Fanny Skeffington's VOICE....

I think it's not only the voice, but her accent that all you guys are noticing, and I do think it was intentional direction. The women who were born at the turn of the century (actually, Fanny must have been born around 1895) had a completely different "strategy" around men, whether suitors or not. They wanted to act SILLY, all the time, to prop up the man's ego, so that they would be liked. They didn't have as much substance as the women of today. So, I would suggest that the character Fanny speaks this way INTENTIONALLY, to be in character for that period; she wants to sound silly. But when an actress has such a uniquely characteristic stylized delivery as Davis, she will indeed end up sounding annoying, when the movie is viewed almost seventy years later, when our diction in general is much more "natural" than the artificiality which everyone--especially the upper classes--cultivated at the turn of the (last) century. Think of Henry Higgins and his mother and her friends in My Fair Lay--they really also sounded very silly at their tea party, and the climax of one of the scenes revolves around Eliza, cheering Dover, a horse, at Ascot, "Dover, move your bloomin' arse!" wherupon three women spectators faint. You must see how social conventions were so different at that time. I dunno, maybe b/c I'm a big fan of Ms. Davis, I'll admit that I've never noticed the different voice here, and I've seen this film a few times. Clearly, I am indeed missing something, coz all you viewers noticed something and I did not. I guess it's a matter of personal taste, more than anything. Remember, if not for the fact that Davis's rhythmic delivery has become so famous from all her impersonators, I think that, if we ever heard someone speaking the way she does in most of her films, we would be laughing. No one speaks like that in real life, right?

Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."