[EDIT 6/29/20: Unfortunately the original YouTube video of the film was taken down, and the version up now removes is missing roughly 30 pre-credits seconds at the beginning, so my time stamps are probably all off by that amount.]
After yesterday tackling a far superior Goldsmith effort for Crawlspace (1972), I've just completed another breakdown for a completely unreleased Goldsmith score, this time 1971's TV movie, Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate. It has an interesting approach as 95% of the scoring accompanies the mentally unhinged killer at the center of the story, much of that for his constant internal monologuing. For the most part, the music bows out when he is not directly involved (onscreen, or hearing a phone ring as he is making a call). Sort of a "Jaws" approach, though mostly very textural jazz in musical style. The most obvious exception is the zany main and end titles.
I must admit I wasn't very engaged by most of the music in the film, and the film itself really turned out to be a bit of fluff. Still, I don't regret watching it and now you fellow Goldsmith obsessives can benefit from my time. I sort of started writing full on liner notes but quickly got more lazy as I went along because I really didn't find the music very engaging (more of a two-star effort in the opinion of this Goldsmith nut, though of course I'm crazy enough to buy it anyway if it's ever released):
0:31 - 2:19 1. Main Title 1:48 Goldsmith’s main title cue falls in his “mod” style but is zanier than most of his work in that style.
14:36 - 15:21 2. Rebecca Mead :45 The mod music takes on a more threatening edge as a psychopath thinks about finding his next victim…Rebecca Mead, the fictional classified ad creation of four older female friends.
15:22 - 17:06 3. The Tally 1:44 This lighter laid-back cue plays in the aftermath of the protagonists’ bridge game.
20:58 - 22:28 4. Chicks Dig That 1:30 A low key “mod” cue with the main theme on synthesizer plays under the psycho’s internal monologue as he walks along the street.
22:54 - 23:20 5. Flowers :26 23:28 - 23:35 6. Two Bunches :07 The music continues in similar fashion during a continuation of the whispered internal monologue.
23:36 - 27:10 7. I’d Know Her Anywhere / Two Old Hens / Some Jackass 3:34 Three sequences of the film which may be three separate cues crossfaded together (the moods change greatly). The music continues under further monologuing, but the middle cue for when the psycho stakes out the house and watches the women arrive stands out a bit more in the mix, the music taking on more of an overtly jazzy feel with prominent brass.
30:53 - 31:33 8. You’ll Be There :40 Cue begins after the phone conversation in ominous fashion, soon turning light and humorous in tone as it continues through to commercial break.
33:10 - 34:12 Bar Source A 1:02 The jazzy source cue is possibly an original Goldsmith composition, which segues seamlessly into...
34:12 - 34:59 9. Be Cool :47 ...a “cool” mod cue for another creepy monologue sequence as the psycho drives up.
34:59 - 37:41 Bar Source B 2:42 A very different piano-led jazz source cue plays as the four women observe him entering the bar and taking a seat.
37:41 - 39:26 10. Fake 1:45 Going home with a prostitute by mistake, the mod music becomes more violent to accompany the psycho’s "tantrum”.
40:50 - 43:01 11. Gotta Think 2:11 After committing murder, the psychopath tries to calm himself down.
45:36 - 46:13 12. Not Blue :37 He reads the paper’s report and realizes the woman he killed did not fit the description of the classifieds ad.
46:54 - 47:41 13. Gotta Find Out :47 Percussion-heavy jazz which begins with the first overt action music of the score.
49:40 - 50:15 14. Keep Walking :35 He makes his way to the bank, avoiding a cop along the way while the internal monologue continues.
52:03 - 52:45 15. Answer the Phone :42 Very unsettling cue with rumbling percussion as the psycho makes another call to their house just as the ladies arrive home.
55:30 - 56:12 16. Empty House :42 A similar unsettling cue with rumbling percussion as the phone rings in an empty house.
56:39 - 57:02 17. Drivin’ Around :23 Free jazz with percussion and col legno strings as the killer continues his internal monologue.
59:03 - 59:19 18. Still No Answer :16 62:36 - 62:51 19. All Right :15 Two more brief “textural cues” which almost seem improvised by plucked bass and percussion, as the killer is continually unsuccessful with his phone call.
64:20 - 66:25 20. The Visit 2:05 A melodic line finally returns over improvised-sounding jazzy brass over a steady beat on percussion and plucked brass, as the killer returns to the house in person just before the ladies arrive home. The latter half of the cue is mostly a repeated suspense motif on tympani as the ladies walk up to their door and enter. It proceeds in stop-start fashion with long pauses between tympani phrases, before ending on a final stinger as they discover the intruder in their home.
70:30 - 71:38 21. We Made Her Up 1:08 The tympani suspense motif soon opens up into the only full-on action cue of the score as the murderer is apprehended with a little bit of help from the ladies.
