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The movie musical has morphed drastically over a century. When the musical genre first came to prominence in the sound era of Hollywood, it was a space for revues with little care or thought as to a storyline connecting musical numbers. Eventually, just as the stage musical changed with "Oklahoma!" and "South Pacific," Hollywood morphed in the same way. But it wasn't just that films such as "An American in Paris" or "The Band Wagon" told full stories with song-and-dance numbers; Hollywood went straight to the source to take stage musicals and adapt them into features. Although we're not in a Golden Age of movie musicals the way that things were in the 1960s, there are plenty of big-budget musical adaptations that burst onto the scene, as well as more low-key affairs meant to match their source material, everything from the mid-2000s adaptation of "Dreamgirls" to "Dear Evan Hansen.

Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo and Emilia Pérez‘s Karla Sofía Gascón earned their widely predicted Best Actress Oscar nominations on Thursday. Their bids represent a rare double in Oscar history: This is the second time — and first in 60 years — that multiple musical performances are nominated in Best Actress.

Counting just traditional musicals with non-diegetic music, the last time this happened was, naturally, during the heyday of musicals in the 1960s. Julie Andrews and Debbie Reynolds were nominated for their respective 1964 films, Mary Poppins and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, with the former winning. There could’ve been a third musical nominee that year had My Fair Lady‘s Audrey Hepburn made the cut.

Andrews’ victory has been seen as a bit of sweet revenge after producer Jack Warner cast Hepburn instead of Andrews, who originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway in the film adaptation of My Fair Lady. Not...

From the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, many lavish Broadway musicals were successfully adapted to film, from “The King and I” to “West Side Story” to “Cabaret.” One of the most successful and enduring of all time premiered on October 21, 1964, when “My Fair Lady” hit the theaters after much anticipation, drawing people to the box office in droves despite its lengthy near-three-hour run time. Read on for more about the “My Fair Lady” 60th anniversary.

The origin of “My Fair Lady” dates back farther than the 1956 Tony-winning play. Music collaborators Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe were inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion,” the tale of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins in order to pass as a “proper lady.” The two men thought it would be “loverly” to turn the story into a musical, and wrote the book for “My Fair Lady,...

Dame Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza Doolittle in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady, but Audrey Hepburn was cast in the film version because the producers wanted her star power. Hepburn was a good actress, but her singing parts were dubbed by Marni Nixon because her voice was not as strong as Andrews. Andrews later won the Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins, which was released the same year as My Fair Lady.

Dame Julie Andrews has had a prosperous acting career spanning over seven decades. Her lengthy list of accolades includes an Academy Award, three Grammys, two Emmys and various other awards. From Mary Poppins to The Sound of Music, Andrews took the 1960s by storm with her fabulous acting and singing performances as a leading woman. Before she became involved in the film industry, Andrews made her stage debut in London's West End. At only 20 years old,...

Nicholas Galitzine sings in The Idea of You, enhancing the movie's musical authenticity. Galitzine's character Hayes Campbell performs several original songs produced by renowned songwriters. Galitzine's singing history predates the movie, as he has showcased his talent and experience in various musical roles.

There is some question as to whether The Idea Of You star Nicholas Galitzine was really singing in the movie. The Prime Video outing is an adaptation of the 2017 age-gap romance novel of the same name by Robinne Lee. Directed by The Big Sick's Michael Showalter from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kissing Jessica Stein co-writer and star Jennifer Westfeldt, it stars The Devil Wears Prada and The Princess Diaries actor Anne Hathaway as single mother Solne Marchand.

Galitzine, who is perhaps best known for his role as Prince Henry in the previous Prime Video romance novel adaptation Red, White, & Royal Blue, stars opposite Hathaway in...

Everywhere you look these days there are over-the-top horror movies, but the torture-porn genre of the “Saw” films — homicidal mutilation served up as a “game,” with life lessons thrown in — is more or less limited to the “Saw” franchise. There haven’t been too many knockoffs of it. “Soul Mates,” however, has been unabashedly made in the carnival-of-ick mode of “Saw.” It even opens with two characters in handcuffs, wondering how they got to the dungeon in which they’re about to be toyed with like human lab rats.

