Monologue: "As Long As He Needs Me"
Monday, October 28, 2013 at 2:30PM [This article was originally published in 2010 but we're adapting/rewriting it a bit for our celebration of the 1968 film year as we march towards the latest Supporting Actress Smackdown.]
1968's Best Picture Oliver! is commonly disparaged these days as an Oscar blunder and a typical example of the bloat that eventually derailed the musical genre. Musicals were big business back then and like animated family features now or action films roughly a decade ago, the running times got more and more padded. It's a common hubris problem for whatever genre is the reigning box office champion. 1968 featured at least four big ticket musicals -- Funny Girl, Finian's Rainbow, Star! and Oliver! -- and they all clock in well over 2 hours with all but one of them tipping over to be closer to 3 hours in length. Combine this problem with the critical endurance of 2001: A Space Odyssey's legend and add in that six Oscar haul and what do you get? Critical animosity. Oscar enthusiasts are familiar with this phenom and they know that winning the big prize isn't always good for your place in film history.
So Oliver! will have to settle for its place in personal histories and in mine it looms large. (It's weird that as a child I had such a long attention span. As an adult I get antsy once you've past the 110 minute mark but wee Nat couldn't get enough of all 153 minutes of this musicalized Oliver Twist whenever it played on television.) It probably won't surprise you to hear that literally every one of my favorite scenes was focused on Nancy, the prostitute with the heart of gold (Shani Wallis).
To this day, I'm confused as to why she didn't get any attention in Oscar's Supporting Actress race!
Oliver! may well have been the first movie to unlock my actressexuality. I was obsessed with Nancy's sadness, her maternal instincts, her slightly forced joy, her ginger hair, her heaving bosom. Okay, yeah, and maybe I danced in front of the television and got really into that "I'd Do Anything" number where all those smudge faced orphan boys declare their love for her. What of it?
The number that haunts in the memory and that I'm absolutely sure I didn't understand as a kid is "As Long As He Needs Me". Nancy has just been violently back-handed by her man Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) because she doesn't want to go along with his criminal plans. She exits the scene humiliated as her adoring orphans look on stunned. Once outside of this den of thieves she watches her beloved bully of a boyfriend walking away down the street and tears fill her eyes.
Not all ballads double as monologues but this one sure does. Wallis even begins the number talk-singing.
As long as he needs me.
Oh yes he does need me.
In spite of what you see, I'm sure that he needs me.
As her song progresses, the talk-singing gives way to a fuller musical performance but Wallis's vocal style is mostly subdued. She's not pulling out any vocal pyrotechnics to distract you with her pipes. She's playing the emotions more than the notes.
Who else would love him still
When they been used so ill?
He knows I always will as long as he needs me.
I miss him so much when he is gone but when he's near me I don't let on.
The way I feel inside... The love I have to hide... But hell, I got my pride as long as he needs me.
What's fascinating about the structure of the song (and the detailing of Wallis's performance) is that it's both interior monologue and plea for audience understanding. As such it's more in keeping with stage traditions than the cinema where the fourth wall is more sacrosanct. Nancy's monologue keeps swinging back and forth between addressing us (notice all the questions and the "yous" and the "people") and dark retreats into her romantic interior spaces.
At this point in the song Nancy hesitates for the last time as if she's still unsure if she should keep justifying her love or start carelessly shouting it. Her final excuses begin to emerge, the abused victim apologizing for the abuser. (I didn't understand the adult psychology of this at all as a child). Once she's gotten this out of the way, the belting commences.
He doesn't say the things he should. He acts the way he thinks he should. But all the same, I'll play the game his way.
As long as he needs me, I know where I must be. I'll cling on steadfastly as long as he needs me. As long as life is long. I'll love him... right or wrong. And somehow I'll be strong, as long as he needs me.
After several of these belted phrases the masochistic sadness of the song really sinks in. It's a heartbreaker. And Nancy knows she's broken.
There'll be no turning back for Nancy once she's uttered these last rationalizations. She'll sing her love for this man until it's the death of her. It's quite obvious that it will be
If you are lonely, than you will know... when someone needs you, you love them so.
I won't betray his trust, though people say I must. I've got to stay true just.
As long as he needs me.
The climactic lines are sung in far away profile and the song ends with Nancy's back to the camera as she walks slowly away. It's an incredibly sad exit, made more powerful by the use of the forgotten movie grammar of the long shot. Not every scene should be in close-up. Sometimes you have to let your actors walk away, diminished.
