some, Dreyfuss is an actor who is, in fact, short, pale, and slightly tubby—but with a sweet, cherubic face that is immensely likable. Onscreen, he exudes energy and intelli- gence, along with a rascally charm, all of which helped him to become one of the hottest stars of the 1970s before he nearly killed himself in a drug-related car accident. He eventually returned to the movies, drug-free, to become one of Hollywood’s most accomplished character actor- stars of the 1980s.
Born in Brooklyn, Dreyfuss moved with his well-to-do family (his father was an attorney) to Los Angeles when he was nine years old. He began to act at the Beverly Hills Jew- ish Center. His professional debut was in a local L.A. pro- duction of In Mama’s House when he was 15 years old. An agent spotted him and soon found him work in TV shows such as Peyton Place and The Big Valley. He continued work- ing in the theater as well during the next several years until he made his film debut in a bit part in Valley of the Dolls (1967), which was followed by a tiny role in The Graduate (1967). His first important film part, and one that suited his cherubic looks, was in the supporting but splashy role of Baby Face Nelson in Dillinger (1969).
After a minor flop in The Second Coming of Suzanne (1973), Dreyfuss won the role of Curt in American Graffiti (1973), joining a superb cast of future stars. But it was he who stood out from the crowd, bringing a thoughtfulness and
DREYFUSS, RICHARD
During the early 1930s, at the dawn of the age of glamour queens, Marie Dressler, an older lady with more lines than the Union Pacific, was Hollywood’s number-one box-office draw.
integrity to the film that was only partly the result of good writing and direction.
In his next film, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), he carried the entire production (as opposed to being part of an ensemble in American Graffiti) and gave one of the greatest performances of the decade. His kinetic, nervous energy was palpable as the pushy, conniving young man who yearns for success but loses his moral bearings along the way. His Duddy was a richly drawn human being played with remarkable sensitivity. The small-budget movie wasn’t a big popular success, but it marked the arrival of a giant talent.
Dreyfuss had one of the three lead roles (as the marine biologist) in Jaws (1975). The film’s gargantuan success sud- denly put the young actor in the category of potential super- star. Instead of making another obviously commercial feature, though, he chose to star in an artsy, low-budget, X-rated film called Inserts (1976). The movie was an intriguing tour de force of anguish and angst, but it bombed at the box office.
After appearing in a small role in an all-star TV movie,
Victory at Entebbe (1976), Dreyfuss’s next two films, both
released in 1977, brought him to the apex of his preaccident career. He starred in STEVEN SPIELBERG’s uplifting and
enchanting Close Encounters of the Third Kind and then easily shifted gears to play a romantic lead (for the first time) in
NEIL SIMON’s The Goodbye Girl (1977), for which he won an Oscar for Best Actor.
His next projects, among them The Big Fix (1978), The
Competition (1980), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), and The Buddy System (filmed in 1982 but released in 1984) all featured
fine performances, but none of them was a big winner at the box office—and some of them were major disasters. He was supposed to have starred in Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz (1979), but he had quit the project at the last minute (replaced by Roy Scheider). Much of what he did (and did not do) during these years was a result of his growing drug dependency.
When his car hit a tree and overturned one night in late 1982, he not only ended up in the hospital, but was also arrested for cocaine possession. It took him three years to make a comeback in PAUL MAZURSKY’s hit comedy Down and
Out in Beverly Hills (1986), but the film marked the debut of
a changed, more mature, Dreyfuss who could still take hold of the screen—no mean feat, considering that he shared the screen with Bette Midler and Mike the Dog.
In Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Dreyfuss had a character part, and it signaled a big change in his approach to the movies. His next film, the critically acclaimed Tin Men (1987), was both a splendid yet touching comedy that was also built on character portrayals rather than star turns. Stakeout (1987) was his third hit in a row, showing that Dreyfuss, in the char- acter part of a regular cop, could be funny, exciting, and sexy. Then, in yet another character part as a middle-aged attorney, he held his own on screen against BARBRA STREISAND’s pow-
erful performance in Nuts (1987). He stumbled with the crit- ically snubbed Let It Ride (1989) but recovered with What
About Bob? (1991), in which he plays reluctant psychiatrist to
a manic patient played in over-the-top style by Bill Murray; he also assumed the role of psychiatrist in Silent Fall (1994). Although sentimental, Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) provided him
with one of his best performances, as a high school teacher; perhaps his inspired performance and scholarly mien led to his title role, as Max Bickford, in the television series of that name in 2000. During the 1990s, he also returned to familiar ground, Lost in Yonkers (1993), another Neil Simon vehicle, and Another Stakeout (1993), in which he and Emilio Estevez reprise their roles as detectives. Despite the failure of Trigger
Happy (1996), in which he was cast as a crime lord, and Krip- pendorf’s Tribe (1999), the 1990s was a good decade for Drey-
fuss; in Lansky (1999) he even demonstrated that he could convincingly portray a crime boss, in this case, Meyer Lansky who in his dotage tells his story in flashback. One of his best roles was as the ruthless and opportunistic right-wing presi- dential candidate in The American President (1995). In The
Crew (2000), a codger caper about aging criminals pulling one
last job, Dreyfuss is quite good, retaining the skills that brought him to prominence.
See alsoAMERICAN GRAFFITI.
dubbing
There are two film-related definitions of this word. The first is the mixing of all the different sound tracks of a film—the music, dialogue, special effects, and so on— which are then edited onto one synchronized master sound track to make copies. The second usage of the term, which is more often heard, refers to the recording of sound that will replace what has previously been recorded on film.When a director sees the DAILIESand is unhappy about
the way an individual line of dialogue is delivered, he or she may ask the actor to “dub,” or rerecord, the words in the stu- dio, synchronizing speech to filmed lip movements (this is also called postsynchronization). When the actor himself or herself doesn’t like the reading of a line, the director may not want to spend the time and money to reshoot the entire scene and may tell the actor, “We’ll fix it in the studio,” by which he or she means that the dialogue will be dubbed.
Another common use of dubbing occurs in musicals where an actor or actress has been hired who lacks an ade- quate singing voice. In these cases, the musical numbers are dubbed, and the audience hears someone else’s voice coming out of the star’s mouth. For instance, a very young Andy Williams dubbed LAUREN BACALL’s musical numbers in To
Have and Have Not (1944); Nan Wynn, not RITA HAYWORTH, sang the sultry lyrics to “Put the Blame on Mame” in Gilda (1946); India Adams sang Cyd Charisse’s numbers in The
Band Wagon (1953); and in West Side Story (1961), Marni
Nixon dubbed all of Natalie Wood/Maria’s songs, and Jim Bryant dubbed all of Richard Beymer/Tony’s lyrics.
The most common form of dubbing takes place when a movie is marketed in a country where a language is spoken that is different from that of the country in which the film was made. If subtitles are not used, then all of the dialogue may be dubbed in a studio, often by actors other than those who appeared in the film.
Duck Soup
The 1933 Marx Brothers movie that many critics consider to be their best. No sappy love interests marthe 70-minute movie as they would in later films at MGM; no interludes halt the movie so that the brothers can show off their musical skills. The film is powered only by fast, furious humor, expertly directed by LEO MCCAREY, the finest direc-
tor with whom the group would work.
Originally titled Cracked Ice, Paramount changed the film’s name so that it would follow the “animal” motif that had begun with their second film, Animal Crackers (1930), which had been followed by Monkey Business (1931) and
Horsefeathers (1932).
McCarey was well trained in movie comedy, having worked with MACK SENNETTat the Keystone Studio. The
script, music, and lyrics were provided by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, with Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin provid- ing additional dialogue.
The plot, if you can call it that, involves Groucho becom- ing the dictator of a Ruritanian country called Freedonia. Ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) of the neighboring country, Sylvania, wants to control Groucho’s nation and, with the hilarious help of his two spies, Chico and Harpo, the two countries go to war (they have to, says Groucho, because he already paid the rent on the battlefield).
Duck Soup was a masterful comic send-up of dictators,
government, nationalism, war, and politics. Made during the height of the Great Depression and during the same year that Hitler came to power, the film was a welcome and refreshing piece of satire. It’s no coincidence that Mussolini banned the film in Italy.
The Marx Brothers (including Zeppo Marx in his last movie role), Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, Raquel Tor- res, and Edgar Kennedy all gave memorable performances.
Though the funniest of their first five films (Grouchou thought it was certainly their craziest), Duck Soup did poorly with audiences and Paramount didn’t renew the brothers’ contract.
See alsoCOMEDY TEAMS; THE MARX BROTHERS.