From 1937 till 1947, foreign films continued their dominance, and Iran did not produce any films locally. During the 1940s, numerous restrictions were imposed on Iranian cinema resulting in the stagnation of local production. World War II also caused serious political and economic difficulties for the country and brought the fragile Iranian motion picture industry to a virtual standstill. Yet, as mentioned before, foreign movies poured into the Iranian market and a sizable portion of the growing Iranian working class and the emerging middle class was attracted to film as a form of legitimate entertainment. This was not lost on investors in the motion picture industry. To satisfy the newly-developed appetite, more movie theaters were built, and the industry found dubbing of foreign films into Persian as both an improvement in the quality of services provided to viewers and a profi table venture. A number of producers began dubbing foreign movies outside of Iran and then importing them to Iran for competition with Hollywood movies. One of these was a young Iranian, Esmâ‘il Kushân, who dubbed two foreign films in Turkey and imported them to Tehran for show in 1946 with spectacular success. Soon, local dubbing studios were set up, creating competition for foreign operations. As early as 1943, the first dubbing studio, called Iran-Now Film, was established in Tehran. By 1961, dubbing foreign films into Persian in Europe ended, and almost all foreign films were dubbed in Iran. Utilizing the availability of improved technical facilities as well as comparatively more costeffective local dubbers and actors, the local studios were able to create products superior in quality to films dubbed in Italy. Some of these studios later engaged in film production as well. Dubbing was challenging, but the industry was able to overcome most of its early difficulties. Interestingly, dubbing provided Iranians with both an opportunity for creativity and censorship. In the case of creativity, Iranian dubbers adjusted dialogues, and even music, to Iranian taste by utilizing Persian idioms close to the foreign expression used in the original dialogue. For instance, a song by Jerry Lewis in the movie Patsy was replaced with an Indian song in order to fi t the Iranian taste, which was much closer to Indian culture than to American. In terms of censorship, “morally unacceptable words” were replaced by sanitized Persian equivalents. In turn, dubbed movies came to stifl e Iranian originality by getting Iranian viewers so much used to their plots and dialogues that Iranian producers began to dub local production and actors emulated their foreign counterparts’ use of inflection and tone. For instance, Mohammad-‘Ali Fardin’s voice in Gedâyân-e Tehrân (“The Beggars of Tehran”) was a direct imitation of Peter Falk’s voice in A Pocketful of Miracles. Also, the majority of films were shot on location without sound—sound was introduced later into the film through dubbing in studios. Except for those actors who had the benefit of stage experience, most actors in the film industry lacked appropriate vocal abilities—their voices would be replaced by dubbers who accentuated aural effects and otherwise compensated for these actors’ shortcomings. A number of business organizations, jointly financed by both Americans and Iranians, were set up exclusively to produce films. These centers facilitated the transfer of technical know-how and related information to Iranians, particularly in the art of producing newsreels and documentary films. The American presence in Iran during World War II also contributed to this expansion. The United States Information Service (USIS) in Iran began to distribute documentary and news films, dubbed into Persian, throughout the country. The Iranian government used 40 mobile cinema units to show these films to villagers and town people. In 1951, 60 films and 38 strips “on technical and instructional themes” were produced and distributed. Between 1951 and 1953, a number of magazines dealing specifically with acting and cinema appeared: ‘Âlam-e Honar, Sinemâ va Teâtr, Setâreh-e Sinemâ, and Payk-e Sinemâ. After the overthrow of Mosaddeq’s government in 1953, the shah’s new cultural policy of favoring Western products, especially American films, contributed to an increase in screening of foreign films in local cinemas. The number of foreign films shown in Iran increased from 100 in 1953 to close to 400 in 1961. This was due to a general lack of support for domestic films by the government, an increase in taxation on local films, and a reduction in duty on imports of foreign films.
