Mary Badham : Post deleted

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Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

Thank you, FilmSon, for bringing up this topic! I have always wondered the same thing myself. I had no idea who dubbed her voice, and really didn't care much to know. It just seemed ridiculous that it was done at all, what was wrong with using Mary Badham's voice throughout the entire episode and BTW, that is not the only Twilight Zone, where an adult's voice was used to dubb a child's. It is so obvious and distracting.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

From what I read years ago in a book all about the Twilight Zone is that Badham's voice was deemed unusable by the director of that episode. But her voice is not dubbed througout the entire episode. It's dubbed mostly at the beginning (the "flash forward") when the kids are being told their parents are divorcing.

According to TVTome:

"In the outdoor scenes, Mary Badham's voice was overdubbed by June Foray (who was the voice of Rocky the Squirrel) due to Badham's heavy souther accent combined with a high backlot noise level".

June Foray also was the voice of the doll in the Twilight Zone episode, "Living Doll".

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

Thanks for the info, another Twilight Zone episode I was thinking about was, I believe the title is "Little Girl Lost", where during the girl's sleep she supposedly falls off her bed and rolls into the 4th dimension, via her bedroom wall. There was a definitely dubbing of the child's voice, maybe it was Ms. Foray's as well.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

Oh, I know that one and yes, I agree, it sounds like a dubbed voice. I always thought "Poltergeist" was a ripoff of that one.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

LOL - that dubbing job is quite bad and laughable - anyone watching right away says "Rocky" or "Bullwinkle" !

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

I'm watching "the Bewitchin Pool" now and this is the first time i can remember hearing the dubbed voice. At first I thought it was just me but when I checked here it was confirmed. I was also checking because the girls voice by the pool sounded so familiar.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

yeah I watvhed that too this morning and noticed she "suddenly" had more of a southern accent towards the end of the episode

"Emanicpated?...don't you like being a dude?" - Homer Simpson

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

I caught the episode on Sci-Fi today and wondered the same thing.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

I always assumed that all the voices in the "pool" scenes were dubbed - probably due to that backlot noice thing - and for whatever reason Badham was unavailable when it came time to do the dubbing work in the studio.

You know me. I'm just like you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody.

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Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

I'm sure it had to do with child labor laws; schedule or cost effectiveness necessitated using an adult instead of trying to accomodate the child.

Mary's appearing at the Rome International Film Festival in Rome, GA this Saturday (9/9) I hope to have a chance to interview her for www.cinematl.com.

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Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

Thank you for starting this topic. I had seen To Kill a Mockingbird several times before I saw the Bewitching Pool, and it didn't sound at all like Mary when she played Scout. I think even if I hadn't seen TKAM, I would have noticed something weird about her voice. It just sounded too old for how young she was.

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Re: I second that emotion, Lorelai !

It certainly is one of the worst written episodes of TTZ.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

haha, her voice just changed...just as I read this. It did sound really unusual to me. But I think I know what the director meant, if you ever watch To Kill A Mockingbird, her voice has a verry southern accent.

Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

Yeah, I have to agree.

I just watched the episode now, and her voice at her parents house is wildly different. I didn't recognize her until she was in the "other place" - she sounded much more herself.


Laurie Mann
Dead People Server
http://www.deadpeople.info

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Re: Why was her voice dubbed for 'The Bewitchin' Pool' ?

According to The Twilight Zone Companion (which I pull off the shelf every time SciFi does its TZ marathon):

"Unfortunately, in all but her scenes with Aunt T, her voice is actually that of June Foray. 'We had backlot noise, but that wasn't entirely the trouble,' explains [producer] William Froug. 'She had such a thick Southern accent, we were forced to loop her. It wasn't good. The others we got around, and it was sloppy and we hated it.' What remains is a scarred-up version of what was, for which Froug blames the director. 'I never worked with him again. I just didn't like what he did with her at all. It was all overplayed and corny, I thought, even granted it was a children's story.'"

The writer, Earl Hamner Jr., "didn't like that old woman who played the Earth Mother [Aunt T]. ... I thought that old woman was sort of 'cute'."

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Re: the voice

I hope that budding film makers will take note of this. It probably seemed such an insignificant thing at the time, but it has generated 3 pages of comments, so far. I, myself, came here seeking answers because something just seemed wrong about that episode. I'd bet that her real voice would have been more accepted. (I'm embarrassed that I couldn't quite figure out where I'd heard that famouse voice, before.)

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