Bedded or Wedded?
A change to the soundtrack
Grab your copy (copies?) of IKWIG and run it to approx 63 mins into the
film. It's the scene where Bridie is trying to disuade Joan from hiring Kenny to take her to Kiloran in the boat.
"Some folks there are, who want to drown fine young men
... so that they can be wedded one day sooner". One word of
this line has been changed via dubbing - and quite
noticeable dubbing at that. The original line, before
the alteration, is "... so that they can be bedded one
day sooner"
The Criterion DVD has it as "wedded" but my Rank (Connoisseur
Video) PAL VHS tape has it clearly as "bedded".
This was pointed out to me by an email from John McKeown
who has been doing some more digging on the subject.
He thought at first that it might have been dubbed for the
American market. It's the sort of change they'd demand in
1945 (or even in 1947 when it was finally released there).
But Criterion told him they got the soundtrack from the
FBI, from the original optical tracks.
He then contacted the FBI archive (Bryony Dixon) who has
told him she'll look into it.
The worrying thought is that the change was made on a
master copy from which subsequent prints have been struck.
If so, will we ever hear it properly again?
At least we know it still exists as "bedded" on the video.
Steve
Judy Shoaf from Florida tells me that her video, recorded from US TV in the late 80s or early 90s, has it as "bedded".
Gerald Stewart from New York tells me that he has an old tape recorded from a TV broadcast in June 1989 (the tape also recorded some news item that he can trace and the Memorial Day weekend weather forecast) - and that has it as "bedded"
I've since met Margot Fitsimons ("Bridie") and she says that the original line was definitely "bedded" but that she was called back in to dub the "wedded" version (she is fairly sure that was for the American market). Since then, the "wedded" version has occasionally been shown on TV both here and in the States but I'm glad to hear that the correct version has been shown as well, and as far back as 1989 as well. That's great.
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