This film clip is strangely still not available on YouTube though some other Oliver! numbers are so here are two other renditions of the song from the immortal Judy Garland in 1964 (which predates the movie version) through American Idol's Melinda Doolittle in 2007...
I include the American Idol clip because, though Doolittle's voice amazes, it's sung without any emotional understanding of the song's content (the frequent bane of our modern karaoke culture which prefers vocal pyrotechnics to insight). Like "Cabaret" after it, "As Long as He Needs Me" is a frequently misunderstood standard. The song is a defiant declaration of purpose, yes, but its mostly a terrible and desperate rationalization. If you don't sell both, you're just singing notes.
Reader Comments (20)
Oliver Twist is my favourite Dickens book, but Nancy is the only character in it with more than one dimension (though that's in good part because Dickens' writing style leans heavily on memorable caricature), so it's an obvious way to be a standout role. Shani Wallis is the best thing about the film, and the most obviously superior element to David Lean's version (where Kay Walsh is just too old for the role).
I worked with one of the dancers from Chitty Chitty which was filming at the same time in London as Oliver. There were some financial hijinks associated with Oliver and it was (according to her) designed to be a financial and perhaps critical flop a la The Producers. Rehearsal schedules were over long (the big number with a cast of thousands was rehearsed for 3 weeks before filming) with unnecessary costs added to bloat the budget. Chitty, on the other hand was supposed to be the big money maker, Oscar potential, film and the Chitty people expected to be the big winners. In the end, Oliver became a hit and Chitty less so both critically and commercially. They also messed up the contracts for the dancers on Oliver who got paid triple what they were supposed too (perhaps on purpose?) and the producers didn't make as much in the end as they would have had they not messed with the money. I have no reason to doubt her as she was a well regarded pro in Britain and spoke openly about this with no other pro questioning her.
Today it seems strange that despite Academy love for OLIVER! Wallis didn't receive a nomination for her work here....but, after all, I'm the one who think that Oliver Reed should have won Best Supporting Actor for his Bill Sykes...even if many people despise his perf
Wallis, Walsh, Cherie Lunghi, Wonderful Okonedo, Leanne Rowe...Nancy I remember more...
This lack of a nomination has always baffled me. She's a hooker with a heart of gold, she sings, she does something else that would require a spoiler alert. Long suffering "wife," big showstopping ballad, around Oscar's favorite age (she was 35 when the film was released), starring in the Best Picture winner. On paper, this is a homerun-what was missing? There are few performances that hit this may of Oscar's checklist that have been snubbed.
*SPOILERS* Nancy's storyline ended up being my worst childhood movie moment. It still upsets me.
Eurocheese - same here. (SPOILER-ISH) Nancy's fate was maybe the single most traumatic movie watching experience of my childhood. I've watched the movie many times since, and I'm always hit with that same feeling of helpless, shocked disbelief. An extremely powerful, upsetting moment.
I love OLIVER! and while there were certainly other, better movies released in 1968, no one will ever convince me this was a bad Best Picture choice.
Eurocheese & Roark- I was destroyed by that too. In fact, one of my few complaints about the movie/musical (and really, the book) is how it is almost too hard as an audience member to get into to the youthful, joyous singing numbers after that.
Oliver! is a good movie and I would rate it #1 against its competition. How it became the most notorious musical to win is beyond me, especially in the same decade where My Fair Lady (Sorry, never was in love with it) beat Mary Poppins and Dr. Strangelove.
Look up Nadia Turner's American Idol performance. Way better than Melinda's.
CMG: Most notorious? Maybe when stacked against 2001 actually being a Best Picture nominee. Otherwise? No. It's Gigi that probably should be the "most infamous". It's probably nowhere near as literally "bloated" as Oliver!, but it's easy to read as a subtextual argument for some pretty creepy stuff on a sexual level ("Thank heavens, for little girls" (!) "for they grow up in the most delightful way" (!!?)) and somehow manages to make a 110 minute movie feel repetitive and overlong.
I confused Shani Wallis and Sally Ann Howes for years when I was a kid thinking one was in the other's film but since both were films I enjoyed it was no big thing. Rewatched Oliver! about six months ago and Shani is wonderful. A shame she came along at the end of the musical cycle. The movie could have been tightened up a bit but is still highly entertaining.
