Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Movie Music

Thanksgiving Movie Music on KWAX

“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?”

This poignant observation, from Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” stands as a timely reminder that there are things we should all be thankful for, while they – and we – are here to appreciate them.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll set the table for Thanksgiving.

None other than Aaron Copland wrote the music for the big screen adaptation of Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play (first performed in Princeton in 1938). The composer was at the height of his “populist” period. “El Salon Mexico” and “Billy the Kid” had already been written, and “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “Lincoln Portrait,” “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring” would follow within just a few years. Clearly, there was no better choice to capture the essence of small town America.

The concert version of “Our Town” has been in circulation for decades, but it was only in 2011 that a complete recording of the score was made available, briefly, as a digital download.

Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire star in “Friendly Persuasion” (1956), based on the novel by Jessamyn West. The film’s portrayal of family and the resolution of moral conflict, as pacifist Quakers deal with issues both big and small – from the American Civil War, to the introduction of a “sinful” musical instrument into the household – make “Friendly Persuasion,” in my opinion, a good choice for this time of year.

The film was up for six Oscars, with Dimitri Tiomkin’s score nominated twice. The title song went on to become the popular hit “Thee I Love.” Only Dimitri Tiomkin would use balalaikas to depict Quaker life!

“Witness” (1985) may seem like an unusual choice for Thanksgiving, with its themes of police corruption and violence, but when honest cop Harrison Ford goes on the lam, he experiences the “plain” lifestyle of a close-knit Amish community. The highlight of Maurice Jarre’s score is a sequence called “Building the Barn,” in which the community comes together to raise a barn for a newly married couple.

Finally, we’ll hear selections from “Plymouth Adventure” (1952), with its depictions of William Bradford, John Alden, Miles Standish, and Priscilla Mullins. Spencer Tracy stars as the cynical captain of The Mayflower, Gene Tierney is his forbidden love interest, Van Johnson appears as Alden, and Lloyd Bridges is the first mate.

The music is by Miklós Rózsa, who already, at this stage of his career, was MGM’s go-to composer for historical drama. Seven years later, Rózsa would take home his third Academy Award for his classic score to “Ben-Hur.”

It’s never too early to give thanks. There’s not a turkey among them, this week on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Martha Scott and William Holden make their mark in “Our Town” (1940)

November 17, 2023
Vampires on Film Movie Music from Dracula & More

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s all widow’s peaks and plastic fangs, as we listen to music from film adaptations of novels about vampires.

“Interview with the Vampire” (1994), based on the novel by Anne Rice, featured some pretty counterintuitive casting, including Tom Cruise as Lestat (Rice would have preferred Rutger Hauer), but thanks largely to director Neil Jordan the film still managed to deliver the goods. Elliot Goldenthal’s music was nominated for an Academy Award. Interestingly, Princeton’s American Boychoir sings the opening “Libera me.”

Frank Langella’s characterization of Bram Stoker’s Dracula drove the critics wild when the play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston was revived on Broadway in 1977. (It was the same adaptation that launched Bela Lugosi on his big screen career.) But when the film “Dracula” (1979) was released a couple of years later, reviews were mixed. Langella retained his dreamy magnetism, and the producers managed to secure Sir Laurence Olivier and Kate Nelligan for the parts of Van Helsing and Mina, respectively, but I wonder if John Badham was the best choice for director. Badham had just come off the enormous box office success of “Saturday Night Fever,” and it looks as if his Dracula retains John Travolta’s hair. You know, just for luck.

I remember being so excited, as a 13 year-old, watching the trailer at the movies. When Langella leaped through a window and transformed into a wolf in mid-flight to John Williams’ dramatic music, it was almost more than I could bear. Watch the trailer here:

How could a film called “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” (2012) ever live up to its title? The answer is, it can’t, but the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s supernatural-historical mash-up wasn’t as terrible as everyone says it was. Sure, I would have preferred it had Daniel Day-Lewis played Lincoln, but put anybody in a stove-pipe to fight vampires with an axe, and I’m happy. I probably wouldn’t have been so permissive had I seen it in the theater, where the noise and effects would have pushed me over the edge, but it was a diverting rental, with a gothic score by Henry Jackman that ping-ponged between Americana lyricism and an orchestra bolstered by electronics and heavy metal guitars. But what are you going to listen to when you’re fighting vampires, a string quartet?

James Bernard’s music for Hammer Studios’ “Dracula,” released in the United States as “Horror of Dracula” (1958), is one of his best-known efforts. His Dracula theme, with its clashing harmonies, laid the groundwork for the sound of the film’s numerous sequels, most of which featured Christopher Lee in his most iconic role. Bernard became so closely associated with Hammer and vampires that he was approached late in life to provide a new score for the silent classic “Nosferatu.”

