SMALL SCREEN, BIG SCORES: PART FIVE

By Scott Bettencourt

ADDIE AND THE KING OF HEARTS - Arthur B. Rubinstein

AMELIA EARHART - David Shire
Susan Clark as the famously vanished aviatrix

THE ASHES OF MRS. REASONER - Lyn Murray

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - Ron Goodwin
2:09 of score on the Chandos CD Drake 400; NBC version of the classic fairy tale, with George C. Scott as Beast, Trish Van Devere (aka Mrs. Scott) as beauty, Bernard Lee as Beauty's dad

BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR - Dick Hyman
PBS version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, adapted and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, with Shelley Duvall, Veronica Cartwright, Bud Cort, and Dennis Christopher

BRENDA STARR - Lalo Schifrin
Jill St. John as the courageous girl reporter

CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS - Elmer Bernstein
1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Series (Dramatic Underscore) for Chapter 8; sprawling family saga from the Taylor Caldwell novel, with Richard Jordan in a rare lead role and co-starring Patty Duke, John Carradine, Henry Fonda, John Houseman, Burl Ives, Jane Seymour, Robert Vaughn

DARK VICTORY - Billy Goldenberg
1975/1976 Emmy nominee Music Composition For a Special; remake of the classic Bette Davis romantic tearjerker, with Elizabeth Montgomery and Anthony Hopkins

DAWN: PORTRAIT OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY - Fred Karlin
The Brady Bunch's Eve Plumb is the eponymous runaway; directed by Randal Kleiser

DEATH AT LOVE HOUSE - Laurence Rosenthal
Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson investigate the life of a dead screen idol; co-starring Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour, John Carradine

THE DISPLACED PERSON - Bill Conti
Horton Foote adapts a Flannery O'Connor story for PBS, with Irene Worth, John Houseman and Samuel L. Jackson

DYNASTY - Gil Melle
Frontier drama created by James Michener, no relation to the classic Aaron Spelling nighttime soap; with Sarah Miles, Stacy Keach, Amy Irving

ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN - John Barry
1:26 on the Silva CD The Classic John Barry; acclaimed mini-series with Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann as the Roosevelts; directed by Daniel Petrie. The stars, director and composer would later re-unite for the film The Betsy

THE ELEPHANTS' GRAVEYARD - Carl Davis

THE ENTERTAINER - Marvin Hamlisch
Remake of the John Osborne play (and film), with Jack Lemmon in the Olivier role and Ray Bolger as his father

FAREWELL TO MANZANARA - Paul Chihara
Drama about the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II

FRANCIS GARY POWERS: THE TRUE STORY OF THE U-2 SPY INCIDENT
Lee Majors as the U.S. spy plane pilot captured in Russia; directed by Delbert Mann

FUTURE COP - Billy Goldenberg
Cop Ernest Borgnine gets an android partner; became a short-lived series

GEMINI MAN - Billy Goldenberg
Another attempt to do The Invisible Man as a TV series, this time with Ben Murphy; two episodes were strung together into a syndicated TV movie called Riding With Death, which became a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode

GOTHIC DRAMAS - Ennio Morricone
Score CD on DRG

HELTER SKELTER - Billy Goldenberg
1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Special; Steve Railsback as Charles Manson (a role originally offered to Martin Scorsese), George DiCenzo as prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who later co-wrote the true crime book of the same name; directed by Tom Gries

HIGH RISK - Billy Goldenberg
Ex-circus performers plot a heist; directed by Sam O'Steen

HOLIDAY HOOKERS - Riz Ortolani
Italian comedy with Ernest Borgnine and Robert Alda

HOW TO BREAK UP A HAPPY DIVORCE - Nelson Riddle
Comedy reminiscent of The Awful Truth, with Barbara Eden and Hal Linden, directed by Jerry Paris

JAMES DEAN - Billy Goldenberg
Stephen McHattie as Dean; co-starring Brooke Adams, Candy Clark, Amy Irving

THE KEEGANS - Paul Chihara
A reporter tries to clear his football player brother of a murder charge; directed by John Badham

KINGSTON - Leonard Rosenman
Raymond Burr as an investigative reporter; became a short-lived series, Kingston: Confidential

LANIGAN'S RABBI - Leonard Rosenman
Based on Harry Kemelman's mystery novels, starring Art Carney as the cop and Bruce Solmon as the rabbi; became a short-lived series

