Peter T. Daniels
2018-10-15 16:19:05 UTC
I'm reading a new book, *Now You're Talking*, by a British professor of
acoustic engineering, Trevor Cox. The subtitle is "Human Conversation from
the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence." It begins with the evolution of
hearing, is very sketchy about the evolution of language or speech, and then
moves on to the development of the voice in individuals. The references are
a disconcerting mix of specialist journal articles and popular web sites.
On p. 108f. (in the context of using accents to differentiate character in
movies), he writes, "Nothing says establishment so clearly as a cut-glass
English accent. A good example of this is Alfred Hitchcock's *North by
Northwest* where Cary Grant plays the hero, an advertising executive
accidentally caught up in an international spy ring. While Grant speaks
with an American accent, James Mason plays the villain Vandamm using R.P."
The last sentence is footnoted, "Ironically, Cary Grant was actually born
and brought up in Bristol, England. If Mason had used a strong regional
accent from Britain then American audiences may have struggled to understand
it. ..." (Incidentally, that's a "baseball 'may'"; it should be "might have
struggled.")
Do Brits really think Cary Grant had an American accent???
The standard example of good-guy Americans / bad-guy Brits is *Spartacus*.
Was that a practice among British filmmakers like Hitchcock? I recently saw
*Dial M for Murder* again, and he goes to considerable lengths explaining
why Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings are American. Ray Milland sounded no
less British than Cary Grant, and both of them were frequently cast as
Americans, but in this movie, Milland is the (to be sure) evil Brit.
acoustic engineering, Trevor Cox. The subtitle is "Human Conversation from
the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence." It begins with the evolution of
hearing, is very sketchy about the evolution of language or speech, and then
moves on to the development of the voice in individuals. The references are
a disconcerting mix of specialist journal articles and popular web sites.
On p. 108f. (in the context of using accents to differentiate character in
movies), he writes, "Nothing says establishment so clearly as a cut-glass
English accent. A good example of this is Alfred Hitchcock's *North by
Northwest* where Cary Grant plays the hero, an advertising executive
accidentally caught up in an international spy ring. While Grant speaks
with an American accent, James Mason plays the villain Vandamm using R.P."
The last sentence is footnoted, "Ironically, Cary Grant was actually born
and brought up in Bristol, England. If Mason had used a strong regional
accent from Britain then American audiences may have struggled to understand
it. ..." (Incidentally, that's a "baseball 'may'"; it should be "might have
struggled.")
Do Brits really think Cary Grant had an American accent???
The standard example of good-guy Americans / bad-guy Brits is *Spartacus*.
Was that a practice among British filmmakers like Hitchcock? I recently saw
*Dial M for Murder* again, and he goes to considerable lengths explaining
why Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings are American. Ray Milland sounded no
less British than Cary Grant, and both of them were frequently cast as
Americans, but in this movie, Milland is the (to be sure) evil Brit.