Dubbed in Rome

I love Italian trailers of the 1960s and 70s! Always lengthy and ridiculously spoiler-filled, they are definitely products of a different time, but they never fail to amuse and are usually very well put together. Some trailers are of particular interest because they feature different takes than the ones used in the finished film, and on occasion even contain clips of scenes that are nowhere to be found in the release versions. This is because the trailers were sometimes assembled before the final editing on the film was complete, and when that was the case, it typically led to differences in another area as well: the dubbing. A great examples of this can be found in one of the most iconic Italian horror films of the 1970s, Joe D’Amato’s Beyond the Darkness (1979), starring Kieran Canter, Franca Stoppi and Cinzia Monreale. Famous for its gruesomely graphic gore scenes, his necrophilia-themed shocker has long been a favorite of aficionados of Italian horror, and is generally regar...

Gisella Mathews was a true pioneer of the English language dubbing scene in Rome. Ever since the start back in 1947 and for more than fifty years, this brilliantly multi-talented lady was involved with everything from adaptations to directing, to synchronization and of course voice dubbing. If the name and face is unfamiliar to you then the voice is surely not, for Gisella was one of the top character dubbers, and her curiously accented voice has given life to countless hot-tempered and fast-talking Italian working-class mothers, doting housekeepers, cruel reverend mothers and whiny old hags just to mention a few. Check out the video below for a few samples of her excellent voice work:   Unfortunately, there is not much biographical information available on Gisella. According to the (not always reliable) Internet Movie Database, she was born on  December 14, 1919, but with no country of birth listed.  Some of her dubbing colleagues remember her as originally being fro...