THE LAST OF MRS. LINCOLN - Lyn Murray
PBS production with Julie Harris as President Lincoln's widow, Robby Benson as her son

THE LINDBEGH KIDNAPPING CASE - Billy Goldenberg
Cliff De Young as Lindbergh, Anthony Hopkins as Bruno Hauptmann; co-starring Martin Balsam, Dean Jagger, Keenan Wynn, Walter Pidgeon, Joseph Cotten

LIZA'S PIONEER DIARY - Michael Kamen

THE LONELIEST RUNNER - David Rose
Michael Landon wrote and directed this autobiographical story of a teenage bedwetter

LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY'S BABY - Charles Bernstein
Sequel to Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, with Stephen McHattie as the grownup baby, Patty Duke as Rosemary, George Maharis in the John Cassavetes role, Ray Milland in the Sidney Blackmer role, and Ruth Gordon reprising her Oscar-winning role as Minnie. Directed by Sam O'Steen (who edited the original film), wonderful photography by John A. Alonzo (Chinatown), but otherwise no good. Levin went on to write his own sequel, Son of Rosemary, which sadly was no better.

THE LOVE BOAT - Charles Fox
TV movie that inspired the series, but with none of the familiar crew members

MCNAUGHTON'S DAUGHTER - David Shire
Susan Clark as a district attorney

THE MILLION DOLLAR RIP-OFF - Vic Mizzy
Freddie Prinze plots to steal millions from the Chicago Transit Authority; story co-written by William Devane

MOST WANTED - Patrick Williams
Pilot movie for the Quinn Martin series about an LAPD task force hunting down the most wanted criminals

NIGHTMARE IN BADHAM COUNTY - Charles Bernstein
Two UCLA girls end up in a Southern prison; released overseas with nudity and other not-ready-for-prime-time material

THE NOVEMBER PLAN - Nelson Riddle

ONE OF MY WIVES IS MISSING - Billy Goldenberg
James Franciscus reports his wife missing to detective Jack Klugman, but Elizabeth Ashley mysteriously claims to be the missing wife; adapted by Peter Stone from the Robert Thomas play Trap For a Single Man, directed by Glenn Jordan; remade in 1986 as Vanishing Act, with Mike Farrell, Elliot Gould and Margot Kidder in the leads, adapted by Levinson & Link, score by Ken Wannberg

THE OREGON TRAIL - David Shire
Western family drama with Rod Taylor, directed by Boris Sagal; became a very short-lived (one month) series

PANACHE - Frank DeVol
Swashbuckler starring Rene Auberjonois, with Amy Irving and Michael O'Keefe in supporting roles; directed by Gary Nelson (The Black Hole)

PERILOUS VOYAGE - Gil Melle
Michael Parks as a South American (!) guerilla holding a ship full of people hostage; co-starring Lee Grant, William Shatner

RETURN TO EARTH - Billy Goldenberg
Cliff Robertson as Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon

RICH MAN, POOR MAN - Alex North
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; 1975/1976 Emmy winner Music Composition For a Series; popular mini-series from the Irwin Shaw novel, with Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte as brothers

SERPICO: THE DEADLY GAME - Elmer Bernstein
Pilot movie for the short-lived TV series, with David Birney replacing Al Pacino as the famous undercover cop

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK - Richard Rodney Bennett
Roger Moore (!) is Holmes, Patrick Macnee is Watson, John Huston is Moriarty, Charlotte Rampling (!!) is Irene Adler; directed by Boris Sagal

SMASH-UP ON INTERSTATE 5 - Bill Conti
Disaster movie about a highway pileup, from the book Expressway by Elleston Trevor (author of the Quiller spy novels and The Flight of the Phoenix)

THE STORY OF DAVID - Laurence Rosenthal
Timothy Bottoms as David (you know, from the Bible), co-starring Anthony Quayle and Jane Seymour

SYBIL - Leonard Rosenman
1976/1977 Emmy winner Music Composition - Special (Dramatic Underscore); Sally Field's breakthrough performance as the woman with multiple personality disorder, with Joanne Woodward (who played the other side of the fence in The Three Faces of Eve) as her therapist; directed by Daniel Petrie

21 HOURS AT MUNICH - Laurence Rosenthal
Docudrama on the terrorist murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics; with William Holden, Shirley Knight, Franco Nero, Richard Basehart, Anthony Quayle; shot by Jost Vacano (Das Boot, RoboCop)

