University of Virginia Library

Untrained Voices

"Wagon," like "Dolly," has
several untrained voices, except all
three of them are in the principal
roles. The novelty working for
Paramount is seeing Lee Marvin,
Jean Seberg, and Clint Eastwood
attempt to sing. It is surprising to
discover that they are not as bad as
the singers in "Dolly!" Eastwood,
cast as an idealistic young man,
does a creditable job singing "I Still
See Elisa," and does an even better
job with "I Talk to the Trees."

Lee Marvin's first song, "The
First Thing You Know," is more
spoken than sung, and is too
pretentious to be funny. It was
obviously written for him, which
brings up a point concerning the
score. The songs in the original
Broadway show of the 1950's were
written by the team of Lerner and
Low. Since then, they have gone
their separate ways, and the new
songs in thee movie have been
written by Lerner and Andre
Previn. The new songs are the
weakest ones in the score, which
has been arranged and conducted
by the skillful hand of Nelson
Riddle.

One of the Lerner-Previn songs,
"A Million Miles Away Behind the
Door," is sung by Jean Seberg.
Fortunately, it is the only song she
sings. Rumors say Miss Seberg's
voice was dubbed, but I cannot
believe it. If any major studio
would spend so much money on a
film, and then dub the soundtrack
with a voice this bad, the film
wouldn't have been released. The
best voice on the album belongs to
Harve Presnell. He sings the best
known song from the musical,
"They Call the Wind Maria," and
does an excellent Job, despite the
over orchestration on this particular
song.

Presnell also serves as the lead
vocalist in an all male chorus. This
is the strongest asset of the album.
The powerful chorus and the clear
orchestrations are effectively used
to improve the weak singing of the
principals. This is what Twentieth
Century Fox should have done with
"Dolly!" Be it actual singing, or
humming, the chorus greatly adds
to the excellence of the album.