I worked at the post-production house in new york city when this film was shot and edited. We saw the dailies of it as it was being shot and also worked on it while it was being edited. The entire film was completed with Cagney's actual (heavily stroke inflected) speaking voice. It was decided by the producers to replace the entire Cagney dialogue with Rich Little's impersonation. I can attest to the fact that the original film, with Cagney's own voice, was an excellent and powerful little film, that I would have given a rating of 10 stars to. Unfortunately, the really bad decision to dub Cagney's voice with this awful impersonation (which sounded like the voice in the old "Vlassic Pickles" TV commercials) pretty much ruined what would have been a memorable movie. I wish to this day I had somehow been able to obtain a copy of the original version! Still worth seeing as it is Cagney's last film, and Carney and Barkin are excellent. Basically though, another instance of too many producer-cooks ruining the stew.
Review of Terrible Joe Moran