VICTORY AT ENTEBBE - Charles Fox
One of the two competing TV movies on the rescue of Israeli hostages in Uganda; with Julius Harris (Tee-Hee from Live and Let Die) as Idi Amin, Anthony Hopkins as Rabin, Burt Lancaster as Peres, and Kirk Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Hayes, Linda Blair

WANTED: THE SUNDANCE WOMAN - Fred Karlin
Another Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spinoff, this time with Katharine Ross recreating her movie role as Etta Place

WHERE ADAM STOOD - Carl Davis
British drama starring Alan Bates, adapted by Dennis Potter from naturalist Edmund Gosse's autobiography

WIDOW - Billy Goldenberg
Michael Learned must go on with life after her husband dies; directed by J. Lee Thompson

WOMAN OF THE YEAR - Fred Karlin
Remake of the Tracy-Hepburn classic, with Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor

MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SERIES

John Cacavas - Kojak (A Question of Answers)
Alex North - Rich Man, Poor Man
David Rose - Little House on the Prairie (Remember Me, Parts 1 & 2)
Jack Urbont - Bronk (Next of Kin)

MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A SPECIAL

Cy Coleman - Gypsy in My Soul
Billy Goldenberg - Dark Victory
Jerry Goldsmith - Babe
Jack Urbont - Supercops

ALEXANDER: THE OTHER SIDE OF DAWN - Fred Karlin
Sequel to Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, focusing on her male prostitute chum Leigh McCloskey

THE AMAZING HOWARD HUGHES - Laurence Rosenthal
Tommy Lee Jones as Hughes, Tovah Feldshuh as Katharine Hepburn

AU PLAISIR DE DIEU - Antoine Duhamel

BARNABY AND ME - Brian May
Australian TV movie with Sid Caesar and Juliet Mills

BERGEVAL PERE ET FILS - Georges Delerue

BILLY: PORTRAIT OF A STREET KID - Fred Karlin
LeVar Burton as a child of the ghetto

THE BLACK KNIGHT - Ron Grainer

CHRISTMAS MIRACLE IN CAUFIELD, U.S.A. - Fred Karlin
True story of a coal mine cave-in, with Kurt Russell and John Carradine

A CIRCLE OF CHILDREN - Nelson Riddle
Jane Alexander as a teacher at a school for disturbed children

CONTRACT ON CHERRY STREET - Jerry Goldsmith
Score CD from Prometheus CD Club; New York cop drama was Goldsmith's last TV movie and Frank Sinatra's first; the score is a delightful mix of Chinatown and Capricorn One, the CD is highly recommended

THE DEADLIEST SEASON - Dick Hyman
Michael Moriarty and Meryl Streep (!) in a drama about professional hockey

THE DEATH OF RICHIE - Fred Karlin
Docudrama with Ben Gazzara and Eileen Brennan as the parents of troubled teen Robby Benson; directed by Paul Wendkos

DON'T PUSH, I'LL CHARGE WHEN I'M READY - Lyn Murray
World War II comedy

ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN: THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS - John Barry
1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Special (Dramatic Underscore); sequel miniseries with Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann recreating their roles as the Roosevelts

ESCAPE FROM BOGEN COUNTY - Charles Bernstein

FANTASY ISLAND - Laurence Rosenthal
Pilot movie for the series

THE GATHERING - John Barry
A family reunites to spend Christmas with the dying patriarch (Ed Asner); directed by Randal Kleiser; a sequel was made two years later, without Asner, Kleiser or Barry

THE GIRL CALLED HATTER FOX - Fred Karlin
Doctor Ronny Cox treats an Indian girl; teleplay by Darryl Ponicsan

GOOD AGAINST EVIL - Lalo Schifrin
Unsold pilot with a writer and an exorcist battling Satanists, co-starring Dan O'Herlihy and Kim Cattrall; written by Jimmy Sangster, directed by Paul Wendkos

THE GREATEST THING THAT ALMOST HAPPENED - David Shire
Family drama with James Earl Jones and Jimmie Walker

GREEN EYES - Fred Karlin
Vet Paul Winfield returns to Vietnam to find his orphaned son; co-written by David Seltzer

HALLOWEEN WITH THE NEW ADDAMS FAMILY - Vic Mizzy
The original Addams Family cast returns

