Carol Danell

 

Carol Danell (1926-1995) was an American singer and lyricist who enjoyed a highly successful career in Italy in the 1950s and 60s, collaborating with such esteemed composers as Piero Umiliani, Armando Trovajoli, Piero Piccioni and Ennio Morricone, and participating on the soundtracks of a number of well-known Italian films. Like so many other Americans living in Rome during those days, Carol also moonlighted as a dubbing actress, and in the mid to late 1960s in particular, she lent her voice to leading ladies in countless spaghetti westerns, Eurospy adventures and horror movies. Check out the video below to view some clips from some of Carol’s most famous dubbing performances:

 

 

Carol was born as Carol Ann Ostrow on November 17, 1926 in Buffalo, Erie, New York. She was the only child of Louis B. Ostrow (1901-1988), a US Army officer who served during both world wars, and his first wife Bertha (1906-2001), though Carol later had a younger half-brother named Gerald from her father’s second marriage. The Ostrow family (originally named Ostrofsky) was of Ukrainian heritage and had migrated to the US in late 1901 when Carol’s father was just an infant.

Not much is known about Carol’s early life, but she did show an early interest in both singing and performing, and in the early 1940s became a student at the Black Mountain College, which was a liberal arts college in North Carolina known for its experimental approach to education. With the Black Mountain College Players, Carol appeared in several plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde in 1943.

Her passion for singing and performing largely remained a hobby, however, and when just out of her teens, Carol took a temporary job as a United Nations clerk at Lake Success. But once her U.N. stint was completed, she found herself floundering and not knowing what to do with her life. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do except I had a talent for music and art,” Carol explained when featured in a Los Angeles Times article called “Expatriates Say ‘Ciao’ to Rome” (May 1, 1977). “About that time (in the ‘50s) I received a letter from a friend studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Life was both cheap and interesting over there, she wrote, and I thought ‘Why not?’ I landed in Paris with $150 and lots of enthusiasm and soon started singing for my supper in a small restaurant.”

That was the small start to a singing career which soon brought Carol to Rome, where she would go on to enjoy much success as a jazz singer. Through a series of frequent appearances in musical programs and concerts on radio and television in the 1950s, in which she sang in both English and Italian, the Italian public grew enamored with Carol’s sensual voice, and she would go on to release several successful records in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Carol’s popularity also spread to the rest of Europe, and according to her entry in The World Who's Who of Women – Volume 11 (1992), she frequently sang on radio shows not only in Italy, but also in France, Switzerland, Monte Carlo and Germany.

 

A piece from the Italian magazine Radiocorriere TV n. 24 (June 16, 1957) promoting Carol's participation on the musical program Una voce nella sera.

A few of Carol's records. From Discography.com.

Carol’s voice also attracted the attention of such esteemed Italian composers as Armando Trovajoli, Piero Piccioni and Carlo Savina, who chose her to sing on their film soundtracks. The most famous of these soundtrack songs is probably “Hello You”, composed by Piccioni for the film La notte brava (1959). It’s a smooth, jazzy track which makes great use of Carol’s sensual singing voice, and it can be listened to here:

 

 

The composer with whom Carol arguably had the most fruitful collaboration, however, was Piero Umiliani, who used Carol’s voice for the soundtracks of everything from comedies (Roulette e roulette, 1959) to Eurospy films (Password: Kill Agent Gordon, 1966) and spaghetti westerns (The Son of Django, 1967). Carol’s soundtrack appearance in The Son of Django is particularly noteworthy because she even appears on-screen in the film itself, playing the brief role of a saloon girl and performing the song “Hog-Tied” together with the popular duo The Wilder Brothers. Here’s a little video of their performance in the film:

 

In addition to singing on the soundtracks, Carol also frequently wrote the English lyrics, not only for songs that she performed herself but also for other singers. One of the most famous songs for which Carol wrote the lyrics is “A Gringo Like Me”, composed by the legendary Ennio Morricone for the early spaghetti western Gunfight at Red Sands (1963), starring Richard Harrison. Notable as being Morricone’s first foray into the western genre, the song is insanely catchy, and nicely enriched by Carol’s lyrics about survival, distrust and the harsh code of the West, with lines like: “Keep your hand on your gun / Don’t you trust anyone / There’s just one kind of man that you can trust / That’s a dead man / Or a gringo like me”.

