JOHN WILLIAMS: UNRELEASED AND INCOMPLETE

BACHELOR FLAT (1962)
One of "Johnny" Williams early comedy scores, for this Frank Tashlin-directed farce with Terry-Thomas, Tuesday Weld and Richard Beymer; there's a particularly charming cue for a scene with a dog on a beach. [20th Century Fox]

BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG (1960)
Dick Clark as a high school teacher helping troubled teens, co-starring Tuesday Weld. [Columbia]

BLACK SUNDAY (1977)
One of the great unreleased Williams works (a suite was re-recorded for an Edel compilation), a thrilling action-suspense score for John Frankenheimer's race-against-time thriller (from Thomas Harris's first novel) about a terrorist plot against the Super Bowl. [Paramount]

DADDY-O (1958)
Reportedly Williams' first feature score, a jazzy work for a low-budget drama starring singer Dick Contino (himself later the subject of James Ellroy's novella Dick Contino's Blues), which has since become a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fave. [AIP]

DADDY'S GONE A HUNTING (1969)
Not a sequel to Daddy-O, alas, but a faux-Hitchcockian thriller, written by Larry Cohen and Lorenzo Semple Jr. and directed by Mark Robson, about a woman harassed by a mentally ill ex-boyfriend after terminating her pregnancy. [National General]

FAMILY PLOT (1976)
Perhaps the Holy Grail of unreleased Williams (only the end title cue has been released, both in the original recording and a fine Varese re-recording), a delightful comedy-thriller score for Hitchcock's underrated final film. [Universal]

GIDGET GOES TO ROME (1963)
The third of the Gidget features (the rare franchise where Williams only scored a later entry), this time with Cindy Carol as the titular teen, and James Darren as Moondoggie. [Columbia]

GILLIGAN'S ISLAND (1962-1965)
Williams and Gerald Fried were among the episode composers for the cult classic '60s sitcom, with Williams reportedly scoring 20 episodes including the pilot. [United Artists/CBS]

I PASSED FOR WHITE (1960)
Black-passing-for-white Sonya Wilde falls for rich, white James Franciscus; from Forbidden Planet director Fred M. Wilcox. [Allied Artists]

THE KILLERS (1964)
Don Siegel's remake of the Ernest Hemingway short story (first filmed in the '40s with a Miklos Rozsa score) was originally intended as TV movie but ultimately released on the big screen, and has become a critical favorite. Lee Marvin was the antihero, and Ronald Reagan played his final acting role, in a dramatic change-of-pace performance as a villainous mob boss. [Universal]

NIGHTMARE IN CHICAGO (1964)
Nearly a decade before Images and The Long Goodbye, Williams scored this Robert Altman-directed TV movie thriller, originally broadcast as an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre. [Roncom]

NONE BUT THE BRAVE (1965)
Frank Sinatra directed this World War II drama about conflicts between Americans and Japanese marooned on an island together. [Warner Bros.]

PETE 'N' TILLIE (1972)
Williams wrote a brief, gentle score for this Oscar-nominated, Martin Ritt-directed comedy drama with Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett finding romance and tragedy in middle age. [Universal]

THE PLAINSMAN (1966)
Remake of the 1937 Cecil B. DeMille Western, this time with Don Murray as Wild Bill Hickock and Guy Stockwell as Buffalo Bill Cody. [Universal]

THE RARE BREED (1966)
Another mid-'60s Western, this one with James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara. Silva re-recorded a suite from the score for a Williams compilation. [Universal]

THE SCREAMING WOMAN (1972)
The only ABC Movie of the Week with a John Williams score, a thriller based on a Ray Bradbury story, with Olivia de Havilland as a released mental patient convinced she hears the screams of a woman buried alive. [Universal]

THE SECRET WAYS (1961)
Cold War adventure thriller from an Alistair Maclean novel, starring Richard Widmark (who also produced). [Universal]

SERGEANT RYKER (1968)
Like Nightmare in Chicago, this military courtroom drama was originally made as a (two-part) Kraft Suspense Theatre episode, but ended up receiving theatrical distribution. [Universal]

