MovieChat Forums > The Canary Murder Case Discussion > The Canary's voice

The Canary's voice

posted 11 years ago by vaneyck
4 replies | jump to latest

Before seeing this movie I had only seen Louise Brooks as Lulu, in Pandora's Box. She was stunningly beautiful, but it was a silent film and I had no idea what she sounded like. Now this film opens with Brooks's stage act, and she's even more of a smasher, if that's possible - and, by the way, she can play with my swing set anytime.

But when she opens her mouth she gives vent to an adenoidal whine of such poisonous repellancy that I instantly wished she had never been allowed to make a talkie. I came to IMDb to express my disappointment when much to my relief I found that Louise Brooks never said a word that got on to the sound track: they found some cheap chippy who could do a fair imitation of a lowlife criminal girl.

So I can rest easy in my dream image of her beauty without making a large discount for her voice. But just to be on the safe side, I'll make a point of not seeing her in any more talkies, if she made any. That is, unless someone reading this can tell me that her voice was fine and I needn't worry about destroying a beautiful fantasy.

[–] gimsocoo 11 years ago

Margaret Livingston was hired to dub Louise Brooks' voice and to also act as her body double in the new sound scenes. I think that was more a character voice than Margaret's actual speaking voice. As you said it was for a "lowlife, criminal girl" and so they decided to go with something that sounded like a gangster's moll. As a quick side note, Margaret Livingston was a star herself and not a "cheap chippy". Her most famous role today is that of The Woman from the City in Sunrise.

There is nothing wrong with Louise Brooks' voice. Feel free to watch the few sound films she made. (Prix de Beaute (1930) is a French sound film. So that is not her voice either as she didn't speak French.)

Most actors at the time had perfectly fine voices. The studios simply used the change over to sound films as a way to strong arm their talent into signing weak contracts. If actors didn't comply they were smeared by their studios and dropped with the explanation that they didn't have a voice for sound.

[–] jtyroler 10 years ago

I have the Criterion version of Pandora's Box, which comes with parts of an interview done with Louise Brooks towards the end of her life. She definitely did not sound like "her" voice in "The Canary Murder Case", but, she doesn't sound like she's from a small town in Kansas either.

[–] DivingIntheBlue 8 years ago

I read Barry Paris' fantastic biography about Brooks a few months back. I'm not a Brooks aficionado, but it seemed to be a fairly definitive biography. Anyhow, Brooks was apparently very self conscious about her "hick" accent and worked hard to change it. Brenda Bennett (sister of Joan and Constance) with whom she was friendly when she lived in New York, taught her diction, etc. It obviously worked as she had no hint of a Kansas accent.

I find the voices of stars from the 20s-30s to be quite interesting as most of them sounded very upper class British. Half of the actresses I thought were British were actually American.

[–] mybossisatool 8 years ago

According to Louise Brooks's own "Lulu in Hollywood," it was a New York soda jerk, not Barbara Bennett, who taught her standard pronunciation. Barbara Bennett did introduce her to the hairdresser who transformed her rougher bob into the very distinctive black helmet, however.