 

Carol performing in the early 1960s.

 

Publicity poster by Carol's record label Fonit.

 

Carol rehearsing together with her musicians.

 

In-between all her musical activities, Carol also found the time to appear in Antonio Margheriti’s science fiction film Battle of the Worlds (1961), which has since become a bit of a cult classic. Carol plays a prominent supporting role as the mysterious widow Mrs. Collins, and she dubbed her own dialogue for the film’s English language version.

 

Some pictures of Carol in Battle of the Worlds. Unfortunately, some of her scenes didn't make it into the English version and are present only in the longer Italian language cut.

Providing her own voice for Battle of the Worlds is quite likely how Carol’s involvement with the English dubbing industry first began, as her voice can be heard in a couple of subsequent peplum adventures dubbed into English by ELDA – the English Language Dubbers Association – in the early 1960s.

Alas, Carol doesn’t appear to have dubbed very prolifically with ELDA, and she ultimately ended up joining a rival dubbing group run by Richard McNamara in the mid-1960s. There, Carol’s dubbing activities greatly increased as she found herself in demand for voicing both leading and supporting roles, but wasn’t with the group for terribly long before all of the English dubbers in Rome eventually came together under the ELDA banner.

From then on, Carol looks to have dubbed primarily for Geoffrey Copleston, who during 1966-68 cast her in leading roles in a long series of westerns as well as some Eurospy and horror films. Carol dubbed many glamorous starlets such as Margaret Lee, Rosalba Neri, Marilù Tolo, Susan Scott, Loredana Nusciak and even Gina Lollobrigida, but thanks to the versatility of her voice, she would sometimes also get called on to dub older women or children.

 

British-born starlet Margaret Lee was dubbed by Carol in three Italian films: From the Orient with Fury (1965), Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966) and Web of Violence (1966).

 

Horror icon Barbara Steele plays dual roles as two stepsisters - Muriel and Jenny - in the gothic horror film Nightmare Castle (1965). In a somewhat unusual twist, Steele dubbed her own voice only for the role of Jenny, whereas the role of Muriel was dubbed by Carol.

 

One of Carol's final dubbing roles was as the voice of the great diva Gina Lollobrigida in Death Laid an Egg (1968).

 

Check out the video below for a few more examples of some of Carol’s various dubbing performances:

 

 

One of Carol’s most frequent dubbing partners was Rodd Dana, who in addition to dubbing and acting also did much work as a singer. One of the songs Dana performed was “Cowboy”, which was composed for the soundtrack of the spaghetti western Massacre at Grand Canyon (1964), and for which Carol wrote the English lyrics. When interviewed by Michael Barnum for Video Watchdog No. 143 (September 2008), Dana gave a detailed and humorous account of how this all came about:

“Carol Danell, the gal who wrote the lyrics for the song, was a good friend and a frequent dubbing partner. She knew I sang and asked if I would do it. I almost didn’t, because I thought the song was pretty bad. Nevertheless, they all convinced me that audiences outside of the European market would never hear it, and they wouldn’t really care about the English lyrics, so I said ‘okay.’

The funny part happened two nights after I recorded the final take at Fono Roma. It was perfect and everybody loved it. At 2:00 in the morning, I got a frantic call from Gianni Ferrio, the musical director, saying that someone had laid the master-cut on some kind of heating radiator at the studio where they were doing the master copying, and the thing had melted. They said I had to come to International Recording Studios by 3 a.m. to redo it! So I dragged myself out of bed, hung over from a late-night party, met the car they sent for me, and after six cups of expresso, made the bad cut you have heard. I didn’t mind since they had to pay me double. I was also too numb to really get too excited about the seeming injustice of it all. Carol and I always had a good laugh over the fact that the guy, Fabrizio, who roasted the master tape was the fonico who mixed most of the films we dubbed at Fono Roma. After that incident, we would always admonish Fabrizio, ‘Stia attento! Non lascia il nastro addosso al termosifone!’ (‘Pay attention! Don’t leave the tape on the radiator!’) He must have apologized to me a thousand times, down through the years.”