Allison (Annie Ilonzeh) and Jason (Charlie Weber) wake up in the same bed, with metal bracelets on their wrists and a three-foot-long chain linking them together. For a moment there’s a dear-God-wtf-did-i-do-last-night? vibe, but these two have, in fact, never met. At first she thinks he’s a predator who has kidnapped her, and she uses a lamp to fend him off.

Celebrated cartoonist and screenwriter Daniel Clowes discusses his favorite formative films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Baxter (1989)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Ghost World (2001) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Art School Confidential (2006)

Help! (1965) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s review

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Mudhoney (1965) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968)

Common Law Cabin (1967)

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Seven Minutes (1971)

Black Snake (1973)

An American Werewolf In London (1981) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews

Lady In A Cage (1964) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Wild One (1953)

Hush…...

At the Venice Film Festival last month, Brendan Fraser stood up from his seat after a screening of “The Whale” — Darren Aronofsky’s new slice of life drama in which the 53-year-old actor plays a gay, grossly overweight teacher desperately trying to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter — and basked, teary-eyed, in a six-minute standing ovation.

For an actor whose status in the industry has been teetering perilously close to has-been territory, it was an extraordinary moment. Suddenly, the one-time “Mummy” star, who had all but disappeared from the big screen over the past decade (his most noteworthy recent role was a smallish part in 2017 as a prison guard in a handful of episodes of “The Affair”), had become a front runner in this year’s Best Actor race. Even critics, who’d never been especially effusive over Fraser before, were showering him with praise.

For a brief, fleeting moment,...

by Nathaniel R

Over the years The Film Experience has provided the Academy with brilliant ideas for Honorary Oscars that they've ignored until it was too late and the worthy recipient died. We're talking luminaries like movie stars Max Von Sydow, Albert Finney, and Doris Day, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, and voice artist Marni Nixon.. So here we are again trying to sway them. They make such strange decisions. Why did Sophia Loren who was already a (deserving) Oscar winner, need an Honorary when she was only in her fifties? Why did they refuse to honor Doris Day because (the rumor is) they knew she wouldn't show but then went ahead and honored Jean Luc Godard who they also knew would never show? 

For our suggestions we're limiting ourselves to people over 70... though you could make valid cases for several late 50something or 60somethings if you wanted to like Michelle Pfeiffer,...

The Cohen Film Collection brings to Region A its beautifully remastered disc of American fringe filmmaking’s weirdest, most obsessively arty shock-fest — a loving return to silent expressionist horror. The New York censors scuttled its commercial chances, and it wound up as a movie-within-a-movie footnote for Steve McQueen. We never thought we’d see the show look this good — John Parker memorialized Venice, California five years before Orson Welles. But the overall package packs a big disappointment, as I’ll explain.

Dementia

Blu-ray

Cohen Media Group

1955 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date April 26, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.

Cinematography: William C. Thompson

Film Editor: Joseph Gluck

Original Music: George Antheil

Music director: Ernest Gold

Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon

New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants

Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker

The BFI first...

In his 91-year life, prolific composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim crafted some of Broadway’s most iconic tunes. From “West Side Story” to “Into the Woods,” his music has stood the test of time and cemented him as a theater legend. The Broadway community paid tribute to Sondheim on Friday, with longtime collaborator Bernadette Peters writing, “He gave me so much to sing about. I loved him dearly and will miss him so much. Thank you for all the gifts you gave the world Steve.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Zegler, who plays Maria in the upcoming Steven Spielberg adaptation of “West Side Story,” recalled Sondheim’s profound impact on her love for musical theater. “Sweeney Todd was the first musical I ever comprehended. 5 years old, dancing around to ‘A Little Priest’ without knowing what it was about. My heart is so shattered. What a life.”

Sondheim racked up seven Tony awards over his career,...

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“Light And Dark Sides Of Tinsel Town”

By Raymond Benson

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has lately been getting into the publishing business with such tomes as The Essentials (two volumes) and now this handsomely-designed and intricately-researched book on some of the lesser known, somewhat sensational stories from Hollywood’s past.

Written by popular Instagrammer Carla Valderrama (@thiswashollywood and @thiswasfashion), This Was Hollywood—Forgotten Stars & Stories (published by Running Press) presents a bundle of Tinsel Town tales that have a slightly tabloid feel to them, and yet they are as irresistible as a sighting of your favorite star at Hollywood and Vine. Many of these accounts come from the long, lost vaults of movieland history.

