According to IMDB the "Casino Royale" episode of the CBS TV series "Climax!" was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. As all surviving copies of the video have truncated end credits, there is no way to verify the credit. This is all news to me. Has this topic come up before?
Something popped up on the web today reasserting this claim. I poked around again, and I think I agree with Stephen:
IMDB is wrong. Jerry Goldsmith did not score the TV Casino Royale.
While it's not historically out of the question, as Goldsmith was doing some composing for radio by 1954, after a single piece we know of in 1951, he was also a Music Supervisor, or Music Director, DJing, with turntables, often live to performance, CBS's library music. He was apparently pretty good at it, so his being brought in to do the same for the third episode of this new television series makes some sense. The music doesn't sound like him, which I realize is pretty subjective, and early on, one might expect a composer to more closely adhere with the sound of the times, if just to get the work.
I'd love to see documentation confirming or disconfirming, but for the moment I remain dubious that this is Goldsmith's music.
I had always heard that Goldsmith scored REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT the Jack Palance TV Version, but that one also has no Music End Credit on film confirming it.
I think at best Goldsmith may have been involved in picking library cues for Casino Royale. There's at least one cue if not more that repeats verbatim, indicating a library piece rather than something composed and performed for the show--and there's really not a hint anywhere of Goldsmith's style even of the period. And while Goldsmith may not have gotten a credit if library cues he had written were used for the show, he likely would have received credit for an original score.
Would be shocked if Sean Connery didn't lobby for Goldsmith on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and if his vocal dissatisfaction with elements of the production didn't include the score.
Would be shocked if Sean Connery didn't lobby for Goldsmith on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and if his vocal dissatisfaction with elements of the production didn't include the score.
I haven't heard if that happened.
What I had heard—but it could be apocryphal—us:
My understanding is they wanted John Barry first but he declined to stay loyal to Eon.
I also understand James Horner was considered after Barry declined, and Horner declined.
Then it was Legrand.
Now, please, I say again. this is what I heard but I don't recall where and it could be apocryphal.
Would be shocked if Sean Connery didn't lobby for Goldsmith on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and if his vocal dissatisfaction with elements of the production didn't include the score.
I'm checking in Jon Burlingame's book, The Music of James Bond.
Burlingame states that Schwartzman, Kershner and Connery was involved in the choice of composer.
Horner, he says, was on the producer and director's lists.
Kershner apparently said Horner had a scheduling conflict. Schwartzman said Connery rejected Horner, but Jon indicates it is not clear if that's true.
Cheers
Fascinating. I need to pull out my old NSNA VHS--haven't watched it since I was a wee lad and I don't remember caring for it, mostly because there was no James Bond Theme!
