MovieChat Forums > National Velvet (1945) Discussion > In England but spoke with american accen...

In England but spoke with american accent!!huh!

posted 18 years ago by smile_hannah_66
12 replies | jump to latest

I was confused throughout the whole film. Mrs brown and the kids spoke with a definitive american or canadian accent yet mr brown spoke with an weird english accent that seemed to change throughout and Mi was american. Im so confused so i figured maybe the family emigrated or something, i don't get it really, why elizabeth taylors character, the sisters and the boy spoke with american acent!It certainly wasnt british, i am english myself and have a good ear for accents.

You can judge me, you can label me, you can find fault in everything i do.Off the radar.

[–] brunodutch 18 years ago

I don't agree. E Taylor was English. Lansbury, Crisp, etc. Others were Yanks but I thought they did well to balance the sound. Butch is irredeemable American. But it was wartime... Where could they get authentic brits?

[–] Coqui80 18 years ago

I thought the same thing throughout the film. Why didn't they have more noticable British accents? That one's a mystery to me. Yes, Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Landsbury were born in England and have always had a very very slight British accent (Landsbury's being much more noticable) but it was not enough for this film which was supposed to be set in 1920s England. I agree with the first person who posted on this.

"It's alligator, darlin'...al-li-gator"

[–] smile_hannah_66 18 years ago

Thankyou. I have an ear for accents and so i argue with the second poster.

You can judge me, you can label me, you can find fault in everything i do.Off the radar.

[–] Viv70 18 years ago

I agree that the accents are pretty uneven in this film - Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury (both British) have definite British accents, Donald Crisp's accent sounds more Scottish (to my ears) than British, Anne Revere's accent seems more New England than British and Mickey Rooney doesn't even ATTEMPT a British accent.

However, this still isn't as inexplicable (or hilarious) as the original "Parent Trap" in which the two twins portrayed by Hayley Mills both have unexplained British accents while BOTH parents are clearly American.

[–] TooSlim 17 years ago

Donald Crisp is English, born in London. Whether he is deciding to play it with a Scottish lilt, I leave to others to discern...

[–] SusanJL 16 years ago

This is not nearly as weird as the movie I just saw where Sean Connery is playing an arab (with a thick scottish accent???) in "The Wind and the Lion". Or Tony Curtis in "Son of Ali Baba" with Brooklyn accent, or John Wayne as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror" with his western drawl, those are all hilarious!!!

[–] am_buglet_82 15 years ago

Well I think Mi was supposed to be American.

From what I could hear, I thought the whole family except the little boy had distinct British accents.

-Amanda

"She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in storybooks written by rabbits"

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TCMer 13 years ago

It's better than what they do today, attempting all kinds of comic-opera accents, like Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War. I find that much more distracting.

"What I got don't need pearls." -- Linda Darnell (1923-65)

[–] comicman117 12 years ago

Elizabeth Taylor was only born in England, she actually spent the majority of her childhood in the U.S (her parents were American after all). She was more of an American than she was a British women.

In the sixties however she adopted a fake British accent, and sort of gained a slight transtatlantic accent as a result.

[–] gribfritz2 11 years ago

Meh. Was good enough for me. Saying that Taylor and Lansbury spoke with "definitive" American accents is ludicrous. You make it sound like they're not even attempting English accents, which they obviously were, and did reasonable jobs likely due to their backgrounds. So many on here get hung up on accents that aren't perfect. No offense, but I'm glad I can enjoy a film without going all Henry Higgins on it.

[–] xsomanymoviessolittletimex 9 years ago

I'm constantly amazed that people complain about accents when the reality is that within each language there are different accents. People in the US have nearly as many as there are states. And then there is the slang/jargon/colloquialisms that differ from state to state, region to region. For the most part, I never notice that an accent is different from the location of the movie - unless someone using a different accent than they normally speak and are doing a terrible job of it!!