Finally, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), despite the claims of utmost fidelity in its very title, was not a faithful adaptation of Stoker’s book. Why? WHY??? The film was lovely to look at, with eye-popping costumes and production design that combined Universal Studios in-the-camera trickery and honest-to-goodness miniatures with a few more Jean Cocteau references than perhaps was for its own good. This could have been THE Dracula film. Alas, it wasn’t. However, for me, it had THE Dracula score. It was a stroke of genius to hire Polish composer Wojciech Kilar to give the film just the right Eastern European sound.

Get your blood up, with page-to-screen vampires this week, on “Picture Perfect,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

October 27, 2023
Metaphorical Big Cats Movie Music on KWAX

RrrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus is 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 reasoning behind the approach was practical, the result of shoestring budgets imposed by RKO. Whatever the case, the insinuating weirdness undeniably induces psychological chills. In fact, it was only as a concession to the studio that a literal big cat is included at all. The music is 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 provides one of his best scores for the Moroccan adventure. In fact, he was fairly confident that he finally had a lock on the Oscar. He experienced a harsh reality check when he went to see “Jaws.” (Goldsmith would receive his only Academy Award the following year for his music to “The Omen.”)

Luchino Visconti’s epic telling of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel, “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.

Any excuse to get “The Wind and the Lion” and “The Leopard” in the same show!

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of metaphorical big cats, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

October 6, 2023
Sherlock Holmes Movie Music on Picture Perfect

The game is afoot! This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from movies inspired by the world’s greatest detective.

“Sherlock Holmes” (2009) features Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, in Michael Ritchie’s post-“Matrix” take on the master detective. While some of the film adaptations over the years may have glossed over the character’s physicality, Ritchie’s revisionist Holmes perhaps errs a mite too far in the other direction. Hans Zimmer wrote the music, he too going against received wisdom, and in the process coming up with one of his more interesting scores, if only for the quirky instrumentation, which includes a Hungarian cimbalom, accordion, fiddles, and a broken pub piano.

Perhaps it’s unfair to put Zimmer up against an old pro like Miklós Rózsa. Rózsa wrote the music for Billy Wilder’s melancholy portrait of the great detective, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970). Wilder requested that the composer adapt his lovely Violin Concerto for the project, a recording of which the director had listened to repeatedly during the writing of the screenplay. Rózsa and Wilder had previously collaborated on “Double Indemnity” and “The Lost Weekend.”

The Sherlock Holmes comedy, “Without a Clue” (1988), represents a missed opportunity of sorts. The hope had been for Sean Connery to play Watson opposite Michael Caine’s Holmes, a longed-for reunion between the two who had worked so well together in “The Man Who Would Be King.” In the end, it was Ben Kingsley who assumed the role.

The fun conceit that sets “Without a Clue” apart is that Holmes is the fictional creation of mastermind Watson, who in reality is the gifted crime-solver. Through necessity, Watson hires a second-rate actor to play the role of Holmes. Of course, the actor turns out to be a bumbling idiot. Henry Mancini provides the British Light Music style score, with a nod to Edmund White’s “Puffin’ Billy” (familiar stateside as the theme to “Captain Kangaroo”).

Finally, the Steven Spielberg-produced “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985) offers a conjectural origins story, including Holmes and Watson’s first meeting as teenagers (ignoring the particulars laid out by Arthur Conan Doyle in his stories, with Watson already a war veteran who had served in Afghanistan). It’s all for fun, though it’s unfortunate the filmmakers felt the need to interject ‘80s-style special effects, rather than simply trust in the inherent magic of the subject matter. “Young Sherlock Holmes” features the first photorealistic, fully computer-generated character (a stained glass knight). Also, some Indiana Jones B-movie antics involving an Egyptian cult seem especially out of place.

Interestingly, the film’s screenwriter, Chris Columbus, went on to direct the first two Harry Potter films. By my recollection, “Young Sherlock Holmes,” with its boarding school setting, has some of that same feel.

The music, by Bruce Broughton, is certainly buoyant and beautiful, in the best John Williams tradition. Broughton scored a handful of big screen hits, notably “Silverado” and “Tombstone,” though arguably it is in the medium of television that he’s made his greatest impact. Thus far, his work has been recognized with a record 10 Grammy Awards.

It’s elementary, my dear Watson. I hope you’ll join me for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

September 29, 2023
Hemingway on the Big Screen Movie Music’s Picture Perfect

Nick sat down against the charred stump and smoked a cigarette. He lit a match and watched it burn and as it burned he thought of boxers and marlins and the Spanish Civil War. The stories were brave and strong and good. He ordered a mojito and prepared to face the music.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus is on 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” Anderson. 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, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

September 15, 2023

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