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Posted: |
Apr 29, 2018 - 11:18 AM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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Great main theme - great love theme - all the winning signatures of what constitutes an A+ Elmer Bernstein score, but THE CARPETBAGGERS has never seemed to loom large with fans. I imagine the underwhelming film for which the music was written has contributed to its neglect. That's too bad because the more I listen to this music, the more I love it! I even get a kick out of the 1920's-style source cues.
Even though the re-recorded soundtrack album features different arrangements than heard in the original film score, these versions are also fabulous unto themselves. Some prefer one over the other, but I enjoy them both. Luckily, Intrada's (now out-of-print) release has both, and represents as perfect a rendering of this score as is likely to emerge. The sound and presentation are superb.
Early in my collecting of Bernstein's music I was aware of this title but had no idea what the film was all about - I thought it might be a western! I caught up with the film on a television broadcast and was set straight, but the music was always what most impressed me about THE CARPETBAGGERS and not the film itself. It is one of the curious byproducts of enjoying film music that leads me to want to admire music from less-than-admirable films - but there you go!
Thanks for bumping this one up, JS! While I greatly admire the actual score tracks (which I had never heard until this Intrada release appeared), I am emotionally most attached to the "original" re-recorded LP version that came out on Ava back in the mid-60s. I originally did not like it at all, but upon innumerable re-listenings over the years it has become one of my favorite Bernsteins, just a half-step beneath TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and SUMMER AND SMOKE (my three absolute top Elmer favorites). Besides the great main theme and love theme, the underscore cues are wonderfully melodramatic, another case (IMO) of a score which vastly outperforms the film itself and stands as probably the film's primary asset.
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Posted: |
Apr 29, 2018 - 7:56 PM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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Thanks for bumping this one up, JS! While I greatly admire the actual score tracks (which I had never heard until this Intrada release appeared), I am emotionally most attached to the "original" re-recorded LP version that came out on Ava back in the mid-60s. I originally did not like it at all, but upon innumerable re-listenings over the years it has become one of my favorite Bernsteins, just a half-step beneath TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and SUMMER AND SMOKE (my three absolute top Elmer favorites). Besides the great main theme and love theme, the underscore cues are wonderfully melodramatic, another case (IMO) of a score which vastly outperforms the film itself and stands as probably the film's primary asset.
I spent many years looking for that original AVA recording in vain. It seemed like no-one had it or was interested in re-issuing it (until Intrada got it out there). I think scores like THE CARPETBAGGERS, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM really helped me to appreciate jazz - a form I was not too interested in initially. THE CARPETBAGGERS comes off as sort of a hybrid jazz/symphonic work that is just electrifying to hear. The AVA LP really pushes that further into the jazz realm which is even more exciting.
Elmer always had top notch jazz players on board for his jazz-influenced soundtracks, so both the music and the performances were dependably great stuff.
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