There's just no comparison of the two clips. The song is a beaten down woman's lament or at least in present terminology a person with severe co-dependent issues.
Judy is living that number through every phrase, you see her thinking, feeling and weighing what she's saying, even stealing glimpses at the camera to pull us in, which was why she never sang a song the same way twice. Of course she was the queen of interpretative singers but most of the song pluggers of those days both women & men approached the songs as a way to convey emotions and meanings through the words to their audience. That continued to a lesser extent in major music culture up to the 70's with Linda Ronstadt who was quoted when asked about her interpretations that she sticks to what the music demands.
A great many of the singers now influenced by Whitney Houston, who possessed a beautiful voice but often settled for volume over depth will overwhelm a song with projection and audiences conditioned as they are too that standard will settle for it. Melinda Doolittle has a fine instrument but no nuance, with all the emotion she put into it she could have been singing Zippity Doo Dah and giving the same performance.
Loved the Okonedo perf as well as Hardy. Great production.
I saw Betty Buckley (pre AA) do Nancy on stage when I was very, very small. Its the best role in the show and book.
@Volvagia--Heh. Love Gigi. I've heard that criticism before but frankly that seems like such a deliberate misreading to me that I have a hard time taking it seriously. My parents used to sing me that song when I was little.
Not in love with Oliver! I'm sorry to say. I think in part it's a Dickinson thing--his miserable novel kind of robs the musical genre of its transcendence. Plus child protagonists are only fun when they're doing more than being cute, which I don't think Oliver ever moves beyond.
Lol Dickens* not Dickinson. Shows how much I like him, I suppose.
Sure 2001 is now a critically acclaimed masterpiece - but Oliver is still an enjoyable film with brilliant choreography, wonderful acting and a very memorable music score.
Remember a lot of people complain about the Sound of Music winning Best Picture in 1965 and How Green was my Valley beating Citizen Kane.
Best Picture winners need to be evaluated in the context of the era they won in.
Oliver won Best Picture because of Reed, Reed, Reed. He was an institution and legend. It was pay back time.
Note - Olver! on Broadway lost all it's nominations except for music and lyrics. Olive!r
was viewed as the British trying to step on the American musical formula. The musical winner that year A Funny Thing........
Oliver! is notorious because it seemed in hindsight a real relic of the era (but let's remember Broadway Original Soundtracks were the top-selling music of that time just as much as The Beatles) when things seemed to really be changing into a dirtier, more cynical kind of moviemaking. I mean, Midnight Cowboy won the year after and while In the Heat of the Night probably shouldn't have won in its category, it was certainly a much tougher movie and represented a change in Hollywood. So it is kind of strange to think Oliver! is in between those two movies but, personally, I think it is a good film. It is not like 2001 was nominated in its category as others have said. The Academy really did not do itself any favors in what it selected. Reminds me of 2008 when the strength of that year was really not represented at the Oscars and it made it an easy win for Slumdog Millionaire and based on what its competition was, I cannot really complain about it winning even if there were 5 movies I'd rather have had in all of the Best Picture slots.
Oh man, I loved this movie as a kid (who couldn't identify?) but then didn't watch it for many years. I too am utterly baffled at how Shani Wallis missed a Supporting Actress Nom. I mean, Kay Medford? Did she even have anything to do? Shani was giving it her ALL.
In fact, I even have two Shani Wallis LPs on my ipod. I used my friends LP player that converts to digital and put them on the computer. They are very scratchy but it's all I've got. You can get the vinyl copies of her two albums if you're lucky. I wonder if they've been released in the UK. Let me check Amazon UK... Nope, still only on Vinyl. The two I have are Look To Love and As Long As He Needs Me. Now why hasn't some enterprising British company combined the two and released them on CD? No idea:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_sabc?url=search-alias%3Daps&pageMinusResults=1&suo=1383071306147#/ref=sr_nr_i_3?rh=k%3Ashani+wallis%2Ci%3Apopular&keywords=shani+wallis&ie=UTF8&qid=1383071309
I found the full film version of the song "As long as He needs Me" on Daily Motion -
not on youtube. Worth a look...
My theory is that Shani Wallis was being campaigned as Lead Actress rather than Supporting Actress. She ended up not being nominated but ironically she was the one chance the Academy had to break the Hepburn/Striesand tie and the Academy blew it.
Oliver! winning BP against Lion in Winter seems to evoke the same reaction as Titanic winning against LA Confidential 29 years later.