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Never have seen the film, but I first caught the score on the Arista/Fox release from...I think '93. I knew Newman was good, but I was unprepared to be blown away by an all-time great.
I spent several years lamenting that I'd missed Varese's 50th Anniversary edition, until La-La Land Records--in one of the singular moves that have cemented their place as my favorite soundtrack label--rescued me from my oversight.
This score is an all-time top ten.
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J. S. --
You are aware, I assume, that THE ROBE's choral finale was also resurrected from HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME?
***
Unless I'm mistaken, to answer a question asked above, the Decca EGYPTIAN, like THE ROBE, was substantially, if not entirely, a re-recording. In recent years I've been overjoyed to see the expanded CD's culled from these two scores, both for the previously unavailable highlights and for the extra material included in previously abridged Decca selections. This includes both the OST CD's and the superb Morgan/Stromberg re-recording, (although my heart still sinks when I hear Marco Polo's sadly truncated version of the fantastic Pharoah's march).
That said, I treasure and will never relinquish my Varese CD's of the two original Decca LP's. Especially THE EGYPTIAN, which presents a very incomplete impression of the over-all score but which, because it emphasized the more romantic and melancholy passages, presents a superb mood of sustained emotion which is unsurpassable. (And also, because it gives us more of Newman's introductory use of Merit's love theme than he had room for in the actual movie. Plus which, the re-sequenced Herrmann cue from the seduction scene works better, I feel, than in the original screen order.)
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SNAFU
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Manderley --
Funny thing, I remember when I was a little kid seeing a promo for an upcoming "The Early Show" broadcast of SNAFU, and asking my mother (a WW II Navy vet, as it happens) what the title meant. I don't recall her exact answer, but I'm sure she didn't give me a precise and complete definition.
I never have seen the movie. But of course, I'm not surprised that you have. You've seen everything.
PNJ
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Ron --
Thanks for setting the record -- and me -- straight on the EGYPTIAN LP. I probably should have said in my post that I sometimes wondered if some of the tracks had been from the OST, but I never would have guessed that it was the lion's share. (Not to be confused with the one Horemheb kills.) We're all in your debt for passing on the Darby tidbit. THE EGYPTIAN is one of my probably five favorite film scores, and for my money there has never been enough recorded history or documentation about it.
If any part of the Decca disc was a re-recording, one would have to be the aforementioned march, whose instrumental sound on the album is quite different from that heard in the film. I've mentioned "Her Name Was Merit" and the garden seduction, but possibly the differentials in those two selections were attributable to editing, instead of recording. Perhaps not.
BTW, I've mentioned this before, but none of these wonderful CD's can quite replicate the thrill of sitting in a theater and hearing that six-channel main title come roaring out of the screen and searing the hairs on the back of your neck.
***
PERSONAL ASIDE:
I got an e-mail from Facebook informing me that Ron Pulliam had mentioned me in a Comment. I'll spare you the long story, but I had to undergo a lot of painstaking effort in order to access Facebook -- Yahoo trouble -- but finally I did find and read your Comment. (Have you guessed where this was heading?) That's right, it was your Comment about 50's TV cowboy actors -- including Wade Preston.
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Manderley,
For whatever it may be worth, at first I thought it might be Royal Dano speaking Christ's last words, but then, I seem to recall reading somewhere a long time ago that it was indeed Cameron Mitchell. And even if I hadn't read it: what the hell, when have you ever been wrong?
PNJ
PS: Answer your e-mail!
It was, indeed, Mitchell who, ironically, was a friend of Miklos Rozsa's, though the only Rozsa-scored film he ever appeared in was "Command Decision."
And, Christ's actual last words were, of course, "It is finished."
I recall that some of the music in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" had originally been written for "The Robe", but I don't recall it being the "Alleleuia".
That would be the Crucifixion music from THE ROBE used for the Raising of Lazarus in TGSET. Apparently, George Stevens decided to use this after Newman had composed original music for the scene (the film's First Act finale). Further insult was heaped Newman's way when Stevens tossed Newman's own Alleleuia (based on the Apostles' March) in favor of the Handel work. Stevens is said to have remarked, "My film will make Handel immortal!" or some such quote. Read Ken Darby's account in "Hollywood Holyland".
Funny, one would think that George Stevens thought his film was going to make Jesus immortal.
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LOL, Demetrius. And thanks for the better memory than mine about those famous last words.
Say, perhaps you (or somebody else on this thread) can tell me what is the meaning of the phrase "the Seven Last Words." I think I encountered it in a movie review by the late James Agee, in which he characterized Irene Dunne as "an actress who probably could keep her tongue in her cheek while uttering the Seven Last Words." Unless it takes seven words to say "it is finished" in Aramaic, I'm stumped.
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Posted: |
Jul 12, 2014 - 7:41 AM
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By: |
JohnnyG
(Member)
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LOL, Demetrius. And thanks for the better memory than mine about those famous last words.
Say, perhaps you (or somebody else on this thread) can tell me what is the meaning of the phrase "the Seven Last Words." I think I encountered it in a movie review by the late James Agee, in which he characterized Irene Dunne as "an actress who probably could keep her tongue in her cheek while uttering the Seven Last Words." Unless it takes seven words to say "it is finished" in Aramaic, I'm stumped.
Actually, they are statements, not words - seven statements that Jesus made while on the Cross:
1. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing"
2. "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (to the crucified criminal who
expressed his faith in Him)
3. "Woman, this is your son!” / "This is your mother" (to Mary and Apostle John)
4. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)
5. "I am thirsty"
6. "It is finished", and
7. "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit."
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THANK YOU!
Much obliged.
(Just to be certain I'm now clear on this: Agee wasn't mistaken in calling the statements "words," the phrase is indeed "the seven last words," but it actually refers to the statements. Have I got that right?)
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Finally I know, after all these years.
Thanks again!
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