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 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 6:59 PM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

About two and a half years ago I held an informal, unofficial poll here about what Varese-owned-in-perpetuity Goldsmith scores you most hoped they would tackle next in a definitive edition:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?pageID=1&forumID=1&threadID=114138&archive=0

In the quarter-decade since that time, several of the scores have received definitive editions: The Omen, The Haunting, and most recently of all the resounding winner of the poll, Small Soldiers (it beat Air Force One by six votes)! In addition, it was confirmed in the past few months that Varese does not hold perpetuity rights on Leviathan, which they released in 1989, so I have removed it from the list of options as it could very well (and would most likely) come out on a different label.

I have received multiple requests from folks to hold a new poll now, as many current board members were not here at the time of the last poll and several new people have even posted votes in that old thread after the poll had long closed with the votes tallied. So here we go!

First, a thorough review of the options with details about missing music:

Our Man Flint (1966)
In Like Flint (1967) -- Intrada premiered the full wonderful LP album recordings of these two fun scores a few years ago, but the original film recordings are very different and much longer. Varese released a twofer with excerpts from both back in the 90s, and thus is the only label who can expand on those film recordings for CD. We do at least know that the complete scores survive thanks to Twilight Time, which included the full score tracks from the films as an isolated bonus feature on their Blu-ray releases. While offering a great deal more music, these iso tracks are still not complete because they replicate microedits and omit all music that the films themselves omitted. Therefore a complete Deluxe Edition for both scores is essential!

Planet of the Apes (1968) -- While released complete by Varese about two decades ago, there is ample room for sound improvement (in fact the previous shorter Intrada album has better sound) as well as perhaps some alternates that could be included. With two decades having passed since the last release of this score, it is a perfect time for Varese to issue a 40th Anniversary Edition.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) -- While Varese rarely acquired perpetuity rights for their limited Club releases like this one, I think this is a case where they did, because they are still selling the album digitally on iTunes. I have heard that a few short cues were omitted from their CD, though I have yet to confirm this.

The Mephisto Waltz (1971) -- While the Varese release of the 90s was technically the complete score in terms of length, there were apparently some overlay layers missing. If these could be restored and the whole recording cleaned up by Michael Mattesino with modern technology, I'd be all over a new issue!

The Other (1972) -- A 22 minute single track suite (with source music annoyingly mixed in) was released as a "bonus" on Varese's Mephisto Waltz album, similar to how they included a lengthy suite from Escape from the Planet of the Apes on the end of their Planet of the Apes album. It was confirmed by Kritzerland's Bruce Kimmel years ago that this granted them perpetuity rights to this title (otherwise he would have released it complete long ago). A superb and underrated score, the absence of a Deluxe Edition is particularly frustrating because many cues were written and recorded but dropped from the film. As with the Flints, Twilight Time released the score as an isolated track when they put the film out on Blu-ray, restoring some of these unused cues in the process. Their iso track almost doubles the length of the music available, but a CD release (with separate tracks for each cue, as Varese teased us with three of them on their Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox box set) is still very deserved, especially since like the Flint scores, film micro-edits were still preserved and in fact the Varese suite features some music that is not on the Twilight Time track.

Damien: Omen II (1978) -- The Varese Deluxe Edition was the only one of the trilogy that included the complete score, but sadly the film recording had inferior sound quality and even was outright damaged in a couple places. I've added this to the poll because many people have expressed a desire for Michael Mattesino to tackle the tapes with current sound restoration tools.

The Final Conflict (1981) -- There are only a handful of cues missing from Varese's already significantly expanded Deluxe Edition of this masterpiece, but as with The Omen, they are good and worthy of release, if Varese feels like producing a 40th Anniversary Edition for this as they did with the original.

Raggedy Man (1981) -- This is a title much in need of a reissue at the very least, and out of all the scores on this list this is the one where I am unsure about whether Varese holds perpetuity rights on it or not. Roger F. of Intrada said a couple years back that he watched the film to see if there was any missing music and he didn't notice any, so the existing album may be the complete score (unless there were unused cues or recorded alternates).

Lionheart (1987) -- Varese has had a "Deluxe Edition" available digitally on iTunes for some years, which is just the contents of their "Volume 1" followed by "Volume 2" including a repeated cue of music (the finale). While virtually complete, the cue The Future is missing its discrete ending because it is crossfaded into that finale cue. A remastered chronological release on CD would be ideal for this wonderful score.

Love Field (1991) -- This is surprisingly perhaps the most tantalizing title on this list, because the score was largely rejected: there are substantial cues on the existing short album but missing in the film, and similarly multiple cues in the film (including a key highlight) that were left off the album. According to Roger and Doug over at the Intrada board, there is likely music written and recorded that no one has heard yet, and it seems quite a few cues may have unreleased alternate recordings:
http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7704&sid=e4b531e2d606fba6d95926ce131a1d8e

Mom and Dad Save the World (1991) -- This quirky and underrated score is like an honorary Dante score to me, in terms of its zany sound. There is a substantial amount of missing music included on an unmentionable but in terrible sound quality.

