An ADS evaluation of dialects in movies?

[Beverly Flanigan]

Very interesting!  Where did you get your percentages on r-lessness, and
have you published anything on your 40-year analysis?

At 04:51 PM 11/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Anthony Hopkins only gets half a star for his accent as Nixon.
>
>Of the American films I've studied (1930's to 70's) that have overtly
>specified regional origins for a character, I found only three (US) actors
>that made any kind of attempt to sound like that was where they were from.
>
>Of the Brits in American roles, Angela Lansbury is extremely successful --
>of course she came to NY to study acting at the age of 15. Stephen Boyd
>(Fantastic Voyage) gets 4 stars; I only heard a couple of Belfast vowels
>from him. Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend ) didn't sound Welsh in the
>1940's; the only remarkable thing I found about his speech was that he was
>98% r-less, compared to an average of 42% for male American actors of that
>decade.
>
>And then there's Cary Grant...
>
>Nancy Elliott