. . . Jose M. Benitez and Chris Malone have gone one better by locating the best surviving source material for a two-disc edition commemorating the 60th anniversary of the film. Instead of an abbreviated 12-cut LP, or the 18 cues on the Silva Screen CD, this generous (one might even say obsessive) release offers 42 tracks, including cues I’ve never heard before except when watching the movie itself. For completists it even includes the 1958 mono LP and the processed stereo version. A handsome booklet with color photos and a first-rate essay by Jeff Bond complete the package from Quartet Records and MGM. You can purchase a copy (and other Moross discs) from Screen Archives Entertainment.
We are now in an age where it is now possible to create stereo from mono using a process called DES Stereo (Digital Extraction Stereo). It was first used for The Beach Boys masterpiece “Good Vibrations”.
Had MGM had the necessary budget, it would have been possible to have a true stereo version of both the film and its score for the first time since its original release.