Medicine Man (1992) -- A highlight of Goldsmith's 90s output, we know there is at least a quarter hour of unreleased music thanks to DeputyRiley's fine Complete Score Breakdown:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=109823&forumID=1&archive=0

Mr. Baseball (1992) -- This score is much-derided (despite a pretty love theme) and would probably be near the bottom of most people's lists in terms of wanting an expansion, but despite some annoying parts I think it has its charms. I have no idea how much unreleased music there might be.

Malice (1993) -- DeputyRiley did a complete score breakdown and found only 7 minutes of unreleased music in the film, though as always there may be unused cues or alternates that he couldn't account for:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=110814&forumID=1&archive=0

Matinee (1993) -- Perhaps the most underrated of all Jerry's collaborations with Joe Dante, as with Mom and Dad Save the World there is a lengthy unmentionable with much more music but with extremely poor sound quality. With Small Soldiers now complete, I hope Varese next turns their sights to this delightful score, one of only two Dante collaborations yet to get a full release.

Rudy (1993) -- The DVD release had the complete score included as an isolated track, although obviously this was in lossy audio with film fades and edits. While the missing music is only more variations on the same material on album, they are lovely variations and I'd still love to have the whole thing on CD.

Angie (1994) -- Another rare title on this list where I have no idea about how much unreleased music there might be. I will have to investigate some time.

City Hall (1996) -- According to DeputyRiley's Complete Score Breakdown, there's about 12 minutes of music in the film that's unreleased on album (one of those cues a highlight), but it's always possible that there are unused cues or alternates that could bulk up an expansion even more: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=110759&forumID=1&archive=0

Air Force One (1997) -- This one needs little introduction and it won second place in the previous poll, but I'll just say that since the complete Goldsmith/McNeely score is so long that it necessitates a second disc, I hope that Randy Newman's unused score is also included to fill out that second disc, as I really like parts of it and it deserves an official release.

L.A. Confidential (1997) -- Similar to Rudy in that the complete score was released as an isolated track on DVD, but deserves a complete and lossless release on CD.

U.S. Marshals (1997) -- Since I'm a bit lukewarm on it, this was a somewhat unexpected (for me) third place finish in my last unofficial poll, probably because there is a great deal of unreleased music which has never seen release, unofficially or not. Thanks to DeputyRiley's detailed complete score breakdown, we know that more than half of the score is unreleased, which is probably another reason people had it high on their lists: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=109822&forumID=1&archive=0

The 13th Warrior (1999) -- About 18 minutes are unreleased, and while there are no particularly standout cues among these, it is still made up of good variations on the released material and I trust will be put out some day, hopefully with Graeme Revell's unused score which was one of his strongest works.

Hollow Man (2000) -- It'd be wonderful to get an official CD release of this last Goldsmith/Verhoeven collaboration, although there was a full isolated score track for this on DVD as with L.A. Confidential and Rudy.

Along Came a Spider (2001) -- About 24 minutes are unreleased, as revealed by this Complete Score Breakdown by David Maxx:
http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=124338&forumID=1&archive=0

Timeline (2003) -- A wonderfully complex score with both sci-fi and fantasy elements, an official release of the complete "unused" work would be great to get even though Varese's existing album was one of their more successful abbreviated arrangements.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) -- Jerry's final work was a wonderfully energetic, exuberant, and creative score, but Varese's initial album was unsatisfying because it seemed to lack a narrative flow or conclusion, in part because John Debney's contribution to the finale was left unreleased. A definitive release with all the music recorded for the film would be a godsend.

Because they released albums for the final film scores by other composers, Varese also possibly has control over the unused Goldsmith scores for Wall Street, The Public Eye, and Babe, *if* anything was recorded for any of them. (Wall Street was probably just demos, The Public Eye was recorded according to Mike Ross-Trevor, and Babe was written but probably not recorded, though there are some indications that it might have been.) Since these are a bit up in the air as far as even existing, I have left them off the list.

NOTE -- Varese definitely does NOT control the following scores in perpetuity despite their previous releases: MacArthur (they only licensed the original UMG-owned album), the album recording of Masada (same situation as MacArthur and Explorers), The Secret of NIMH (expanded by Intrada in the past few years though still not complete), Supergirl (expanded by Silva in the 90s; as with Legend they hold perpetuity rights themselves as a result), and Link (since re-released by both Intrada and LLL, though not expanded as the missing cues apparently do not survive in good sound quality). They also do not control the remaining unexpanded titles premiered in their Goldsmith at Fox box (just as with most titles premiered in their Club line like Magic): Anna and the King, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, S*P*Y*S, and The Chairman. (This should be obvious because Intrada has since reissued/expanded Von Ryan's Express, Shock Treatment, The Detective, Fate Is the Hunter, Alien, and Damnation Alley from that box, but I wanted to point it out because several of these received multiple votes last time despite not being on my list so I thought I would explain why so folks don't use up one of their limited five choices to vote for something Varese doesn't even have rights for.

