Best "bad" singing in a classic era film?

[s.w.a.c.]

What about Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's? It borders being excellent because it was used so effectively, but her voice isn't technically perfect.

You should hear her My Fair Lady outtakes, she gives it the ol' college try, but you can tell why they went with Marni Nixon.

[Gumlegs]

Leave us not forget the contribution of Frank Fenton to "Lady of Burlesque."

Glorious in its awfulness.

[FrankFay]

What about Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's? It borders being excellent because it was used so effectively, but her voice isn't technically perfect.

You should hear her My Fair Lady outtakes, she gives it the ol' college try, but you can tell why they went with Marni Nixon.

The studio let her think that she had a chance - it wasn't until very late in the process that she found out she was being dubbed and it hurt. Contrast this with Rosalind Russell in GYPSY- Russell could sing a bit but she knew she wasn't up to the score. They got Lisa Kirk to mimic Russell's tone so well that on a few numbers the track cuts between the two & it is hard to tell where the cuts are.

Jeremy Brett's singing in My Fair Lady is completely dubbed- I wonder why they just didn't get someone who sang?

[busby1959]

Barbara Stanwyck in BANJO ON MY KNEE or LADY OF BURLESQUE. Although I like the rough quality of her voice, I can understand why she was dubbed by Martha Tilton in BALL OF FIRE.

[Mike Gebert]

Just saw one at Capitolfest—the woman singing the cuckoo song in The Playboy of Paris. She was probably in tune, but the song was a dental drill.

[busby1959]

Gene Kelly's singing in every musical he made.

[Dr.Crespi]

Any of Ruby Keeler's efforts .....but especially "By a Waterfall" in 'Footlight Parade' (1933) which is akin to dragging your fingernails down a blackboard!

This is why 42nd Street (1933) never quite works for me. The plot hinges on Ruby's character being some great undiscovered talent. She was a good hoofer, but she sure as heck wasn't a singer.

She was no Bebe Daniels, but I didn't mind her singing. In fact, in the film, Ginger Rogers says: "Her voice might not panic "em, but she can dance rings around Brock." The fact that her singing was marginal at best was no secret.

I don't mind Ruby Keeler's singing either; somehow it was more her earnest personality that came through in those songs and not so much to do with singing ability.

[wingate]

Ruby Keeper was,in my voew,the not talentless musical leading lady of her era.If it wasn't for the fact that she was Al Jolsons wife I doubt that she would have been given the part in 42nd Street.Shame she and Daniels didn't swap parts.You could believe in Daniels being a show stopper.

[FrankFay]

Ruby Keeper was,in my voew,the not talentless musical leading lady of her era.If it wasn't for the fact that she was Al Jolsons wife I doubt that she would have been given the part in 42nd Street.Shame she and Daniels didn't swap parts.You could believe in Daniels being a show stopper.

Daniels was great, but a bit too old to play an inexperienced chorus girl. Her singing was also just a little bit on the proper side. "Music is Magic" satirizes this quite nicely

[Dr.Crespi]

I like Daniels' rendition of "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me".

[c.n.-tonfilm]

Danish Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchior with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra performing "Please Don't Say No" from the MGM movie "Thrill of a Romance" (1945). This was definitely not the ideal material for him and to make it even worse, the movie shows Van Johnson mimicking to Melichiors singing as a sweet serenade to his love interest Esther Williams. Well, he should have chosen to serenade Florence Foster Jenkis instead of Esther for this one...

[radiotelefonia]

[skyvue]

Hands (or arms) down: Adolph Menjou in "Two White Arms" (1932). One of the most delightfully dreadful off-key warblings ever. Worth playing at parties.

I'm very late in asking, but is there an available recording from the film (which to the best of my knowledge is lost)? I've only ever found his gramophone recording. (As I'm sure most here know, TWO WHITE ARMS was reissued as WIVES BEWARE and was the movie shown on the opening night in 1933 of the first drive-in movie theatre). Even a brief clip from that film would be a treasured find.

[Harlowgold]

Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus singing a lullaby to Dickie Moore always seemed sweet to me. How she ever became known as a singer is beyond me.

What about Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River in Breakfast at Tiffany's? It borders being excellent because it was used so effectively, but her voice isn't technically perfect.

And yet Dietrich always has had records and cds in print!! You mean people are willing to pay for that?

[Harlowgold]

One of my favorites is Claudette Colbert in "The Gilded Lily," where she gets a job at Nate's Cafe (presided over by Luis Alberni) and proceeds to embarrass herself and others with her poor performance, but she wins over the audience, people like her attempt to succeed and she becomes a hit! The film is charming in its own right and worth rediscovering.

I love Claudette singing "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love" in "Torch Singer". It's weird but it's wonderful - what Lili Marlene is supposed to be.

For bad but endearing singing I'd add Corinne Griffith in "Back Pay" and Gloria Swanson in her singing films. Less enjoyable to me is practically everybody else who sang in movies 1929-1932, almost all of them singing in that high-pitched, eccentric style of vocalizing apparently popular in the era.

[greta de groat]

I just looked through this thread and was surprised that nobody has mentioned the one that to me was the most obvious--Susan Alexander Kane's efforts in Citizen Kane. Especially the painful Salammbo number, which is actually quite lovely when sung well. My understanding was that Dorothy Comingore sang the Una Voce Poco Fa but that they hired a trained singer to sing badly for the staged number.

greta

[Frame Rate]

These amusing (and sometimes excruciating) examples set me to wondering... just how different musical-movie history, both with casting and with "secret" voice-doubling, might have been if auto-tune technology had been available at the dawn of sound.

Sure might've saved Dick Barthelmess some embarrassment. That is, if he could carry a (weary) tune at all.

[wingate]

Now here's one most of you won't have heard of.Princess Pearl singing "without love" in Everything's Rhythm.A 1936 British musical also starting Harry Roy.
She was the daughter of the White Rajah of Sarawak

[silentfilm]

From Our Gang Follies of 1938.

[radiotelefonia]

From YO QUIERO SER BATACLANA.

[BudAbbott]

Re Marlene, there was definitely a different idea of what constitutes good singing in Germany. Think of Lotte Lenya, who was a successful Broadway-style singer there -- she would never have passed muster here. Clearly it's a different aesthetic.

For that matter, I like Marlene's singing -- she's always entertaining. I've bought one or two of her albums, too.

(Though I'll admit to being prejudiced. For me, Marlene can do no wrong.)