HAUS DER FRAUEN - Wojciech Kilar

HAVING BABIES II - Fred Karlin
Sequel to the 1976 TV movie (scored by Earle Hagen); a second sequel aired in 1978 (scored by Lee Holdridge), followed by a short-lived series

THE HEMINGWAY PLAY - Lee Holdridge
2:44 on the Varese CD Music of Lee Holdridge

THE HOSTAGE HEART - Fred Karlin
Terrorists commandeer an emergency room where a millionaire is having heart surgery

A HOUSE FULL OF MEN - Ron Grainer

THE HUNTED LADY - Laurence Rosenthal
Donna Mills as a framed undercover cop seeking to clear her name

IN THE MATTER OF KAREN ANN QUINLAN - Bill Conti
Docudrama with Brian Keith and Piper Laurie as the parents of a comatose girl

INTIMATE STRANGERS - Fred Karlin
Dennis Weaver mistreats wife Sally Struthers; co-starring Tyne Daly, Larry Hagman, Melvyn Douglas

JESUS OF NAZARETH - Maurice Jarre
Score CD on RCA (Italy); co-written by Anthony Burgess, directed by Franco Zeffirelli; with Robert Powell as the Prince of Peace, co-starring Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, Claudia Cardinale, Ian Holm, Olivia Hussey, James Earl Jones, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Fernando Rey, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, Peter Ustinov, Michael York

KILL ME IF YOU CAN - Bill Conti
Alan Alda as Death Row inmate Caryl Chessman, with Talia Shire as his lawyer

KISS OF DEATH - Carl Davis
BBC drama directed by Mike Leigh

LA MER PROMISE - Vladimir Cosma

LA NAUFRAGE DE MONTE-CRISTO - Georges Delerue

THE LAST THREE DAYS - Nicola Piovani

LE LOUP BLANC - Vladimir Cosma

LE POINT DE MIRE - Georges Delerue

LEKCJA ANATOMII - Wojciech Kilar

L'ENLEVEMENT DU REGENT - LE CHEVALIER D'HARMENTAL - Vladimir Cosma

LES COLLECTIONNEUR DES CERVEAUX - Vladimir Cosma

THE LIFE AND ASSASSINATION OF THE KINGFISH - Fred Karlin
Docudrama with Ed Asner as Huey Long

LITTLE LADIES OF THE NIGHT - Jerry Fielding
Cops David Soul and Louis Gossett Jr. try to help teen prostitutes

LUCAN - Fred Karlin
Kevin Brophy as a boy raised by wolves, co-starring Stockard Channing and Ned Beatty; became a series

MAN FROM ATLANTIS - Fred Karlin
Patrick Duffy as the titular Atlantean; became a series

THE MAN WITH THE POWER - Patrick Williams
Unsold pilot about an alien's human son with special powers; co-starring future Star Trek actors Persis Khambatta and John de Lancie (de Lancie was in a remarkable number of TV movies during this period)

MARY JANE HARPER CRIED LAST NIGHT - Billy Goldenberg
Disturbed mother Susan Dey abuses her little girl; written by Joanna Lee, who would probably like us all to forget her role as Tanna in Plan 9 From Outer Space

MARY WHITE - Leonard Rosenman
True story of a writer (Ed Flanders) and his relationship with his daughter (Kathleen Beller)

MINSTREL MAN - Fred Karlin
1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Special, Special Musical Material; period drama about two black brothers in a minstrel show

MURDER AT THE WORLD SERIES - John Cacavas
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen

MURDER IN PEYTON PLACE - Laurence Rosenthal
Sequel to the classic 60s nighttime soap

NERO WOLFE - Leonard Rosenman
Thayer David as Rex Stout's hefty detective, co-starring Brooke Adams and Anne Baxter; from the Stout novel The Doorbell Rang

PINE CANYON IS BURNING - Lee Holdridge
Kent McCord as an L.A. fireman

THE POSSESSED - Leonard Rosenman
Ex-priest James Farentino investigates Satanic doings at a girls' school, including the fiery death of lecherous teacher Harrison Ford -- the release of Star Wars mere weeks later insured that Ford would be doing no more MOWs like this

THE PRINCE OF CENTRAL PARK - Arthur B. Rubinstein
Two children hide out in Central Park; Evan Rhodes' source novel was later remade as a flop Broadway musical and as a 2000 feature with Kathleen Turner and Harvey Keitel

THE QUINNS - John Scott
A family of New York firefighters; directed by Daniel Petrie

