Hammer house composer James Bernard (“The Curse of Frankenstein,” “The Horror of Dracula”) makes today’s “Composers Datebook.” To listen to the audio, follow the link and click the green button. As far as I’m concerned, it can’t be Halloween soon enough!
https://www.yourclassical.org/episode/2021/08/26/the-creeping-unknown
Here’s the video of last night’s show, in which Roy and I engage in a spirited discussion about “The Devil Rides Out” (1968), a.k.a. “The Devil’s Bride.”
The film starred not just one, but two singers of talent: Christopher Lee – whose experiences with opera I explore in a separate post – and Leon Greene, who sang professionally with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and the Sadler’s Wells Opera (later the English National Opera). Greene also enjoyed notable success with a couple of Sondheim musicals: as Sweeney Todd, in an acclaimed 1985 revival, and as Miles Gloriosus, both on stage and in the 1966 film incarnation of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Ironically, for whatever reason, for “The Devil Rides Out,” Greene was dubbed!
As a teenager, future Hammer house composer James Bernard received encouragement from Benjamin Britten. Their friendship blossomed, and Bernard wound up working with Britten, Imogen Holst, and Peter Pears. He won an Academy Award NOT for any of his music (for which he was never even nominated), but rather for a screenplay he wrote with his partner, Paul Dehn, for “Seven Days to Noon.” As if all that weren’t remarkable enough, during WWII, Bernard assisted in the cracking of the Enigma code.
There’s so much talent and so many interesting anecdotes associated with this movie, one of Hammer’s best, that we couldn’t possibly talk about everything, but we touched upon what we could in roughly 90 minutes.
Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner live-streams on Facebook every Friday and Sunday evening throughout October at 7 p.m. EDT. This Friday, we’ll wrap up our month-long celebration of Halloween with special guests Michael Rizzo and Marybeth Ritkouski of SciFi Distilled. The four of us will discuss Mel Brooks’ affectionate parody of Universal Studios’ classic creature-features, “Young Frankenstein” (1974).
As an added bonus, there will also be a virtual costume party, so if you want to get in on the act, be prepared to join us on Zoom following the discussion, when we’ll be puttin’ on the Ritz!
Long week? Feel like you’re coming apart at the seams? Kick off your elevator shoes and relax with an hour of music from Frankenstein films!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll honor the legacy of Mary Shelley’s cautionary tale, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.” The influential novel first saw print in 1818 – 200 years ago. Although the film adaptations tend not to be very faithful to their alleged source material, there is no denying “Frankenstein’s” enduring appeal. We’ll hear music from just a few of the dozens of films that have been made in the hundred years or so since the Thomas Edison version, all the way back in 1910.
“The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) is the “Godfather Part II” of Frankenstein films. One of the greatest sequels ever made, “Bride” manages to deepen and expand elements of the Boris Karloff original. Both were directed by James Whale. Sporting a terrific cast, plenty of atmosphere, a wry sense of humor, and abundant pathos, it also happens to feature one of the finest music scores of the era, composed by Franz Waxman.
Say what you will about Hammer Studio’s more lurid approach to its monster franchises, with their Technicolor gore and false whiskers. What the films lacked in budget, they certainly made up for in creativity. In “Frankenstein Created Woman” (1967), Peter Cushing yet again plays the overweening doctor, who transplants the soul of his wrongly condemned assistant into the body of a suicide, his assistant’s lover. Together, soul and body, the two enact revenge on the young woman’s father’s actual murderers. Don’t try to figure it out; just go with it. The music was by Hammer house composer, James Bernard.
“House of Frankenstein” (1944) is the sixth film in Universal Studios’ “Frankenstein” franchise, a follow-up to “The Ghost of Frankenstein,” but also a sequel of sorts to “Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.” A mad scientist (“Frankenstein” veteran Karloff) and his hunchback assistant resurrect “the monster,” Dracula, and the Wolfman, beating “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948) to the punch! The music is also a monster mash of sorts, co-composed by Hans J. Salter and Paul Dessau.
