Comments on: Movie musicals and rub a dub dubbing, and Audrey Hepburn

By: Anthea Fraser Gupta

Anthea Fraser Gupta — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 06:24:45 +0000

Audrey Hepburn did have a dialect coach, whose name was not given in the credits. Why not? Well it could have been shocking for some…. He was a young Cantonese man from Hong Kong,a gifted phonetician and teacher, Tony Hung. I knew him when we were colleagues in Singapore, but he’s back in Hong Kong now (and not so young!).

By: Surellin

Surellin — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:33:55 +0000

I see that Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady both came out in 1964. Was Julie Andrews busy working on the former and couldn’t also do the latter, or did she just get incredibly lucky to have another excellent vehicle available after her Eliza role was “stolen”?

Btw, I’m in total agreement with just about anything nice anyone wants to say about Hepburn. I’ve been a little in love with her ever since I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s when I was a kid.

By: Judith

Judith — Mon, 28 May 2012 00:08:37 +0000

I’m with CharleySays as far as Hepburn’s version of “Loverly.” She may not look cockney or lower class but her version sounds rougher and more appropriate to the part. Of course, H’wood is only making a fantasy of a cockney girl, so Audrey Hepburn, dubbed, is what we get.

By: Lino

Lino — Sun, 27 May 2012 08:26:35 +0000

Far from America one can enjoy musicals only in their movie version. MFL is a wonderful, exquisite piece of art where “suspension of reality” is quite welcome. By the way, Wise’s West Side Story is simply perfect. Of course, I never saw it on stage…

By: Nolanimrod

Nolanimrod — Sun, 27 May 2012 07:19:21 +0000

Replacing Andrews with Hepburn was certainly a sin but Hollywood just can't help itself. My childhood friend's uncle, a Russian Jew named Will Kuluva, was always picked to play the Mexican grandee hacienda owner. When Bruce Lee brought the idea for Kung Fu to the studio it cast David Carradine in the lead and shaved his eyebrows. When they made a PSA about how much our littering was disturbing people who loved the land the guy picked to play the land-loving Indian was an Italian from Louisiana, and when they wanted someone to play a lady-killing stud they picked Rock Hudson.

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:31:13 +0000

LTEC: Wendy Hiller was a sort of real-life Eliza, although she didn't start out as Cockney or poor. But get a load of this:

Wendy Hiller was born Aug. 15, 1912, and reared in the northern city of Manchester, where her father was in the cotton spinning business. He thought her Lancashire accent might harm her marriage prospects, so he sent her to a school in Bexhill, south of London, to learn to speak like a proper lady.

By: LisaM

LisaM — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:30:53 +0000

Thank you, Parker.

By: Parker

Parker — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:09:30 +0000

LisaM says, “I would hear him in the shower singing, “Just you wait Henry Higgins.” I took him to see it live in Pittsburgh that fall. There he was in his little 3-piece suit, walking against the tide of the crowd headed across the bridge for the Steelers game. As a single mom, I had a moment of supreme self doubt that I was doing right by him. He’s now 11, and an athlete, and no longer interested in things like that.”

Many years ago my first martial art master (Japanese) lectured me on what it meant to be a warrior. First and foremost a warrior must protect the innocent. In order to do so his knowledge has to extend far beyond martial skill and include appreciation of poetry, flower arranging, holding a baby with calm assurance, and appreciation of nature. I never mastered flower arranging but I understand the essence of his lecture. A man is soft and gentle on the outside and steel on the inside.

You have provided your son with a good tool box for manhood.

By: billm99uk

billm99uk — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:02:12 +0000

Agree with Neo in the previous thread – Hepburn might have been miscast but Holloway was class, and could probably have played that role in his sleep. My father (a genuine Cockney) just loved him to bits, so I got a load of his stuff played around me when I was young. Cockney is one of those accents that sound just dreadful if you don’t nail it perfectly and I guess dialogue coaches weren’t around in those days (like “community organisers”, heh!)

Does seem slightly strange to see Jeremy Brett turn up a callow suitor, given his later TV fame as an uber-cool Sherlock Holmes too.

By: LisaM

LisaM — Sat, 26 May 2012 22:46:09 +0000

When my son was 6, he watched MFL so many times that he could sing each and every song, complete with accent. I would hear him in the shower singing, “Just you wait Henry Higgins.” I took him to see it live in Pittsburgh that fall. There he was in his little 3-piece suit, walking against the tide of the crowd headed across the bridge for the Steelers game. As a single mom, I had a moment of supreme self doubt that I was doing right by him. He’s now 11, and an athlete, and no longer interested in things like that. We’re both glad we did it, even if his favorite part was dinner afterwards.