Any fans of Patrick Williams' score for "Sssssss" out there? I just saw an atrocious looking transfer of the film on You Tube in which I think was sped up to an additional half hour on a foggy background.
One of my favorite main themes from the 70's. Though in a recent re-watch, I realized how elementary it is, so I can live without the score. But I'd still buy it the instant it came on sale!
Other points of note for me, as someone who saw it first in the theater in 1973 or whenever as an impressionable 12 year old:
Strother Martin in maybe his best role ever. And maybe one of the best and most underplayed mad scientists ever. I actually believe in this guy, which is harder for an actor to achieve than it may seem. One of the great character actors.
The main plot is just unbelievably silly. Makes completely no sense for a scientist to say, hey let's devolve humans back to their actual reptile brains. Good demonstration of the painful limitation of so many horror films - can't even think of a legitimate reason for their central conceit.
Still though, the scene in the carnival has haunted me ever sense, and is strikingly well done.
And you gotta love that 70's downbeat ending. The kind of thing that leaves you shaking your way out of the theater. Those were the days. (I don't miss 'em.)
I remember this film very well. I haven't seen it since it premiered at San Francisco's St.Francis/Baronet Cinemas on Market Street. It may have been on a double-bill with 'The Boy Who Cried Werewolf'. But I don't recall it's music, though I NOW am a fan of the late Patrick Williams.