For example, the book opens with the early beginnings of the town of Hollywood and how the “movies” (as the people in the budding film industry were called by...

This bizarre, creepy and maudit masterpiece of silent expressionist horror is an independent 1950s production that never had a chance commercially. Butchered by a second distributor, its ignominious fate was to wind up as a movie-within-a-movie footnote for Steve McQueen. Cohen/BFI’s ‘rescue’ remastering of John Parker’s picture does some things great — we never thought we’d see it look this good. But the overall package packs a big disappointment, as I’ll explain.

Dementia (1955)

Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD

BFI

1955 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 56 min. / Street Date October 19, 2020 / £15.89

Starring: Adrienne Barret, Ben Roseman, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Angelo Rossitto.

Cinematography: William C. Thompson

Film Editor: Joseph Gluck

Original Music: George Antheil

Music director: Ernest Gold

Featured Vocal: Marni Nixon

New Concepts in Modern Sounds: Shorty Rogers and his Giants

Written, Produced and Directed by John J. Parker

I screened John Parker’s Dementia at UCLA in 1972, at...

“My Fair Lady” vs. “Mary Poppins.” Audrey Hepburn vs. Julie Andrews. It could have been the biggest rivalry in Academy history, but with two of the classiest stars and two beloved musicals involved, this “rivalry” has just become a memorable side note to the 37th annual Academy Awards. The ceremony, which took place April 5, 1965, also saw a few firsts for the awards show. But when it came right down to it, Andrews got her sweet revenge (in spoonful of sugar style)!

Although it’s become one of her most iconic roles, Hepburn was a controversial choice for the role of Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” Producer Jack Warner (reluctantly) kept much of the Broadway cast for the film version, but opted not to cast stage star Andrews, who originated the role of Eliza. He chose Hepburn based on her star power (hoping to recuperate the enormous cost of production), then against her wishes,...

In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to three-time Tony nominee Carolee Carmello about the soundtrack to the 1973 film adaptation of 'Godspell.' They also discuss Julie Andrews, 'The Sound of Music,' Lesley Ann Warren, Marni Nixon, 'West Side Story,' 'Evita,' Mary Testa, 'Oliver,' 'Gypsy,' Barbra Streisand, Barbara Cook, Comden and Green, 'Falsettos,' 'Kiss Me Kate,' Marin Mazzie, and 'Parade.' They talk about Carolee's secret, closeted soprano past and the fact that she has never taken a voice lesson. Carolee is currently starring as America's coast-to-coast Dolly Levi in the national tour of 'Hello, Dolly'...

In this episode, Ben and Daniel talk to Tony-winning Broadway star Laura Benanti about Tori Amos's 1992 album 'Little Earthquakes.' They also discuss Patti LuPone, Arthur Laurents, Joni Mitchell, Elaine Stritch, Liza Minnelli, Marni Nixon, Lizzo, Brandi Carlile, and Julie Andrews. Laura talks about her starring roles in Broadway hits such as 'The Sound of Music,' 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,' 'Gypsy,' 'She Loves Me,' and 'My Fair Lady.' She shares stories from her career, including her 'up-the-octave' portrayal of Dolly Levi in high school. In addition to the theater, Laura has appeared on TV in 'Supergirl,' 'Nashville,' and 'The Sound of Music Live' opposite Carrie Underwood. She is also a regular on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' and has tickled viewers nationwide with her hilarious portrayal of Melania Trump.

Every generation has a Halloween meme that exists somewhere in the Venn diagram of weird, scary, and vaguely horny. For boomers, it’s the Monster Mash; for Gen X, it’s the scene in Ghostbusters where Dan Aykroyd gets a blowie from a ghost; for Gen Y, it’s the Kxvo Pumpkin Dance Guy with David S. Pumpkins in close second. Now, Gen Z has their own version of Vaguely Horny Halloween Creepiness thanks to the remix of “Spooky Spooky Skeletons,” a 1996 novelty hit by Andrew Gold that’s now...

Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow in "Shame"Pete Hammond at Deadline revealed this morning that with all the dates moving earlier next Oscar season, the Academy is actually choosing the next Honorary Oscar winners This Weekend. It's too late then for an Fyc but we feel the need to do one anyway. In the past we've made great suggestions like Albert Finney, Doris Day, Neil Simon, Michael Ballhaus, and Marni Nixon but they let all those people die without honoring them which is such bad form. At least they heard us on Maureen O'Hara, Harry Belafonte, and Angela Lansbury!

I have a suspicion that Caleb Deschanel, obviously a well-loved cinematographer given that surprise sixth nomination for the German film Never Look Away last season, will be named this year. He's 74 years old. For some reason I don't think they'll go with Glenn Close quite yet though she's a common prediction.

More than a half-century ago, there was a public outcry when Marni Nixon’s singing voice was dubbed for Audrey Hepburn’s in George Cukor’s 1964 “My Fair Lady” film, in lieu of casting a powerhouse singer-actress such as Julie Andrews, the originator of the role on Broadway. These days, film and music fans have largely come to terms with musical numbers involving an unseen ringer, especially when it comes to hand-synching, still a more easily forgivable practice than vocal miming.

So it’s not surprising to learn that neither “Bohemian Rhapsody” star Rami Malek nor “Green Book” lead Mahershala Ali could play a note before tackling their roles as real-life keyboard prodigies Freddie Mercury and Dr. Don Shirley. Or that those crackling guitar riffs churned out by “A Star Is Born” auteur Bradley Cooper as grizzled rocker Jackson Maine came from the fingers and frets of Lukas Nelson, son...

Only two Gold Derby Oscar Experts who’ve seen “Bohemian Rhapsody’ have updated their Best Actor predictions since Fox unveiled it to a select crowd of award voters and journos on its Century City lot last night, but Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) and I both just pushed Rami Malek up into second place behind Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”).

Expect more Oscarologists to shove Malek higher up on their rankings, too – even to number one? – over the next week as “Bohemian Rhapsody” unspools at more industry screenings across Hollywood. There’s an embargo on film reviews, but suffice it to say that Malek delivers, wows, bedazzles and seizes your heart in a performance guaranteed to be a leading Oscar contender for Best Actor. Maybe even the winner.

SEELatest Best Actor predictions by 21 top Oscar Experts

Up until last night there was huge skepticism that Malek could pull off Freddie Mercury...

The current revival of “My Fair Lady” marks the fifth time that this “perfect” musical has graced the Great White Way. Emmy nominee Lauren Ambrose of “Six Feet Under” makes her Broadway musical theater debut as Eliza Doolitle, the Cockney flower girl who is turned into a society lady by Professor Henry Higgins. She is a strong contender to win at Sunday’s Tony Awards and, in so doing, would be the first actress to take home Broadway’s highest honor for one of the best roles in musical theater.

See 2018 Tonys online: How to watch 72nd Tony Awards live stream without a TV

Julie Andrews created the role in the original 1956 production of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Though the show won six Tony Awards Andrews lost to Judy Holliday for “Bells are Ringing.” Among the wins for “My Fair Lady” were Best Musical and Actor (Rex Harrison) as well as director,...

If you've ever been involved in high school or community theatre, you probably have a My Fair Lady memory. Mine is of my junior year of high school, waltzing around in a vintage amber-colored gown complete with mildly uncomfortable vintage proportions and trying desperately to hang onto the alto harmonies despite my utter lack of singing talent I managed, but Marni Nixon I was not. But it was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life, and listening to the lush, glorious cast recording for Lincoln Center's revival brought back all those warm memories in the best way. For newcomers just discovering this classic gem, it's a delightful introduction. For longtime aficionados, it'll have you dancing all night.

Fourth of July movies: A few recommended titles that should help you temporarily escape current global madness Two thousand and seventeen has been a weirder-than-usual year on the already pretty weird Planet Earth. Unsurprisingly, this Fourth of July, the day the United States celebrates its Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, has been an unusual one as well. Instead of fireworks, (at least some) people's attention has been turned to missiles – more specifically, a carefully timed North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test indicating that Kim Jong-un could theoretically gain (or could already have?) the capacity to strike North America with nuclear weapons. Then there were right-wing trolls & history-deficient Twitter users berating National Public Radio for tweeting the Declaration of Independence, 140 characters at a time. Besides, a few days ago the current U.S. president retweeted a video of himself body-slamming and choking a representation of CNN – courtesy of a gif originally created by a far-right Internet...

