I admire Steve McQueen's subtle acting talent,but his abilities obviously didn't include playing a rock 'n' roll star. His couple of scenes fronting a local band are laughable. His mugging and lip-syncing are so exaggerated, it's painful to watch.
Side note: Check out the guitarist in McQueen's band. Bless my soul, it appears to be none other than Glen Campbell, who was probably doing studio work with the Beach Boys about that time, too.
I definitely agree. The lip synching was painful to watch and I was embarrassed for McQueen. It was so horrible. I did like seeing Steve playing a disturbed and truly vulnerable childlike character. He pulled it off very well.
share He was supposed to be a terrible singer, you didn't get that from the movie? It is a part of his sadness. He is a failure at everything that he aspires to life. He has been so abused as a child, (yes, even by the "rich old lady", the most horrible character in the movie) that he has no idea of how to live his life. He can't appreicate Lee Remick or his daughter (who might turn out okay because of the love of her mother.) Watch this movie again to get the desparation of his character.
More power to Glen Campbell, I met him once and he seemed to be a nice guy.
That's the sad thing. If he, in fact, is suppose to be a terrible singer, it doesn't come across in the narrative, only in the action. If it did, nobody would be complaining. But, it is presented as though he is suppose to be good. That's the Director's fault, not Mcqueen's.
P.S. Billy Strange (Bonanza, Get Smart, Munsters themes) was Mcqueen's music coach for this film.
excellent point, thememphian. if he was supposed to be a terrible singer, then there needed to be a bit more evidence of that presented in the story, and not just toward the very end of the movie when he was heckled while on stage.
if we, the viewers, were supposed to understand that he is a terrible singer and this is part of his tragic life and it had been portrayed to us properly, then we wouldn't be feeling pain and embarrassment for mcqueen while watching this horrible bit of lip-syncing.
i truly felt bad for mcqueen watching those moments. i wonder if he felt as uncomfortable as he looked.
If he was supposed to be lousy, they could have just had McQueen SING!
Maybe it was supposed to be lousy lip synching, lol.
The lip-syncing was fine. The actual (dubbed) singer was good, and so were the musicians, but the music was awful. Maybe it was supposed to be. If that's the case, then Elmer Bernstein should have received an Oscar. Even the incidental music was terrible.
Not sure which was worse in this film; the writing, or the directing. The actors did an excellent job, given crap to work with.
I haven't seen this in over 20 years, but I suppose it is the vulnerabilities of the characters in this film that have kept it alive somewhere inside me.
Humans are more fragile than we would like to admit.
Seems to me, a bit too much fuss is made over the lip-syncing.
Back in those days lip-syncing was a common practice and terribly executed in "Baby", but I certainly would not allow such a minor production flaw to blind me to the beauty in this film.
I thought this was a courageous departure for McQueen from his normally "heroic" roles.
And, I loved Lee Remick before this, but I fell head over heels for her in this movie! And, I suspect there are a lot of women who can relate to her.
There is just something "basic" about this movie; down-to-earth; a slow turning of the screw - the sadness that turns in so many lives.
It would be better if you re-read the comments. They were talking about lip synching. Whether McQueen's character was a terrible singer is irrelevant to this thread.
shareIf he was supposed to be such a "bad singer," they should just have had McQueen do the voice. And, otherwise, they should have at least found someone whose voice was at least in the same neighborhood as McQueen's.
shareI could not have said it better. How embarrassing. Why didn't they re-shoot those scenes?
sharepshaw, how correct you are. it was indeed painful to watch the coolest cat around, mcqueen, lip sync in this movie. he was clearly uncomfortable doing it.
shareTS. He was paid well and lived to be 50.
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
[deleted]
I think less McQueens fault and more the director. It could have been easily fixed with less close ups of McQueen while singing.
shareExactly, pshaw, and well put. The story and acting were top-notch, but director Bob Mulligan should never have allowed the comically exaggerated lip-synching that Steve McQueen displayed in "his" singing scenes. Those scenes really were difficult to watch, and it's a pity that McQueen's subtle acting abilities didn't extend to subtle lip-syncing as well.
shareSure it's bad, but as someone said, that was a common practice then...I don't think it's meant to be bad, as he has the chance of being a successful country star. I think they got someone to sing and lip-sync, so it would sound halfway decent. McQueen could act, but could he sing? prolly not-----just my thoughts....watching it now! so good
shareIt was horrible lip-syncing for sure, but it didn't really detract too much from the core story of the movie, which was more about his relationship with wife and daughter and the terrible woman who raised him. By the way, the actual singer of the songs was Glen Yarbrough, who was a popular and well-known folk singer, and who actually had a hit with that title song, Baby, the Rain must Fall. So, the real story was that despite having some real musical talent, it was all of his other character flaws that ultimately caused him to self-destruct and prevented him from being successful in music, or in life. Obviously, his issues were largely brought about because of the abuse he suffered while he was growing up. Interesting movie, and solid performances by all three leads, McQueen, Remick and Murray. Again, agreed that the lip-syncing was the worst ever for a major film, but otherwise a good character study.
shareActually Billy Strange did other songs and maybe all in the lip-syncing scenes. Although, Glen Yarbrough sang "Baby the Rain Must Fall" on the title song and main recording.
All the singing was actually quite good...but yes the lip-syncing that McQueen did was just terrible but not enough to really detract from the movie.