Mel Brooks’ super duper parody, “Young Frankenstein” (1974), plays with genuine affection on the Universal classics. The result is the richest comedy Brooks ever filmed. The love of detail extends even to the use of some of the authentic laboratory equipment from the original movies. Composer John Morris’ score reflects the underlying pathos of the monster, in brilliant counterpoint to the onscreen comedy. That’s FRANCKEN-SHTEEN!
Finally, “Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’” (1994) was promoted as the most faithful adaptation of the original novel – which it most certainly is not. It does retain the rarely-used framing device, and the creature, played by Robert De Niro, is intelligent and articulate, as he is in the book, but so rarely on film. However, director Kenneth Branagh and his team can’t resist juicing up the story with lurid thrills and plot twists that seem more like cast-offs from Hammer. Favorite scene: a bare-chested Branagh swings on chains while bringing life to De Niro through the use of electric eels(!). The equally over-the-top score is by Patrick Doyle.
“Frankenstein” has proven itself as indestructible as its alleged monster. Jump-start your weekend with revivifying music straight to the neck-bolts. It’s all-Frankenstein, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
“The Goat of Mendes… THE DEVIL HIMSELF!”
James Bernard’s music for “The Devil Rides Out” will be one of four scores that we’ll be sampling as part of a Christopher Lee tribute on “Picture Perfect,” this evening at 6 ET, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6. You can listen to it then, or save it for later, after it’s posted as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
Well, as you undoubtedly know by now, the great Christopher Lee died on June 7, at the age of 93. This week on “Picture Perfect” – after making allowances for the 40th anniversary of “Jaws” and the observance of Father’s Day – we finally get around to honoring him, with music from four of his well-over-200 features.
Lee, of course, is best remembered for his work in a number of lurid horror classics produced by Hammer Films. Of these, his portrayal of Count Dracula is justifiably celebrated. “Taste the Blood of Dracula” (1970) may not have been the strongest installment in the series, since it barely had any reason to be a vampire movie (the Count avenges one of his servants who dies at at the hands of thrill-seeking gentlemen); but it could be argued that it had the strongest music, by Hammer house composer James Bernard.
Though Lee could never truly be said to have gone out of fashion, he experienced a remarkable late-career resurgence, becoming part of Tim Burton’s repertory company, giving a lovely turn as a bookseller in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” and playing Count Dooku in the otherwise execrable “Star Wars” prequels – which almost succeed in making Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies look good by comparison. Lee plays the power-hungry Saruman the White, who raises Orcs from muck and makes Gandalf spin on his ear like Curly Howard. Peter Jackson being Peter Jackson, he even managed to work Saruman into his heavily-padded screen adaptations of “The Hobbit.” We’ll be listening to music from the second “Rings” film, “The Two Towers” (2002) in which Saruman has to deal with irascible walking trees roused by his environmental crimes.
“The Wicker Man” (1973) has to be one of the bleakest movies ever made, with an absolutely unforgettable ending. Lee plays one of his most disturbing roles as Lord Summerisle, who cheerily presides over legions of antlered mummers in his squash-colored turtleneck and blazer, while Britt Ekland haunts police officer Edward Woodward’s fever dreams. Paul Giovanni wrote the whacked out, folk-inflected score.
My favorite Lee role has to be that of the aristocratic occultist, the Duc de Richelieu, who combats the forces of darkness in “The Devil Rides Out” (1968). Lee takes it all very seriously – knit-browed, goateed and stentorian – even as he confronts the Goat of Mendes (“The devil himself!”). The villain, a black magician by the name of Mocata, is played by Charles Gray of James Bond and “Rocky Horror” fame. Richard Matheson’s screenplay is far superior to the Dennis Wheatley’s novel – or maybe Lee just makes it seem so. Again, the music is by James Bernard.
I hope you’ll join me, as we remember Christopher Lee, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6 ET, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
PLEASE NOTE: A tribute to the late James Horner will follow, on July 3 and 4.
Aaron Copland (93) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (126) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (94) John Williams (189) KWAX (229) Leonard Bernstein (101) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (141) Mozart (87) Opera (203) Philadelphia Orchestra (89) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (107) Radio (87) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (268) Vaughan Williams (103) WPRB (396) WWFM (881)