On the day a U.S. appeals court lifted an injunction that blocked a Mississippi “religious freedom” law – i.e., giving Christian extremists the right to discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, etc. – not to mention the publication of a Republican-backed health care bill targeting the poor, the sick, the elderly, and those with “pre-existing conditions” – which would include HIV-infected people, a large chunk of whom are gay and bisexual men, so the wealthy in the U.S. can get a massive tax cut, Turner Classic Movies' 2017 Gay Pride or Lgbt Month celebration continues (into tomorrow morning, Thursday & Friday, June 22–23) with the presentation of movies by or featuring an eclectic – though seemingly all male – group: Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, Dirk Bogarde, John Schlesinger, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins. After all, one assumes that, rumors or no, the presence of Mercedes McCambridge in one...

As a musical it’s excellent — fine tunes and lyrics, great singing and dancing by the ever-youthful Fred Astaire, the glorious songbird Petula Clark, and the impishly weird Tommy Steele cast appropriately as a grimacing Leprechaun. The update of what was a politically acute Broadway hit in 1947 is awkward but the show is a melodious pleasure — great color, fine voices and peppy direction by Francis Ford Coppola on his first big studio feature.

Finian’s Rainbow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 145 141 min. / Street Date March 7, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, Tommy Steele, Don Francks, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Hancock, Al Freeman Jr., Ronald Colby, Dolph Sweet, Wright King, Louis Silas.

Cinematography: Philip Lathrop

Film Editor: Melvin Shapiro

Original Music: Ray Heindorf

Written by E.Y. Harburg, Fred Saidy

Produced by Joseph Landon

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Finian’s Rainbow is a unique musical with a strange history.

Killer Greek scenery in CinemaScope graces Jean Negulesco's relaxed thriller about art theft in the Aegean. But viewers are more likely to remember Sophia Loren's sexy wet diving costume that insured that her American debut didn't go unnoticed. Boy on a Dolphin Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date October 25, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Alan Ladd, Clifton Webb, Sophia Loren, Alexis Minotis, Jorge Mistral, Laurence Naismith, Piero Giagnoni, Gertrude Flynn, Marni Nixon (voice), Scilla Gabel (Loren underwater). Cinematography Milton R. Krasner Film Editor William Mace Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Ivan Moffat, Dwight Taylor from the novel by David Divine Produced by Samuel G. Engel Directed by Jean Negulesco

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Back when working on extras for The Guns of Navarone we saw documentation showing that Columbia Pictures had to jump through a lot of hoops with the Greek Royal Family...

The ‘ghost’ who sang for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, for Deborah Kerr in The King and I and for Natalie Wood in West Side Story

Millions of filmgoers who enjoyed the singing of Deborah Kerr in The King and I (1956), Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961) and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964) were unaware that their voices were dubbed by Marni Nixon, who has died of breast cancer aged 86.

In order to keep the illusion a secret, the extraordinarily versatile American coloratura soprano was uncredited. It was only some years later, after the heyday of the Hollywood musical had passed, that the curtains were figuratively pulled back to reveal Nixon at a microphone behind the scenes. In film circles, this most unsung of singers was dubbed the “ghostess with the mostest”. However, in classical music circles, Nixon was well known for her wide range of recordings and opera performances,...

This article originally appeared on EntertainmentWeekly.com.Marni Nixon, a singer whose voice appeared in Hollywood films like The King and I and My Fair Lady, died of breast cancer on Sunday in Manhattan, the New York Times confirmed. She was 86. Nixon began dubbing for leading actresses in the 1940s, and most notably sang Deborah Kerr's parts in both 1956's The King and I and 1957's An Affair to Remember, along with Natalie Wood's parts in 1961's West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn's songs in 1964's My Fair Lady - but there was a time when no...

