Archive
VALLEY OF THE KINGS – Miklós Rózsa
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
MGM Studios was keen to capitalize on the success of their exotic adventure film King Solomon’s Mines from 1950. Two years later they found what they were looking for when director Robert Pirosh came across the book “Gods, Graves and Scholars” by C. W. Ceram. Charles Schnee was assigned production with a budget of $2.1 million, which would include filming in Egypt. Pirosh would direct, and teamed with Karl Tunberg to write the screenplay. Casting proved challenging, but eventually they secured Robert Taylor as Mark Brandon, Eleanor Parker as Ann Barclay Mercedes, Carlos Thompson as Philip Mercedes, Kurt Kasznar as Hamed Backhour, and Samia Gamal as the dancer. Read more…
COLOR OF NIGHT – Dominic Frontiere
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Color of Night is an erotic mystery/thriller directed by Richard Rush from a screenplay co-written by Billy Ray, who would later go on to receive an Oscar nomination for writing Captain Phillips in 2014. The film stars Bruce Willis as Bill Capa, a New York psychologist who falls into a deep depression after one of his patients commits suicide in front of him; the sight of her bloody body in a bright green dress causes Bill to suffer from psychosomatic color blindness, hence the name of the film. Bill travels to Los Angeles to stay with a friend, fellow therapist Bill Moore (Scott Bakula), who invites him to sit in on a group therapy session. However, when Bob is violently murdered in the office, Bill is plunged into the mystery of his friend’s death; the police suspect that any one of Bob’s patients could be the killer. Making things more complicated is Bob’s torrid affair with a mysterious, sexy young woman named Rose (Jane March), who may have a connection to the crime. Read more…
CALL ME MADAM – Irving Berlin and Alfred Newman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1951 20th Century Fox executives took notice of the success of the Broadway musical “Call Me Madam” which opened 12 October 1950, ran for 644 performances, and grossed in excess of $4 million. The film rights were purchased, Sol Siegel was assigned production with a $2.46 million budget, Walter Lang was tasked with directing, and Arthur Sheekman was hired to adapt the original story by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. For the cast, Ethel Merman, who was intent on securing a dramatic role to expand her career, was coaxed into taking on the musical comedy, starring in the lead role as Sally Adams. Joining her would be Dennis O’Connor as Kenneth Gibson, Vera-Ellen as Princess Maria and George Sanders as General Cosmo Constantine. Read more…
LASSIE – Basil Poledouris
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The iconic canine film star Lassie, a heroic and intelligent collie dog, was created by British author Eric Knight in a short story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1938, which was later expanded into a novel entitled Lassie Come Home in 1940, followed then by a film adaptation of the same name in 1943. The stories were all pretty much the same – Lassie’s teenage owner Joe gets into some kind of trouble, Lassie helps him overcome the difficult situation, while showcasing his loyalty, courage, and the bond between humans and animals – but the formula was immensely popular, and resulted in several sequels, and a long-running television series which aired from 1954 to 1973. Read more…
Double Lives or Double Standards? Concert works by film composers
by Mark Walker
Anyone who has encountered a film composer in their natural habitat knows that this unassuming species is at their best in the midst of a busy recording studio, scribbling last-minute changes to orchestrations and wrangling reluctant musicians to play new pieces in weird time signatures, all the while politely fielding queries from cloth-eared directors who ask things like, “This bit should sound more like the bit from Jaws – you know the bit, right?” or “Can you give me more oomph here? We need more oomph.” If you think I’m joking, recall that Bernard Herrmann once said of Hitchcock that the great auteur would happily have had all his movies underscored with Ketèlbey’s In a Monastery Garden if he could.
