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Sadly, though, her father, Nicholas Noxon recently passed away. (I met her at the memorial, and she's a lovely person.) The Hollywood Reporter has a TV series of industry panel discussions on the Independent Film Channel. Just last Sunday, Marti was one of the show-runners discussing their jobs. I think you'll enjoy it if you can catch it later in re-run.
Oh, right, I think I had heard that about Marti's dad. Thanks for the heads-up on the discussion panel.
I must say the little I knew of Marni Nixon has been well expanded on by those in the know here. Thank you for giving us some wonderful stories on Marni that many like me didn't know.
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2016 - 8:56 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Despite intensive vocal training during pre-production, and constant practicing until her final re-recording during post-production, most of Audrey Hepburn's own singing was omitted from the finished version of 1964’s MY FAIR LADY. A dubber was required because “Eliza Doolittle's” songs were not transposed down to accommodate Hepburn's "low-mezzo voice" (as Marni Nixon referred to it), the way, for example, that “Guinevere's” songs were later transposed down to accommodate Vanessa Redgrave's limited vocal range in CAMELOT (1967). Nixon had to practice a Cockney accent in order to properly match Hepburn’s speaking voice in the singing.
Although the majority of her singing was dubbed by Nixon, Audrey Hepburn's singing does actually appear in the first verse of "Just You Wait, Henry Higgins." However, when the song heads into the soprano range (76 seconds in), Nixon takes over the vocals, with Hepburn returning for the last 30 seconds of the song, showcasing her ability to sing perfectly well when the songs were set in a reasonable tessitura. Hepburn also rendered the brief "Just You Wait" reprise all on her own, conveying the dramatic, emotional intensity of the song in a way that Nixon may not have been able to.
Hepburn also sings the sing-talking parts for "The Rain in Spain;” portions of "Wouldn't It be Loverly;" as well as one or two lines elsewhere in the score, such as 'Sleep, sleep, I couldn't sleep tonight!' in "I Could Have Danced All Night." Overall, as Hepburn reportedly said, about 90% of her singing was dubbed. That was far more than what she expected, as she was initially promised that most of her vocals would be used. According to Nixon, Hepburn was upset that she could not play the role vocally, and always blamed herself for that.
During the parts of "Wouldn't It be Loverly" featuring Hepburn's own singing voice, her lip-syncing does not appear to match her own singing as well as it does Marni Nixon's singing, even though Hepburn filmed the scene with her own complete track. This is because Hepburn was trying to sync with her pre-recorded track while filming the scene, whereas Nixon "looped" her partial replacement vocals to the song after the number was already filmed--and was given multiple attempts to match Hepburn's lip movements precisely. Nixon discusses this in her autobiography, where she praises Hepburn for lip-synching very well to her own track.
In a 1964 interview, Nixon said "It's fascinating, getting inside the actresses you're singing for. It's like cutting off the top of their heads and seeing what's underneath. You have to know how they feel, as well as how they talk, in order to sing as they would sing -- if they could sing."
Warner Bros. had tried to keep the dubbing of Hepburn's singing a secret, but when the film opened, it was hard not to notice it. The publicity department then issued a statement that Marni Nixon had only done half the singing, which triggered an angry denial from her husband. The secrecy triggered a backlash against Hepburn's performance, with gossip columnist Hedda Hopper writing, "With Marni Nixon doing the singing, Audrey Hepburn gives only half a performance." Jack Warner countered, "I don't know what all the fuss is about. We've been doing it for years. We even dubbed the barking of Rin-Tin-Tin."
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ACCIDENTAL GENIUS --
Not by being a genius, but purely by dumb accidental luck, I just discovered tonight that it's The Sundance Channel, not IFC as I misremembered, that broadcasts the Sunday morning Hollywood Reporter Show, and they do repeat it on Thursday nights and Saturday nights. Too late for you to catch tonight's show, of course -- I didn't know it was going to be on until suddenly it was on -- but you can catch the Saturday Night show at 1:45 AM if you're on the west coast; otherwise, "consult local listings," as they say.
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Dear MAZOUZ ROBERT --
"Please don't hate me," as Dimitri Tiomkin used to say, but I have to point out that your crediting Ms. Nixon with the climax of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN must be the product of misinformation you've received somewhere. Or, were you perhaps just making a joke by including that scene in this discussion?
In point of fact, the voice you hear there belongs to Miss Debbie Reynolds herself. Ironically, although Debbie's voice is heard on the up-tempo songs "Singin' in the Rain," and "Good Mornin'," she was dubbed by a lady named Betty Noyce in the two ballads, "Would You?" and "You Are My Lucky Star." To add a further level of irony, in the scene where "Kathy Selden" records the dubbing of a "Lina Lamont" number, two of Debbie's spoken lines of dialogue were dubbed by -- Jean Hagen!
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You're very welcome, MAZOUZ,
and thanks for your original post. It's aways a pleasure to see any part of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, whatever the circumstances. (Relieved to know my guess about your joking was correct. I couldn't be sure, under the circumstances...)
***
JOE, hi --
I'd love to know where you found that interesting anecdote. Is it perhaps in the supplemental material on the DVD, which I have not yet seen? I can't lay my hands on my copy of Hugh Fordin's WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT, the definitive oral history of the Freed Unit, but I got my info above from checking the book about the film's making by Hess and Dabholkar. (It's entirely possible that your "Lucky Star" story is in the book without my being able to locate it in the book's strangely erratic Index).
Appreciate it,
PNJ
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