MovieChat Forums > The Young Philadelphians (1959) Discussion > Why British accents?

Why British accents?

posted 18 years ago by tralee71-1
17 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone out there know why so many Hollywood movies - including The Young Philadelphians - require some of the characters (including obviously American roles) to use a phone, cultivated "BRitish" accent? It's as if someone mandated that any upper-class (whatever that may mean), cultured or well-educated character must sound British. In TYP (above) Billie Burke was British, but I think she was born in England. But with no apparent reason, both the good-girl lead and her lawyer father were given Brit accents.

The most interesting character in this movie was Alexis Smith, and she faded out early.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jamdonahoo 16 years ago

Actually the actors were trying to speak like Main Liners affecting what is known as the Main Line Malocclusion, a method of speaking with the teeth locked in place and articulating by lip movement. This is a minor variant of Locust Valley (Long Island) Lockjaw used by the yachting set in New York. If you ever watched Gilligan's Island Thurston Howell III had it down perfectly. Nancy Kulp in the Beverly Hillbillies also did it pretty well. Bill Safire wrote an article about this in the NY Times in 1987.

[–] aroth15 16 years ago

You are right about the Locust Valley Lockjaw, but you know what I always wondered about? Why--in so SO many films that take place during WW II, if the Germans are not speaking German, they are usually played by actors mit British accents? I have always found that amusing. It's like--does a Brit accent connote German? Specially because I speak German, always found that funny.

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

[–] mikainen 12 years ago

British English sounds different enough to tell American audience that the character is a foreigner.

[–] timbob-478-937623 8 years ago

Well, here's my WAG, partly because of history: King Edward VIII, the uncle of the current monarch, who visited Germany in 1937, was previously the Prince of Wales but became Edward VIII after King George's death. He then met an American socialite named Wallis Simpson and decided to wed her. But marrying her was forbidden and he chose to abdicate the throne after ruling less than a year, and after his abdication he chose to hang out with Hitler in the Bavarian Alps. (Even in 1970 he told a friend that "I never thought Hitler was such a bad chap"). Odd but true. Some historians claim that he fed secrets to the Nazis. Edward was given the title "His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor" following his abdication.
After the outbreak of WW II in September 1939, Edward was assigned to the British Military Mission in France. In February 1940, the German Ambassador in the Hague claimed that Edward had leaked the Allied war plans for the defense of Belgium. When Germany invaded France Edward and his wife fled to Lisbon.
Anyhow, historically, there were actually British Royalty in Germany (and Austria), so an English accent is not at all out of the ordinary.

[–] jackboot 14 years ago

jamdonahoo ~ Actually the actors were trying to speak like Main Liners affecting what is known as the Main Line Malocclusion, a method of speaking with the teeth locked in place and articulating by lip movement. This is a minor variant of Locust Valley (Long Island) Lockjaw used by the yachting set in New York.

For the record, the British actors in this film are NOT trying to approximate the Greenwich (which is what I learned it as, or, as it is at other times called, "Locust Valley", or "Larchmont" - sources differ on the original locale to claim the accent, but they're all in that geographical area around Westchester Co., NY, L.I., NY and the So. Shore of Ct., where the affluent yachting set of Long Island Sound put in to port) Lockjaw. They are sounding British. There is no connection between the two, very different, accents.

Among the upper classes, and also for those who received training in speech, and this would apply to an era long before The Young Philadelphians, people would affect what was referred as correct, or stage, elocution. The net effect of that style of spoken language was a sound that was very similar to a formal, upper class, Southern England British accent in terms of the smartly clipped rhythm and cadence, without the vowel sounds that would make it sound all the way British. Billie Burke, being an old school actress from WAY back, would probably have learned to speak this way, and that is probably why some people would mistake her for being British. To my ear, she's a perfect example of that mode of speaking.

So, for that reason, British actors were able to find their places in films that required stuffy, upper-crust members of North-Eastern American society and that would go over with American audiences.

