema framework of film studies. With respect to the preceding examination of the dubbed version of Waltzes from Vienna^ two concluding remarks suggest themselves. The first remark concerns obstacles to research stemming from the difficulty of finding dubbed films for examination. My analysis of La Chant du Danube together with reports on dubbing in the contemporary film-industry press concern what I fake to be typical dubbing practice. Bur despite dubbings great importance to movie culture worldwide, where dubbed cinema is the norm for hundreds of millions of filmgoers, copies of dubbed films are extremely hard to come by. Archives do not make it a priority to restore them, it seems, and DVD producers, who have created wonderful multiple-version editions.
appear uninterested in including dubbed versions on DVD releases. I have examined some four hundred feature films of the early 1930s so far and Waltzes was among die liny handful I could find in both original and dubbed form. U DVD copies of dubbed films were readily available it would be very helpiui, chough better yet would be original 35mm prints. Working from my bootleg DVD copy of La Chant du Danube. I found six dubbing-related jump cuts. But viewing the film on DVD allows one to detect only examples involving blatant excisions. Slight editing jumps: or instances in which frames have been added into a shot are likely to be detectable only through examining a 35mm print of the film on an editing table. In sum, until more dubbed films from the period turn up and are examined, the study of the history of dubbing practice must rest content with findings based on a few rare films.
The second concluding point pertains to methodological challenges deriving from the dispersal of dubbing-rehired activity across two srudios in different countries, so that the dubbing occurred in a country other than where the film was planned and shot. This dispersion of activity across national borders raises complications for the historian of style, who traces a films style and technique back to causes and conditions in specific places and times. What complicates the study of a dubbed film such as La Chant du Danube is that in investigating causes it can be difficult to know where to stop. Important aspects of die style of La Clmntdu Danube, to be sure, trace directly to work undertaken at Courbevoic, where the dubbing was performed, the scenes rearranged* and so on. But to make sense of tfsat requires looking into work months earlier in the Shepherds Bush studio of Gaumont British, where Hitchcock's film was planned and shot in a manner allowing its dubbing later on in France. These activities of planning and shooting in turn appear to have been anticipated in U.S. practice over the preceding few years, when multitrack technologies were introduced, adapted and standardized in Hollywood for dubbing purposes. One can also cite the contemporaneous commercialization of dubbing-related synchronization devices in Germany such as the Rhyrhmograph (Wedel 2002), In any case, dubbed films such as La Clmntdu Danube amount to transnational phenomena and as such require the exploration of how they affected — and were affected by — circumstances in at lease two countries, bodi source and target.
1. This piece reports on the findings of a poll of French film viewers taken by a large icgisnjai daily.
2. These figures can be compared to those cited in the Carmoy Report and quoted in Chaukttmt! (2007|.
3- The figures arc as follows- For the English version: 3.45 for the rehearsal-hall scene, 3-17 for Tike a Star in the Sky and IA5 for the scene with Gustav, the Countess and SchanL For the French version: 3.45, 2.10 and L35. In both films, the first scene contains seventeen shots, the second five and the third thirteen. The performance of'Like a Star in the Skf runs 2JO in the English version and 1.06 in the French.
4. This figure derives from an examination I made of sixty-seven synch-sound feature films from Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. released m J930.
Bibliography
Anon. 1930a. Patented "Dubbing" Device Makes Foreign Films 100% Synchronized', Variety
mm c
-. 1930k 'Scientific Dubbing, The Bioscope 84(1,240}: i.
-. 1931. 'Les Nouvclles methodes amcrieaincs de "'dubbing"", La Cinematographie
finncaise 13(655): 65.
-. 1932a. 'New British Film Studios', The Times, 24 May: 12.
—-. 1932b. '1932', La Cinematographicfrancaise 14(739); 7,
- , 1932c. 'Lc Doublagc, ses necessites et ses lim ices', Le Cineopse 14(152): 158.
■-■. 1932J- 'La Question du duubhge*. La Cinrrnatographie francaise 14(712): 65-
-----, 1933a. 'American Films Lead in France*, Watt Street Journal, 18 April: 8.
