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Mancini was typecast, but he brought it on himself. Those 60s RCA albums were easy listening records, and he went out of his way to select source cues over score and then re-record. Good results, but if producers somehow got the impression that Mancini was an easy listening guy, you don't have to wonder why.
In Joseph Tandet's entertaining book about his many attempts to get movies and stage productions of The Little Prince made, he recalls Alan Jay Lerner's search for a composer. Mancini's name came up but was dismissed as "light."
And I'm sure Mancini cried all the way to the bank.
You know, Mancini was well aware that he caused the 'problem' himself with all those easy listening albums in the 60s.
He said so in interviews. Late in his too short life, Henry tried to correct that a bit when he started rerecording some of his dramatic music for RCA in Dolby Surround.
Stefan Huber is completely correct about the fact, that an incredible amount of Mancini's film music from that glorious decade of the 1960s remains unreleased.
For instance, just one rerecorded and rearranged track from "Man's Favorite Sports?" has been released. Come on!
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I just watched Arabesque for the first time in over a decade and possibly loved it more than ever, especially the score, one of my all-time favorites of HM's (and one of my favorite Mancini themes). It doesn't hurt that of his 60s LPs it's the one closest to being an actual score LP (next to Molly Maguires, which I think is technically 1970s).
I also watched the trailer, narrated by Donen himself, and noticed that he pronounced his name "DON-nen" .I've always said "DOH-nen," and I actually met the man about 35 years ago. (I was so happy when someone gave him my hugely Charade-influenced script, and was later fairly crushed when I heard he didn't especially like it) and he pronounced Sophia's last name like "Lauren" rather than "Loh-REN," which is how I've been saying it all my life.
Watching it this time made me wonder how much its wonderfully gimmicky visual style was influenced by The Ipcress File (I know Byron Haskin studied Ipcress while making The Power).
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I just saw ARABESQUE again for the first time in, I don’t know, decades...
The music by Henry Mancini is exciting and stylish, but I fear the released soundtrack album was one of those filled with fluff easy listening source pieces, as he often did back then.
This score should get the treatment Intrada did for CHARADE.
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The weird thing about the original album, from my perspective, is that back in the late 60s, after I saw the movie and loved the music, couldn't find the LP anywhere. With no internet and too young to drive, I scoured the department store selections looking for it (and Famous Barr and E. J. Korvette had very good record departments) and just couldn't find it. Every other Mancini RCA soundtrack from the 60s was there, but not Arabesque. When I finally stumbled onto it a few years later I was listening a lot of experimental music at the time, so wasn't interested. Thankfully, I eventually found a way for Mancini and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to co-exist in my collection.
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Thankfully, I eventually found a way for Mancini and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to co-exist in my collection.
Yeah, nowadays I'm much more open to Mancini's "easy listening" style, but I deeply disliked it as a teenager and when I started to seriously listen to film music and classical music.
I was disappointed with a few Mancini albums back then and stopped buying them altogether. Even though I liked some of the music by him I heard in the movies, the albums were always just... fluff.
The music for ARABESQUE, for example, features some very interesting percussive suspense pieces, but that's not the stuff Mancini usually put on his albums.
The movie is a lot of fun though, there is always something happening and it never stops. It doesn't really add up to much or makes much sense, but, as Stanley Donen (who was unhappy with the screenplay and thought its many re-writes only made it worse) said: "Our only hope is to make it so visually exciting the audience will never have time to work out what the hell is going on". Point well taken. :-)
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The Arabesque LP had more score than most of the other RCAs.
A year or so ago I listened to all of those Mancini RCA soundtracks. I was so disappointed with much of the fluffy filler in Pink Panther and Charade.
Pink Panther got an Oscar nomination for best score the year Goldfinger and Zulu did not. Not having seen Pink Panther since the sixties, and only having the original album to go by, I really have to wonder why.
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PINK PANTHER was such a mentioned disappointment for me. I saw the movie when I was about 14, thought it was quite funny and I'm loved the music, but the LP which I had then was a letdown. Even the Pink Panther Theme itself was robbed of its by now iconic opening riffs.
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Thankfully, I eventually found a way for Mancini and the Art Ensemble of Chicago to co-exist in my collection.
Yeah, nowadays I'm much more open to Mancini's "easy listening" style, but I deeply disliked it as a teenager and when I started to seriously listen to film music and classical music.
I was disappointed with a few Mancini albums back then and stopped buying them altogether. Even though I liked some of the music by him I heard in the movies, the albums were always just... fluff.
The music for ARABESQUE, for example, features some very interesting percussive suspense pieces, but that's not the stuff Mancini usually put on his albums.
The movie is a lot of fun though, there is always something happening and it never stops. It doesn't really add up to much or makes much sense, but, as Stanley Donen (who was unhappy with the screenplay and thought its many re-writes only made it worse) said: "Our only hope is to make it so visually exciting the audience will never have time to work out what the hell is going on". Point well taken. :-)
The "Experiment In Terror" LP is half source and half dramatic music. "Final Out At Candlestick Park" and "White On White" on side 2 or example.
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Arabesque belong to my top three scores along with Experiment in Terror and A Shot in the Dark.
Unfortunately, none of these scores are available in their original recording forms.
I consider Experiment in Terror as a masterwork as well as Wait Until Dark.
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Can someone please a provide a list of Mancini's great dramatical scores from the Sixties?
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Copied from the Henry Mancini website, this is what they list as composed by, or containing some sort of contribution from, Mr. Mancini for the 60's (I included 1959 and 1970 because those years have some great scores):
1959
Imitation Of Life
Never Steal Anything Small (Arrangements)
Operation Petticoat
1960
High Time
1961
Bachelor In Paradise
Breakfast At Tiffany's
The Great Imposter
The Second Time Around
1962
Days Of Wine And Roses
Experiment In Terror
Hatari!
Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation
1963
Charade
The Pink Panther
Soldier In The Rain
1964
Dear Heart
Man's Favorite Sport?
A Shot In The Dark
1965
The Great Race
Moment To Moment
1966
Arabesque
"What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?"
1967
Gunn
Two For The Road
Wait Until Dark
1968
The Party
1969
Gaily, Gaily
"Me, Natalie"
1970
Darling Lili
The Hawaiians
The Molly Maguire's
Sunflower
My own picks for great dramatic scores from this impressive list would be:
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Great Imposter
Days of Wine and Roses
Experiment in Terror
Hatari!
Charade
Soldier in the Rain
Dear Heart
Arabesque
Gunn
Two for the Road
Wait Until Dark
Gaily, Gaily
Me, Natalie
The Hawaiians
The Molly Maguires
Others may disagree!
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