I fear we may be caught in an endless time loop because, just as they did four weeks ago, Intrada has announced two new CDs, featuring two Jerry Goldsmith scores from 20th Century Fox and a Bill Conti score from Universal. 

Two-time Best Director nominee Mark Robson (Peyton Place, Inn of the Sixth Happiness), who had collaborated with Goldsmith on his Hitchcockian thriller The Prize, reunited with the composer for his next film, the 1965 WWII adventure VON RYAN'S EXPRESS, starring Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, and Brad Dexter (aka the most obscure of The Magnificent Seven, and also the man who reportedly saved Sinatra from drowning during production of None But the Brave). The Intrada CD presents Goldsmith's complete Von Ryan's score for the first time (Varese Sarabande's epic Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox boxed set featured a generous helping of cues from the score).

A more frequent Goldsmith collaborator, Gordon Douglas (Rio Conchos, Stagecoach, In Like Flint), directed the film version of Roderick Thorp's novel THE DETECTIVE, another Sinatra vehicle with the Oscar-winning singer-actor as a cop on the trail of a murderer. The Detective, though seldom spoken of today, is chock-filled with film history -- it was one of the first studio films to feature homosexuality as a pivotal plot point; Mia Farrow was originally cast in the Jacqueline Bisset role but had to back out due to Rosemary's Baby, which contributed to her divorce from Sinatra; and, most, intriguingly, 20 years later Thorp's sequel novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, was adapted to the screen with a new title -- Die Hard.

Actor George Peppard made his directorial debut with the drama The Long Chase, about a man who escapes from prison to be with his ailing son, which made a brief appearance in theaters in early 1979 as FIVE DAYS FROM HOME. Though the film was barely screened, the soundtrack LP from MCA received a wide release, featuring selections from the original score by Bill Conti as well as Conti's original songs. The Intrada CD adds cues not featured on the LP, and of course includes the original song "Come With Me Now," which attained much greater fame as the theme for, of all things, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (I speculated on the Message Board that this may be the greatest example of a piece of film music finding greater fame in a completely different setting, but Eric Paddon wisely pointed out that the "Tar Sequence" from Schifrin's Cool Hand Luke became even more familiar as the nightly news theme for countless local TV stations).

Because you can never have too many Jerry Goldsmith adventure scores set on trains, or 20th Century Fox double features from the same composer, Kritzerland has also announced two new releases.

Jerry Goldsmith reunited with director (and father of actor Jonathan) Tom Gries (QBVII, Breakout) for the final time for the 1976 Alistair Maclean adventure BREAKHEART PASS, with Charles Bronson trying to solve a mystery on a train heading across the Nevada Territory in the 1870s. Co-starring are Jill Ireland (aka Mrs. Bronson) and a supporting cast full of great character actors including David Huddleston, Charles Durning (a natural buddy team if there ever was one), Ben Johnson, BIll McKinney, Ed Lauter and Richard Crenna. Goldsmith's score was previously released by La-La Land, but the Kritzerland Breakheart adds a few alternate tracks.

Their other new release pairs two scores by Golden Age master (and father of top film composers) Alfred Newman. The cult classic psychological thriller LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN earned an Oscar for Leon Shamroy's color cinematography and received three other nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Gene Tierney's memorable performance as a gorgeous but possessive and mentally disturbed woman. Film Score Monthly's All About Eve CD, one of the label's earliest releases, also featured seven cues fron the Leave Her score, but the Kritzerland CD features the relatively brief score in complete form, as well as including the first-ever release of Newman's score for the 1952 Jeannie Crain vehicle TAKE CARE OF MY LITTLE GIRL.

Buysoundtrax has announced two new CDs -- the first-ever release of the score for Ralph Bakshi's 1983 animated adventure FIRE AND ICE, composed by acclaimed concert composer William Kraft, who also scored the films Avalanche and Psychic Killer; and Joohyun Park performing MUSIC FOR THE FILMS OF MICHAEL NYMAN FOR SOLO PIANO, including themes from such memorable Nyman scores as The Piano and Gattaca.

Our own Lukas Kendall tells of his life as soundtrack producer in this on-line interview with Maurizio Caschetto, in which he also reveals the Film Score Monthly label's biggest selling release. I'll give you a hint -- "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn!!!!"

