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Post by marshamae on Aug 14, 2021 12:05:50 GMT
I am watching HOW THE WEST WAS WON and enjoying Spencer Tracy’s narration. It was a film filled with great actors, but Spence’s delivery of the narration was spectacular. In such an episodic film, the narration had to sew the pieces together. Spencer set the emotional tone for each segment. He did it economically , with clean reading and yet delivering such emotion, without the help of his facial expressions.
any other examples of great narration by great actors? I have a couple more I will add in Later
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Post by Isapop on Aug 14, 2021 12:12:25 GMT
Of course William Holden's narration in Sunset Blvd. quickly comes to mind.
(Or, are you excluding narration by a character in the movie?)
((Game time soon. Hope you'll be there.))
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Post by marshamae on Aug 14, 2021 13:21:06 GMT
That’s a marvelous example. His laconic ,no nonsense delivery adds to the shock of the ending. Even when talking about his own body floating in the pool, he has a kind of distance that is more emotional than an Edgar Guest Sympathy card I love this one .Characters narrating is fine |
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Post by timshelboy on Aug 14, 2021 13:24:30 GMT
Orson at !:30 sets the tone for the cinematic splendour that is to follow "Deep among the lonely sunbaked hills of Texas...."  Julie Christie;s unreliable narrator in DARLING comes to mind
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Post by mattgarth on Aug 14, 2021 13:36:33 GMT
Noirs frequently employed character narration featuring self-pitying protagonists escorting the viewer into the sordid whirlpool of crime and murder:
Fred MacMurray in DOUBLE INDEMNITY
Dick Powell in MURDER MY SWEET
Tom Neal in DETOUR
Robert Mitchum in parts of OUT OF THE PAST
Glenn Ford in GILDA
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Post by Isapop on Aug 14, 2021 13:55:46 GMT
I love Michael Caine's narrating to Christopher Plummer the events of The Man Who Would Be King.
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Post by marshamae on Aug 14, 2021 13:57:32 GMT
Forgot about that device in Noir. I guess it’s a way to limit the omniscience of the narrator.
A really spell binding one is Laurence Olivier in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet .he only does the prologue and postlogue, and in a grave , non dramatic way that carries more gravitas than his scenery chewing style. His ending , with that Nino Rota music was so perfectly tragic. The great Robert Stephans delivers the last lines but Olivier has the last word.
Btw olivier voiced Montague, played by a monolingual Italian actor.
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Post by Isapop on Aug 14, 2021 14:04:33 GMT
Kim Stanley's narration in To Kill A Mockingbird is simply beautiful.
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Post by timshelboy on Aug 14, 2021 14:04:35 GMT
I love Michael Caine's narrating to Christopher Plummer the events of The Man Who Would Be King. He was a very good doing the voice over narration of thoughts and feelings that the major cast members get as well as regular "dialogue" in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. Here's the opening scene (and subtitles as backup!)
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Post by jervistetch on Aug 14, 2021 14:06:56 GMT
Director Robert Redford’s quiet narration of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT really doubles the emotional impact for me.
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Post by mattgarth on Aug 14, 2021 14:14:43 GMT
James Whitmore delivers Stephen Crane's Civil War book prose for John Huston's feature version of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, starring real war hero Audie Murphy.
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Post by Prime etc. on Aug 14, 2021 17:41:12 GMT
Lionel Stander's narration for BLAST OF SILENCE.
Darren McGavin's narration for the Kolchak movies and tv-series.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Aug 14, 2021 22:12:25 GMT
Claire Trevor as Pat Regan in Raw Deal (1948) Pat’s melancholic voiceover narration, introduces this outstanding film and her audible thoughts are featured throughout, her final voice over narrative a noir knockout finale... Pats fatalistic toned introduction.... “Today’s the day. Today’s the day. The last day I have to drive up to these gates”.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Aug 14, 2021 22:41:16 GMT
Leslie Howard opens and closes the British patriotic flag waver, In Which We Serve (1942) Dir. Noel Coward with an uncredited narration. In his next and final feature he directs and also narrates throughout the film, The Gentle Sex (1943) completed just a month before his untimely death, the film an entertaining war time comedy doc/drama in support of British women doing their bit for the war effort...
"Let's give in at last and admit that we're really proud of you, you strange, wonderful, incalculable creatures. The world you're helping to shape is going to be a better world because you're helping to shape it. Pray silence gentlemen. I give you a toast - the gentle sex."
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Post by OldAussie on Aug 14, 2021 22:44:43 GMT
Matt Damon has done a number of voiceovers but my favourite is The Rainmaker.
In The Bad and The Beautiful each of the flashbacks begins with narration by the character recalling the events (Barry Sullivan, Lana Turner and Dick Powell).
And as already noted, one of the best examples is Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet.
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Post by OldAussie on Aug 14, 2021 22:46:29 GMT
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Post by bravomailer on Aug 14, 2021 22:53:54 GMT
Richard Burton did a little narration on Zulu.
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Post by MCDemuth on Aug 14, 2021 23:21:16 GMT
"Duel" (1971) Dennis Weaver regularly narrates to the audience, what his character, David Mann, is thinking about the semi truck which is trying to kill him. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(1971_film) |
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Post by phantomparticle on Aug 14, 2021 23:33:46 GMT
Michael Hordern's concise and unemotional narration in Barry Lyndon.
I wish Hordern had also voiced the closing observation which, alas, is only expressed with a title care:
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Post by bravomailer on Aug 15, 2021 0:38:04 GMT
Meryl Streep - Out of Africa
I love the narration to Apocalypse Now, however it was not done by Martin Sheen but by his brother.
I like the Harrison Ford-narrated version of Blade Runner, some don't.
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