-. 1933b. In Frankreich: Große Tätigkeit im Dubbing, FUm-Kxtritr 15(93): 5,
--. 1934a. Trench Film Groups Meet', New York Tunes, 26 May: 12.
--—. 1934b. 'Studios de doublagc et de synchronisation, La Technique cmmmtmgmphiqme
5(43-44): 204.
-. 1936. 'News of the Quarter', Sight and Sound 5(18): 3-6.
•- - . 2008a. Jacques 1 lalk\ Retrieved 2 December 2008 from
http://wwwJip$.org^bb_Haik GB-asp ---. 2008b. 'Johann Strauss II". Retrieved 30 November 2008 from
http;// pagespcrso-ora nge.fr/anao/ composit/st rauss.html Autre, P. 1932. Attention au dubbing!* La Cintmatographiefrancaise 14(691): 22. Barr, C. 1999- English Hhchmek. Moffat* Scotland: Cameron and Hollis. Belfragc, C. 1930. 'Hollywood's Multilingual Quandary', The Bioscope 82(1,217): 20. Choukroun, J. 2007. Comment ieparlant a sauve1 U cinema fimifah: utte histaire icanomique,
1928-1939. Perpignan: AFI IRC/Institut Jean Vigo. Clarricrc, G. 1930a. '"Atlantic" French Version, The Bioscope 82(1,225}: 30.
-, 1930b, 'Dubbings Comeback on the Coast', Variety 100(4): 4.
-. 1931. *Osso to Commence British Production", The Bioscope 88(1,299): 24.
Hall, M. 1933. **M" in English', New York Tima* 16 April: X3.
Hitchcock, A. 1995. 'On Musk in Films', in S. Gottlieb (ed.), Hitdseock on
Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews. Berkeley and Los Angeles; University of California
Press, pp. 241-45. Lehmann, R. 193L Ä propos de "dubbing"Pour vow 133: 2.
Lc Vcrricr, T. 1931- 'Lc Probleme de la synchronisation de la parole dc la musiquc et
des bruits "apres coup" semblc etre definitivement resolu1, Comoedia 25(6,850): 6.
Lew, L. 1949. Music for the Movies. London: Sampson Low, Marston.
Lipscombc, W. 1930. having the "Talkies" from Talk', The Bioscope 85(1,265): 95.
M„ L. 1931. U faut mcttrc au point la question du "dubbingT", Pour vohs 129: 2.
Morel, F. 1932. TJirecteurs, attention h voire nouvelle *programrnarion?\ La Cinematographic
francaise 14(717): 1L Moricnval, J. 1931. Films franchises synchronises U.S.AA Le Cincvpje 13(141): 224. Richard, A. 1935. 'Lc Mille et un metiers du film parlant', Pour oous 343: 14. Rose, F, 1937. The French Cinema, 1936', Sight and Sound 6(22); 71-74. Sullivan, J. 2006. Hitchcock's Music. New Haven: Yale University Press. T, H. 1933, 'The French Film Decree', Wall Street Journal, 17 August; 3. TrufFaut, F. with II, Scott. 1975. Le Cinema sehn Hitchcock. Paris: Scghcrs.
Turpiri- R. 193>- Le DoubLige des Ulms", La Technique linemtitagraphiqiu- 6(57): 459. Vincendeau, G, 1989. "Daddy's Girls. Oed i pal Narratives In 1950s French Films*. Iris 8: 70-S1.
Wedel, M, 2002, 'Vom Synchronismus zur S^chronisation: Carl Robert Blum und der frühe Tonfilm'» in J- Polz.er (ed.)» Aufitieg und Untergang da Tonfilms, Potsdam: Poker Media
Group* pp. 97—112»
Filinography
Apres Mem Kampf mes crimes I My Crimes Afier Mein Kampf 1940, Alexandre Ryder, France.
Atlantic I Atlantis, 1930, Ewald Andre Duponr and Jean Kcmm, England.
Chant du Danube, La I Waltzes from Vienna. 1934, Alfred Hiichcock, England/France.
Cerurs brulh / Morocco. 1931, Josef von Sternberg, United States.
Mr Dri® Mörder sieht dich an / M- 1931, Frire Lang, Germany.