Ah, the good old days, when all you had to worry about when going to the beach was being devoured by a great white shark. This week on “Picture Perfect,” in this, the Summer of COVID, maybe the water’s not all it’s cracked up to be. We’ll count our blessings with an hour aquatic traumas, recollected from the safety of home.
“Beneath the 12-Mile Reef” (1953) stars Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, and Peter Graves in a Romeo and Juliet story about two families of competing fishermen along the Gulf coast of Florida, one working class and of Greek origin, and the other a family of privileged WASPs. Gilbert Roland is the Greek patriarch who runs afoul of an improbably large octopus. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music, which employs no fewer than nine harps (one for each arm, and a spare).
A young Henry Mancini was one of three composers to work on “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). Mancini, soon to be world famous for “Moon River,” “Baby Elephant Walk,” and “The Pink Panther,” was teamed with veteran film composer Hans J. Salter and Herman Stein. None of the three were credited on screen – typical of what was then considered just another low-budget B-movie.
What can I say about John Williams’ masterful music for “Jaws” (1975)? It’s right up there with “Psycho” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” in terms of most recognized and most frequently parodied. Everyone remembers the primal shark theme, but what is sometimes overlooked is that “Jaws” is also one of the great adventure scores, the music effortlessly navigating the choppy waters of suspense, horror, and seafaring swashbuckler. The composer was recognized with a richly-deserved Academy Award (his second of five).
The conflict in “The Swimmer” (1968) is not a giant octopus, nor a great white shark, nor a prehistoric gill man, but rather the progressive psychological breakdown of an upper middle class Connecticut man who believes he’s living the American Dream.
Adapted from a short story by John Cheever, “The Swimmer” stars Burt Lancaster as the man, who acts on a quixotic impulse to travel all the way home, across county, by way of a network of suburban swimming pools. The adventure starts out well enough, with Lancaster and everyone he encounters full of optimism and fun; but the further he moves along his allegorical journey, the more the enterprise, the climate, and the people begin to grow cold.
“The Swimmer” is a decidedly downbeat tale which could make the viewer as reluctant to dip a toe into a chlorinated in-ground swimming pool as the shark-infested waters of Peter Benchley’s Amity Beach. The score is by Marvin Hamlisch, of all people, and it suits the film brilliantly.
Better stick to the bath. Dreams of aquatic refreshment are all wet this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Bruce the Shark: Don’t be scared. I only want to make you my chum!
