MovieChat Forums > An American in Paris (1951) Discussion > Choice of singing voices... no women?

Choice of singing voices... no women?

posted 15 years ago by DryToast
3 replies | jump to latest

One problem I have with this film is that, for a showcase of a great American songwriter, the choice of singing voices for the film seems very strange and limited:

1. Gene Kelly, a pleasant but not outstanding singer

2. Georges Guétary, a plummy-voiced Frenchman who possibly sounded good to audiences at the time (benefit of the doubt here) but whose style sounds very dated today

3. Oscar Levant, eccentric character comic (and friend and associate of Gershwin himself), whose brief vocal in "By Strauss" is dubbed and whose own vocal of "I Don't Think I'll Fall in Love Today" was mercifully cut

4. The unpleasant and unmusical squawking of Parisian street urchins in "I Got Rhythm"

5. Female voices: NONE! This to me is the most peculiar choice of all, and reduces "'S Wonderful" to a duet for two men.

As a result, despite the beautiful "Love Is Here to Stay" sequence and the endearing "By Strauss" and the great ballet finale, this film will always fall short for me as a satisfying musical. After a few numbers, I just did not want any of these men to open their mouths to sing again. Why not cast Dolores Gray or Patricia Morison or some other singer (even Mary Martin!) in the Nina Foch role and give her a couple of great Gershwin songs?

"Please! You're not at home!"

[–] Dewhistle 13 years ago

Please, musicals are disjointed enough as it is. I don't as a rule prefer any story jammed full of musical interruptions, much less ones just put in for the sake of having them there. And I love music, just not music interrupting the plot. From what I've seen here, it was just happenstance that they ended up with the array of talent they did. They mostly needed a girl who could dance, French was preferable, and they got that. Milo didn't figure enough in the story to get songs. And I couldn't stand her anyway.

[–] WhoDo-YouDo 12 years ago

Those are some good points.

One of the problems must have been that by 1951, MGM didn't have the talent which 20th Century Fox, RKO-Radio and some of the others (including MGM itself) had during the 1930's, with great female vocalists as Alice Faye, Ann Sothern, Irene Dunne, Jeanette MacDonald, who could all carry a musical smoothly and professionally. Ginger R and Betty G kept improving throughout the 1930's, and Judy G was in her element as a singer by now, but as an actress, she had become undependable during intermittent intervals.

Maybe Vera-Ellen or Marni Nixon could have dubbed someone, but wouldn't that have been a wise move to cut back on some of the female singing by the time microphones were picking up on minute details? No offense to Olivia N-J, but the rest of the cast of "Grease" might have benefited by curtailed singing.

[–] 12 years ago

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