Mumbling Brando

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

They coulda been a contender. They coulda been somebody more original, instead of being imitations of Marlon Brando, which is who they are not.

A Mumbling Brando will tend to speak in a hesitant drawl, with a few non-verbal grunts thrown in.

Examples of Mumbling Brando include:

Comics

• Alan Moore was sure to include a caricature of Marlon in DR and Quinch Go to Hollywood.

Film

• Done with that very intention in Muppet Treasure Island. During the song "Professional Pirate", many of the pirates list jobs they coulda had. One guy says "he coulda been a contender" in a very familiar sounding voice.
• Jokingly justified in Robin Hood Men in Tights, where the Brando-analogue Don Giovanni has cotton balls in his mouth (which, incidentally, was the reason Brando had his distinctive mumble in The Godfather).
• The movie Ricky1, reviewed by The Angry Video Game Nerd, has a direct spoof of Don Corleone from The Godfather who ONLY talked in grunts.
• Andy Garcia's character in City Island does a particularly silly Brando impression.
• Sleeper - Woody Allen is undergoing a deprogramming - something goes wrong and he assumes the persona of Blanche du Bois from A Streetcar Named Desire. To give them time to sedate him, Diane Keaton plays Stanley Kowalski, seen here.
• Johnny Depp did this in Once Upon a Time In Mexico.

Live Action TV

• The Twilight Zone: In the episode "The Bard", actor "Rocky Rhodes" is a Brando-esque guy played by Burt Reynolds(!).

Music

• Stan Freberg (Creator)'s recording of "Sh-Boom," which ends with a Stella Scream.

Theatre

• Blake Barton in Bells Are Ringing. Ella finds him in a whole Malt Shop filled with Mumbling Brandos lounging around in motorcycle jackets and jeans. She herself enters this place with a leather jacket, flat shoes, and a bunch of marbles which she keeps in her mouth just long enough to introduce herself with a "Hey, Stella Fellaaaa!" Her message for Blake is to stop mumbling and buy a suit if he wants to get the part.

Western Animation

• The Godpigeon from the Goodfeathers segments on Animaniacs; he actually requires a translator (Or, in the shorts when a translator isn't around when he's talking, subtitles).
• Any scene with Space Dad in Megamind, which spoofs Brando's role of Jor-El in Superman as well as the mumble.