When confronted with a blank sheet of paper instead of a screen or a screenplay, our affable film composer might understandably feel a little bereft, like a director without a camera or an actor without a script. But there’s an even bigger problem. Any resulting concert-hall work risks falling between two off-puttingly large stools: first, the expectations of film music fans who have gotten used to bite-sized soundtrack cues and are generally not interested in longer-form works lacking any visual associations; and second, the sniffy attitude of the classical music community towards such journeymen (and women) getting ideas above their station – recall the notorious New York Times review of Korngold’s Violin Concerto in 1947: “more Korn than Gold”. Attitudes have changed since then, but not entirely. Read more…
THE STORY OF THREE LOVES – Miklós Rózsa
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1952 MGM Studios decided to embark on a technicolor romantic anthology film, which would consist of three stories; “The Jealous Lover”, “Mademoiselle” and “Equilibrium”. Sidney Franklin was assigned production with a budget of $2.5 million, John Collier and George Froeschel were hired to write the three screenplays, and two directors were hired; Vincente Minnelli for “Mademoiselle” and Gottfried Reinhardt for “The Jealous Lover” and “Equilibrium”. The cast of “The Jealous Lover” included James Mason as Charles Coudray, Moira Shearer as Paula Woodward, and Agnes Moorehead as Lydia. The cast of “Mademoiselle” featured; Leslie Caron as Mademoiselle, Ricky Nelson as Thomas Clayton Campbell Jr., Ethel Barrymore as Mrs. Hazel Pennicott, and Farley Granger as Thomas the young man. The cast of “Equilibrium” included; Kirk Douglas as Pierre Narval, Pier Angeli as Nina Burkhardt. Read more…
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After the success of Patriot Games two years previously, Paramount Pictures greenlit a third movie based on the Jack Ryan spy novels written by Tom Clancy. Clear and Present Danger is the second film to feature Harrison Ford in the lead role as Ryan; in this film, Ryan is appointed Acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA, and is asked by the President of the United States to help secure funds from congress in order to legally fight drug cartels, after one of the Presidents’ best friends is apparently murdered on the orders of drug lord Ernesto Escobedo. However, it soon becomes apparent the funds are actually being used to conduct an illegal covert war in Colombia, which leads to the deaths of several American soldiers, and that Ryan is being set up to be the ‘fall guy’ should the truth ever be revealed. With the help of a fellow CIA Operative Ryan travels to Colombia with the aim of ending the illegal war, exposing the perpetrators, and bringing home the soldiers left behind. Read more…
TWISTERS – Benjamin Wallfisch
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Considering how popular the film Twister was in the summer of 1996, I am surprised that it has taken almost thirty years for there to be an official sequel, but thanks to director Lee Isaac Chung, and screenwriters Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski, we now have one to enjoy. Twisters, as it is somewhat unimaginatively named, is technically a sequel, but is actually more of a remake or reimagining of the same basic story. It stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as storm chaser and budding meteorologist Kate Carter who, along with her friends, is using an updated variation of the tech used by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in the original film to try to understand and reduce the intensity of tornadoes in Oklahoma. However, after an experiment turns deadly, Kate gives up storm chasing, and five years later she is working at a weather forecasting office in New York. Things change for Kate when she is coaxed back to the tornado front lines by her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos), who is now working for a large well-funded company and is using military-grade technology to study tornadoes; even more interestingly, while out on the road with Javi, she encounters the self-proclaimed ‘tornado wrangler’ Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his ragtag crew. Tyler is brash and arrogant and is apparently only interested in increasing his number of YouTube followers, but there is more to him and his team than meets the eye… Read more…
MY COUSIN RACHEL – Franz Waxman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Author Daphne du Maurier’s efforts to sell film rights for her 1951 novel My Cousin Rachel for $100,000 and 5% of the international box office was rejected by all of the major Hollywood studios except 20th Century Fox, whose counter offer of $80,000 was accepted. Nunnally Johnson was assigned production with a budget of $1.2 million, wrote the screenplay, and George Cukor was tasked with directing. Controversy arose when both Cukor and du Maurier both objected to the script, with bot departing the project when their revisions were rejected. Casting was also problematic with Cukor’s choice of either Greta Garbo or Vivien Leigh playing Rachel Sangalletti Ashley, fell through with his departure. Olivia de Havilland was instead brought in and joined by Richard Burton in his Hollywood debut as Philip Ashley, along with Audrey Dalton as Louise Kendall. Read more…
THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO – Hugo Friedhofer
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of The Adventures of Marco Polo lay with actor Douglas Fairbanks, who conceived the story in 1936 and wrote a script based on Marco Polo’s adventures. He had intended to produce the film with his son playing the titular role. However, he needed to secure financial backing and so pitched his vision to Samuel Goldwyn, who decided to move the film into production. Goldwyn envisioned Gary Cooper to star in the production, the project was derailed when Paramount Pictures initiated a $5 million lawsuit against Goldwyn for allegedly trying to lure its star away. This effectively killed the project; never the less, Goldwyn was undaunted and in 1937 purchased an original story on Marco Polo from N.A. Pogson. Goldwyn and George Haight would manage production with a massive $2 million budget, with Archie Mayo tasked with directing. Goldwyn was insistent on Gary Cooper playing the titular role, which in hindsight was an error as Cooper felt he was miscast, and critics greed saying Cooper’s persona was a poor fit for the swashbuckling adventure. Joining Cooper would be Sigrid Gurie as Princess Kukachin, Basil Rathbone as Ahmed, and George Barbier as Kublai Khan. Read more…
BLACK BEAUTY – Danny Elfman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Black Beauty is one of the most beloved works of children’s literature in the English language. Written by Anna Sewell and published in 1877, it tells the life story of the eponymous horse, beginning with his early days in the loving home of Farmer Grey, and then on through a series of subsequent owners, including the kind and gentle Squire Gordon of Birtwick Hall, and the cruel and neglectful Mr. York of Earlshall Park. After suffering a severe injury while working as a cab horse in London, he is rescued by Joe Green, a former employee of Squire Gordon, who eventually provides him with a peaceful and comfortable retirement. The novel is narrated in the first person by Black Beauty himself, providing a unique perspective on the life and experiences of a horse in Victorian England, and who juxtaposes his own life with those of others around him, some of whom suffer much worse fates. Most importantly Sewell addresses the then-unfashionable topic of animal welfare, and its success and popularity played a crucial role in shaping public attitudes towards animals and contributed to the development of modern animal rights movements. Read more…
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