Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Miklos Rozsa

Kirk Douglas at 100: A Musical Tribute

Now that he’s 100, he may no longer be able to knock your block off, but many of films still can.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we will honor Kirk Douglas, who was born on December 9, 1916. We’ll hear music from four of his most memorable movies.

We’ll begin with “Spartacus” (1960). Douglas plays the 1st century leader of a slave revolt. His co-stars include Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, and Tony Curtis. The music was by Alex North (born in Chester, PA, outside of Philadelphia). The love theme, one of North’s best-known melodies, lends a sense of human connection amidst the martial fanfares and gladiatorial violence.

Douglas is often credited with having broken the back of the “Hollywood blacklist” by openly acknowledging Dalton Trumbo as the screenwriter on “Spartacus.” Trumbo had been forced underground as a ghostwriter for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The film became the biggest money-maker in the history of Universal Studios, up to that time.

Vincente Minnelli’s cynical exposé of behind-the-scenes Hollywood, “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), stars Douglas as a ruthless mogul, who uses and abuses everyone around him. It’s one of his great “bad boy” characterizations. The film, which also featured Lana Turner, Walter Pigeon, Dick Powell, and Gloria Graham, won a whole slew of Oscars. Graham was recognized as Best Supporting Actress.

The music is by Philadelphia-born David Raksin, who is best-remembered for his theme to the all-time noir classic “Laura.” It doesn’t seem possible, but here he really surpasses himself. If you love the sound of Golden Age Hollywood, complete with haunting saxophone, then this one’s for you!

Minnelli directed Douglas in another one of his standout roles, a much more sympathetic portrayal of the tortured artist Vincent Van Gogh, in “Lust for Life” (1956). Douglas turns in one of the great performances of his career. Furthermore, his physical resemblance to the painter is uncanny.

Anthony Quinn won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Van Gogh’s sometimes friend, the artist Paul Gaugin. The powerful score was by one of the all-time great film composers, Miklós Rózsa, who here marries his Hungarian-inflected signature sound to an evocative sort of French impressionism.

Finally, when Kirk isn’t fighting giant squid, he’s singing “A Whale of Tale,” as Ned Land, in Walt Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (1954). The otherwise moody score is a real showcase for Paul J. Smith, who had earlier provided incidental music for Disney’s animated features “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Bambi,” and “Pinocchio.”

As actor, director, producer, and author Douglas is a whale of a talent. He himself has included these four titles among the top ten of his films.

Join me for a musical salute to Kirk Douglas, for his 100th birthday, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Douglas in “Spartacus,” “The Bad and the Beautiful,” “Lust for Life,” and “20,000 Leagues”

December 9, 2016
Film Noir Shadows and Moral Ambiguity

This week on “Picture Perfect,” as the shadows lengthen, 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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9Q-81w6KQ

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 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.

The theatrical trailer for “Brute Force”:

PHOTO: Bogart discusses literature with Dorothy Malone

November 11, 2016
Sherlock Holmes Movie Music on WWFM

The game’s afoot! It’s an afternoon of mystery and imagination.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus will be on films inspired by the world’s greatest detective, including “Sherlock Holmes” (2009), with music by Hans Zimmer, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970), with music by Miklos Rozsa, “Without a Clue” (1988), with music by Henry Mancini, and “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985), with music by Bruce Broughton. That’s all coming up at 6:00 EDT.

To get you in the mood, I’ll be playing Rozsa’s Violin Concerto in the 4:00 hour, a work director Billy Wilder listened to incessantly while writing his screenplay for “The Private Life” and upon which he requested the composer base his film score.

Then in the 5:00 hour, we’ll have the Sherlock Holmes ballet, in all-but-name, “The Great Detective,” by English composer Richard Arnell.

In the words of Holmes himself, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Join me for an afternoon of improbably good music, from 4 to 7:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 4, 2016
Bernstein Conducts Rózsa Rare 1943 Broadcast

Leonard Bernstein conducts Miklós Rózsa? No way. YES, WAY!

On November 14, 1943, a 25 year-old Bernstein strode onto the podium to replace an ailing Bruno Walter – without rehearsal – for what became his New York Philharmonic debut. The rest, as they say, is history. On the program was Robert Schumann’s “Manfred Overture,” Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote” and Miklós Rózsa’s “Theme, Variations and Finale.” The concert was broadcast nationwide. The New York Philharmonic issued the CBS transmission on CD in 1996. To my knowledge, this is the only document of Bernstein conducting Rózsa, who is best known for his film scores – especially that for “Ben-Hur,” but in 1943, Rózsa was chin-deep in his film noir phase.

You’ll be able to enjoy this historic concert broadcast and much more, as I salute Bernstein on his birthday anniversary, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll go loony for Lenny, on Classic Ross Amico.

August 24, 2016
Hungarian Music on “The Lost Chord”

Have you a hunger for Hungarian music?

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I’ll be joined by Mariusz Smolij for the first of a two-part series, in which we sample from his recording projects for the Naxos label, focusing on Eastern European composers.

Smolij is known in the Greater Delaware Valley as the Music Director of the Riverside Symphonia, based in Lambertville, NJ, which he has directed for over 20 years. He is also music director of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory of Music in Lafayette, LA, and formerly associated with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He has taught conducting at the music school of Northwestern University in Chicago and was a founding violinist of the internationally acclaimed Penderecki String Quartet.

We’ll hear selections from a concert work by celebrated film composer Miklós Rózsa (he of “Ben-Hur” fame), as well as several by his lesser-known friend and colleague Eugene Zador.

That’s “Famished for Hungary” – Mariusz Smolij’s recordings of Hungarian music for the Naxos label – this Sunday night at 10 EDT, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6, on WWFM – The Classical Network; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Mariusz Smolij (right), Ross Amico (left), conspicuous product placement (center)

June 12, 2016

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