# Are there many movies about English speaking Americans filmed in languages other than English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623 "2013-10-19T03:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/41 "2013-10-22T06:32:01Z")
Are you sure it was Dutch, not Czech? ‘Disturbing non-English Alice in Wonderland’ brings Jan Svankmejer’s film to mind… ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/42 "2013-10-22T14:56:31Z")
Maybe it was Czech, but I was sure it was Dutch. Weren’t British, I know that. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/43 "2013-10-24T09:03:54Z")
[Does this look familiar?](http://youtu.be/-1rRN0z3hUQ?t=1m0s) If not, it probably wasn’t the Svankmajer (that scene has stayed in my head for over a decade, so I think it’s probably the most memorable in the movie) and I’d really like to find this dutch version, if you can remember anything about it. (If it does, then of course, it’s the Svankmajer.) ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/44 "2013-10-24T09:12:39Z")
Here’s an example: a Japanese Anime named “Yakitate!! Japan!” featured an arc set in Europe where everyone spoke Japanese no matter what country they were from, even the Americans (who had traveled there), French, Brits, etc. They were represented in other ways as being American, French, or whatever, but the language they spoke was Japanese because it was a Japanese Anime. The American character “Kid” was particularly entertaining, but he spoke Japanese in a weird accent, in the same way we would see a Russian KGB agent speaking English in a weird accent in one of our tv shows or movies. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/45 "2013-10-24T21:12:07Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > There must have been hundreds of Italian made B-movies in the 1970s-80s (e.g., horror movies and westerns) which were set in America (for marketability) but actually filmed in Italy with a pan-European cast. Many of them were dubbed in multiple languages including English, but lots of the lower profile ones were only processed in Italian and never exported. > > [Here](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090788/) is a characteristic example. Additional locations [Spaghetti Western - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_western#Filming_locations). Note that Spain was popular. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/46 "2013-10-29T11:43:01Z")
“The Three Investigators,” an American YA book series about a trio of kid detectives, was adapted into several movies in Germany. Not sure if the films are set in America or not, although the books certainly are. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/47 "2013-10-29T21:23:25Z")
Louis L’Amour once mentioned that he had an attorney who did nothing but watch German Westerns to see if any of his novels had been lifted by that country’s film industry. He said the Germans especially loved Westerns and would “borrow” the stories. He said there were authorized versions of every Zane Gray and probably twice that many unauthorized versions. I got to see a German version of the Virginian. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/48 "2013-10-30T03:15:12Z")
I saw a film called ‘Qui a tué Pamela Sue?’ (Who Killed Pamela Sue?) in France in 2003. It was set in ‘hillbilly’ country USA, featuring caricatured hicks and hapless FBI agents. Everyone spoke French, with different accents that I suppose were correlated to the ‘type’ they were playing. I think it was supposed to be a comedy. I thought it was truly awful. Does the Japanese anime ‘Sherlock Hound’ count? It is set in Victorian London, all the characters are dogs. I’ve seen it dubbed into English, but I assume the original version was in Japanese. The English text onscreen was frequently nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/49 "2013-10-30T17:32:03Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > …He said the Germans especially loved Westerns and would “borrow” the stories… Westerns were very popular in the [Eastern Bloc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostern). The heroes were usually the Indians and the cowboys the violins. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/50 "2022-06-20T01:22:15Z")
Nine years later, I couldn’t resist a comeback: There’s just too much violins in Westerns. I was thinking along the same lines as the original poster - Hollywood and the Anglophone film biz in general thinks nothing of producing pictures set in foreign climes, where all the locals speak English. It’s just a thing we do. Historical (“The Last Station”, set in a Russia where Lev Tolstoy looks just like Christopher Plummer and speaks English) or contemporary (“House of Gucci”, with Lady Gaga, Jeremy Irons and a cast of A-listers all putting on their best Mediterranean inflections with varying finesse), sorry Rest-of-the-World, we love ya but we make movies the way we make 'em. Reading this old thread, it seems that aside from Westerns made in Italy, Germany or the old Eastern bloc, you just aren’t going to find a lot of foreign movies set in America or the UK where everyone is named Bill or Wendy but speaks French or German or some language that’s not this one I’m typing in. Believe me, I wish they did. “Plein Soleil” from 1960, mentioned above, is the only one I can recall ever seeing; it was called “Purple Noon” in the US. And it was cool - Alain Delon as the Talented Mr. Ripley - “Oh, Tom, ne me tue pas je vous en pris!” (not an actual line), no problem on this end! I actually want to see Huckleberry Finn in Russian. But come on, producers from the foreign film industry, don’t be shy! You won’t hurt our feelings. On the subject of subtitles vs. dubbing, the battle has pretty much been decided here since 1980, when they released “Das Boot” in two versions and the dubbed version lost. Wikipedia has a pretty good couple of articles on the subject, and which countries are committed to which system (and why). Here’s a map of Europe (it should have been the whole world) that gives a quick overview - I’m surprised they like dubs in Germany and France, prefer subs in Poland and Portugal (click to enlarge). [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/22eVONh.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/22eVONh) Last word: Stuck in the middle of the Wiki Dubbing article is this fascinating statement: _“Disney has a policy that makes its directors undergo stages to perfect alignment of certain lip movements so the movie looks believable.”