What Classics Did You See Last Week? (5 June to 11 June 2017

What Classics Did You See Last Week? (5 June to 11 June 2017 Jun 13, 2017 21:36:42 GMT Salzmank, spiderwort, and 1 more like this

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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 13, 2017 21:36:42 GMT

Jun 12, 2017 2:00:28 GMT mikef6 said:

The Kennel Murder Case / Michael Curtiz (1933) ... Another thing was how they pronounced “suspect.” Today, if you say, “I suspect something,” you would pronounce it sus-PECT. If the police, on the other hand, had you in custody, you would be a SUS-pect. In this early sound feature, all the characters, again including Powell, said sus-PECT for the SUS-pects, as in “I think we should release all of the sus-PECTS.” That’s for all you language mavens out there.

I'm always delighted when these little evolutionary quirks of pronunciation, syntax or other characteristics of language usage are zeroed in on, as I tend to notice them myself (Powell was using the same pronunciation in The Thin Man: "I'm gathering all the susPECTS"). It's details like these that add to the charm of a piece as it ages, highlighting subtle cultural changes that come to be reflected in everyday language (such as the use of "telephone" as a verb or "motoring" in place of "driving"). The process by which some things fall out of fashion while others remain constant can sometimes be inscrutable.

To employ another usage of the time that's since that's fallen out of fashion, it's grand that such details preserve the ambiance of a given era.