 

Carol's good friend and frequent dubbing partner Rodd Dana.

 

Many of the English dubbers in Rome were also called on by the Italian dubbing teams when there was need for someone to speak Italian with an American accent. Carol was no exception, and was notably chosen to dub the voice of Hollywood diva Rhonda Fleming in the Italian comedy Una moglie americana (1965), released in English as Run for Your Wife. Somewhat more surprising is her Italian dubbing work in the famous Casanova 70 (1965), in which she dubs Marisa Mell with a Slavic accent, but she did this type of accent really well in English as well and was probably cast on account of that.

For some samples of Carol’s dubbing of Rhonda Fleming and Marisa Mell in Italian, take a look at this video:

 

 

In 1968, Carol decided it was time to leave Italy and move back to the States. Settling in Los Angeles, she continued her career by releasing a series of children’s albums on the Columbia Book & Record label. These records, which include Madeline’s Rescue (1968), Little Bird (1968), Mike’s Magic Glasses (1968) and The King’s Inchworm (1969), feature Carol narrating stories aimed at pre-school children and they were released with accompanying illustrated storybooks.

 

 

The book and record release of The King's Inchworm with narration by Carol.

In 1970, Carol participated in a particularly interesting spoken word album called The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales, in which she and actor Paul Hecht take turns reciting a series of classic horror poetry and prose. The Haunted House record has gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic and is well worth listening to, with Carol’s reading of the story “The Velvet Ribbon” being among the highlights.

 

The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales (1970), released on the Scholastic Records label.

 

In the video below, you can listen to Carol narrating “The Velvet Ribbon”:

 

 

Carol also continued to work as an actress, and according to her entry in The World Who's Who of Women – Volume 11, she appeared on the police procedural hit series Hawaii Five-O, the daytime soap The Edge of Night, and the children’s series Romper Room, but it has not been possible to determine in which episodes she appeared, and it’s possible that she worked under a different name. In 1973, she played a tiny role as a charge nurse in the television film Cry Rape!, for which she was credited under the name of Carlyn Jonathan.

 

Carol credited under the name of Carlyn Jonathan in the TV movie Cry Rape! (1973).

 

Under the Carlyn Jonathan moniker she also appeared in a 1972 audio dramatization of the classic children’s novel Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. This album was recorded in New York under the direction of prolific NY dubbing director Peter Fernandez, and it is thus tempting to speculate that Carol might possibly have done some film dubbing in New York in the 1970s, too…

 

 

The Banner in the Sky audio drama featuring Carol, again under the alias Carlyn Jonathan.

 

Carol’s base, however, remained Los Angeles, and she was far from the only Rome dubber to have ended up there. Her old colleagues Rodd Dana, Ruth Carter and Dan Sturkie had also relocated to LA in the 1970s, and Dana confirmed to me in an email that they kept in touch with each other: “Carol and I met frequently in Hollywood and shared many laughs and memories. She and I met often at Ruth Carter’s house, and Dan Sturkie was always there, too. Never saw Carol again after that time. I was in India and travelled for a long time – losing track of everyone.”

Unfortunately, information about Carol’s later life is scarce. The 1977 “Expatriates Say ‘Ciao’ to Rome” article states that Carol has recently written a book of light verse titled You Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (and So Did All Those Others), but I’ve not been able to find a trace of this book anywhere on the net. What is known is that on November 16, 1980, Carol married a man by the name of Michael Fellman, with whom she eventually settled in Camarillo, California. By that point, she was no longer active in the entertainment industry, but she continued to write a lot of humorous poetry, some of which were published in the newspaper Camarillo Daily News (July 9, 1988).

