I watched this film yesterday on TCM. I'd been wanting to see it for years since buying the soundtrack LP many years ago. Recently I acquired the Rhino CD. Previn's music is wonderful in the film and does a lot of heavy lifting to smooth over script, acting and direction problems. Listening to Angela Lansbury's voice dubbing for Ingrid Thulin was disconcerting at first, but I soon forgot about it.
I also noticed that the main title and some other cues in the film are not the same versions that appear on either the LP or the CD. The main title in the film has a completely different and much more effective beginning. It would be great if FSM would do complete release of this score as presented in the film. Lukas??
Previn's main title is slightly reminiscent of Gerard Schurmann's for "Horrors Of The Black Museum".
This Previn Masterwork is in bad need of restoration. I hope one of our superb labels takes it on. I just listened to the Rhino soundtrack and boy does it sound antiquated. Any takers, Doug, Bruce, LLL, Tadlow??
Actually playing the CD below normal volume levels it sounds decent.
I remember that, like Fox's gatefold album for CLEOPATRA, MGM must have pressed a hellacious amount of THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE as I couldn't pass a cutout bin in the 60's without seeing copies in varied amount of HORSEMAN. I think I finally got mine at a 3-for-a-dollar sale at some now defunct discount chain.
I was very grateful to Mr. Feltenstein for immortalizing this great score on CD back in the day.
I remember that, like Fox's gatefold album for CLEOPATRA, MGM must have pressed a hellacious amount of THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE as I couldn't pass a cutout bin in the 60's without seeing copies in varied amount of HORSEMAN.
That would probably have less to do with the number of pressings as the fact that the film was such a dog. Only Exodus can approach it for sheer endless boredom, but Exodus wasn't interrupted every few minutes by a bad special effect of 4 weirdly attired guys riding in slow motion, rather irrelevantly, it seemed to me, to the rest of the film. Yet another instance of (as Rozsa put it about Sodom & Gomorrah) "what every composer dreads--a huge effort going down with the ship".
I also love this score. Truly sad that the "remake" of Rex Ingram's silent masterpiece could not live up to its predecessor or Ibanez's wonderful novel. The one thing I remember about it is Charles Boyer whispering "you tortured my Chi Chi" to his German relative. The Ingram version, however, is one of the treasures of the silent era. The characters are rich and memorable as is the phenomenal Valentino tango sequence. The score written for the Kevin Brownlow restoration by Carl Davis is no slouch, either. See it if you can. I just wish that WB or the Archives would consider releasing it in some form or another.
If only it weren't owned by Warners - as most know, Previn is one my all-time heroes.
Hopefully LLL or Intrada will decide to take a chance on it, since it's arguably Previn's magnum opus...but I thought you were finally "in" at Warners Bruce, even though the approval process is very slow?
Ah well, at least it's got a better chance being expanded than if Varese had released it in the 90s, amiright? *cough*TheOther*cough*
Let's hope there's a Definitive Edition with BOTH the main titles that were originally composed for the film (heard on the Rhino Handmade version) and the one that was heard in the film. Previn cited this score as one of his Top 5 favorite film scores that he composed (can anybody tell me the other four?). The main title that was from the film and on the original L.P. was actually available on C.D. from an M.G.M. Film Themes compilation.
