.....'Bandit of Sherwood Forest'. That's one for Morgannastrom methinks.....
In the 1970s, when Elmer Bernstein was recording scores for his label, I suggested this to him, and further suggested that he combine it with a re-recording of the lovely small score Hugo did for the multi-award-winning documentary, A WALK IN THE FOREST from 1974---one of his last two composed scores.
Bernstein seemed very interested in the idea for the future, but, of course, the Film Music Collection faded away before many more things could be done.
I have no 40-year collector’s carrer. But the first time I got aware of a Friedhofer score was in my childhood. In the late 1970s, me and my parents used to watch all the American classics on TV and I loved „Joan of Arc“. And as I can remember I didn’t love the movie itsself so much but the music. I was so impressed by this wonderful music that Friedhofer’s name was in my mind much before f.e. John Williams’, whose Star-Wars-Score is another childhood experience of mine. Some years ago I discovered an old audio tape with some Main Titles of different beloved classics such as "Ivanhoe" and "The Prisoner of Zenda" I had recorded directly from TV, because the music wasn’t released or available in Germany at that time. And on that tape was the Main Title or overture to „Joan of Arc“. A friend of mine did a little digital restauration. Altough the sound is still poor I enjoy listening to it. Maybe I get the DVD sometimes.
As far as I know, most of the RKO music stuff is lost forever and there will be no original Joan-of-Arc-release. And that is also what I have been told about Fox’ „Vera Cruz“, another grail of mine.
So I agrree with Ron’s suggestion to release fragments of what ever has survived as a sampler. With an appropriate limitation it could sell. As you have realised, „Boy on a Dolphin“ was sold out very quickly. If another album would feature parts of "Vera Cruz", I am convinced that it would sell as fast as the Dolphin-score.
John Morgan once told that the Marco-Polo-Album with „The Adventures of Marco Polo“, „The Lodger“, „Rains of Ranchipur“ and „Seven Cities of Gold“ is one of the worst selling albums he did. I may add: And one of the finest. It is hardly to imagine that he might take such a financial risk of recunstructing and rerecording a second Friedhofer album.
But I call on John to think about it, because I am convinced that the perception of Friedhofer has improved among film music lovers and collectors. So with the right titles a second Friedhofer-Rerecording could be successful.
The pop piece in the middle of the lengthy suite from "Private Parts" is a favourite of mine. It's surprising that Friedhofer is its composer. The whole score should be cleaned and reissued in complete form. Who owns the rights and the tapes now?
Quick question -- I have the LP with VON RICHTOFEN AND BROWN and PRIVATE PARTS -- and have never sprung for the CD release. Is the sound quality greatly better on the CD ?
No question about it---when Hugo was assigned a song to integrate into one of his scores, he always made it his own unique contribution.....
You haven't indicated the film where this extended suite you put together comes from, Ray.
I'd guess it's from THE JOLSON STORY, where Jolson's big song "April Showers" becomes an important part of the love story between Al Jolson and his onscreen love (played by Evelyn Keyes---but who really represents Ruby Keeler) is played out.
Speaking of ol' Hugo, manderley....when is a label going to put out his final film score, the tapes of which you rescued and kept safe all of these decades? I realize I'm being annoying and bugging you when you probably can't say, of course. But I've been waiting eagerly to hear that score ever since I read the section about it in the Friedhofer biography about a decade ago...
Speaking of Hugo.....and why not---he's one of the filmmusic legends---there is a thread somewhere here on the board about scores that are incomplete, in mono, or lost, that might still be found or re-assembled by modern technology.
With the "fixing" of the vinegar syndrome warping of a number of the old mag film track masters now a technology possibility in some cases, how about a number of those Hugo scores at Fox getting a new investigation?
We've had BOY ON A DOLPHIN now in stereo, and RANCHIPUR in a nice updated, if mono, complete form.
I hope someone (Mike Matessino?) is working on a complete,"fixed", SOLDIER OF FORTUNE or IN LOVE AND WAR and, maybe, THE SUN ALSO RISES.
Perhaps WHITE FEATHER has suffered the syndrome fate, too, and can be resurrected.
Then there are a few optical things like THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT and THREE CAME HOME---which is certainly a forerunner of RANCHIPUR melodically---and might be in the optical push-pull stereo domain.
