DVD of classic Glasgow comedy 'desecrated' by Morningside dub

Published on Friday 25 September 2009 09:41

IT IS regarded as a forgotten classic of Scottish cinema and helped launch the career of legendary director Bill Forsyth.

Now a new generation is set to enjoy Forsyth's debut feature film That Sinking Feeling with its first release on DVD.

But fans of the film will be taken aback to find the distinctive Glasgow accents of the cast have been replaced with Morningside ones.

It was thought that American audiences would understand the cut-glass Edinburgh accents but not broad Glaswegian ones.

The move, though, has annoyed at least one member of the cast, Edinburgh arts impresario Richard Demarco who described it as "the desecration of a masterpiece".

Forsyth's 1980 film was shot in his home city of Glasgow, with a then record-low budget of 6,000.

A tale of four unemployed youths who decide to rob a sink depot, it was thanks to its success that Forsyth was able to make his 1981 hit Gregory's Girl.

The huge popularity of that movie, and its follow-up Local Hero, led US distributor MGM to buy up the rights to That Sinking Feeling.

Its executives decided American audiences would have a problem with the thick Glasgow accents of the Glasgow Youth Theatre cast, including Gregory's Girl star John Gordon Sinclair.

They ordered the "Morningside dub", using actors whose voices would not be out of place in Jenners' tea room.

The dubbed version is being used for the release because a high-quality version of the original soundtrack cannot be traced.

Mr Demarco, who played a gallery owner in the movie, said: "I can remember well making the film – I was only there for a day, and so my scene was done without rehearsal and without a script.

"It was all very low budget, but we could all see even then I think the genius of Bill Forsyth.

"I really do think That Sinking Feeling is as good as any of his other work.

"I think the decision to dub it was wrong, and hopefully someone will find a good quality un-dubbed version out there that can get a wider release.

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The DVD is being released by 2Entertain, which released a statement, explaining: "The DVD was created from the only masters available to us. Unfortunately the DVD master of the original version is of a significantly poorer quality than that released and it was not feasible to restore it.

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