I want to start this thread to take obscure scores out of the darkness and into the limelight. One of my Holy Grails is to have the score to the 1995 movie Cold Comfort Farm released in some way (digital or CD). It's a quirky score with 20's jazz influence that is just beautiful. It's by Robert Lockhart and you can hear the end credits music on youtube. Please though, rent the movie to watch and listen to the score. It's much more complex and beautiful than the end credits suggest. For what ever reason I've never heard anyone else talk about this score on this message board. What is a favorite score of yours that you've never heard discussed here?
I'm pretty sure I haven't seen anyone talk about the score to the odd and wonderful spy-ish/prisoner-ish thriller Madame Sin with Bette Davis and Robert Wagner. I love this score (and movie), and so glad you started this thread, because it made me look for clips on youtube and here it is!
PS I remember Cold Comfort Farm (especially Eileen Atkins, whom I remember from The Lady's Not for Burning with Richard Chamberlain in the 70's), but I don't recall the music. May have to watch that one again....
Oh, and one more odd 70's flick: Doctor Strange by Paul Chihara!
I really want The Wizard of Loneliness by Michel Colombier on CD. But I think any label considering releasing it would shift 2 copies. The one bought by me and the copy ordered by mistake by some other poor soul. Date with an Angel by Randy Kerber is also much wanted, but I think two other people like that one too.
Okay, here's one: We never discuss David Newman's energetic, tuneful score for "Rover Dangerfield." It's not hard to see why – not only was the film a flop, but the CD is a mess of dialogue, weak songs, and score. A few years ago, I edited the score portion down to sixteen minutes uninterrupted by Dangerfield's voice, and it's a delightful sixteen minutes.
Okay, here's one: We never discuss David Newman's energetic, tuneful score for "Rover Dangerfield." It's not hard to see why – not only was the film a flop, but the CD is a mess of dialogue, weak songs, and score. A few years ago, I edited the score portion down to sixteen minutes uninterrupted by Dangerfield's voice, and it's a delightful sixteen minutes.
Hmm, I'll have to try that.
And because I love to add Don Bluth trivia whenever it arises, Don Bluth Studios animated parts of the film, though it wasn't a Don Bluth production.
Some scores probably don't get discussed because the thread heading doesn't include the film title or composer and no-one knows it is being talked about.
J. Peter Robinson's "New Nightmare" is one of my favorite non-Young/non-Goldsmith horror scores, to a point where I bought the NoES box set just for that.
The film is ostensibly a conspiracy thriller, but you wouldn't entirely get that impression from the opening credits. Banjo and drum kit? Playing such a jolly melody? What the fudge is going on?!
Then the strings enter. Okay, things are getting a little more serious.
Then the title appears. A big brass and strings melody. The music soon recedes. The cello takes the lead on the main theme, almost mournful. Truly, one of a kind.
But the film was produced in Canada, so good luck with that.
My threads on both DREAM CHILD by Stanley Myers and CREMASTER 5 by Jonathan Bepler always got greeted by snores.
Myers always gets my attention, though not my recollection. I'm just now hearing about this one.
Okay, here's one: We never discuss David Newman's energetic, tuneful score for "Rover Dangerfield." It's not hard to see why – not only was the film a flop, but the CD is a mess of dialogue, weak songs, and score. A few years ago, I edited the score portion down to sixteen minutes uninterrupted by Dangerfield's voice, and it's a delightful sixteen minutes.
I bought that "album" just for Newman's score and felt blindsided by the dialogue. I like the movie just fine, but that was simply unwelcome. It was more like an image album from an anime, which is just shy of being deemed as an audiobook.
Stanley Myers--The Raging Moon. Lp on EMI (England only). Never on CD. Myers first sessions with guitarist John Williams. Tender, playful, heartfelt, contemporary score.
Ed Welch's THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS. Gorgeous main theme. LP release only, which I don't have (and wouldn't be any use if I did as I don't have a vinyl player).
I want to start this thread to take obscure scores out of the darkness and into the limelight. One of my Holy Grails is to have the score to the 1995 movie Cold Comfort Farm released in some way (digital or CD). It's a quirky score with 20's jazz influence that is just beautiful. It's by Robert Lockhart and you can hear the end credits music on youtube. Please though, rent the movie to watch and listen to the score. It's much more complex and beautiful than the end credits suggest. For what ever reason I've never heard anyone else talk about this score on this message board. What is a favorite score of yours that you've never heard discussed here?
Challenge accepted! I picked this up at the library and watched it this afternoon. What a riot, I'm still laughing at "I'm talking about SEX!" just as the preacher enters. Oh my, there isn't one single character that is not memorable and there are a lot of characters.
Right away Kate Beckinsale struck me as something of a sister of Robert Sean Leonard in the face with the spunk of Mary Tyler Moore thrown in. And her friend Mary had some of the funniest nouveau riche leers in that snotty puss of hers. LOL!
The site of the main title felt like 1313 Mockingbird Lane, British-style. To call everything and everyone bizarre or eccentric is an understatement. To that end, the score is a piece of work. That jaunty main theme at the beginning immediately thrust me into the moment in King Kong when the scene shifts from Skull Island to New York; a vamp sound with an arrangement right out of Leroy Shield's amazing set of cues for the Our Gang series, too. "Quirky score with 20s Jazz influence," indeed.
And that's what comprises the underscoring, lots of tuneful little cues throughout. Wicked humor abounds in sight and music a la marches/"circus" arrangements but there are also splendid moments of winsomeness. I'm thinking "out-of-the-forest" shots especially that for me brought affectations associated with Mr. Horner's The Man Without A Face. The scene of Elfine (sp.?) sashaying in bliss and then meeting her beau to be is a standout in this regard.
I think I want to go back to that point to confirm if it was all in the same sequence. Anyway, thanks for the tip, scoreaholic. A challenge well worth it.