This article originally appeared on EntertainmentWeekly.com.Marni Nixon, a singer whose voice appeared in Hollywood films like The King and I and My Fair Lady, died of breast cancer on Sunday in Manhattan, the New York Times confirmed. She was 86. Nixon began dubbing for leading actresses in the 1940s, and most notably sang Deborah Kerr's parts in both 1956's The King and I and 1957's An Affair to Remember, along with Natalie Wood's parts in 1961's West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn's songs in 1964's My Fair Lady - but there was a time when no...

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Marni Nixon, beloved voice of Hollywood's supersized musicals of the 50s and 60s has died of breast cancer at 86. It was a long and good and musical life, if never celebrated enough by the culture she gave so much to. It had been our long held dream to see her given an Honorary Oscar which must now be a dream unfulfilled. Because I don't have the words today, I thought I'd share a piece I wrote ten years ago on how special Marni Nixon was to me, a baby cinephile growing up with musicals as my favorite form of cinematic bliss.

Marni Nixon is my Kathy Selden

by Nathaniel R 

Toward the end of Singin' in the Rain (1952), which chronicles Hollywood's seismic shift from silent films to sound production, a hilariously dim and screechy movie star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) gets her comeuppance.

Marni Nixon, American soprano and playback singer for actresses in movie musicals, has died at the age of 86 of breast cancer. She is survived by two daughters from her first marriage, three sisters, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Read More: Damien Chazelle’s Ryan Gosling- and Emma Stone-Starring Awards Contender ‘La La Land’ Lands a Venice Premiere

Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, Nixon was the singing voice for stars in a variety of acclaimed Hollywood films. She dubbed Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” She also sang for Jeanne Crain in “Cheaper by the Dozen,” Janet Leigh in “Pepe,” and Ida Lupino in “Jennifer.” Her performances were frequently uncredited, but she was considered by the press to be “the ghostess with the mostest.” Though Nixon had to sign contracts that stipulated she wouldn’t...

Marni Nixon, the voice behind the stars of such films as West Side Story, The King and I and My Fair Lady, has died. She was 86. Nixon died of breast cancer Sunday in Manhattan, according to The New York Times and other media outlets. Nixon’s film career began in the 1940s, singing the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc. She was Margaret O’Brien’s singing voice in Big City that same year and The Secret Garden in 1949. She went on to what would…...

Marni Nixon, the voice behind the stars of such films as West Side Story, The King and I and My Fair Lady, has died. She was 86. Nixon died of breast cancer Sunday in Manhattan, according to The New York Times and other media outlets. Nixon’s film career began in the 1940s, singing the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc. She was Margaret O’Brien’s singing voice in Big City that same year and The Secret Garden in 1949. She went on to what would…...

Legendary “ghost” singer Marni Nixon has died at the age of 86, the New York Times reports. Nixon died yesterday in Manhattan from breast cancer, according to her student and friend Randy Banner. Nixon was often heard but rarely seen in movie musical classics: Her lovely soprano echoed from the mouths of Deborah Kerr in The King And I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Though Nixon remained in the shadows for most of her career, Kerr actually tipped the public off about Nixon, despite Twentieth Century Fox’s insistence that Nixon keep her participation quiet. “Deborah Kerr herself, gave me some credit right away on The King & I,” Nixon told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. Nixon later also subbed in for Kerr on An Affair To Remember. “By the time I was doing West Side Story a few years later ...

Marni Nixon, famous for lending her singing voice to leading ladies in a number of classic Hollywood musicals, died Sunday. She was 86. Her death was a result of breast cancer complications, Randy Banner, Nixon’s friend told the New York Times. Nixon dubbed the singing voices for Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story,” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.” The latter two won an Academy Award for Best Picture. “It got so I’d lent my voice to so many others that I felt it no longer belonged to me,” she told The Times.

Nixon filled in secretly as a playback singer for Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood in a long career as a soprano

Marni Nixon, the singer whose voice can be heard filling in for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, has died aged 86, according to the New York Times. Randy Banner, a friend and student, said she died from breast cancer.

Related: Stand-in for the stars – the art of the dubbing singer

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We're about one month away from the announcement of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients. They're usuallly announced at the end of August for a November Governor's Awards ceremony. This year's ceremony will be on November 12th. Last year rumors circled that it was Doris Day's turn but that didn't turn out to be accurate. For the past two years, The Film Experience has tried to make up for the dearth of movie site reporting about the Oscar Honorary careers (beyond the sharing of press releases / YouTube videos of their speeches) with mini-retrospectives so we're always hoping they'll choose well to give us wonderful careers to discuss right here. 