I wonder where, if they still exist, the stereo music tracks to the John Wayne ISLAND IN THE SKY are these days. Are they with the Batjac collection controlled by the Wayne estate, or are they with the Warner Bros masters (dubbed down to mono), or have they gone to the great music graveyard in the sky?...... Hugo also apparently contributed to the score of the Batjac/WB PLUNDER OF THE SUN, so those may or may not be around somewhere, too.
I'd guess that Hugo's underscore for the Paramount 1952 Bing Crosby/Jane Wyman film JUST FOR YOU, might still exist in the Paramount vaults, and perhaps Mr. Bruce might be able to pull that material out, and maybe he could combine it with the Crosby-Wyman tunes and make up a really nice Friedhofer musical CD release.
About 25 years ago when I was working on MGM:WHEN THE LION ROARS and we were in post-production at a small post-house here in Hollywood, I was walking through the editing/assembly room and came across a number of cans of music-fx tracks for various films, particularly of the 1940s. The people there were likely using these tracks to assemble foreign-dubbed versions of various things for international video release. It struck me at the time that a number of these were of the Walter Wanger independently-produced Universal films of the 1940s, with, particularly Susan Hayward as his star, like TAP ROOTS, SMASH-UP, THE STORY OF A WOMAN and others.
But the title that stuck out in this batch was another Wanger-produced film, JOAN OF ARC, which was not a Universal release, but RKO, made under the Sierra Pictures monicker. Who knows what the music fx tracks sounded like? I was never able to hear them. But the 2-plus hour film has a lot of dialog and not so much action, so its conceivable that if those music-fx tracks are still floating around, an enterprising CD producer might cull the best music-only sections from them and put out a representative CD of this Oscar-nominated score.
And, we're still waiting for Warners to put out a complete 2-cd set, IN STEREO, of the marvelous music songs and underscore for DEEP IN MY HEART......
Speaking of ol' Hugo, manderley....when is a label going to put out his final film score, the tapes of which you rescued and kept safe all of these decades? I realize I'm being annoying and bugging you when you probably can't say, of course. But I've been waiting eagerly to hear that score ever since I read the section about it in the Friedhofer biography about a decade ago...
Yavar
Yavar, the master music elements have been in the hands of a CD producer for a number of years now.
And, to paraphrase Clark Gable's comments in his Atlanta premiere speech to the waiting crowd for GONE WITH THE WIND, "I'm looking forward to hearing the score complete and in stereo just as much as you....."
I'd love White Feather, but a no show after all this time makes me fear the worse. I listen regularly to Kritzerland's One-Eyed Jacks, fantastic, one of my top five favourite sound tracks. Other well played Friedhofer faves are, Seven Cities Of Gold & Boy On A Dolphin.
Speaking of ol' Hugo, manderley....when is a label going to put out his final film score, the tapes of which you rescued and kept safe all of these decades? I realize I'm being annoying and bugging you when you probably can't say, of course. But I've been waiting eagerly to hear that score ever since I read the section about it in the Friedhofer biography about a decade ago...
Yavar, the master music elements have been in the hands of a CD producer for a number of years now. And, to paraphrase Clark Gable's comments in his Atlanta premiere speech to the waiting crowd for GONE WITH THE WIND, "I'm looking forward to hearing the score complete and in stereo just as much as you....."
Now that I know Intrada is putting out Damnation Alley on Monday, "All I want for Christmas is"...Hugo Friedhofer's final score: A Walk in the Forest.
I think everyone is leaning towards Intrada's 4 disc Golden Age release being Franz Waxman (spanning 25 years from his first MGM score in 1936 to his last Warner Bros. score in 1960 with an RKO or two in between), and it probably is and that will be wonderful...but looking at Manderley's list of Friedhofer a few posts above, I wonder if there is some chance a 25 year span of Hugo Friedhofer's career might also qualify, somehow.
Yavar
P.S. WagnerAlmighty, if you're reading this, you should try exploring Friedhofer next in light of your newfound love of Alfred Newman, who (as quoted earlier in this thread) said: "Study Friedhofer." I highly recommend Kritzerland's twofer (for the price of a single disc) with the complete scores to Rains of Ranchipur (perhaps my personal favorite Friedhofer score) and Seven Cities of Gold.