 

Carol's poetry published in Camarillo Daily News in 1988.

 

Unfortunately, Carol passed away on August 12, 1995 in San Mateo, California, at the age of 68. She is still well remembered for her extensive work with film soundtracks, and hopefully, this piece will ensure that her dubbing work isn’t forgotten about either. Make sure to check out the dubbing filmography below – as always, it’s a work in progress and will be updated whenever new roles are found.

 

 

English dubbing filmography

 

- Romulus and the Sabines (1961) - voice of Flaminia (Dada Gallotti)

- The Avenger (1962) - voice of Camilla (Liana Orfei)

- The Shadow of Zorro (1962) - voice of Maria (Maria Luz Galicia)

- Gentlemen of the Night (1963) - voice of Parisienne (Dina De Santis)

- The Three Swords of Zorro (1963) - voice of Clara (unidentified actress)

- A Game of Crime (1964) - voice of Anna Lugani (Luisa Rivelli)

- Adios Gringo (1965) - voice of Mrs. Clevenger (Monique Saint Clair)

- From the Orient with Fury (1965) - voice of Evelyn Stone (Margaret Lee)

- Kindar the Invulnerable (1965) - voice of Nefar (Orchidea De Santis) and Bentris (Sherifa Maher)

- Mission Bloody Mary (1965) - voice of Phuong (Mitsouko)

- Nightmare Castle (1965) - voice of Muriel Arrowsmith (Barbara Steele)

- The Possessed (1965) - voice of Claudia (only heard on the phone)

- Snow White (1955; dubbed circa 1965) - voice of Whitey (unidentified actor)

- The Golden Falcon (1955; dubbed in the mid-1960s) - voice of Fiammetta (Anna Maria Ferrero)

- 7 Golden Women Against Two 07 (1966) - voice of Marie Dupont (Maria Vincent)

- Deguello (1966) - voice of Jenny Slater (Dana Ghia)

- Django (1966) - voice of Maria (Loredana Nusciak)

- El Rojo (1966) - voice of Consuelo (Susan Scott)

- Kill or Be Killed (1966) - voice of Lisa Drummont (Elina De Witt)

- Killer’s Carnival (1966) - voice of Denise (Karin Dor)

- Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966) - voice of Cynthia Fulton (Margaret Lee)

- The Third Eye (1966) - voice of Marta (Gioia Pascal)

- Web of Violence (1966) - voice of Cristina Romanelli (Margaret Lee)

- Ypotron (1966) - voice of Jean Morrow (Gaia Germani)

- Adios, Hombre (1967) - voice of Judith (Eleonora Vargas)

- Days of Violence (1967) - voice of Lizzie (Rosalba Neri)

- The Dirty Fifteen (1967) - voice of Mrs. Cook (Margarita Lozano)

- Django, Kill! (If You Live Shoot!) (1967) - voice of Florrie (Marilù Tolo)

- The Hellbenders (1967) - voice of Kitty (Maria Martin)

- Kitosch, the Man Who Came from the North (1967) - voice of Eva (Krista Nell)

- Last of the Badmen (1967) - voice of Steffy Mendoza (Pamela Tudor)

- Lucky the Inscrutable (1967) - voice of Yaka (Rosalba Neri)

- The Magnificent Texan (1967) - voice of Stella (Fulvia Franco)

- More Than a Miracle (1967) - voice of Young Boy (unidentified actor)

- Moving Target (1967) - voice of Rumba (Graziella Granata)

- Ride for a Massacre (1967) - voice of Roselyn (Maria Cuadra)

- Wanted (1967) - voice of Cheryl (Gia Sandri)

- Death Laid an Egg (1968) - voice of Anna (Gina Lollobrigida)

 

 

Italian language dubbing

 

- Casanova 70 (1965) - voice of Thelma (Marisa Mell)

- Una moglie americana / Run for Your Wife (1965) - voice of Edith (Rhonda Fleming)

 

 

Acknowledgements: A big thank you to Carol’s cousin Jim Moore for providing me with valuable background information on Carol’s family.