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

The Celestine Prophecy - Nuno Malo - MovieScore Media
Five Days from Home - Bill Conti - Universal
The Lords of Salem - John 5, Griffin Boice - UMG
Promised Land - Danny Elfman - Sony (import)
Spartacus: War of the Damned - Joseph LoDuca - Varese Sarabande
Von Ryan's Express/The Detective - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada Special Collection

IN THEATERS TODAY

Antiviral - E.C. Woodley
Filly Brown - Reza Safina - Soundtrack CD due April 23 on Silent Giant
Home Run - Scott Allan Matthews
In the House - Philippe Rombi - Score CD Dans La Maison on Sony (import)
The Lords of Salem - John 5, Griffin Boice - Score CD on UMG
Oblivion - Anthony Gonzalez, Joseph Trapanese - Score CD on Back Lot
Pawn - David Yoffee

COMING SOON

April 23
At Any Price - Dickon Hinchliffe - Milan
The Call - John Debney - Lakeshore
Disconnect - Max Richter - Milan
G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Henry Jackman - Varese Sarabande
Hammersmith Is Out - Dominic Frontiere - Quartet
Patrick Doyle: Impressions of America - Patrick Doyle - Varese Sarabande
Varese Sarabande: A 35th Anniversary Celebration - various - Varese Sarabande
Woman Times Seven - Riz Ortolani - Quartet
April 30
Fire and Ice - William Kraft - Buysoundtrax
Iron Man 3 - Brian Tyler - Hollywood
Music from the Films of Michael Nyman for Solo Piano - Michael Nyman - Buysoundtrax
Superman Unbound - Kevin Kleisch - Watertower (CD-R)
May 7
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman - Perseverance
The Fourth War - Bill Conti - Music Box
Fringe: Season 5 - Chris Tilton - Varese Sarabande
Killer Force/The Corrupt Ones - George Garvarentz - Music Box
Pain & Gain - Steve Jablonsky - Varese Sarabande
What Maisie Knew - Nick Urata - Milan
May 14
Doctor Who: The Krotons - Brian Hodgson - Silva
Himalaya: The Rearing of a Chief - Bruno Coulais - Varese Sarabande
Star Trek Into Darkness - Michael Giacchino - Varese Sarabande
May 21
To the Wonder - Hanan Townshend - Lakeshore
May 28
Copper - Brian Keane - Valley
June 4
After Earth - James Newton Howard - Sony
June 11
The Last Stand - Mowg - Red River
Man of Steel - Hans Zimmer - Watertower
Warm Bodies - Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders - Red River
June 18
Monsters University - Randy Newman - Disney
June 25
The Lone Ranger - Hans Zimmer - Disney
Date Unknown
Breakheart Pass - Jerry Goldsmith - Kritzerland
Caprica (the series) - Bear McCreary - La-La Land
Leave Her to Heaven/Take Care of My Little Girl - Alfred Newman - Kritzerland

THIS WEEK IN FILM MUSIC HISTORY

April 19 - William Axt born (1888)
April 19 - Sol Kaplan born (1919)
April 19 - Dudley Moore born (1935)
April 19 - Jonathan Tunick born (1938)
April 19 - Alan Price born (1941)
April 19 - Lord Berners died (1950)
April 19 - Harry Sukman begins recording his score for A Thunder of Drums (1961)
April 19 - Michael Small begins recording his score to Klute (1971)
April 19 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "We'll Always Have Paris" (1988)
April 20 - Herschel Burke Gilbert born (1918)
April 20 - David Raksin begins recording his score for Kind Lady (1951)
April 20 - Miklos Rozsa records his score to Valley of the Kings (1954)
April 20 - Johnny Douglas died (2003)
April 20 - Bebe Barron died (2008)
April 21 - Mundell Lowe born (1922)
April 21 - Steve Dorff born (1949)
April 21 - Franz Waxman begins recording his score to The Story of Ruth (1960)
April 21 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Wild Rovers (1971)
April 21 - Eddie Sauter died (1981)
April 22 - Isao Tomita born (1932)
April 22 - Bride of Frankenstein released (1935)
April 22 - Jack Nitzsche born (1937)
April 22 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording the soundtrack to Kelly's Heroes (1970)
April 23 - Sergei Prokofiev born (1891)
April 23 - Patrick Williams born (1939)
April 23 - Alain Jomy born (1941)
April 23 - Jay Gruska born (1952)
April 23 - Andre Previn begins recording his score for The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
April 23 - Bernard Herrmann begins recording his North by Northwest score (1959)
April 23 - Christopher Komeda died (1969)
April 23 - Satyajit Ray died (1992)
April 23 - James Horner begins recording his score for House of Cards (1992)
April 24 - Double Indemnity is released in theaters (1944)
April 24 - Hubert Bath died (1945)
April 24 - Barbra Streisand born (1942)
April 24 - Dana Kaproff born (1954)
April 24 - Georges Delerue records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "The Doll" (1986)
April 24 - Tristam Cary died (2008)
April 25 - John Williams begins recording his score for How to Steal a Million (1966)
April 25 - Brian May died (1997)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