STORY OF A WOMAN (1970)
A romantic drama from writer-producer-director Leonardo Bercovici, set in Italy in the 1950s and pairing Robert Stack and Bibi Anderson. Composer Mario Nasimbene plays a supporting role as a music professor. [Universal]

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974)
The first Spielberg feature, the first Williams-Spielberg collaboration, and the only one unreleased on CD or LP (though the main theme has been re-recorded a couple times). There are rumors that Williams himself is reluctant to release the score, which would be a great pity if true. [Universal]

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (2001)
Williams's greatest score of the last ten years. The Warner Bros. CD omitted a lot of major stuff from this epic score, including the interpolation of Der Rosenkavalier from the approach to Rouge City, and most importantly the theme for Haley Joel Osment's robot protagonist. [Warner Bros.]

ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)
The second of Williams's Star Wars prequel scores; it would be great to hear the composer's full, original version, before Lucas re-edited and re-tracked it. [Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox]

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989)
The first of three politically-themed Oliver Stone films scored by Williams, each earning the composer an Oscar nomination. The MCA soundtrack CD had a well-chosen selection of score cues along with many period songs, but there were some moving cues left out. [Universal]

CONRACK (1974)
The lengthy opening cue of this brief score for the Martin Ritt-directed drama starring Jon Voight was released on an out-of-print Film Score Monthly CD with The Poseidon Adventure and The Paper Chase; unfortunately, the remainder of the score is thought to be lost. [20th Century Fox]

THE COWBOYS (1972)
One of Williams's greatest early works, a rousing, Copland-esque Western score. The Varese Sarabande CD featured a well-chosen assortment of cues, but the complete work would be welcome. [Warner Bros.]

DRACULA (1979)
Williams' only Gothic horror score, for the underrated remake of the Bram Stoker classic, starring Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier and Kate Nelligan. The Varese Sarabande CD duplicated the MCA LP sequencing, leaving off some typically terrific material. [Universal]

EARTHQUAKE (1974)
The second in the mid-'70s disaster trilogy that helped put Williams on the map, before Jaws and Star Wars made him a film music superstar. The MCA LP, released on CD by Varese Sarabande, mixed score cues with source pieces and even a few sound effects. More score would be welcome, and less rumbling. [Universal]

HEIDI (1968)
This TV remake of the children's classic, with Jennifer Edwards in the title role and co-starring Maximilian Schell, Jean Simmons and Michael Redgrave, earned Williams an Emmy but is most famous for the incident when NBC cut off the end of a Jets-Raiders game to air it. The soundtrack LP featured dialogue as well as score; a later CD release of questionable provenance featured only score. [NBC]

HOOK (1991)
What may be Spielberg's worst film featured a typically lush and multithematic score from The Master, and despite the lengthy score CD, more lovely cues are waiting to be released. [Tri-Star]

HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1965)
In the midst of his comedy period, Williams began his move into the big time by scoring a William Wyler-directed romantic caper pairing Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. The 20th Century Fox soundtrack LP featured a selection of score cues as well as an original Williams song, "Two Lovers." [20th Century Fox]

THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)
Williams wrote arguably his most unusual score for Robert Altman's modern-day deconstruction of Raymond Chandler's detective novel, his score consisting largely of source pieces based on his original title song, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Varese Sarabande CD Club's Fitzwilly CD featured a handful of Long Goodbye's many variations. [United Artists]

MIDWAY (1976)
Varese Sarabande produced a re-recording of Williams's score for the Sensurround-laden WWII naval drama, but the composer's original recording has never been released. [Universal]

REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)
The last of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, another mixture of original Williams and tracked-in cues that needs a full release of Williams' unaltered musical vision. [Lucasfilm/20th Century Fox]

SABRINA (1995)
The soundtrack CD for Sydney Pollack's remake of the Billy Wilder romantic comedy classic emphasized Williams' original songs (and even a pointless medley of source cues) over scoring, including only one rendition of the whimsical theme for Harrison Ford. [Paramount]

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1967)
Williams adapted the songs of Andre & Dory Previn for this cult classic, and the soundtrack LP/CD featured too little of his score amidst the songs and even narration. [20th Century Fox]

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com