FILM SCORE FRIDAY 5/2/03
By Scott Bettencourt
PETER STONE 1930 - 2003
Peter Stone, one of Hollywood's finest screenwriters, died on April
26th in Manhattan of pulmonary fibrosis. Stone's father was a history teacher
who became a writer-producer at Fox. Stone attended Bard College and the
Yale School of Drama before becoming a broadcast journalist for CBS radio
and television in Paris. Stone began writing for the TV series "Studio
One" in 1956, and won an Emmy for a 1962 episode of the lawyer series "The
Defenders," starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed.
Unable to sell his screenplay Charade, Stone reluctantly turned
it into a novel only to see it sell to the movies in that form, and it
was turned into a classic Stanley Donen film starring Cary Grant and Audrey
Hepburn (the recent remake, The Truth About Charlie, was, alas,
no classic). He wrote steadily for the cinema throughout the sixties and
seventies, sharing an Oscar for the screenplay to the Cary Grant/Leslie
Caron comedy Father Goose, and one of his finest works was his adaptation
of John Godey's bestseller The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a
witty thriller that puts today's "action movies" to shame.
Stone also created the sitcom version of the classic Tracy-Hepburn film
Adam's Rib, with Ken Howard and Blythe Danner in the leads, but
had his greatest success as a writer of books for stage musicals. He was
nominated for six Tonys and won three times, for 1776, Woman of the
Year, and Titanic. His other shows include Kean, Skyscraper,
Sugar (the musical version of Some Like It Hot), My One and
Only, The Will Rogers Follies, and the recent revival of Annie Get
Your Gun. Before he died, Stone was working on two new shows, Curtains
(with Chicago songwriters Kander & Ebb) and Death Takes a
Holiday (with Maury Yeston). Stone is survived by Mary, his wife of
42 years, and his brother David.
The out-of-print Criterion Collection DVD of Charade features
not only a beautiful video transfer of the film but also a delightful commentary
track with Stone and director Stanley Donen. Stone and Donen joke and bicker
like old friends, arguing over whether to reveal plot points (Donen illogically
assumes that some people may actually listen to the commentary track before
they watch the movie). In the track, it is revealed that Stone played one
of the embassy men in the elevator in an early scene (complaining about
his boss's poker playing habits), but his voice was dubbed by Donen. Conversely,
a guard outside the embassy at the end of the film was played by another
actor but had his voice dubbed by Stone.
The following are Stone's feature films, including shared credits and
features written under pseudonyms like "Pierre Marton" and "Peter Joshua"
(one of Cary Grant's aliases from Charade, and named after Donen's
sons Peter and Joshua).
CHARADE - Henry Mancini
FATHER GOOSE - Cy Coleman
MIRAGE - Quincy Jones
ARABESQUE - Henry Mancini
THE SECRET WAR OF HARRY FRIGG - Carlo Rustichelli
JIGSAW - Quincy Jones
SWEET CHARITY - Cy Coleman, Joseph Gershenson
SKIN GAME - David Shire
1776 - Sherman Edwards, Ray Heindorf
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE - David Shire
SILVER BEARS - Claude Bolling
WHO IS KILLING THE GREAT CHEFS OF EUROPE? - Henry Mancini
WHY WOULD I LIE? - Charles Fox
GRAND LARCENY - Irwin Fisch
JUST CAUSE - James Newton Howard
THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE - Rachel Portman
The Prometheus CD Club has announced that their next release
will be John Barry's brooding score for the offbeat 1977 Western
THE WHITE BUFFALO. The film, directed by the late J. Lee Thompson
and produced by Dino DeLaurentiis in the wake of his King Kong remake,
stars Charles Bronson as Wild Bill Hickok, who teams up with Crazy Horse
(Will Sampson) to hunt a mysterious white buffalo (creature effects by
Carlo Rambaldi). The CD is expected to be released in June.
Unofficial reports indicate that Paramount execs requested
the makers of TIMELINE make more changes in the film before its
November release, and that Jerry Goldsmith's score was replaced
because he was either unavailable, unaffordable, or unwilling to make the
changes to his score. Interestingly, Timeline is one of the few
films produced by Michael Ovitz's Artists Production Group. I only mention
this because ex-uberagent Ovitz was one of the producers of Gangs of
New York, which also had its score thrown out. I know, there's probably
no connection, but it's always fun to blame everything that's wrong with
Hollywood on Mike Ovitz.
Composer John Scott will be conducting a concert
of his film music on Sunday, May 18th at 7:30 at Citrus College's Haugh
Performing Arts Auditorium in Glendora, California. The selections include
his new score for the 1920 film of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well
as cues from The Final Countdown, Greystoke, Rocket to the Moon
and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." For more information, go to Mr. Scott's
webpage.
