Well, dear readers, as I was watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray yesterday, and once again listening to a bunch of actors whisper and mumble their way through a very long film, each actor sounding like any number of other actors, I just sat there like so much fish thinking, what ever happened to actors with VOICES. You know, VOICES. Well, actually in the very same film I was watching there was an actor called Michael Caine, and when Mr. Caine opened his mouth out came a real voice – distinctive, and, more importantly, easy to understand because he is actually speaking at a sound level people can hear. Then there is the actor called Christian Bale, and this actor Christian Bale speaks so quietly (whispering or slightly whispering are his two levels, save for when pain is being inflicted upon him) that if I were an actor playing a scene with him and trying to find some core of reality, I would say, “WHY ARE YOU WHISPERING? I’m over here and I cannot HEAR YOU when you whisper so I have no idea what you are saying.” Because that’s what I would do in REAL life. This whispering crap that all of today’s actors think is so “real” is anything but real. It’s phony baloney and ridiculous is what it is. I remember a glorious time in the cinema and on stage when actors had VOICES – real, uniquely theirs voices. James Stewart didn’t sound like Dick Powell and Dick Powell didn’t sound like Cary Grant and Cary Grant didn’t sound like Joel McCrea and Bette Davis didn’t sound like Joan Crawford and Joan Crawford didn’t sound like Gloria Swanson. Audrey Hepburn sounded like no one other than Audrey Hepburn. Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Brando, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope – every single actor back then had a VOICE. No one whispered, including Brando. Every word was understood. Today’s sound designers don’t help anything by draining all the treble out of every male actor’s voice. It’s horrible. And yes, The Dark Knight Returns is filled with such non-voices, and that includes Anne Hathaway – who is too thin but cute but mumbles everything, Mr. Bale, who I couldn’t understand at all, and Darth Vader or whoever that guy was who had the Darth Vader voice box and mask – him you could hear, but him you could not understand at all. As to the film, I don’t know – I read the Batman comic books and I found them highly enjoyable. There’s nothing enjoyable about The Dark Knight Returns – it’s dreary, dank, and joyless, and not how I want to watch a movie about a superhero. Sorry, but that’s just me. And it goes on for two hours and forty-five minutes. I didn’t mind the wind-up, the film’s final eight or so minutes (before the credits), but it was way too much sturm und drang that we’ve all seen a million times before. The director has been called brilliant by the kiddies on the imdb – and yet this film is anything but brilliant, direction-wise. I know some love these last three Batman films, but I’m afraid I’m not one of them. End of rant.
Yesterday was a very pleasant day. I had a good night’s sleep, answered e-mails and got everything prepared for both the new Kritzerland release, and the announcement that Outside the Box is becoming a Broadway World exclusive series, which I’m very excited about. When I was approached about this, I was wary, oh, yes, I was wary, but more than being wary I was not happy with the You Tube “views” of the season two premiere (they’ve jumped way up in the last few days, but way up is relative and our “views” are rather pathetic – show a cat playing with some string and you get 500,000 views – we’ve gotten close to 8,000 for one episode, but no other episode has cracked 3,000 and that’s just not doing it for me. And so, in the conversations that ensued, I was told that our views will be much higher at Broadway World, where we’ll be reaching our target audience. What became instantly apparent was that there was absolutely no upside to staying with You Tube, but there were no downsides at all to making the move. In other words, we’ll still be posting a direct link to each new episode and only the destination changes. And I’ll be able to go onto You Tube and post for our three hundred or so subscribers that the show is moving and I’ll be able to post a direct link to it there and people will hopefully follow us. So, on the one hand it’s scary to me because I don’t like change, but on the other hand, I could see no way of anything changing at You Tube, and I’m not making these things so that 1,500 people can watch them. With Broadway World, there will be a major press release today, then every time a new episode goes up we’ll be right on the home page, we’ll have our own permanent link on the home page, people can still post comments about the episodes and best of all you can subscribe to the show, just as you did at You Tube – that was something I asked for and they made it happen. The first season will run all week, as will the season premiere episode and then episode two of season two will air just when it was going to – next Sunday. I’m told we can expect to have views over 20,000 and that will make me very happy indeed. So, let’s all spread the word about the change.
I had a Cobb salad for my meal o’ the day and I had two bagels instead of the usual one. Then I watched The Dark Knight Returns, then the first half of a wonderful movie on Blu and Ray entitled The Man Who Never Was, a Brit film starring Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame. I’ve seen it only once before, but the story, which is true, is terrific and it’s all very well done and very well directed by Ronald Neame. I’ll have more to say when I’ve finished it.
Then I had to do the Facebook event page for the Kritzerland show, which takes forever since you have to invite every person one by one. Then I finally began writing the commentary for the Kritzerland show. I got through the first third – as always, I have to do research for each song and it’s time consuming, but I have fun doing it and always find out interesting stuff I didn’t know – one thing I found out was that the original director of Meredith Willson’s Here’s Love musical was Norman Jewison, who was fired and replaced by the show’s producer. I’ll finish writing the commentary this day. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get as much beauty sleep as possible before I arise at six in the morning to make the Kritzerland announcement.
Today, I shall be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland title, the wonderful score to the motion picture Career, composed by the brilliant Franz Waxman. Then I may or may not go back to bed. Hopefully I shall print out a LOT of orders, and I’ll be able to see how the whole Broadway World thing is going to look before it actually goes live at some point during the morning or early afternoon. Then I’m meeting the Outside the Box editor at Mo’s to hand off the hard drive so that the sound and video footage can be loaded into the editing program and sunk up. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I have to write four sets of liner notes this week – I really have to buckle down, Winsocki and get this done. I think I’m going to a dinner, but I haven’t had confirmation yet. I’m pretty certain it will happen, though.
The rest of the week will be meetings and meals, casting a few remaining roles for the final two episodes of season two, which shoot in a couple of weeks, having a work session with the musical director of the Kritzerland show, and having one singer rehearsal for the show, then going to a Thanksgiving dinner at which point I will give thanks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce a new title, tell the world that Outside the Box has a new home, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, hand off a hard drive, write, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: Which actors’ voices were your favorites – those whose voices just pleased you or got to you or resonated with you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, ready for the big announcement in the morning.