If you want to work in Hollywood, you’ve got to expect once in a while somebody’s going to mess with your things – even if you’re a Pulitzer Prize winner, lauded as the “Dean of American composers.”
Aaron Copland was not very happy when his music for “The Heiress” was chopped to ribbons, dialed down and rescored without his approval.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” on Copland’s birthday anniversary, we’ll hear a suite from “The Heiress,” with the main title music restored by Arnold Freed in 1990 to what the composer originally intended.
William Wyler (“Wuthering Heights,” “Friendly Persuasion,” “The Big Country,” “Ben-Hur”) was a brilliant director, but he had a tin ear. His films consistently sported the best scores of their era, and yet he mostly underappreciated, if not outright disliked them.
“The Heiress” was made fresh off Wyler’s runaway success with “The Best Years of Our Lives.” The film, based on Henry James’ “Washington Square,” was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning four, including Oscars for Olivia De Havilland and for Copland’s score, which is so strong it manages to maintain its integrity despite all of the studio tinkering.
Wyler insisted Copland work the song “Plaisir d’amour” into the fabric of his music, which he artfully did in three cues. But that wasn’t good enough. Without his knowledge, the main title was replaced with a garish arrangement of “Plaisir,” which was also looped in for some of the love music. André Previn, in 1949 already one of Hollywood’s bright young talents, likened the return of Copland’s original thoughts following the interpolations to “suddenly finding a diamond in a can of Heinz beans.”
When Copland’s contribution was recognized by the Academy, it was the only instance up to that time of a score being honored after being shorn of its main title, the part of a score that generally makes the biggest impression. Copland never bothered to collect his award. “The Heiress” would be the last time he would work in Hollywood.
He did compose one more film score, however, for the 1961 independent film, “Something Wild,” which contains some of his most insistently non-commercial music. Occasionally brutal and often thrilling, its character is worlds away from the pastoral tranquility of “Appalachian Spring.” It’s a brilliant piece of work, yet it did not receive a commercial release until 2003.
Copland’s music for “Our Town” and “The Red Pony” is fairly well-known, thanks to the widely performed and recorded concert suites. We’ll focus on lesser-heard music from “The Heiress” and “Something Wild,” as well as from the controversial pro-Soviet film “The North Star,” and even a little bit from the 1939 World’s Fair documentary “The City.”
It’s a cinematic birthday cake for Aaron Copland, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Category: Picture Perfect
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Film noir on “Picture Perfect”
This week on “Picture Perfect,” as the shadows lengthen, we revisit the world of film noir, a genre notoriously slippery to define, but easy to know when you see it – with its long shadows and moral ambiguities; cock-eyed camera angles and snappy repartee; isolation and innuendo. It’s a genre wherein a pair of gams is an invitation to the gallows; wherein a man’s best friend – and sometimes his worst enemy – is his Colt .38, wherein only cigarettes and bourbon can ease the pain.
The labyrinthine mystery at the heart of “The Big Sleep” (1946) is so disorienting, even the book’s author, Raymond Chandler, couldn’t tell whodunit. Who cares? Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall get some more steamy dialogue to satisfy fans of “To Have and Have Not,” and there’s plenty of Bogie pounding the pavement and tossing off tart one-liners in pursuit of the truth. But my favorite scene involves Dorothy Malone, who runs the hottest bookstore in town.
Whenever there are gallows to be built or gangsters to be beaten, Warner Bros. could be counted on to assign Max Steiner.
“Touch of Evil” (1958) is often considered to be the last of the classic noirs. Yet another brilliant feature by Orson Welles, it was taken out of the master’s hands and re-edited by the studio. The film was restored only in 1998, to bring it closer to Welles’ original design.
If you can get past Charlton Heston as a Mexican, “Touch of Evil” is one of the director’s best films. Welles himself is unforgettable as corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan. He’s joined by Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich, against a rogues’ gallery of memorable hoodlums and lowlifes.
The film is celebrated, for, among things, a sustained and fluidly-executed tracking shot, which spans over three minutes – an eternity in film – documenting two threads of overlapping action. The score, by Henry Mancini, is equally arresting, as it often seems as if it’s diegetic – whatever music happens to be playing on a radio or in a nightclub – lending its own counterpoint to the seedy drama.
“Chinatown” (1974) is one of the best of the neo-noirs of the 1970s. Jack Nicholson plays private dick J.J. Gittes, who takes on a seemingly routine case that begins to spiral out of control. When producer Robert Evans rejected Philip Lambro’s original score, Jerry Goldsmith stepped in as a last-minute replacement. The composer was hired with the understanding that he had only ten days to write and record new music. For his effort, Goldsmith received an Academy Award nomination.
Finally, we’ll have music by the king of noir composers, Miklós Rózsa. Before he came to be stereotyped for his work on epic films like “Ben-Hur,” “King of Kings” and “El Cid,” Rózsa provided scores for genre classics such as “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” “The Killers, “Brute Force,” and “The Naked City.”
We’ll hear an extended suite from “Double Indemnity” (1944). Sultry Barbara Stanwyck ensnares insurance salesman Fred MacMurray in a plot to bump off her husband for the insurance money, sparking an investigation by MacMurray’s boss, Edward G. Robinson. Director Billy Wilder shows how it should be done, in one of the high-water marks of the genre.
Put on your rumpled linen suit, draw the Venetian blinds, and play the sap for nobody. We’ve got a nose for noir this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
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