RAID ON ENTEBBE - David Shire
Score CD on Film Score Monthly; 1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Special; the second and more acclaimed of the Entebbe docudramas; directed by Irvin Kirschner, with Yaphet Kotto (like Victory at Entebbe's Idi Amin, Julius Harris, a Live and Let Die alumnus) as Idi Amin, Peter Finch as Rabin, plus Martin Balsam, Horst Bucholz, Sylvia Sidney, Jack Warden, Charles Bronson, Eddie Constantine, Robert Loggia, James Woods

RANSOM FOR ALICE! - David Rose
Gene Barry tries to break a teen prostitution ring in turn of the century Seattle

RELENTLESS - John Cacavas
State trooper Will Sampson chases robbers into the Arizona mountains; from a Brian Garfield (Death Wish) novel

THE RHINEMANN EXCHANGE - Michel Colombier
Miniseries adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel, with Stephen Collins, Lauren Hutton, Jose Ferrer, John Huston, Roddy McDowall

ROOTS - Gerald Fried, Quincy Jones
CD on A&M; 1976/1977 Emmy winner Music Composition - Series (Part 1, Jones & Fried), 1976/1977 Emmy nominee Music Composition - Series (Part 8, Fried); milestone miniseries with LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, Maya Angelou, Ed Asner, O.J. Simpson, Louis Gossett Jr., Vic Morrow, Lesile Uggams, Scatman Crothers, George Hamilton, Richard Roundtree, Ben Vereen, and many many others

THE SEAGULL - Nicola Piovani
Italian TV version of the Chekhov classic

A SENSITIVE, PASSIONATE MAN - Bill Conti
The marriage of David Janssen and Angie Dickinson is endangered by his alcoholism; I can't help it, that title just cracks me up

SEVENTH AVENUE - Elmer Bernstein, Nelson Riddle
Miniseries about New York's garment trade, co-starring Jane Seymour, Anne Archer, Ray Milland, Paul Sorvino

79 PARK AVENUE - Nelson Riddle
Mini-series from a Harold Robbins novel, starring Lesley Anne-Warren

SEX AND THE MARRIED WOMAN - Gerald Fried
Suburban sex comedy directed by Jack Arnold (It Came From Outer Space)

SOMETHING FOR JOEY - David Shire
3:13 on the Bay Cities CD David Shire at the Movies; true life drama with Marc Singer as a football player and his relationship with his dying kid brother; written by Jerry McNeely

SPECTRE - John Cameron
Unsold Gene Roddenbery pilot with Robert Culp and Gig Young as the Holmes & Watson of the supernatural world; co-starring John Hurt, Gordon Jackson, and the inevitable Majel Barrett. Filmed in England, directed by Clive Donner (What's New Pussycat); pity it didn't become a series, as it was one of Roddenberry's more intriguing efforts (and Robert Culp is one of the all-time coolest TV actors)

THE SPELL - Gerald Fried
Carrie ripoff about an overweight teenage girl with special powers

SST: DEATH FLIGHT - John Cacavas
Airborne disaster story; two years later, SST director David Lowell Rich made the similar The Concorde: Airport '79

STONESTREET: WHO KILLED THE CENTERFOLD MODEL? - Patrick Williams
Private eye Barbara Eden goes undercover as a porn actress; and who says there were no good roles for women?

THE STORYTELLER - David Shire, Hal Mooney
Levinson & Link script with Martin Balsam as a writer whose teleplay inspires a young boy to commit a fatal arson

STRONGER THAN THE SUN - Howard Blake
British nuclear plant drama similar to Silkwood, directed by Michael Apted

TESTIMONY OF TWO MEN - Michel Colombier, Gerald Fried
Taylor Caldwell novel becomes a post-Civil War miniseries co-starring Ralph Bellamy, Ray Milland and wiliam shatner

THE 3,000 MILE CHASE - Elmer Bernstein
Cliff De Young has to escort crime witness Glenn Ford across the U.S. to a trial

THE TRIAL OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD - Fred Karlin
"What if" story putting Oswald on trial for JFK's assassination, based on the Broadway play

THE WAR BETWEEN THE TATES - John Barry
Marital drama from the Alison Lurie novel, with Richard Crenna and Elizabeth Ashley

WASHINGTON: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS - Dominic Frontiere, Richard Markowitz
Score LP on ABC Records; John Ehrlichman's novel The Company becomes a fictionalized miniseries about Watergate; with Jason Robards as the Nixon figure, Andy Griffith as the LBJ, plus Cliff Robertson, Stefanie Powers, Robert Vaughn, John Houseman

