This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Malice (1993) by Jerry Goldsmith.
Ah, Harold Becker: he, the director of sparsely-scored Goldsmith pictures (see also: City Hall). I had never seen Malice before, and now that I have seen it, I hope that I never see it again, but I wanted to see how much music was missing from the short 33-minute Varese Sarabande CD, which was not a CD I was crazy about to begin with. The film came out in 1993 and I thought could be one of those mid-90’s films that Goldsmith scored that in the past several years seem to be getting attention (like Sleeping with the Enemy, Not Without My Daughter, Congo, Bad Girls, The Shadow, The River Wild, The Vanishing, Forever Young, etc.) – so many Goldsmith scores are being resurrected and expanded lately, it seems, that one might wonder if anyone is looking at Malice.
Well, considering the original CD is 33 minutes and the complete known score written for the film is just over 40 minutes, my guess is probably not. The complete score as heard in the film runs 37 and ½ minutes, but the CD track “The Handyman” is edited for the film and the CD track “No Friends” is unused in the film. Aside from that, the amount of unreleased score runs 7 minutes and in my opinion is nothing terribly special. In fact, it’s not special whatsoever. Personally, Malice is not the score for me. Aside from the terrific track “Clues” (which is even missing an awesome section from the CD in the film), I just don’t care for this Goldsmith score, which is something I don’t say very often, particularly of his 90’s scores. Regardless, I thought I would do a CSB for the piece and take a close look, but that’s about it on this one, so here are the details…
CURRENT CD RELEASE RUNTIME: 33min 00sec COMPLETE SCORE RUNTIME (AS HEARD IN FILM): 37min 20sec ALL KNOWN ORIGINAL MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THE FILM (INCLUDING UNEDITED CD TRACKS, UNUSED TRACKS, AND/OR ALTERNATE FILM VERSIONS, WITH NO IDENTICAL DUPLICATION REGARDING FILM TRACKS & CD TRACKS): 40min 15sec
UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME: 7min 15sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
+ – previously unreleased (or includes previously unreleased material)
1. Main Title (3:30) 2. Intruder (0:30) + 3. A Lift Home (1:35) 4. With Malice Pt. 1 (1:33) – (first half of CD track “With Malice”) 5. Suspect (1:18) + 6. Something’s Wrong (1:07) + 7. With Malice Pt. 2 (1:16) – (second half of CD track “With Malice”) 8. Goodbye Andy (1:05) + 9. The Handyman (1:59) – (edited from CD track) 10. Andy Visits Jed (0:48) + 11. Scotch and Talk (1:06) + 12. Clues (6:42) – (edited from CD track; missing CD track section 3:30-4:10) 13. Overlooked Detail (0:55) + 14. Witness (1:20) + 15. No Choice (2:50) 16. The Body (9:40) – (edited from CD track; missing first 1:15)
Current CD Release Track Titles and Track Times:
1. Main Title (3:32) 2. A Lift Home (1:45) 3. No Friends (1:32) – (unused in film) 4. With Malice (2:54) 5. The Handyman (2:39) 6. Clues (7:16) 7. No Choice (2:38) 8. The Body (10:45)
Just watched this again last night, on blu-ray this time. Yeeeeah, not a great film and - aside from the quite lovely theme - not a great score either. There's too many ridiculous twists and dead-ends and short ideas that I guess any composer/score would have struggled to enhance it. It pales next to City Hall.
Having said that, it's not a bad listen on CD if you're in the mood for Basic Instinct-lite.
If you don't like that Main Title, there is no helping you, you're actually a gigantic idiot. It's definitely not his strongest score, but that opening cue (after the kid's keyboard bit) is just perfection on CD and in the film. It will always remind me of fall, and I love listening to it while walking around campus at that time of year. The subdued tracks are the best here, and the rest is just warmed-over Basic Instinct.
The movie is of its era, the Packard-trademarked "Yuppie Fear Thriller," but personally, I miss twisty mysteries like this and especially Shattered. They don't really make movies like this anymore.
The movie is of its era, the Packard-trademarked "Yuppie Fear Thriller," but personally, I miss twisty mysteries like this and especially Shattered. They don't really make movies like this anymore.
very good point, Shattered is a very fine and strangely neglected movie, and I love Silvestri's personal take on the basic- instinct-style type of score, too.
I think you missed an extension of "The Handyman" that appears in the film. It's brief, but adds a bit more to the runtime. It's worth mentioning that the first minute of "The Body" is what was to originally cover the last minute of the "No Choice" scene, which is why it doesn't play in full in the film.
I don't remember that much about the film...other than it was pretty shit, but I have a soft spot for the score. My favourite tracks are Main Title, Clues and The Body (love the almost POTA bonkers aggression in the latter cue). Those 20 some minutes get played often by me. I remember popping the CD in - before I had seen the film - and hearing that kid keyboard and the scary Magic chord and then the Carol-Ann loveliness...well, it just made me break out in a big grin with a 'shit I love film music' kinda feeling.
Jerry's last great score for me. Yes, parts are Jerry by the numbers, but the highlights aren't (imho) topped by anything that came afterwards. The main theme is beautifully performed, but I like the way the 2nd and 3rd tracks close out almost as much.
The film has a ridiculous storyline but is worth watching for Alec Baldwin alone, who is utterly magnificent in it.
As no one seems to be clamouring for an upgrade, and it's one of only two Goldsmith CDs I have signed by the man himself, I'm happy for the current CD to stay the only one.
If you don't like that Main Title, there is no helping you, you're actually a gigantic idiot. It's definitely not his strongest score, but that opening cue (after the kid's keyboard bit) is just perfection on CD and in the film. It will always remind me of fall, and I love listening to it while walking around campus at that time of year. The subdued tracks are the best here, and the rest is just warmed-over Basic Instinct.
Is the main title the first part of the suite shown above?
I posted this on another MALICE thread years ago, but can't resist posting it here as well.... One night YEARS ago, I was pulling into a parking space at our Walmart... I had that GORGEOUS end title to Malice playing, the section where the choir comes in towards the end of the piece. I saw these two women looking at me with their mouths hanging open. When I got out of the car one of them said, "WHAT was that you were listening to??? IT'S ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!!". I told them what it was. That made my night! I'm actually getting kind of choked up thinking about that!
Good film for first half. But once it becomes obvious its a scam the plot has nowhere to go. If you are slow enuf not to see the obvious (e.g. BillCarson), you might like the whole film. Dont recall the score. Brm
Bumping this thread because, thanks to the Academy now listing their written score holdings on their website, we now know the official cue titles for the complete score since they have the manuscript and list them!
1-1 "The Cyclist," 8 pages 1-2 "Cat Food," 1 page 2-1 "A Lift Home," 2 pages 3-1 "No Friends," 2 pages 4-1 "The Curls," 3 pages 4-2 "Am I a Suspect?," 3 pages 4-4 "Tummy Ache," 4 pages 5-1 "Choices," 2 pages 5-3 "Never Again," 2 pages 6-1 "Permission Granted," 1 page 7-1 "The Handy Man," 6 pages 8-1 "The Mother," 2 pages 9-1 "Clues," 14 pages 10-1 "I'll Take Care of It," 1 page 10-2 "No Choice," 4 pages 11-1 "The Body," 13 pages 11-2 "Final Chapter," 8 pages
I note 17 cues as opposed to the 16 in film listed by DeputyRiley -- this is no doubt because "No Friends" went unused in the film; now we officially know what other cues it falls between!
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