THE ANGELS SHARE - George Fenton

"Tech credits feature typically solid but unremarkable work from a roster of [director] Ken Loach’s usual collaborators, including editor Jonathan Morris, production designer Fergus Clegg and composer George Fenton."

Leslie Felperin, Variety

DISCONNECT - Max Richter

"Even when the dramatic stakes are raised to the point of pounding music accompanying super-slow motion, potentially tragic violence, 'Disconnect' struck a chord with me in a way few films have in recent years."

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

42 - Mark Isham

"From the soundtrack to the speechifying to the subject material to the script’s somber tone, '42' has the uniform of an Oscar contender, but it falls short of Hall of Fame status. Jackie Robinson was great. '42' is good."

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

"The film isn't a sweeping bio-pic, and it's better for it. Instead, Helgeland focuses on the time right before and during Robinson's rookie season. Which doesn't mean it's a modest outing. '42' is an old-fashioned movie swinging for the fences. It intends to stir our emotions and our belief in this nation's better angels. Yes, this is a sentimental journey. But it's one definitely worth taking. It has an emotionally hued (at times too much so) score by Mark Isham. Don Burgess' cinematography bestows a sturdy aura not just on the film's central protagonists but also those ballfields of yore."

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

"The movie opens with him announcing his plans to desegregate his team, gradually, to some of his officers. 'With all due respect, sir, have you lost your mind?' one of them responds. Cut to Rickey, whom Harrison Ford plays with an avuncular twinkle in the eye that sometimes recalls that of, no kidding, Ronald Reagan. And the camera dollies in on the character, the slow movement intended to ennoble him, and if you aren't getting the message, Mark Isham's scorequietly lays on the Aaron Copland lite, and Ford/Rickey starts delivering some dialogue that, like so much of the dialogue in the early part of the picture, starts sounding like a speech about seven words in. So the player he's suggesting, this Robinson, refused to sit at the back of a military bus? That's the quality that makes him the player Rickey wants! 'If he were white, you would call that spirit!' Right!"

Glenn Kenny, MSN.com

"Filmed with the gauzy, nostalgic light of an American summer and insistently underlined by Mark Isham's overwrought, Copland-esque orchestral score, '42' is unapologetically corny, but it never succumbs to offensive condescension. And a certain amount of old-fashioned sentiment is altogether appropriate for a movie in which composure, professionalism and finesse manage to overcome far more destructive, irrational forces."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"After a clumsy and didactic beginning -- in which every scene ends with Mark Isham’s score screaming 'This Is Important!' in Dolby -- the movie settles into a solid, square rhythm. By then we have met Robinson, played with sly charm and a hint of stubborn prickliness by Chadwick Boseman."

A.O. Scott, New York Times

"The beauty of the Jackie Robinson story is that it’s so naturally inspiring that not even lethal amounts of bombast, sentimental writing, soaring strings, hammy acting or desperate hyperbole can tarnish it beyond repair. Director Brian Helgeland’s version of Robinson’s rise to become the first black player in major league baseball features healthy doses of all of the above, and the script is so stale it might have been unearthed from an ancient box of Cracker Jacks. And still '42' persists in entertaining you, even when you’re cringing, because the real story is so compelling."

