Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Jerry Goldsmith

Hemingway’s Hollywood Soundtracks

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we get in touch with our masculine side, with music from movies inspired by the writings of Ernest Hemingway.

Seemingly at odds with Hemingway’s minimalist, “iceberg” style, big screen adaptations of the writer’s work show what the stories don’t tell. In the case of 1946’s “The Killers,” the screenwriters unapologetically just made stuff up, an entire back story explaining the motivations for the hit of boxer “Swede” Andreson. Fortunately those screenwriters happened to include an uncredited John Huston, who virtually codified noir with “The Maltese Falcon.”

“The Killers” provided Burt Lancaster with his break-out role. It also features a knock-out score by Miklós Rózsa, in which he uses the dum-dee-dum-dum motto later made famous by the television series “Dragnet.”

In 1977, George C. Scott reunited with his “Patton” director, Franklin J. Schaffner, for an adaptation of Hemingway’s posthumously published novel, “Islands in the Stream.” Scott gives one of his best performances as a Hemingway-like figure living on a Caribbean island. “Patton” composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music. Goldsmith spoke of it often as his favorite score.

Hemingway himself handpicked the leads for the 1943 adaptation of “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman falling in love against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The music was by the prolific and versatile Victor Young.

And finally, Spencer Tracy is the whole show, as he faces off against a large marlin, in the 1958 version of “The Old Man and the Sea.” Dimitri Tiomkin’s music earned him his fourth Academy Award.

Join me for an hour of laconic grace and stoic manliness on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner killing it in “The Killers”

September 14, 2018
Friday the 13th Big Cats on Film Music

Friday the 13th! Beware of ladders, broken mirrors, and… black cats?

Unluckily, this week on “Picture Perfect, the focus will be on metaphorical big cats.

Simone Simon’s barely repressed desires are made manifest in Val Lewton’s “Cat People” (1942). Lewton was a master of suggestion, with a majority of the horrors in his films imagined, rather than seen. Part of the approach was practical, the result of shoestring budgets imposed by RKO. Whatever the case, the insinuating weirdness undeniably produced psychological chills. In fact, it was only as a concession to the studio that a literal big cat was included at all. The music was by RKO workhorse Roy Webb.

Sean Connery plays a Berber chieftain who faces off against Teddy Roosevelt in “The Wind and the Lion” (1975). In a letter to Roosevelt (played in the film by Brian Keith), Connery’s character writes, “I, like the lion, must stay in my place, while you, like the wind, will never know yours.” Jerry Goldsmith provided one of his best scores for the Moroccan adventure. In fact, he was fairly confident he finally had a lock on the Oscar. He experienced a harsh reality check when he went to see “Jaws.” (Goldsmith would win his only Academy Award the following year for his music to “The Omen.”)

Luchino Visconti’s epic telling of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s “The Leopard” (1963) is a melancholy exploration of the fading Sicilian aristocracy. A bewhiskered Burt Lancaster plays Prince Fabrizio, who feels himself slipping into obsolescence. Nino Rota gives the film a full-blooded, operatic soundtrack, full of lyricism and pathos.

Finally, Lyn Murray provides the breezy accompaniment for Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief” (1955), with Cary Grant a reformed burglar, known as The Cat, who attempts to clear himself of some “copycat” crimes while romancing Grace Kelly on the French Riviera.

We throw salt over our left shoulder and caution to the winds, with an hour of music for metaphorical big cats, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday the 13th at 6 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 13, 2018
Jerry Goldsmith Hollywood Star Celebration

On May 9, Jerry Goldsmith finally received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Goldsmith, the composer of over 200 film and television scores, died in 2004 at the age of 75.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear selections from four of Goldsmith’s classic scores, including “Patton” (just in time for Memorial Day), “Chinatown” (composed in only ten days), “The Wind and the Lion” (like all of these, Oscar-nominated), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (the theme really caught fire when used in the television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”).

Join me in celebrating “A Star for Jerry,” this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 26, 2017
Kalniņš Symphony Rocks WWFM Today!

When his rock band ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, classically-trained Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš turned to writing symphonies. His Symphony No. 4 was his eloquent response, as much indebted to illegal rock groups of the West as it was to Latvian folklore. Hear Kalniņš stick it to the man this afternoon, on his 76th birthday. We’ll also have a Piano Concerto by Keith Emerson, of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among our featured works, from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.

Then, immediately following, stick around for music of Jerry Goldsmith on “Picture Perfect,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 26, 2017
Jerry Goldsmith Hollywood Star Honors Composer

Film composer Jerry Goldsmith finally receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

http://variety.com/2017/music/spotlight/jerry-goldsmith-star-walk-of-fame-1202421229/

I only wish we still had film composers this good. Then again, I wish we still had movies like “The Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton,” “Chinatown,” and “The Wind and the Lion.”

May 9, 2017

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