Rita Moreno and Marni Nixon discuss the dubbing in the film WEST SIDE STORY

A very revealing radio interview from 2001.
You will need either Real Player or Windows Media Player to hear it.
My apologies if this has been posted already.

Rita Moreno and Marni Nixon Radio Interview

Updated On: 1/2/06 at 05:15 AM

"She also did voiceovers for Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady."

Lord, have mercy! She dubbed for Deborah Kerr in The King and I. What a stupid, careless error! Shame on NPR!

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Thanks for sharing all of this! Very enlightening.

A couple of interesting observations:

1) Marni didn't bring up the fact that she also dubbed the last section of the Quintet for ANITA as well as Maria. This is the "higher" part of the song when they are all singing together. Maybe Marni didn't want to mention it right in front of Rita... who knows? Regardless, I've read it several times in articles before... and the ultimate proof is in the final soundtrack, when you can clearly tell that it is Marni's voice doing both parts (at the end).

2) I found the "politics" of the dubbing to be fascinating. How they never really discussed anything with each other, as they moved in and out of the recording booths to "do their jobs."

3) Thanks for posting Marni's IMBb credits! I found it fascinating that she also dubbed some of Marilyn Monroe's high notes in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (something I'd never heard before!)... and that she was married to film & TV composer Ernest Gold... and that her son (with Gold) is Andrew Gold, singer/songwriter of "Thank You For Being a Friend" (used later for the "Golden Girls Theme") and "Lonely Boy," one of my favorite pop songs from the '70s.

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Updated On: 1/2/06 at 12:13 PM

Was anyone else surprised by some of Moreno's comments in this interview? She tries to be diplomatic throughout most of it, but when she says "I wasn't a fan of hers" regarding Natalie, it seems like she means more than just that she didn't think she was right for the part.

Some of the details about A Boy Like That are a bit sketchy. Rita's explanation for why she couldn't sing it ("I was practically a coloratura at the time") comes off a bit hollow (or at least quite an exaggeration) if Marnie really did sing the high section of the Quintet for her. Wasn't Rita's voice also supplemented with someone else's in The King and I?

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Updated On: 8/17/06 at 11:20 AM

"Cool" interview.

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I always wanted to know who dubbed Rita in King and I.

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Betty Wand dubbed Rita in "I Have a Love." That's clearly her in "America" and in the early parts of the "Quintet."

I wonder if the Oscar voters knew that Moreno didn't sing one of her two major songs...

Anyway, that was a fascinating interview. Moreno comes across as a bit of a diva, but it's neat to hear her relate the history of the film.

I personally don't care if people are dubbed on screen, as long as it's done extremely well and convincingly. I prefer that to BAD SINGING any day! And I understand the need for finding a box office star for certain roles and films.

I think Marni's work as a "ghost singer" (along with her amazing on-screen talent, which was EQUALLY convincing and necessary to pull it off) show how well it can be done. As much as I know that Ms. Kerr isn't singing herself in “The King and I,” still listen very carefully and am fooled by the terrific effect.

As far as Oscars go, there is a rule in place about this... If a performance is "entirely dubbed" then it is ineligible for award consideration. But even if an actor or actress speaks one line of dialogue themselves and the rest was dubbed, they would still be eligible for Oscar consideration.

An example of a performance that was "nearly all dubbed" was Dorothy Dandridge in "Carmen Jones." A youthful, then-unknown Marilyn Horne dubbed her singing. Dorothy speaks just a few lines in the movie, so she was still eligible for consideration... and nominated for Best Actress.

This is the actual "rule" that has prevented animated performances from being considered today (even though there was a BIG push to get Robin Williams nominated for Best Supporting Actor on "Aladdin.") The performance was ruled as "entirely dubbed," therefore ineligible.

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Updated On: 8/22/06 at 07:34 PM

It doesn't particularly bother me that Moreno was dubbed in parts of the score, although I would've loved to hear her version of A Boy Like if she had been able to sing it. However, I'm not sure what I think about her picking apart Betty Wand's version of the song. As fabulously as Rita performed in that role, she clearly wasn't the best person for it vocally. It must've been hard for her to hear someone else sing it, but Betty Wand could do it and she couldn't. That's that.

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Updated On: 11/1/06 at 08:05 AM

I'm pretty positive that it's Rita's voice you hear on the soundtrack recording of "My Lord and Master". A very thin soprano. I just got I COULD HAVE SUNG ALL NIGHT, yesterday, for my birthday. That's Marni's autobiography. Not sure if she mentions it in her book, but one of Marni's earliest dub jobs was for Margaret O'Brien, in THE SECRET GARDEN. That film was originally planned as a full-out musical, and MGM tested a young Julie Andrews for the lead. They passed her over, and finally made the film as a non-musical, with O'Brien during one song, and Marni dubbing!

Rita never trashed Betty Wand's singing. She was only upset that Betty's interpretation didn't match the visual. Rita played the scene aggresivley, but Betty performed the overdub too passively, so you see Rita acting hard yet the vocal isn't up to par with the 'visual' performance. Rita fully agreed she wasn't capable of being able to sing "A Boy Like That" since it wasn't in her key range. She did sing "America" and her section of the "Tonight" Quintet.

As for Chita being 'too good for Hollywood'? That wasn't the case, unfortunately. In the days of photogenic faces, Chita just didn't fall into this category, which has something to do with the fact of why she didn't manage to have a film career.

Chita WAS screen-tested for the film-version of WEST SIDE STORY, but it was agreed that she was just not photogenic for the big screen. On stage, alot is forgiven -- age, looks, etc. On the big screen, it's a totally different scenario, unfortunately.

And to believe that Julie Andrews' photogenic capabilities were in question when the film-version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC was being cast. They didn't think SHE was photogenic, so the producers of the film went over to Disney to see a rough-cut of MARY POPPINS (it hadn't been released yet and was still in it's editing stages), and this is what confirmed to them that they found their Maria Von Trapp.

"...tonight!"


I agree with you. "A Boy Like That" looks just fine in the film, but it always has (and still does) bug Rita. It's the only sore spot for her in the entire film.