Let's reprint a list of worthies we shared a year or so ago, with a few adjustments, in case any of the elites in the Academy are undecided about who to put forth or get behind for these coveted honors.

 

James Ivory...

'Jurassic World' velociraptor kicks Iron Man ass at worldwide box office. 'Jurassic World' officially surpasses 'The Avengers' at worldwide box office Directed by Colin Trevorrow; starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Vincent D'Onofrio; and co-executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic World has officially become the third biggest worldwide box office hit in history. The Jurassic Park sequel – or reboot, as it's basically the same story with a slightly different twist – has surpassed Marvel's Joss Whedon-directed all-star superhero flick The Avengers, which broke box office records back in 2012. Of course, "officially" just ain't what it used to be – like, in the days before The Fall. So you wisely ask, "But which movie has actually sold the most tickets?" After all, that's the true measure of a film's popularity. Well, that's a tough one to answer without the studios providing accurate, precise numbers. And that's not about to happen. It always...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film version of "The Sound of Music" with a screening of a new 70mm print. The event takes place at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens on May 2. The screening will be hosted by Cinema Retro contributor Tom Santopietro, author of the acclaimed new book "The Sound of Music Story" and actress Marni Nixon, who is legendary for having provided the singing voice of actors who appeared in many classic musicals. For more click here. ...

Cary Grant movies: 'An Affair to Remember' does justice to its title (photo: Cary Grant ca. late 1940s) Cary Grant excelled at playing Cary Grant. This evening, fans of the charming, sophisticated, debonair actor -- not to be confused with the Bristol-born Archibald Leach -- can rejoice, as no less than eight Cary Grant movies are being shown on Turner Classic Movies, including a handful of his most successful and best-remembered star vehicles from the late '30s to the late '50s. (See also: "Cary Grant Classic Movies" and "Cary Grant and Randolph Scott: Gay Lovers?") The evening begins with what may well be Cary Grant's best-known film, An Affair to Remember. This 1957 romantic comedy-melodrama is unusual in that it's an even more successful remake of a previous critical and box-office hit -- the Academy Award-nominated 1939 release Love Affair -- and that it was directed...

New Series! In Quick Impressions we'll be looking at the working actor in key movie scenes. Consider it a celebration of SAG card-holders everywhere and free advice for casting directors for people who aren't famous ...in some cases "yet". So many showbiz dreams wander around on every film set and are embedded in each frame of your favorite movies.

Today, we're talking to actor Sean Patrick Doyle who sings the title song in The Boxtrolls in that great scene when Madame Frou-Frou takes the stage. Sir Ben Kingsley is the voice of Archibald Snatcher / Madame Frou-Frou so Sean Patrick makes like a modern day Marni Nixon.

Nathaniel: What is that process of "voice matching" and how did you get the part - it's so different from your other credits.

Sean Patrick Doyle: A cockney villain posing as a female Czechoslovakian show hall performer? - different indeed! Laika had auditioned...

Amir here, with this month’s edition of team top ten. As the art of acting and our interpretation of it evolve, definitions of what we consider a good performance change. It’s become an annual tradition to discuss whether a motion capture performance or some “alternative” form of acting deserves to be in the awards race. Last year’s topic of conversation was Scarlatt Johansson’s voice work in Her and that's the topic we’ve turned our attention to. (Thanks to Michael Cusumano for his suggestion!)

Voice acting has existed since cinema found sound and it has contributed to the medium in more memorable ways than a list of ten entries can represent. We were not limited in our option to animated films or any genre. So long as the voice performance was not accompanied by visual aids from the same performer (e.g. Andy Serkis’s work...

A Woman on Top , the new musical for both sides of the aisle inspired by Hillary Clinton, previously announced the complete cast for a special industry reading next week. Reathel Bean Caroline, Or Change joins star Karen Mason, Drama Desk-nominated Broadway star of Wonderland, Mamma Mia and Sunset Boulevard, as well as Frank Vlastnik Broadway Big, The Sweet Smell of Success, A Year with Frog amp Toad, Marni Nixon Broadway Nine, Follies Film The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Sarah Cetrulo The Black Suits by Joe Iconis.