On May 15th, The Society of Composers and Lyricists will
present a seminar entitled "Writing Music For Games" at the Los Angeles
Film Institute in Hollywood. Panelists will include composers Alan Howarth,
Michael Giacchino, Danny Pelfrey, Russell Brower, Billy Martin and Jack
Wall.
The event is free to SCL members, $15 for non-members, and $10 for students
with valid IDs. For reservations, contact the SCL at (310) 281-2812, ext.
2.
CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK
Confidence - Christophe Beck - Thrive
IN THEATERS TODAY
Blue Car - Adam Gorgoni
The Dancer Upstairs - Alberto Iglesias
The Lizzie McGuire Movie - Cliff Eidelman - Song CD on Disney
featuring one score cue
New Suit - Daniel J. Nielsen
Winged Migration - Bruno Coulais - Score CD on Higher Octave
X2 - John Ottman - Score CD due May 6 from Trauma
COMING SOON
May 6
The Matrix Reloaded - Don Davis, various - Maverick
Nowhere in Africa - Niki Reiser - Higher Octave
X2 - John Ottman - Trauma
May 13
Something Wild - Aaron Copland - Varese Sarabande
June 3
Bruce Almighty - John Debney, various - Varese Sarabande
Wrong Turn - Elia Cmiral - Varese Sarabande
Date Unknown
Amerika - Basil Poledouris - Prometheus
The Big Sky - Dimitri Tiomkin - Screen Archives/BYU
Bones - Elia Cmiral - Intrada
Captain From Castile - Alfred Newman - Screen Archives
The Dreamer of Oz - Lee Holdridge - Percepto
From Beyond - Richard Band - La-La Land
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Denny Zeitlin - Perseverance
Mighty Joe Young, etc. - Roy Webb, et al - Monstrous Movie Music
A Summer Place - Max Steiner - Screen Archives/BYU
This Island Earth, etc. - Herman Stein, et al - Monstrous Movie
Music
The White Buffalo - John Barry - Prometheus CD Club
THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY
May 2 - Elliot Goldenthal born (1954)
May 3 - Hugo Friedhofer born (1901)
May 4 - Albert Glasser died (1998)
May 5 - Patrick Gowers born (1936)
May 6 - Recording begins on Alfred Newman and Hugo Friedhofer's
score to The Bravados in Munich, Germany (1958)
May 6 - Michel Legrand begins recording score to Ice Station
Zebra (1968)
DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?
HOUSE OF FOOLS - Edward Artemyev
"Edward Artemyev's music has a jolly circus feel."
Deborah Young, Variety
IDENTITY - Alan Silvestri
"Alan Silvestri's score busily tends to keeping the tension up."
Todd McCarthy, Variety
LAWLESS HEART - Adrian Johnston
"Adrian Johnston's broad, warm score adds flavor and emotional color."
Derek Elley, Variety
PEOPLE I KNOW - Terence Blanchard
"Terence Blanchard's cool, jazz-tinged score quietly fuels the suspense."
David Rooney, Variety
ON GOLDSMITH PAST AND PRESENT
FROM: "Robert M. Eastman" Rxprme1bob@aol.com
It appears to me that Hollywood has long disdained artists
of enormous talent. That Jerry Goldsmith's score for Timeline was rejected
is indicative of the mentality of these clowns that run the movie business.
It bears repeating, not only in my estimation is Goldsmith the finest composer
of film music. He has no equal. His score can be rejected, but he can never
ever be replaced!
FROM: "Louis Banlaki" <lbanlaki@hotmail.com>
I just stumbled on your article about the rejection of
Goldsmith's TIMELINE score. My only quibble is that you mis-spelled my
last name and I found it a pleasant surprise to see my name mentioned.
Outraged is a good word for I was really looking forward to getting the
album marking the second collaboration of Goldsmith/Donner.
So -- who WAS the idiot who ordered the score rejected. I can't
believe his score was all wrong. Not after LIONHEART and FIRST KNIGHT.
I hope he is still planning to do some more Alex North recordings.
I heard he also co-authored a biography on North with someone named Sanya
Shoilevska. Know anything about that?
No, I've heard nothing about that. And sorry about mangling your name.
FROM: "Ronald Zabor" <rzabor@navpoint.com>
SUBJECT: My Poll Vote
My favorite Goldsmith film is "Seconds", but this title does not
appear on FSM's poll list. My next favorite is "Seven Days In May", with
"The Mephisto Waltz" coming in at third place. They are also absent.
I haven't seen all of the films Goldsmith scored, but limiting your
poll selections to only 25 film titles I think is not a fair representation
to all possible customer/visitor votes. Perhaps FSM should limit its questions
to only those that could be answered within two dozen (or so) selections?
Sorry about leaving our your favorite Goldsmith films. I was amused to
see that Rambo got the lowest number of votes, especially since
it's Goldsmith's fourth highest grossing film.
A GLASS CORRECTION
FROM: Shannon Jowett <SpinShannon@nyc.rr.com>
SUBJECT: Cary
Wong & Philip Glass
"For someone who's often referred to as a minimalist composer--"
Philip Glass IS a minimalist composer.
