Avalanche Express was Robert Shaw's final film, but audiences did not hear much of the dialogue he had actually recorded. Shaw completed all of his scenes during the European shoot, yet his health was poor and he had not completed the required dubbing and looping work when he died of a heart attack on August 28, 1978, only about a year before the film's release. Monte Hellman judged that Shaw's weakened condition during production had affected the quality of his delivery, so the filmmakers brought in veteran voice actor Robert Rietti to dub most of Shaw's lines. Impressionist Rich Little supplied a handful of additional lines, while only a small number of Shaw's own recordings were retained. The production also redubbed the entire opening sequence, changing the Russian characters from accented English to Russian dialogue with English subtitles. The result was an unusually altered final performance: Shaw was physically present in the completed footage, but much of the voice associated with his character came from other performers. Rietti's contribution, like Hellman's and Corman's, went uncredited, leaving the film's already fragmented authorship and post-production history even more obscure.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Robert Shaw's Final Performance Was Rebuilt by Other Voices
Robert Shaw / Avalanche Express / 1970s
Avalanche Express was Robert Shaw's final film, but audiences did not hear much of the dialogue he had actually recorded. Shaw completed all of his scenes during the European shoot, yet his health was poor and he had not completed the required dubbing and looping work when he died of a heart attack on August 28, 1978, only about a year before the film's release. Monte Hellman judged that Shaw's weakened condition during production had affected the quality of his delivery, so the filmmakers brought in veteran voice actor Robert Rietti to dub most of Shaw's lines. Impressionist Rich Little supplied a handful of additional lines, while only a small number of Shaw's own recordings were retained. The production also redubbed the entire opening sequence, changing the Russian characters from accented English to Russian dialogue with English subtitles. The result was an unusually altered final performance: Shaw was physically present in the completed footage, but much of the voice associated with his character came from other performers. Rietti's contribution, like Hellman's and Corman's, went uncredited, leaving the film's already fragmented authorship and post-production history even more obscure.
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