But, get your facts and your accents straight - the Larchmont Lockjaw and the "elocution" that sounds nearly British are two completely different sounds.

[–] jackboot 14 years ago

jamdonahoo ~ Bill Safire wrote an article about this in the NY Times in 1987.

William Safire's 1987 article points to Russell Baker's 1981 New York Times piece that is often credited as officially bestowing the name as "Locust Valley Lockjaw". It's still a regional colloquialism, at best. There are printed references to "Larchmont Lockjaw" dating to the 1930s. People in Larchmont would prefer that credit be given to Locust Valley. Go figure.

But, yes, it's that distinctly clenched teeth sound of Thurston Howell III.

[–] JerryCalgary 16 years ago

Not meaning to be rude, however, Billie Burke was not British but as American as can be, born in Washington, DC. She was the widow of renowned showman and producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (The Ziegfeld Follies).

[–] anthropo 16 years ago

I think it has to do with the belief that British society is synonymous with the upper class so contrived accents get used in American films too connote aristocracy.

Sarah Palin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc

[–] thbryn 15 years ago

Grace Kelly is an example (Main Line) as well and I knew Billie Burke wasn't a Brit!

[–] lordhack_99 14 years ago

The idea that upper-class-equals-British (actually a Southern England) accent
in film is an old one. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) at times sounds like a polo club in Raj India. The same thing was done in film with upper-class Boston, too. It was probably just easier to make them sound "toff" than to bring in a linguist or an actual native.

[–] jackboot 14 years ago

Again, I cite the old fashioned and now archaic practice of learning "elocution" for the Philadelphia Story as being the reason that there are so many British, and sort of British sounding, speakers in that film.

Tracy's parents, played by Mary Nash and John Halliday, whom I would have assumed to have been born in England, especially from their Philadelphia Story performances, were both born in America.

It was a cultivated thing to do, at one time, to affect this sort of clipped and formalized style of speaking, that was considered proper and correct, but only something that one from the upper classes (and the actors who played those upper class roles) would actually resort to. You get the rhythm and cadence of the upper class British accent without the vowel sounds that would make it an out-and-out imitation of the British accent. If you turn it down a few notches, you get the very nice (to my ear) style of radio announcing, so popular at mid-century.

Interestingly, of the twelve principal cast members of the Philadelphia Story, five of them were born in England. And then Mary Nash and John Halliday sure sounded like they could have been born in England.

[–] lordhack_99 14 years ago

Excellent points about elocution. Listen to Hans von Kaltenborn's speech
pattern, including the rolled Rs, in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.

[–] manage-932-700755 9 years ago

Some of the actors in this film, such as John Williams, who played Gilbert Dickinson, was English. So his accent was perfectly natural. Who else did you have in mind?

[–] Piperson 8 years ago

John Williams says the name of Paul Newman's character "Tony" many times in this film. He says it in a very distinctive way which is natural to him but sounds ridiculous if anyone else says it that way. (He has a number of these distinct and one-of-a-kind pronunciations IMO).

So now I will skip over to "Dial M for Murder" in which Grace Kelly and John Williams appear. In this movie, Grace Kelly's husband is named Tony so she says it about a hundred times. She always sounds like she is imitating John Williams and she always sounds ridiculous.

[–] manage-932-700755 9 years ago

Some of the actors in this film, such as John Williams, who played Gilbert Dickinson, were English. So his accent was perfectly natural. Who else did you have in mind?

P.S. Barbara Rush had what could be considered a mild English accent, but I assumed it was common to people who were born and grew up in Denver or Colorado like Ms. Rush. I don't recall anyone else with an English accent in the film.

[–] lolarites-68701 8 years ago

John Williams, Barbara Rush's dad, was British. He's the cleaver detective in Hitckcock's Dial M for Murder. As far as a Yankee lockjaw goes, the character Joanna Barnes plays in Auntie Mame (Little Gloria) talks like she had her jaw stapled shut. A modern day example is Mary Matalin, James Carville's wife. She speaks like a ventriloquist, with mouth snapped shut.