Last time I made this poll a top 5, but so may people provided more than that last time that I figured I may as well increase the limit. Board member Tom McGuire also asked in the thread, about a year after I held the poll,
"Any chance we can expand this to a top 10 ranked choice vote?"

The answer is "YES" -- IF everyone who participates takes the trouble to rank their choices. If a bunch of people participate without providing a ranking, I will have to just give one equally-weighted point to everything that gets a vote.

Without further ado, here are my top 10 picks, and I invite everyone else to do the same:
1. Love Field
2. Planet of the Apes: 50th Anniversary Edition (I don't want to wait for the 60th for a great remaster!)
3. Medicine Man
4. The Other
5. Mom and Dad Save the World
6. Our Man Flint
7. City Hall
8. Looney Tunes: Back in Action
9. U.S. Marshals (there's so much unreleased I'm coming around to wanting it...)
10. The Final Conflict

Obviously if recordings of the rejected scores to Babe and The Public Eye exist, those are in fact at the top of my list. wink


Yavar

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 7:11 PM   
 By:   Jim Cleveland   (Member)

Yavar... 1968 IS the 50th anniversary of POTA!

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 7:18 PM   
 By:   Last Child   (Member)

His 1996 rejected score for DEATH BLOW.

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 7:19 PM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

Yavar... 1968 IS the 50th anniversary of POTA!

D'oh! Math! Fixed.

Yavar

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 7:31 PM   
 By:   Last Child   (Member)

His 1993 rejected score for CHECKMATE.

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 7:42 PM   
 By:   Konga   (Member)

Ahh. My favorite composer. My choices are:
1. Planet of the Apes
2. Air Force One
3. US Marshalls
4. Raggedy Man
5. Matinee
6. Looney Tunes Back in Action
7. Hollow Man
8. Ballad of Cable Hogue
9. The Final Conflict
10. Our Man Flint / In Like Flint

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 8:06 PM   
 By:   Shaun Rutherford   (Member)

Yavar, your list is very strange. In terms of scores that could use an expansion or a better release in general:

1. LA Confidential
2. U.S. Marshals
3. Air Force One
4. Matinee
5. Hollow Man (there was a CD for this in 2000, but most every unreleased cue is good)
6. Looney Tunes: Back In Action
7. The Other
8. Our Man Flint (good luck on any actual sonic upgrades to the Fox titles - there's only so much that can be done)
9. Malice (just because I have nostalgic ties to the score, not because it deserves to be expanded)

I like some of the others, but I don't think I'd request an expansion of any of them (unless the full Love Field is actually good, which it was not on the original album).

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 8:33 PM   
 By:   jfallon   (Member)

US Marshalls, no question. Goldsmith’s last great action score.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 9:04 PM   
 By:   Thgil   (Member)

Ahh. My favorite composer. My choices are:
1. Planet of the Apes


I'd love a 50th anniversary re-release of all five scores from the original Apes movies.

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 9:05 PM   
 By:   The Mutant   (Member)

U.S. Marshals - complete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 10:01 PM   
 By:   drivingmissdaisy   (Member)

Yavar, I think it would be much easier just to say everything that Varese has in perpetuity you want released immediately and in complete form. No need for a long post, just shorten it to that.

 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 11:06 PM   
 By:   SchiffyM   (Member)

1. Our Man Flint
2. In Like Flint
3. The Other

The sound quality on "Planet of the Apes” doesn't bother me – I guess maybe the brittle, arid sound just feels appropriate – though since it's one of my favorite scores of all time, I'd probably give in and buy it.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 12, 2018 - 11:39 PM   
 By:   tvogt1   (Member)

1. US Marshalls
2. Mom and Dad Save the World
3. Ballad of Cable Hogue

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 12:19 AM   
 By:   moolik   (Member)

The Don is Dead

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 12:21 AM   
 By:   The Shadow   (Member)

deleted

 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 12:45 AM   
 By:   Josh   (Member)

Yavar, I think it would be much easier just to say everything that Varese has in perpetuity you want released immediately and in complete form. No need for a long post, just shorten it to that.

Yavar's passion is exceeded only by his verbosity.

 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 12:47 AM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

Guilty as charged.

Yavar

 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 12:48 AM   
 By:   Tom Maguire   (Member)

"What Goldsmith do you want next from Varese?"

"All."

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 7:44 AM   
 By:   Last Child   (Member)

His rejected score for SACK LUNCH (1997).

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 13, 2018 - 7:47 AM   
 By:   patrick_runkle   (Member)

Love Field
The Other
US Marshals

 
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