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

"But that could be because there are so many moments in '42' that seek to evoke the viewer’s tears, often cued to the outsized swellings of Mark Isham’s symphonic score. Every athletic high or low point -- the home runs, the strikeouts, the iconic moment in which fellow Dodger Pee Wee Reese defiantly stood by Robinson’s side as the jeering crowd shouted them down -- is musically telegraphed before it happens, robbing the game scenes (of which there are many) of any suspense. Similarly, the portrait of Robinson’s home life is so hagiographic that it’s hard to get any handle on who either Jackie or Rachel Robinson are as people: Do they drink? Do they dance? Do they have sex? Do they fight? Boseman and Beharie both seem game for more than just a stiff, tableau-like re-enactment of the saints’ lives, but they’re not given much else to work with -- and as the selfless, backstoryless sportswriter helpmate who shows up periodically to shepherd them around while they’re on the road, poor Andre Holland might as well be wearing a pair of wings and holding a lyre."

Dana Stevens, Slate.com

"Other pleasures flow from the handsome studio production, which was designed by Richard Hoover and photographed by Don Burgess: the period cars and trains, the Speed Graphics, the Remington and Royal portables, a marvelous evocation of Ebbets Field on opening day in the spring of 1947. But the movie's make-believe Red Barber misses the radio sportscaster's lyrical tone by a country mile, and Mark Isham's music culminates in such a triumphalist rolling of drums that you wait for the orchestra to break into 'Hail To the Chief.'"

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

"Robinson’s accomplishment speaks for itself, and doesn’t really need the incessant hyping of Mark Isham's overly intrusive score."

Lou Lumenick, New York Post

"Robinson also wrote in his memoir that, even two decades on from his historic achievements on the baseball diamond, he couldn’t bring himself to salute the American flag or stand for the National Anthem, knowing that he remained 'a black man in a white world.' So it comes as no real surprise that a film of Robinson’s struggle was long pursued by two directors with a keen feel for the underside of the American dream: Spike Lee and Robert Redford (who envisioned himself in the role of Robinson’s impresario, Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey, here played by Harrison Ford). The '42' of writer-director Brian Helgeland, by contrast, remains largely on the surface of things, pitting its Robinson (relative newcomer Chadwick Boseman) against a succession of cartoonish racists and Southern good-old-boys who are either softened by the first baseman’s towering nobility, or completely drowned out by composer Mark Isham’s incessant fanfares."

Scott Foundas, Variety

LEONIE - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

"Jan A.P. Kaczmarek’s score is fine, but the insistent strings that introduce each and every chapter of the story makes it feel as though one’s ears are on a forced march."

John Anderson, Variety

TO THE WONDER - Hanan Townshend

"But 'To the Wonder' is no more concerned with the psychology of heterosexual relationships than it is with standard dramatized action. As usual, Mr. Malick minimizes dialogue, preferring to communicate ideas and emotions through voice-over, montage and music. (Hanan Townshend’s tense, fluid score is supplemented by selections from the 19th- and 20th-century classical repertory.)"

A.O. Scott, New York Times

"As with any other movie, it’s all a question of what attitude you carry into the theater, and whether you’re prepared to go where Malick wants to take you. All I can tell you is that once I surrendered to the ebb and flow of Lubezki’s images, the elegiac and almost anti-narrative mode, the sweet-sad blend of romance, eroticism and tragedy and the hypnotic score -- which mixes contemporary electronic pop with Berlioz, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Henryk Górecki and Arvo Pärt -- I really never wanted it to stop."

Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

"Released less than two years after his 'The Tree of Life,' an epic that began with the dinosaurs and peered into an uncertain future, Terence Malick's 'To the Wonder' is a film that contains only a handful of important characters and a few crucial moments in their lives. Although it uses dialogue, it's dreamy and half-heard, and essentially this could be a silent film -- silent, except for its mostly melancholy music."

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (this was the final review Ebert filed)

UPSTREAM COLOR - Shane Carruth

"If you’re wondering what’s going on and why, sit tight, because for all of Mr. Carruth’s cosmic reaching and despite the jigsaw montage, 'Upstream Color' isn’t an arduous head-scratcher if you don’t worry about what it means and just go with the trippy flow. (Mr. Carruth helped cut and shoot the movie, and wrote its mood-setting score.)"

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

"Seemingly ... apparently ... experiments with pigs? Carruth offers few if any easy answers as to what exactly is going on (prompting the zinger, does even he know?), but forget all that. You’ll be better off letting Carruth’s arresting visuals and ambient score flow over you while pondering his extensive quotations from Thoreau’s 'Walden.'"

