“…To crush your enemies… to see them driven before you… and to hear the lamentations of their women!”
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we venture very far from Turner Classic Movies territory with an hour of guilty pleasures, as we listen to music from sword and sandal flicks from the 1980s.
These include “The Beastmaster” (1982), a film that was once so pervasive on cable that comedian Dennis Miller branded HBO as “Hey, Beastmaster’s On!” and TBS was known in some circles as “The Beastmaster Station.” I still haven’t seen it, believe it or not, but I know it has something to do with swords, sandals, two ferrets, and Tanya Roberts.
The music by Lee Holdridge is given the royal treatment, in a performance conducted by Charles Gerhardt, of RCA’s legendary “Classic Film Scores” series, on an album produced by George Korngold (son of Erich Wolfgang Korngold).
To prove that I have no reason to lie to you about not having seen “The Beastmaster,” I enthusiastically embrace the fact that, as a 15 year-old, I totally lapped up “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982). And since I still love everything now that I did when I was 15, you can draw your own conclusions.
A pre-“Matt Houston” Lee Horsley stars as Talon, a mercenary-warrior of royal blood, who wields an improbable sword with three blades that can be projected, by unexplained means, like lethal rockets. There’s also a hideous wizard played by Richard Moll, who went on to play Bull on television’s “Night Court,” king of the B-movie villains Richard Lynch, and George Maharis.
This is the best example I can think of of a really trashy movie with a fantastic score. Revisiting the music for “The Sword and the Sorcerer” merely affirms what I’ve known for a long time – that 1982 was a kind of second Golden Age for film scores, when even the terrible movies had fabulous music. The first Golden Age, of course, was roughly 40 years earlier – though the movies were generally better.
English composer David Whitaker, a veteran of 1970s Hammer Films, relates in the album’s liner notes that he wrote and orchestrated 75 minutes of music at white heat. The result sounds like one of the great scores of three or four decades earlier. If you like Korngold, John Williams, or Vaughan Williams, for that matter, definitely check this one out.
“Clash of the Titans” (1981) had a much more distinguished pedigree. It was the last film of stop-motion special effects genius Ray Harryhausen before his retirement. Harryhausen was responsible in large part for such classic films as “Mighty Joe Young,” “It Came from Beneath the Sea,” “Earth Versus the Flying Saucers,” “Jason and the Argonauts,” and any number of Sinbad movies.
The supporting cast employed Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus, Claire Bloom as Hera, Maggie Smith as Thetis, and Ursula Andress as Aphrodite, alongside Burgess Meredith and Flora Robson in her final film appearance. It was also the film that introduced Harry Hamlin, as Perseus. Hamlin went on to success on television’s “L.A. Law.”
Laurence Rosenthal, who studied at the Eastman School and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, wrote the score. Rosenthal was responsible for the music for, among others, “A Raisin in the Sun,” “The Miracle Worker,” and “Becket.” This one actually does turn up on TCM from time to time.
While “The Clash of the Titans” was an end of an era of sorts, the success of “Conan the Barbarian” (1982) sparked a sword and sandal resurgence. Of course, most of the imitators it spawned were low-budget affairs that nobody ever saw. “Conan” proved a high-water mark of its kind. It also made Arnold Schwarzenegger one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
It sports unquestionably the best-loved score of its composer, Basil Poledouris. The music is regarded in soundtrack collector’s circles as a classic. The original soundtrack was revived in a lavish 3-CD set on the Intrada label, featuring all the available music, with alternate takes.
If this hour serves to illustrate anything, it’s that the overall quality of a film (or lack thereof) need not hinder a composer. At least back then. If you decide to stick with it, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Release the Kraken! Then slip on your man-flops for an hour of ‘80s sword and sandal flicks, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
