Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Miklos Rozsa

Bible Movie Epics: Samson, Solomon & More

With Passover and Easter right around the corner, we’re entering the peak season for Bible movies. This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from epics inspired by the Old Testament – including “Samson and Delilah” (Victor Young), “Solomon and Sheba” (Mario Nascimbene), “Sodom and Gomorrah” (Miklós Rózsa) and “The Ten Commandments” (Elmer Bernstein).

We begin and end with two Cecil B. DeMille productions. DeMille could always be counted on to give his audience a good show. Both “Samson” and “The Ten Commandments” feature sultry temptresses, violent, bare-chested men, and plenty of austere moralizing. The climactic special effects in both films are still sublime.

Tyrone Power was originally cast as Solomon in King Vidor’s “Solomon and Sheba.” However, he died of a massive heart attack during shooting (at the age of 44), paving the way for Yul Brynner to assume the role of the wise king. Brynner, of course, would later become DeMille’s pharaoh Rameses. With Gina Lollobrigida as the Queen of Sheba, you know there has to be an orgiastic dance.

Miklós Rózsa characterized “Sodom of Gomorrah” as “an intriguing subject which developed into a bad picture,” and most critics agreed. Any film that casts Stewart Granger as Lot should be taken with a pillar of salt. Rózsa determined not to score any more Biblical epics after “Sodom,” though his music is nothing to be ashamed of. It possesses that classic Rózsa epic sound, much beloved thanks to his work on “Quo Vadis,” “Ben-Hur” and “King of Kings.”

Chariots! Tunics! Histrionic acting! It’s going to be epic, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Victor Mature’s stuffed lion vs. Charlton Heston’s cotton candy beard

April 12, 2019
Remembering André Previn: A Hollywood & Classical Music Giant

The outpouring of love and grief precipitated by the death of André Previn on February 28 seems to have brought the music world to state of catharsis. So I wonder how many will pause to remember him today, on what would have been his 90th birthday. Clearly any musical tributes will take place as scheduled over the coming season.

For now, I offer a few reminiscences of “Previn & The Pittsburgh,” a television series featuring performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, introduced by Previn, then the orchestra’s music director. Of particular interest was an episode subtitled “The Music that Made the Movies,” devoted to outstanding film scores, with special guests John Williams and Miklós Rózsa. To hear Rózsa talk and to see him conduct his music for “Ben-Hur” is priceless.

It is to be remembered that before he became recognized as a world-class conductor of symphonies, Previn enjoyed an active and successful career in the film industry, where he rubbed shoulders with many Hollywood legends, musical and otherwise.

Thank you, André Previn, for all the beauty, inspiration, solace, and refinement you brought to the world.

Previn conducts Jerry Goldsmith, from “The Blue Max.”

Miklós Rózsa talks about Old Hollywood and Bernard Herrmann.

Previn conducts Bernard Herrmann’s music for “Psycho.”

Rózsa, bringing it Old School, as he conducts “Ben-Hur.”

Previn invites John Williams to conduct “Star Wars.”

Williams conducts “Superman.”

Three Magi of movie music (left to right): Williams, Previn, and Rózsa

April 6, 2019
Ides of March Roman Movie Music on WWFM

Beware the Ides of March!

March 15th lives in infamy as the anniversary of the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Shortly after declaring himself Dictator for Life, Caesar was set upon by members of the Roman Senate and stabbed 23 times.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” toga is the dressing for a Caesar salad of films set in Ancient Rome. We’ll hear selections from “Julius Caesar” (1953) by Miklós Rózsa, “Cleopatra” (1963) by Alex North, “Gladiator” (2000) by Hans Zimmer, and “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964) by Dimitri Tiomkin.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It falls in an hour, this week, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Great Caesar’s ghost! Louis Calhern shares a cup of coffee with Marlon Brando on the set of “Julius Caesar”

March 15, 2019
Williams Previn Rózsa Film Score Gods

I’m not sure, exactly, that this is the Holy Trinity of Film Composers, but I might just risk damnation to worship at their altar. Left to right: John Williams, André Previn, and Miklós Rózsa.

Enjoy a full hour of Previn’s film scores on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 8, 2019
Film Noir Shadows and Moral Ambiguity

We may have already passed the shortest day, but in my heart the shadows continue to grow long.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” 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 where a pair of gams is an invitation to the gallows; where a man’s best friend – and sometimes his worst enemy – is his Colt .38; where 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 Bogey 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 Brothers could be counted on to assign Max Steiner.

“Chinatown” (1974) is one of the best of the neo-noirs of the 1970s. This time, 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.

The Coen Brothers clearly love noir, from their first feature, “Blood Simple,” to their Academy Award winners, “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men,” to their unlikely and absurdly entertaining reimagining of “The Big Sleep,” “The Big Lebowski.” “Miller’s Crossing” (1990) was one of the more underappreciated of these. The film follows the well-worn device of an anti-hero playing two sides off of one another, until he is the last one standing – shades of Dashiell Hammett’s “Red Harvest,” with a healthy dose of “The Glass Key” thrown in, for good measure. The Irish-inflected score is by Coen regular Carter Burwell.

Before he became stereotyped as a composer for epic films like “Ben-Hur,” “King of Kings” and “El Cid,” Miklos Rozsa was the king of noir, providing scores for genre classics such as “Double Indemnity” and “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.” We’ll hear a suite assembled from three such projects: “Brute Force” (1947), a hard-hitting prison drama, starring Burt Lancaster as a desperate inmate and a contemptible Hume Cronyn as a sadistic guard; “The Killers” (1946), also starring Lancaster as a marked boxer; and “The Naked City” (1948), with Barry Fitzgerald leading a police investigation into the murder of a young model. The suite is titled “Background to Violence.”

Put on your rumpled linen suit, draw the Venetian blinds, and play the sap for nobody this week. It’s film noir in the gritty city, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Forget it, Jake; it’s Chinatown.

January 4, 2019

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