FROM THE KAMEN TO THE ISHAM
FROM: "IAN SMITH" <IAN@clairestheboss.freeserve.co.uk>
Anybody else mourn the non-appearance of a score cd of
the HBO mini-series of FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, which featured wonderful
music by Michael Kamen, Marc Isham and others? I think a '60s-era pop-music
compilation was released, but no score disc. Re-watching the series again
recently, it struck me again just how amazing the varied scores were. I
guess the chance of any such CD being released is pretty much nil, which
is a great pity. So much rubbish is released on CD to accompany a film/tv
series these days it's a pity quality didn't have some bearing on decisions
on what to release.
Oh well. Just wondering if I'm the only person in the world who
would love a FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON score CD.
NALTON, YEAR TWO: THE RESPONSES, PART
TWO
Two weeks ago, I printed an exchange
of letters between myself and "Nalton," who for the last year has been
extremely forthright on the topic of what he loves (Hans Zimmer) and hates
(liberals, me). Last week I printed all the responses
I'd received to this exchange, unedited except for the obscuring of
profanities, and here are a few more:
FROM: "Karl Morton IV" <kmiv@ix.netcom.com>
SUBJECT: Zimmer the King
Hey, Scott -
In Friday's column, "Bud Harney" said:
Zimmer has said that he can't hear the difference between a score
like Total Recall and his own score for Crimson Tide--
My response to "Bud"'s comment is to say, "Good God, did he REALLY????"
I don't wish to seem pedantic but did he ACTUALLY say this? That he PERSONALLY
couldn't tell "Total Recall" from "Crimson Tide"? I've often liked Zimmer's
stuff and thought that whatever one thought of his music he was at least
a helluva smart fellow but if he actually said that, my estimation of his
intelligence drops down a few pegs. Not that that's gonna bother him much,
I daresay.
Take care,
Karl
FROM: "MKAROLY"
SUBJECT: Nalton Part 2
Wow. I just read that person's articles and the replies sent in
by people. I honestly think that Nalton is trying to push buttons for the
sake of doing so. I for one completely missed the boat on Zimmer- but I
recently saw THE RING and I thought the music was decent- it was there
but not over the top. GLADIATOR was ok but the female vocal just killed
it for me, and HANNIBAL wasn't enjoyable to me either. Still, why attack
you for being honest with your opinions?
As far as your political views, I don't recall a single article
where you attacked Bush or conservative politics. I don't know where he
got that. Perhaps he's trying to get subtext out of your postings- who
knows? Just let it go- the guy isn't worth the time or energy. If he would
phrase his arguments in a more mature way then perhaps people would take
him seriously -- until then those letters read more as comedy than criticism.
I think you may be right about subtext. Once, in an item on The Sum
of All Fears, I remarked that James Horner had scored "the previous
two Jack Ryan movies." I felt that this was a fairly innocent statement,
especially since one of the definitions of "previous" is "preceding" -
for example, if I talked about Die Another Day and wrote that David
Arnold had scored "the previous two James Bond films," no one would be
likely to assume I was denying the existence of the seventeen earlier Bond
films.
However, "Nalton" took my remark as a politically motivated attempt
to deny the existence of the film version of The Hunt For Red October
for nefarious liberal reasons.
This attack was especially baffling to me. Red October is one
of my favorite films. I've seen it three or four times. I've read the book.
I've met the director and the composer. One of my best friends has a tiny
role in the film. Another close friend was cast in the film (as an ensign
trying to pour a cup of coffee while the sub is tilting) but his role was
cut before they got around to filming it. So denying the existence of The
Hunt For Red October would never occur to me.
But what baffled me most is the notion that Red October is a
blatantly more conservative film than Patriot Games or Clear
and Present Danger. Am I missing something?
FROM: "Jean-Michel CAVROIS"
SUBJECT: A (Nal)ton of grease
Bonjour Scott,
The other day, the mailman told me when handling to me the last
FSM issue : "Well, they still send you that magazine from America -- How
surprising !" Maybe Mister Ned Alton is secretely unhappy with you because
your name sounds French!
Speaking of politics, when I saw 25th Hour (by far the best motion
picture I've seen this year, along with Catch me if you can and Punch-Drunk
Love) and listened to the Terence Blanchard score, I was amazed by how
the music reflects, echoes and prolongs (I don't know if this word even
exists, but, hell, you've got the idea !) the thematic and political approach
of the director. For example, in the "Ground Zero" sequence, you can hear
a powerful mix of Irish pipes, Arabic vocals and Yiddish folklore-like
strings, evoking the clash of cultures that happened there. The elegiac
tone of the score is surprising in a Spike Lee movie, but, like a French
critic wrote, "the best warrior is the one who knows to be wise"--
Cordialement,
Jean-Michel Cavrois
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
|
