This week on “Picture Perfect,” what do Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Dick Tracy, and Inspector Clouseau have in common? Get clued in, with music from movies about the great detectives.
Billy Wilder’s “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970) is an unusually melancholy meditation from a director often celebrated for his hard-edged comedies. That’s not to say Wilder didn’t make more serious films, or that his Sherlock Holmes lacks humor or irreverence, but the lasting impression is somewhat elegiac.
A good part of the reason was his request of composer Miklós Rózsa (who had written music for the director’s much earlier classics, “Double Indemnity” and “The Lost Weekend”) to adapt his own Violin Concerto, a recording of which Wilder had played incessantly during pre-production. The heart-rending slow movement, especially, appears prominently, and mirrors Holmes’ sense of isolation, to say nothing of his retreats into music and drug addiction.
The great Albert Finney memorably portrayed Agatha Christie’s fastidious detective, Hercule Poirot, in “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974). The first and best of the all-star Christie thrillers, this one featured, among others, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark, and Michael York. Bergman’s performance was recognized with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The catchy score, by Richard Rodney Bennett, was also nominated, but the Oscar that year went to Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola, for their music for “The Godfather, Part II.”
Warren Beatty’s amusing homage to comic strip hero “Dick Tracy” (1990) is worthwhile for its starry cameos, sharp production design, and retro score by Danny Elfman. Elfman’s love theme sounds as if it could have been written by any number of composers from Hollywood’s golden age, all under the influence of George Gershwin.
Lending a touch of noir, Humphrey Bogart plays private dick Sam Spade, in John Huston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon” (1941). Bogart, at his hardboiled best, is bolstered by a game supporting cast, including Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, and Elisha Cook, Jr.
The music is by Adolph Deutsch, one of the less remembered names of Hollywood’s heyday, although he scored such enduring films as “Father of the Bride,” “Little Women” (1949), and “Some Like It Hot.” He also provided background music for the big screen adaptation of “Oklahoma,” and conducted the orchestra in musicals like “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Annie Get Your Gun.”
Finally, to wrap things up on a lighter note, we’ll enjoy a potpourri assembled from the “Pink Panther” comedies of Blake Edwards. Peter Sellers plays the bumbling Inspector (later Chief Inspector) Clouseau. The insinuating, breezy, and “cool” scores are by Henry Mancini.
I hope you’ll join me for this hour with the great detectives, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. To miss it would be a crime, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org