72:56 - 74:47 22. One Hell of a Day (Finale & End Credits) 1:51 The zany main title music returns as the ladies leave the police station and discuss their little adventure, continuing through the end credits.
TOTAL SCORE TIME: 24:38 (TOTAL SOURCE TIME: 3:44)
I think I'll tackle Pursuit (1972) next, another "mod"-flavored TV movie score but a much more melodic and interesting one, musically speaking. Cheers!
I really find Goldsmith's approach to Jazz very interesting, often treating it like some form of baroque abstract classical form. A lot of his TV work at the time touched on that. The first minute of "The Visit" is a good example.
Easy enough to follow your original timings Yavar by just starting each cue about 30 seconds earlier. That's what I did - I certainly didn't feel like watching the whole film. I wasn't at all familiar with it. It looks kind of an uneasy blend of The Snoop Sisters family-fun viewing and a grim serial killer drama. Was that the intention?
Anyway, in general (as I mentioned on zooba's recent thread) I found the score to be pretty great. There's a LOT of good dramatic stuff in there, really inventive, in line with many of the other "cool" scores Goldsmith was doing at the time, but even the sillier bits don't strike me as being much more annoying than the shopping spree scene from ESCAPE FROM THE POTA. The really annoying thing is that woo-woo effect in the Main and End Titles. I think it's simulating '70s computer technology or something. It struck me that it might even be an effects overdub. Take that away and it's just one of those chirpy Goldsmith themes of the time, such as HAWKINS or the title theme from WINTER KILL, which I love but always thought wouldn't be out of place in "The Banana Splits" either.
I appreciate your thoughts, Graham. They make me tempted to revisit the score, despite my initial low opinion of it. Maybe my initial reaction was colored by having seen Crawlspace (1972) right before it and kinda being blown away by that score. This was a decided step down, and I found I had so much less to say about it.
If somehow tapes for this score survive and can facilitate a release some day, I really hope the siren effect in the main and end titles was a separate element, and renditions of that neat main theme could be heard without it. (And if a re-recording happens for this score some day, I really hope a version without the effect is also recorded.)
I came back to bump this thread because I replaced the YouTube link in the first post again, thanks to someone uploading a FAR superior "remastered" copy onto YouTube... not only the picture is night-and-day better with what we had before, but the sound is also far better. I haven't re-timed my note timestamps but then they were already a bit off before compared to the original video that I timed them to.
If somehow tapes for this score survive and can facilitate a release some day, I really hope the siren effect in the main and end titles was a separate element, and renditions of that neat main theme could be heard without it. (And if a re-recording happens for this score some day, I really hope a version without the effect is also recorded.)
I came back to bump this thread because I replaced the YouTube link in the first post again, thanks to someone uploading a FAR superior "remastered" copy onto YouTube... not only the picture is night-and-day better with what we had before, but the sound is also far better. I haven't re-timed my note timestamps but then they were already a bit off before compared to the original video that I timed them to.
Yavar
It’s a very good score, considering this flat and pedestrian television material. Funny how that score is cut in the same clothe as the feature film Escape from Planet of the Apes combined with the telefilm A Step Out of Line. There are so many good television scores written in the Seventies decade and Goldsmith is another gifted composer of that time along with many—needless to mention them. This may have been a pain in the neck to watch such dreary telefilm aka “the grannies play Sherlock Holmes” in order to get the cues right. It’s a labor of love, I guess.
In your estimation, what are the most interesting television scores of the early Seventies that deserve a release as a twofer?
I mean in terms of TV movies there's so much great Melle and Goldenberg and Fielding and such from that decade I wouldn't know where to start.
But if you're asking about Goldsmith... Pursuit and especially Crawlspace are my two favorites among his remaining unreleased TV movie scores. They would make a fantastic twofer around the same length as Intrada's Black Patch/The Man twofer. Of course, if a label was up for adding a third title that could fill the CD out to full length, Do Not Fold could be added in there too, but it's a much lower priority for me than those two, to say the least.
Indict & Convict I'm hoping still survives in the Universal vaults. And Lights Out (1972) I've never seen, but it sounds promising from the IMDb reviews: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068857/
(Anybody have any ideas about how to access a copy for scholarly purposes?)
Yavar
Anyone can view it, but you'll have to go to NYC to do it. According to the Paley Center:
"...you have the opportunity to access an international collection of over 160,000 programs covering more than 100 years of television and radio history, including news, public affairs programs and documentaries, performing arts programs, children's programming, sports, comedy and variety shows, and commercial advertising. Programming from some 70 countries is represented in the collection.
In our library you choose a program from the collection to watch or listen to it individually, or with up to four people at a family console."
And as for the question "Can I get a clip of something in your collection for a project I’m working on?"
"Absolutely not. Unlike many cultural institutions, we do not own the rights to the individual programs that are here. They were donated to us only to be viewed or listened to in the Paley Center by the general public."
