Movie Legends Revealed #3
This is the third in a series of examinations of legends from movies and the people who make them and whether they are true or false.
Let’s begin!
MOVIE LEGEND: Nia Vardalos worked on the film Sorority Sluts 3.
STATUS: Conditionally True
Many stars toiled for years doing embarrassing jobs before they hit it big.
Nia Vardalos got her biggest break a little later in life that most actors, as she was forty years old when her film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (which she wrote and starred in) was, well, a big fat blockbuster in 2002.
That led to a fairly short-lived television series spin-off from the film.
Vardalos has kept busy in various projects since then.
However, what she was keeping busy on BEFORE My Big Fat Greek Wedding might raise people’s eyebrows if they flip through a list of her credits.
In 2001, Vardalos worked on the film (she was credited as a caterer) Sorority Sluts 3: Spring Break.
Shocking, right?
Okay, so here’s the condition part of “Conditionally True.”
Sorority Sluts 3: Spring Break is a parody of pornographic films. It is a series of “outtakes” from a porn film.
For instance, here are two characters who needed to have their lines read to them when they forgot them during filming…
The short film appears currently on the humor video site, Funny Or Die. You can see it there.
But still, if you were asked if Nia Vardalos worked on Sorority Sluts 3: Spring Break, the answer IS true, however hilarious that sounds!!
MOVIE LEGEND: Filming of Cheyenne Autumn was halted due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
STATUS: False, with some Truthiness mixed in there.
Cheyenne Autumn was John Ford’s last western, released in 1964.
It told the story of a tribe of 300 or so Cheyenne who travel from their Oklahoma reservation to Wyoming, and the United States Government’s response to the situation. It was Ford’s tribute of sorts to the native peoples of America.
On the same day in November 1963 that Ford was shooting the climactic conflict between Little Wolf (Ricardo Monteblan) and Red Shirt (Sal Mineo),
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
The legend goes that John Ford, a big Irish Catholic, was so distraught over the news that production of the film was halted.
That is not true, but the facts of the matter have certainly lent themselves to making the story appear so.
The filming DID halt after the Little Wolf/Red Shirt conflict. However, that was always the plan. The filming was moving to a different part of Utah to film different shots, so they were going to start moving everything in the afternoon so that everything would be ready to begin filming in the new location the next day.
So while Ford certainly MIGHT have stopped production because of Kennedy’s death, he never had the opportunity.
MOVIE LEGEND: In Singin’ in the Rain, there was a bizarre series of voiceovers.
STATUS: True
Singin’ in the Rain is a classic musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagen that is about the production of one of the first “talkies,” a film where people’s voices were heard.
One of the major issues in the film is that Hagen, a former major silent film star, is having trouble making the transition to “talkies,” because of her shrill, uncouth voice.
Therefore, the studios hired Reynolds’ character, a young ingenue with a “proper” voice, to dub Hagen’s character’s lines and to sing her songs in the musical film.
That’s the story in the FILM, of course.
Behind the scenes, though, an amusing and bizarre case of life imitating art was taking place.
First off, for one of her major songs in the film, “Would You,” Reynolds’ singing voice was dubbed over with that of Betty Noyes, whose voice had a much richer sound to it.
Secondly, and here’s the craziest one - the scenes where Reynolds’ voice is being dubbed over Jean Hagen’s voice, the studio decided that Reynolds’ voice wasn’t strong enough, so Reynolds’ voice was itself dubbed over…by HAGEN!!! Yeah, Hagen put on a “proper” voice and did the voiceover for HER own character!!
Voiceover work rarely gets any more bizarre than that (although when it does, I’ll be sure to feature it here)!
Okay, that’s it for this week!
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com
Has that lucasarts/spielberg scream that is used in so many many movies ever been linked to a specific actor?
Ah, yes, the “Wilhelm” scream. I heard somewhere along the way it was first used in a Western, back in the day. I forget offhand which one, but I imagine it’s probably attributable to an actor from there.
“The sound effect originates from a series of sound effects recorded for the 1951 film Distant Drums. In a scene from the film, soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades and one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator. The scream for that scene was recorded later in a single take along with five other short pained screams, which were slated as “man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams.” The fifth scream was used for the soldier in the alligator scene—but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film—when three Indians are shot during a raid on a fort. Although takes 4 through 6 are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as “Wilhelm” by those in the sound community.”
“Although the identity of the individual who recorded the scream (or more correctly, the entire series of screams) is unknown, Burtt uncovered documentation suggesting the scream might have been recorded by singer-actor Sheb Wooley.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream
Small typo - Fred Astaire is not in Singin’ In the Rain. Love the new site though!
Ha! Thanks, Mark - silly typo there!
Speaking of Voiceovers, did Snopes cover “Paint Your Wagon”, or are you free to do so?
A musical that allowed Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood to sing THEIR parts (with studio versions dubbed over the movie scenes, since the exterior set, built out in the middle of a National Park, was not conducive to recording a musical), but reportedly, the female lead’s voice was so bad that, instead of dubbign her singing parts with the actress singing, they used another singer altogether!
Re: Singing in Paint Your Wagon. It’s my understanding that all Hollywood musicals were pre-recorded in the studio whether they were filmed outside or not. That way the singer’s voice could be recorded until it was perfect without wasting all that film. Only then did the actor lip-synch to his or someone else’s voice as the scene was filmed.
[...] #3 - Nia Vardalos worked on the film Sorority Sluts 3. [...]
The real problem with “Singin’ in the Rain” is that all the dubbing in the storyline was simply not technologically possible in the early talkie days. Alfred Hitchcock’s (and Britain’s) first talkie, “Blackmail” (1929), had the voice performer standing in front of a microphone just out of camera range while the heavily accented actress (a film completed as a silent was being reworked for sound release) merely mouthed the lines!
Also, Debbie Reynolds’ voice is easily recognizable in the scenes where her character has dubbed Jean Hagen’s character. Maybe Hagen recorded tracks for those scenes, but Reynolds’ were what were used in the end. Other examples of this sort of thing: Andy Williams recorded Lauren Bacall’s songs for “To Have and Have Not” (1944) but Bacall’s own voice is heard in the finished film. It was reported that Michael Horse’s performance as Tonto was redubbed for the atrocious “Legend of the Lone Ranger” feature (1981) along with Klinton “Ranger” Splisbury’s (he by James Keach), but Horse insisted that his own track is what was used here.
I think I went to school with that girl.