A Woman on Top , the new musical for both sides of the aisle inspired by Hillary Clinton, has announced the complete cast for a special industry reading next week. Reathel Bean Caroline, Or Change will join the previously announced star Karen Mason, Drama Desk-nominated Broadway star of Wonderland, Mamma Mia and Sunset Boulevard, as well as Frank Vlastnik Broadway Big, The Sweet Smell of Success, A Year with Frog amp Toad, Marni Nixon Broadway Nine, Follies Film The King and I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Sarah Cetrulo The Black Suits by Joe Iconis.

Over at IndieWire Max O'Connell writes an impassioned essay about the terrible direction that keeps sinking movie musicals. While I do not agree that Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys is the best-directed musical of the past 10 years (yikes!) the case is stronger than I was expecting that that is at least debatable.

Why does Hollywood have such a hard time making musicals?

Many of the essay's points are memorize / share worthy. I merely wish that Max didn't succumb to the tired notion that there simply aren't enough charismatic stars with musical theater chops for the genre to really be alive again. This notion is brought up nearly every time people talk about the state of the film musical (or when they're casting and have to defend strange choices) but it's just patently false. 

Here's that bit of the otherwise stellar article:

Maybe there aren't enough modern equivalents to Gene Kelly,...

The end is here – if someone asked you what the most important movie musical of all time was, it would come from this portion of the list. Obviously, it’s all subjective, but it’s difficult to make a case against the influence of these films on our culture and the industry as a whole. So, cue the orchestra and practice your dance moves, because the closing number is here.

courtesy of rowthree.com

10. Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Directed by John Badham

Signature Song: “Stayin’ Alive” (http://youtu.be/Fa9n7GirhsI)

After making a name for himself with TV’s “Welcome Back Kotter,” John Travolta became a star with 1977′s cultural landmark Saturday Night Fever, a dance musical where Travolta plays Tony Manero, a young man who works a dead-end job, but spends his weekends as the king of the dance floor at a Brooklyn disco. The soundtrack, which was...

I've long had a deep respect for the work Andy Serkis has done in elevating the acting in visual effects. Serkis is, in many ways, the figure head of the fusion form or acting and animation known as performance capture, Hes already given us King Kong, Gollum, and Caesar. But in interviews he's beendownplaying the efforts of animation teams in bringing these highly memorable characters to life. It's really pissing animators off. That's kind of a shame since film is such a collaborative medium. It's also a shame that he himself doesn't get as much credit as he should with his acting peers for how good his work is in these movies. So there's enough lack of credit to go around... deficent credit for everyone. Um... hoorah?

Here's an interview he did in March with i09 about his work on the forthcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and two responses,...

As we continue on, I need to once again clarify that if this list was “Joshua Gaul’s 50 Favorite Movie Musicals,” it’d be a quite a different list. But, if my tastes determined what is definitive, I’d be asking you all to consider Aladdin as a brilliant piece of filmmaking and wax nostalgic about my love for Batteries Not Included and Flight of the Navigator (not for the musicals list, of course). Much to my dismay, my tastes are not universal. I’d like to think my research methods are.

courtesy of themoviescene.co.uk

30. Annie (1982)

Directed by John Huston

Signature Song: “Tomorrow” (http://youtu.be/Yop62wQH498)

Originally a 1924 comic strip, the beloved stage musical about a red-haired orphan girl was brought to the big screen in 1982 and directed by John Huston (yes, that John Huston – director of The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, not to...

Part of the list provides a few Best Picture nominees, a number of Oscar winners, and a childhood favorite that still pops up now and again. In reality, this list could be half-full of music documentaries, but for that reason, I stayed away from them. Plus, I did my best to include only films that really are musicals in every sense of the word. Plenty of films have lots of musical components, but only true musicals have performances in the film that truly drive the story forward. The songs in movie musicals have a purpose, if there could be a true definition.

courtesy of ew.com

40. Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)

Directed by Michael Apted

Signature Song: “Coal Miner’s Daughter”

Michael Apted certainly has a dicey filmography, this probably being his best: a biographical piece featuring a breakout adult role from Sissy Spacek, winning her the Oscar for Best Actress.