Film Score Friday 11/9/01

Our new CDs for November are now available for order!

These are a doubleheader of classic '50s scores for Philip Dunne by Elmer Bernstein and Bernard Herrmann and a renowned "children's" score by Elmer Bernstein:

The World of Henry Orient (1964) is an acclaimed comedy-drama starring Peter Sellers as a New York City concert pianist and lothario whose life is turned upside-down by two teenage girls. Elmer Bernstein's gorgeous score has the distinction of being his second-best for films involving children -- To Kill a Mockingbird having been composed two years earlier. The score is an absolute gem, full of melody and life, evoking the wonders of Manhattan as seen by the teenage protagonists -- and turning aptly poignant when dealing with their troubled home life.

This Elmer Bernstein jewel has never been released in any form and has been on the top of fans' wish-lists for many years. It was planned at one time for release by Rykodisc, but those plans fell through when Rykodisc's soundtrack deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. came to an end. FSM has picked up where Rykodisc left off to bring this classic United Artists soundtrack to admiring fans. As an added bonus, the score was recorded at the legendary Goldwyn Scoring Stage and features crystal-clear sound quality as if it was just recorded yesterday.

https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/detailCD.asp?ID=212

This doubleheader from the films of Philip Dunne features one of Elmer Bernstein's earliest Hollywood masterpieces, plus a rarity from by the one and only Bernard Herrmann.

The View from Pompey's Head (1955) has nothing to do with Mount Vesuvius but is a sensitive drama about racism and class conflict in the modern-day South, starring Richard Egan and Dana Wynter. Bernard Herrmann was unavailable and recommended young Elmer Bernstein to director Philip Dunne; Bernstein, scoring his first romantic film, delivered with sumptuous melodies and the strong, American voice that has always marked his best work.

Blue Denim (1959) is a Golden Age curio -- a black-and-white CinemaScope film about teen pregnancy and abortion where neither word was allowed to be uttered by the characters. Bernard Herrmann was available for Dunne this time and delivered a type of "Baby Vertigo" score for the film's young protagonists. Composed during a rich period of Herrmann's career which included Vertigo, North by Northwest, the first season of The Twilight Zone, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, it sounds like Vertigo crossed with TZ's "Walking Distance." It is a missing link in the Herrmann filmography, with sensitive, heartfelt passages.

Both Pompey's Head and Blue Denim have been restored from the stereo master elements at 20th Century Fox; liner notes are by Herrmann archivist Christopher Husted.

https://secure.filmscoremonthly.com/store/detailCD.asp?ID=211

Follow the links above for sound clips and our trusty ordering mechanism. (Go here for the comprehensive order form to buy anything from our site.) As for shipdates: we have Pompey/Denim in stock now, and we'll have Henry Orient by the end of next week. Please place your order as soon as you can!

Oh, I suppose we can find the space to mention CDs from OTHER labels...

Intrada will be releasing Silver Streak (Henry Mancini, 1976) next February. Also due around that time is a limited 2CD promotional release of Young Sherlock Holmes on behalf of composer Bruce Broughton.

Virgin's soundtrack releases for early 2002 will include Brotherhood of the Wolf (January 8) and Blade II (March 12), both various artists collections.

Universal in Germany has released a John Barry "Lounge Legends" CD of his various songs and themes. For more info, see: http://www.loungelegends.de/navi/hitme/barry1.htm

GNP/Crescendo has released Iron Monkey (James Venable). Crescendo is also running a TV soundtrack sale for the month of November, with numerous Star Trek, Lost in Space and other genre show CDs discounted big time. See www.gnpcrescendo.com

The soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? won "Album of the Year" honors as well as "Single of the Year" (for "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow") at the 35th Annual Country Music Association Awards.

Howard Shore's soundtrack album to Lord of the Rings will run over 70 minutes and come in EIGHT different types of packaging: a leather-bound collector's edition and seven different regular edition covers, each featuring a different character from the film. Visit www.soundtrack.net for a "First Listen" of the album with sound clips.

There's a good joke to be made about these somewhere....

See the recent interview with longtime Hollywood session musician Liliane Covington

From: Originalthinkr@aol.com

Liliane Covington seems to confirm the image formed of Dimitri Tiomkin, by Miklos Rozsa's autobiography, A Double Life; about Tiomkin's less-than-warm personality and tireless efforts as a self-promoter; Miss Covington is more circumspect as to her opinion of Tiomkin the composer, though I suspect that it's fairly close to that of Tiomkin the man.

Ah, he was Russian...what can you do?

re: John Barry indicating he might want to score the next Bond film, as we reported last Friday

From: James Ollinger <jaoll@yahoo.com>

I agree with your comment that the last few Bond movies have been so awful that John Barry's scores wouldn't work with the movie. So why bring the two JB's back together again?

1. Because I can love the score even if the movie is no good. Look at Moonraker, King Kong, or My Life. The list is endless. If Barry scores the next Bond, I'll skip the movie, but I'll be first in line to get the OST.

2. It would be interesting to see what he does with it. The man who scored Thunderball and The Ipcress File is a very different person from the man who scored The Specialist and Mercury Rising: would scoring another dumb-action flick force Barry to go back to something more energetic and bright than the scores he's given us lately? Or would another one of his recent thick, dense, melancholy scores give Bond a much needed depth and drama that's lacking on screen? And will we be able to tell this score apart from anything else he's written since Dances with Wolves? There was a time when I could tell his scores apart not just from the melodies, but from the arrangements as well. Now I struggle just to identify the melody. Was that from My Life or was it from Enigma? I can't tell anymore...

I would LOVE if it Barry did the next Bond film -- my point was only that the Bond films have degenerated into such noisy, idiotic commercials, I don't see how his classy, thoughtful style would work with them anymore.

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