In 1965, at 25 years-old, Jo Raquel Tejada Welch made an inauspicious debut in a leading role, in a major movie: A Swingin' Summer. No Frankie or Annette at the beach for this outing, but that didn't keep a roster of B list acts (including Raqy) from contributing to the surfer music soundtrack.
In the flick (which I'm sure played at every drive-in cinema across the nation, familiarizing audiences with Raquel for her advent on humanity via Hollywood Sex Goddess stardom), Ms. Welch plays a bookworm (glasses) turned fun-luvin' gal (no glasses) in the ditty "I'm Ready to Groove."
In my recent quest to find some truth in this world, I've come across a seemingly unlimited amount of documented information concerning the CIA's covert mind control operation known as MK ULTRA, or Project Monarch. It is highly speculated that Marilyn Monroe was one of the products of this hideous and subversive program. In the book Marilyn Monroe Confidential: An Intimate Personal Account, written by her personal assistant Lena Pepitone, Marilyn becomes a textbook case for Project Monarch.
There is also speculation that current movie star Michelle Williams may be of the same program. (Apparently, Williams' baby daddy Heath Ledger wanted out of the Hollywood occultist control-obsessed scene, paving the way for his unfortunate demise.) Ms. Williams has developed from teen actress on the popular TV show Dawson's Creek to one of Hollywood's biggest talents. In My Week with Marilyn, Williams earned an Academy Award Best Actress nomination for her insightful portrayal of Ms. Monroe. She even lent her own vocals to several Marilyn standards, including "I Found a Dream", which was one of the few movie tracks in which Marilyn did not sing. There is much debate about this, but I can confidently assert that her vocals were dubbed for this song in The Prince and the Showgirl. Netflix the flick (or watch the clip above if you're not on your mobile device). It's not her. And it's reported she sang the ditty live on set. Did Lawrence Olivier hate her enough to overdub her?
Already controversial even before its release is Tom Hooper's uber-ambitious film adaptation of Les Miserables, the musical. Originally produced for the stage in Paris circa 1980, Les Miz (an affectionate nickname) quickly became a widespread sensation as it evolved into West End and Broadway productions en route to World Domination. This time around, however, Vitor Hugo's epic tale of revolution could prove itself relevant to a global culture mired in economic disaster, disparity between classes, and its own seeds of revolution brewing in the Occupy movement.
Central to the controversy is Academy Award winner Hooper's radical, revisionist concept for filming the "pop opera." The actors sing their songs live on set instead of lip-syncing to prerecorded vocal tracks. Wearing tiny earpieces, actors perform to a live keyboardist, positioned somewhere off-set. That keyboardist, in turn, also wears an earpiece, thus being able to follow the actor's lead. In post-production, keyboards are replaced by a massive orchestra, giving consideration to the scene's spontaneous rhythm. (A similar idea was pioneered by Peter Bagdonovich for 1975's At Long Last Love, but his actors listened to prerecorded piano accompaniments with set rhythms.) Hooper's main objective is to allow the actors more freedom in their performances... freedom from a set rhythm and from choices made in a recording studio months earlier... freedom from having to sync their lips convincingly... thereby allowing more emotional authenticity while executing the demanding score.
Even more central to the controversy is Anne Hathaway's "fragile" delivery of the ultimate martyr ballad "I Dreamed a Dream." This is a daunting endeavor. Her predecessors include Patti LuPone, Elaine Page and Susan Boyle; all of whom are vocal heavyweight champions. Anne approaches the song more from the viewpoint of her character Fantine, a woman whose grueling destiny is about to steal away her life.
Many have so far been disappointed by Anne's warbling in the movie's trailer. A behind-the-scenes featurette was created to let audiences in on the concept, hoping to change people's perception of what they were going to hear. A non-belting rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" could quite possibly achieve a cinematic profundity surpassing its theatrical counterparts. The woman is dying, so perhaps what seems to be a vocally weak rendition could be the most heart-wrenching of all.
Regardless, this is as raw as you get.
UPDATE:
December 9th
As the promotional machine rolls on for this film, a different take of Hathaway's "I Dreamed a Dream" has been used for the international trailer:
As I understand it, this is the take the world will hear in the upcoming release. It makes more sense, really. It's closer to the belt devotees of the stage production are accustomed to hearing (do I hear an Oscar calling Anne's name?). But you know I'll be chomping at the bit to get my mitts on the other takes...
Lauren "Betty" Bacall put her lips together and blew out enough smoke to pollute both Los Angeles and New York combined. Her throaty rasp occasionally lent itself to a tune or two, most memorably on Broadway in Applause and Woman of the Year. But the movies gave her a chance to warble as well.
In To Have and Have Not, she crooned "Am I Blue" (with Hoagy Carmichael) and "How Little We Know." This was the first film she would make with Humphrey Bogart. Notice his expression while watching her sing in the video below. It was love at first sight.
Then, decades later, came The Fan. A stalker thriller that was turned into a slasher, mostly in post-production, leaving Bacall cold when publicity time rolled around. According to The Terror Trap she disowned the film due to its amped-up violence. And trailers at the time had a disclaimer denying any connection to the John Lennon assassination, which happened between filming and release.
The flick also boasted several musical numbers (with Bacall as the centerpiece) written by Marvin Hamlisch and Time Rice. Can the dame sing? You decide. One thing's for certain: she's got the "raw" factor.
From 1961-1965 Natalie Wood made four movies in which she had the opportunity to sing. West Side Story proved a bitter first experience when she was cajoled into thinking her vocals were going to be used, only to have them overdubbed by Marni Nixon. Ms. Wood was devastated.
In Gypsy, Natalie got her way and did virtually all her own warbling. But when the Hollywood behind-the-scenes melodrama Inside Daisy Clover came along, she found her singing capabilities once again in question.
Jackie Ward was brought in to dub spots of Natalie's vocals. This would iron out the kinks in Ms. Wood's renditions of the Andre Previn songs. Ultimately, however, Jackie covered all the bases and Natalie was left getting the short end of the stick...again. (Jackie also dubbed Nat the same year in The Great Race, singing "Sweetheart Tree.")
Lucille Ball decided she would be Mame, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.
Alas, stirrings of a Mame movie didn't surface until Ms. Ball showed a financial interest in the project. But, of course, she wanted to star. It may have worked at one point, but by 1972 (when filming began) Lucy was starting to show some wear and tear. Any credibility she could muster in the role was alarmingly undermined by the fact she was huffing and puffing her way through her performance!
The talk around Hollywood was that Lucy's singing would be dubbed by Lisa Kirk, but it never came to fruition (rumors still circulate about the existence of possible tracks Lisa may have recorded). Lucy did all her own singing and you can blame the movie's reputation on that fact alone. Here, she croaks out "If He Walked Into My Life," backed by searing orchestrations from the mind and soul of Ralph Burns.
, the grandest auntie of them all. She would co-produce the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was in turn based on the Broadway play Auntie Mame starring Rosiland Russell, who repeated her performance for a subsequent film version in the '50s. In Jerry Herman's Broadway musicalization, Angela Lansbury "doubled her fame" with a fiery, inspired performance that was also destined to repeat itself for the big screen and be preserved on celluloid till the end of civilization.
