 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jul 25, 2021 - 4:10 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
|
I've been re-watching the series of Val Lewton-produced "horror" films from the '40s (CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE etc), simply because it was forty years ago this month that the BBC showed them in its much-loved Horror Double Bills. I loved the films forty years ago, and I love them now. But for me the best of the whole bunch is the Mark Robson-directed ISLE OF THE DEAD. It's outstanding.
To be truthful, I thought that the scores for the other films in the series, all by Roy Webb, were quite good, but not much more than serviceable. And I had actually forgotten that Leigh Harline had written ISLE OF THE DEAD. I'd never really paid much attention to Harline before, but that may change. ISLE OF THE DEAD has a superb score.
The title music plays against a backdrop of the famous painting by Arnold Böcklin which inspired Rachmaninoff to write his wonderful symphonic poem. I love that Rachmaninoff piece. The Harline score seems to share some of the same sombre mood, and it always seems to be about to touch on quotes from the Dies Irae, without doing it as explicitly as Rachmaninoff had done. On the whole the mood is one of doom, but it's reverential too. Some of the string writing reminded me of Alfred Newman in subtle religioso mode. The distant-sounding militaristic touches put me in mind of Friedhofer. It really is a great score for a great film. And it has made me keep an ear out for more Harline.
Any comments on ISLE OF THE DEAD as a film? Thoughts on the Harline score? Did Harline ever write anything similar to this later on in his career?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I ( with my siblings) used to love watching those double bills. Lying Infront of the telly , on a cushion, shitting ourselves. Ah, halcyon days.
One sticks out - the body snatcher, I think it was shown. Bought the dvd
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jul 25, 2021 - 5:55 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
|
Mitch, I think the one I "have" (back in the auld country) was conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. I can't place the version you mention - and indeed may well have never heard it, such is my level of nincompoopery.
A correction to my first post - I was so impressed with this film last night that I watched it again this morning, and I was wrong when I said that Harline avoids quoting the Dies Irae. He does, at least once, the opening full eight-note sequence undisguised. I know there was a thread about films in which the famous plainchant was used. No idea how to find the thread. Anyone know if ISLE OF THE DEAD made the list? Whatever, the Harline score was more impressive than ever this morning. Much more to it than the sombre tones I mentioned earlier. Much of the frenetic string writing for the climactic moments is exceptional, way above par, and sounding much more "modern" than I would have expected from a 1940s low budget Hollywood film.
Damian, you'll have to wait until nearer the end of August to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the showing of THE BODY SNATCHER. Next week it's THE LEOPARD MAN followed by BUG (Bradford Dillman battling fire-starting cockroaches). And we have to slip in some cricket highlights between the two films.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Haven't seen any of those Val Lewton films, Graham, but I think you would like Leigh Harline's soundtrack for House of Bamboo (not a horror, but a Samuel Fuller gangster flick set in Japan).
I expect that Graham is already familiar with George Pal's 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (Harline's music sounds 'old school' by the '60s, though).
|
|
|
|
|
|
And we have to slip in some cricket highlights between the two films.
Cricket and highlights. Now there's two words I'd never have put together . 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Also Leigh Harline is a fine ' under the radar' composer. And if I could be arsed going in and to my room, on this lovely afternoon, Id throw in a few titles. But as I said I can't bothered. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ooh, this is GREAT stuff. I love Roy Webb and think in general he was an even better composer than Leigh Harline (who I do also love, with the already-recommended House of Bamboo as one of my very favorites, along with Broken Lance).
But that said, I have never connected much with his scores for Val Lewton (I’ve always lamented the fact that those were chosen for the Bill Stromberg-conducted Webb album on Marco Polo, over some of his masterpieces for RKO like Sinbad the Sailor or The Spiral Staircase.) Those scores to me were subtly effective in the films but not much more, to me. I did appreciate that they were more subtle than average for the genre in that era of Hollywood, but I didn’t particularly enjoy them or find them memorable, and I kinda figured Webb was just writing to Lewton’s taste.
THIS score for Lewton, though, is a wholly different animal. I agree with the comparisons to other great composers like Alfred Newman. And I’m intrigued by the film too. I will have to seek this out and experience the whole score in context some day.
Yavar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jul 26, 2021 - 10:26 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
|
Glad to see some interest in this film and score. Thanks to all who commented. I'll just reiterate that, yes, it's my favourite score for the Val Lewton-produced series... which means I prefer it to all of the Roy Webbs (because he did all the others). Portentous but reverential with those deep chords, plus the strings recalling the religioso scores by Newman. Just at the end of the titles, as we see the shot of Boris Karloff lathering up, you can hear a distant military drum roll, which appears more noticeably at around the 02:30 mark. This puts me very much in mind of Friedhofer, but you really have to see the whole film to appreciate how outstanding the whole score is. I'm still wondering if Leigh Harline had an identifiable style. I always feel uneducated when I say things like "sounds like..."
As for the movie, you can blame me if you do seek it out and then dislike it. The script is a bit of a weird dog's dinner of themes (catalepsy, superstition, atheism), but the atmosphere and the setting (the Balkan Wars of 1912) make it absolutely unique. I also think that the final reel (which waxmanman35 refers to) contains some of the most frightening moments I've ever seen. And I thought I'd become hardened to all that after a lifetime of watching horror films.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm a big fan of Lewton's pictures, the ones I've seen, anyway. Isle of the Dead, The Seventh Victim and The Leopard Man are the standouts for me. Cat People gets the press as a famous "not showing" movie, and it's not bad at that, but to a stronger degree, his others could be described as "not needing to show." The not showing is less showy, I guess, and the mood and atmosphere are immersive and engaging.
Our Criterion Channel ran 8 of them during its first Halloween Times as a streaming service, just months after I'd discovered this podcast, which is really so good it ought to be called a proper biography, on Lewton's life and work. The author, Adam Roche, is a masterful storyteller himself. It's here, some 9 episodes, I think, starting at the bottom of this page. I've listened to the entire thing twice in as many years, and on its basis, I believe he has now been commissioned to write the script for a Lewton biopic to be produced soon.
https://www.attaboyclarence.com/the-secret-history-of-hollywood
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
