MovieChat Forums > Calamity Jane (1953) Discussion > Were the Musical Numbers Filmed Live?

Were the Musical Numbers Filmed Live?

posted 17 years ago by claudenorth
4 replies | jump to latest

The procedure for most musical numbers in films is to have the actors lip-sync to a pre-recorded track. However, in Calamity Jane, there are times when the actors seem to be singing live. In the "I Could Do Without You" sequence, the sounds of Day's and Keel's footsteps and movements are quite distinct on the soundtrack, when normally the soundtrack is "cleaned up" to remove such sounds, which leads me to believe that they sang live and did not use a pre-recorded track.

I know this was done for "Hey There" in The Pajama Game, but I've never read anything about live musical numbers in Calamity Jane. Anyone know if this technique was used?

[–] catemh1 17 years ago

Most of the tracks were pre-recorded but I remember reading somewhere that Doris Day claimed that she and Howard Keel had sung 'I can do without you' live. It certainly seems that way when you view it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlqdEca3hks&feature=related

[–] laurence01 16 years ago

Yes from what I understand the pre-recorded track for 'I Can Do without You' was lost by the studio, which is why it was done live.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] lady_AJ 13 years ago

When i was studying musicals, i found out that a lot of them did use that system back them. I know a few tracks in Oliver! were.