_ Wot tha hooey? Stages? Does anyone have a clue what this means? Sounds nasty. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/51 "2022-06-20T13:19:11Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Reading this old thread, it seems that aside from Westerns made in Italy, Germany or the old Eastern bloc, you just aren’t going to find a lot of foreign movies set in America or the UK where everyone is named Bill or Wendy but speaks French or German or some language that’s not this one I’m typing in. Believe me, I wish they did. It’s true for Germany that many fitting examples are Western films, especially the many Karl May adaptions which were and still are widely popular, but there were also some adaptions of classic adventure stories outside the Western genre like the aforementioned “Die Schatzinsel” (The Treasure Island). I vividly remember having seen the German mini-series [“Der Seewolf”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066709/) as a kid, an adaption of Jack London’s novel “The Sea-Wolf”, a German-Romanian production. ETA: just thought of two more prominent German film series in that vein: First, the long running series of Edgar Wallace adaptions, all set in the UK and filmed completely in German with German staff. Then there were the Jerry Cotton films, adaptions of a popular German pulp magazine about a FBI agent set in New York. > **[Films based on works by Edgar Wallace | German Krimi adaptations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Films_based_on_works_by_Edgar_Wallace#German_Krimi_adaptations)** > > The crime films produced by the German company Rialto Film between 1959 and 1972 form their own subgenre known as Krimis (abbreviation for the German term Kriminalfilm (or Kriminalroman). Aside from the Rialto productions, other Edgar Wallace adaptations in a similar style were made by the Germans Artur Brauner and Kurt Ulrich as well as the British producer Harry Alan Towers. > **[Jerry Cotton | Jerry Cotton films](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Cotton#Jerry_Cotton_films)** > > Starting in the 1960s, a series of eight films based on the Cotton novels were made, the first four in black-and-white, the last four in color. The character of Jerry Cotton was played by American actor George Nader, and his companion Phil Decker was played by the German actor Heinz Weiß. The director of the films was Harald Reinl. The film's music was composed by Peter Thomas including the "Jerry Cotton March", that also was released on a soundtrack-single. In the 1990s the soundtracks of the mo... ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/52 "2022-06-20T13:53:46Z")
I’ll hazard a guess that more films like this exist, in Germany and other countries, but few are ever seen here. Adaptations of famous old works like Treasure Island are one thing, but do you see many modern day stories set in non-German speaking places where it’s an all German cast speaking German? That can’t be uncommon. Anglophone TV does this all the time (“Chernobyl” the mini-series being one recent example). ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/53 "2022-06-20T14:02:15Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Adaptations of famous old works like Treasure Island are one thing, but do you see many modern day stories set in non-German speaking places where it’s an all German cast speaking German? That can’t be uncommon. Anglophone TV does this all the time (“Chernobyl” the mini-series being one recent example). The Edgar Wallace and Jerry Cotton series were examples for that, German adaptions in British/American contemporary settings, but that was more than fifty years ago. I’m struggling to think of a modern example, the aforementioned [“Kondom des Grauens”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116791/) (Killer Condom) is the only one that comes to mind, and that was from 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/54 "2022-06-20T16:43:17Z")
There’s a case of a British novel in which the characters spoke English. (Perhaps it’s British English, but it’s not that much different from American English, and the American printings of the novel, and there have been a lot of them, never respell or reword anything.) There’s a movie of it with everyone speaking Russian. I’m talking about the movie _Khraniteli_, which was a 1991 Russian made-for-television movie. It was never shown anywhere else except once on Russian television and then forgotten about until 2021. It is now available on YouTube. It’s a movie of _The Fellowship of the Rings_ by J. R. R. Tolkien. You will frequently hear it described as a movie of _The Lord of the Rings_, but it’s only a movie of the first volume of that novel. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/55 "2022-06-20T19:39:14Z")
My favorite review of the Soviet _Lord of the Rings_: “This is what LOTR would be like if Frodo dropped a heroic dose of acid the moment he left the Shire!” The Soviets also did _The Hobbit_. It was intended for children, made on a shoestring budget, and is roughly comparable to a Sid and Marty Krofft show. (Better music, worse special effects.) The Soviets did a couple of Agatha Christie stories, _And Then There Were None_ and _The Mousetrap._ According to Wikipedia, there is a Hindi version of _The Mousetrap_. I don’t know if it is set in England or India. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/56 "2022-06-20T22:29:04Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > According to Wikipedia, there is a Hindi version of _The Mousetrap_. I don’t know if it is set in England or India. Do you mean the 1965 film _Gumnaam_? According to the IMDb, it didn’t bother to even acknowledge in its credits that it was based on _The Mousetrap_. It may have not even paid anything to the Agatha Christie estate. It’s supposedly set on some island. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623/57 "2022-06-21T14:02:47Z")
A little digging, and I find that it was [Chupi Chupi Aashey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupi_Chupi_Aashey) in 1960, and it was Bengali, not Hindi. Looks like they just took the plot, and changed the setting to Asia. [Gumnaam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumnaam) was based on _And Then There Were None_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-many-movies-about-english-speaking-americans-filmed-in-languages-other-than-english/671623.md?page=2)