In this sequence Pearl Bailey, in her first film role, part-speaks, part-sings the song 'Tired':
Italy is so well known as a dubbing territory - indeed, almost *the* dubbing territory par excellence - that nobody talks much about the role of subtitling, particularly in the first decades of sound. I did not know that Italian distributors of the 1940s ever subtitled songs, but shall be keeping an eye out from now on.
And look at the font! The size of it! The lovely clean lines of it! As the kind poster of the clip, EmeliusBisestile, observes wistfully, and as I have mentioned before, fonts from the 30s and 40s offer a kind of viewing pleasure which is lacking in resubtitled versions with more functional, modern fonts, for all their legibility and fancy dropshadows, etc.
And yet - I feel that such fonts are wonderfully charming, but I am uncomfortably aware that I cannot say what and wherefore. Are there any
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