THE WORLD OF DARKNESS - Fred Karlin

YESTERDAY'S CHILD - Dominic Frontiere
Fourteen years after a little girl's disappearance, a young woman comes to the parents (Shirley Jones & Ross Martin) and claims to be their daughter

YOUNG JOE, THE FORGOTTEN KENNEDY - John Barry
Peter Strauss as the oldest Kennedy son

MUSIC COMPOSITION - SERIES (DRAMATIC UNDERSCORE)

Elmer Bernstein - Captains and the Kings (Chapter 8)
Dick De Benedictis - Police Story (Monster Manor)
Gerald Fried - Roots (Part 8)
Quincy Jones, Gerald Fried - Roots (Part 1)
Jack Urbont - Bronk (The Vigilante)

MUSIC COMPOSITION - SPECIAL (DRAMATIC UNDERSCORE)

John Barry - Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
Billy Goldenberg - Helter Skelter
Fred Karlin - Minstrel Man
Leonard Rosenman, Alan & Marilyn Bergman - Sybil
David Shire - Raid on Entebbe

SPECIAL MUSICAL MATERIAL
For a song (which must have both music and lyrics), a theme for a series, or special material for a variety program providing that the first usage of this material was written expressly for television (no award given this year)

Bill Dyer, Billy Goldenberg - An Evening With Diana Ross
Larry Grossman - America Salutes Richard Rodgers: The Sound of His Music
Jerrold Immel - How the West Was Won (theme)
Fred Karlin, Meg Karlin - Minstrel Man (song: "Early in the Morning")
Morton Stevens, Hermine Hilton - Police Woman (Killer Cowboys; song: "Leave Me Tomorrow")

SUBJECT: Fred Karlin's DEATH, BE NOT PROUD
 
I thought the Donald Wyre TV-movie of John Gunther's DEATH, BE NOT PROUD had been all but forgotten; I'm glad that FSM keeps the memory of these (and other) titles alive through the DAILY columns. This film IS a tear-jerker, but it is--like the memoir on which it is based -- a moving study of how tragic, fateful circumstances can sharpen our awareness of the meaning of life. It's a "small" film that captures post-WW II period detail convincingly, and the performances by Arthur Hill and Jane Alexander are deeply felt. Robby Benson, often cloying as an actor, is free of his trademark mannerisms here; the performance is genuine and very fine. Fred Karlin's music supports the film's emotional force but never overstates or sentimentalizes the drama; it is one of my favorite scores.

FROM: "Todd Stites"

SUBJECT: Thank you for your TV Movie Lists
 
Thank you for flooding my mundane life with wonderful memories from my childhood. I was honestly a little frightened to realize how many of the telefilms from the early 1970's I had watched on their first run. Maybe I should have listened to my mother more often to "Go outside and play!!!) But if I had, I would have missed Jerry Goldsmith's score for A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (still hurt that it wasn't included on your latest Jerry Goldsmith FSM CD since it DOES contain his prettiest melody) or Dave Grusin awesome score for ERIC (I worship my Japanese LP import so much that I think I've broken one of the Ten Commandments.) I think somewhere under my bed is a cassette tape with the theme from LUCAS TANNER.
 
Thanks Again!
 
P.S. Issue MORE collections of Telefilm Scores -- especially A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN [wink-wink].

SUBJECT: feature composers on tv
 
I'm new to this "feature composers for television" list. I saw your response to Mr. Bryant's letter regarding "City Beneath the Sea" and why Richard LaSalle was left off the list. Dear Mr. LaSalle composed one of my favourite feature film scores of all time: "Dr. Death - Seeker of Souls" -- superb stuff!

FROM: "Louis Latzer"

SUBJECT: 1974 TV Movies
 
The score for THE MARK OF ZORRO was ADAPTED by Frontiere from the Alfred Newman score, as the credits clearly state. Langella, by the way, is wonderful in the dual role, much better than Power.

The Judge Dee movie is based on one of a series of excellent novels by Robert Van Gulik and, while not classic, is not a bad mystery. Some of the other Judge Dee books would have been much more interesting, but this was a much smaller production, taking place entirely within a Buddhist monastery.

Keep up the fine work.

P.S. When can we expect the MAN / GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. discs?

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