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

THE NEXT TEN DAYS IN L.A.

Screenings of older films, at the following L.A. movie theaters: AMPAS, American Cinematheque: Aero, American Cinematheque: Egyptian, LACMA, New Beverly, Nuart, Silent Movie Theater and UCLA.

April 19
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Carter Burwell) [Nuart]
FIRE, EARTH (A.R. Rahman) [Cinematheque: Aero]
THE MONSTER SQUAD (Bruce Broughton) [Silent Movie Theater]
NATIVE SON (John Ehlert), NO WAY OUT (Alfred Newman) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
RUBIN AND ED (Fred Myrow) [Silent Movie Theater]
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (Nigel Godrich) [New Beverly]
THE TENANT (Philippe Sarde), CARNAGE (Alexandre Desplat) [New Beverly]

April 20
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
MAN IN THE DARK, INFERNO (Paul Sawtell) [Cinematheque: Aero]
RIO, 100 DEGREES (Radames Gnatalli) [UCLA]
SCREAM (Marco Beltrami) [New Beverly]
THE TENANT (Philippe Sarde), CARNAGE (Alexandre Desplat) [New Beverly]

April 21
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (John Williams) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE GOLD RUSH (Charles Chaplin), THE KID [New Beverly]
ROAD HOUSE (Cyril Mockridge) [Cinematheque: Egyptian]
STRICTLY BALLROOM (David Hirschfelder), WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO + JULIET (Craig Armstrong, Nellee Hooper, Marius De Vries), MOULIN ROUGE (Craig Armstrong) [Arclight Sherman Oaks]
WATER (Mychael Danna), BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD (Sandeep Chowta) [Cinematheque: Aero]

April 22
POSSESSION (Andrzej Korzynski) [Cinematheque: Aero]

April 23
BUCK PRIVATES [LACMA]
THE MANSON FAMILY (Philip Anselmo, Ross Karpelman), THE BUNNY GAME (Adam Rehmeier) [New Beverly]
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (David Amram) [Arclight Hollywood]
WAYNE'S WORLD (J. Peter Robinson) [AMPAS]

April 24
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (Elmer Bernstein) [LACMA]
BLADE RUNNER (Vangelis) [Arclight Hollywood]
DEAD MAN (Neil Young), GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (RZA) [New Beverly]
EASY RIDER [Arclight Hollywood]
GHOST (Maurice Jarre) [Arclight Hollywood]
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (Quincy Jones) [Arclight Hollywood]
MISERY (Marc Shaiman) [Arclight Hollywood]
MOONSTRUCK (Dick Hyman) [Arclight Hollywood]
NORMA RAE (David Shire) [Arclight Hollywood]
PULP FICTION [Arclight Hollywood]
SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (Ennio Morricone) [Silent Movie Theater]
SHREK (Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell) [Arclight Hollywood]
TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (Michael Gore) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE THING (Ennio Morricone) [Arclight Hollywood]
THE USUAL SUSPECTS (John Ottman) [Arclight Hollywood]

April 25
DEAD MAN (Neil Young), GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI (RZA) [New Beverly]

April 26
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Michael Galasso, Shigeru Umebayashi), 2046 (Shigeru Umebayashi) [New Beverly]
PHASE IV (Brian Gascoigne) [Silent Movie Theater]
THIS IS SPINAL TAP [Nuart]
TWICE UPON A TIME (Dawn Atkinson, Ken Melville) [Silent Movie Theater]

April 27
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Michael Galasso, Shigeru Umebayashi), 2046 (Shigeru Umebayashi) [New Beverly]
MIAMI CONNECTION (Jon McCallum) [Silent Movie Theater]
PHASE IV (Brian Gascoigne) [Silent Movie Theater]
PITCH BLACK (Graeme Revell) [New Beverly]
TWICE UPON A TIME (Dawn Atkinson, Ken Melville) [Silent Movie Theater]

April 28
THE GAY DIVORCEE (Kenneth Webb, Samuel Hoffenstein, Max Steiner), ROYAL WEDDING (Burton Lane, Johnny Green) [New Beverly]
PHASE IV (Brian Gascoigne) [Silent Movie Theater]
TWICE UPON A TIME (Dawn Atkinson, Ken Melville) [Silent Movie Theater]