Was Sam Jones really dubbed in Flash Gordon ?

[Mikey]

Was watching Flash Gordon last night and I think I remember somebody saying Jones was totally dubbed over by a voice actor throughout the whole movie.

Is that really true ?

Now that I think about it Jones does have a deep wrestler voice but his voice in Flash was kinda light

[The Toyroom]

From Wikipedia:

According to Empire magazine,Sam J. Jones had disagreements of some sort with director Hodges and producer De Laurentiis and departed prior to post-production, which resulted in almost all of his dialogue being dubbed by a professional voice actor (impersonating Jones' voice) whose identity is still a mystery.

[toys2cool]

wow I never knew that

[torgospizza]

wow I never knew that

Same here. I'd always assumed it was Jones and never suspected otherwise.

[Type Two]

Good for Jones. Hodges comes off as a grade-a jerk (and bigoted against Americans) in the region 2 commentary for the Flash Gordon dvd. I can't imagine working under the auspices of that guy for weeks at a time.

[johnmiic]

I read that somewhere too. I always thought Jones's voice seemed to lose his mid-west accent and get kind'a bland-sounding in parts of he film.

[Bruce Banner]

Was watching Flash Gordon last night and I think I remember somebody saying Jones was totally dubbed over by a voice actor throughout the whole movie. Is that really true ?

It's a long standing rumour which fans of the movie have tried their best to get to the bottom of over the years.

It does seem that due to a disagreement, Sam Jones didn't participate in the looping and ADR sessions, which resulted in another voice actor dubbing the majority of his lines.

Whatever the case, there are noticeable differences in the voice and delivery of certain lines of Flash's dialogue between some early VHS versions of the movie and the later home video releases.

Good for Jones. Hodges comes off as a grade-a jerk (and bigoted against Americans) in the region 2 commentary for the Flash Gordon dvd. I can't imagine working under the auspices of that guy for weeks at a time.

Well, the commentary suggests that Hodges had a problem with the Bush administration rather than with Americans in general.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I've always thought some of the looping was a bit off, but I didn't suspect it was a different voice.

Hollywood seemed to do that a lot more at that time. Chris Reeve dubbed the actor who played young Clark Kent in the Smallville/Fortress scenes in "Superman: The Movie", and Klinton Spilsbury's voice was completely dubbed in "The Legend of the Lone Ranger".

Chris

[Nostalgiabuff]

wow, neaver heard this before. guess they did a good job of it since I did not notice anything being off with the line delivery.
i knew about the LR thing though

[johnmiic]

For years I thought there was also a noticeable sound disconnect in Mel Gibson's voice in Mad Max.

[vulcan2074]

Wow, thats crazy. I didn't know that either. Still a great movie.
Sammy

[alex]

For years I thought there was also a noticeable sound disconnect in Mel Gibson's voice in Mad Max.

I hadnt watched Mad Max for years, until someone lent me a copy he had got from some cinema magazine. His voice was definately dubbed, didnt really know what to make of it.

[Bruce Banner]

For years I thought there was also a noticeable sound disconnect in Mel Gibson's voice in Mad Max.

Mad Max was redubbed for the American market.
Not just Gibson's voice, but pretty much all of the other actors too.

This was done because there were some technical issues with the original Australian audio mix, and additionally rumour has it that distributor (AIP) figured the American audiences would have a hard time with the movie's Australian accents.

Numerous lines of dialogue were also changed during the redubbing process to remove certain Australian slang words and colloquialisms.

Both audio tracks are available on the DVD to compare the two.

[Type Two]

"Well, the commentary suggests that Hodges had a problem with the Bush administration rather than with Americans in general."

I have to disagree, especially based on what Hodges said in the commentary about casting the actors so that they "looked American" and fit his bigoted opinion of how Americans act and think.

[Toyman_Chris]

I learned something new today.....neat trivia