Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Movie Music

Chaplin’s Musical Genius Revealed

I missed Charlie Chaplin’s birthday by ten days, but I only just stumbled across this footage of Chaplin conducting (at the link below).

While Chaplin was musically illiterate (by which I mean, he couldn’t read sheet music), he taught himself to play piano, violin and cello as a child, which served him well in his early days in the music hall. Later, he composed, or rather worked very closely with trained musicians, to produce the original scores for all of his features and some of his shorter films.

David Raksin, best remembered for his score to “Laura” (1944), assisted Chaplin on the silent classic “Modern Times” (1936). Raksin later revealed that it was he who had essentially scored the film, with Chaplin whistling all the tunes and asking him to make them fit the action.

However, he stressed the process was more complicated than it might at first seem. Chaplin was very much involved with every aspect of his films, and oversaw the development of the music as closely as he did any of the other elements. As a result, such a collaboration could take months, and there wasn’t a note in his scores that he didn’t approve.

Emotions could run high. Raksin recalled he was actually fired once, after only a week and a half, though quickly rehired. When music director Alfred Newman stormed out of one of the recording sessions, Raksin again defied Chaplin, refusing to take up the baton, which only led to further acrimony. The rift was eventually mended and decades later Raksin recollected his work on “Modern Times” as some of the happiest days of his life.

Chaplin’s scores yielded three popular hits: “Smile” from “Modern Times,” a hit for Nat King Cole in 1954; “Terry’s Theme” from “Limelight,” popularized by Jimmy Young as “Eternally” in 1952; and “This Is My Song” from “A Countess in Hong Kong,” recorded by Petula Clark in 1967.

Through a fluke – the belated release of “Limelight” in the United States, on a single screen in Los Angeles, twenty years after it was filmed, coinciding with the disqualification of music from “The Godfather,” after it was learned that Nino Rota had recycled a theme from one of his earlier scores (for the Italian film “Fortunella” in 1958) – Chaplin walked away with his only competitive Oscar, as a composer (!), one month before his 84th birthday.

Previously, he received two honorary Academy Awards, in 1929 and 1972.

April 26, 2023
Armchair Travel Through Film Scores

This week on “Picture Perfect,” settle in for a little armchair traveling as, musically, we follow the English abroad.

We’ll hear selections from “Enchanted April” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “A Passage to India” (Maurice Jarre), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Thomas Newman), and “Around the World in 80 Days” (Victor Young).

Bennett, quite the accomplished concert composer (and occasional torch song singer), supplies a sensitive score for the 1991 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel about four English ladies who spend an idyllic month at an Italian villa.

Jarre received his third Academy Award for his music to David Lean’s final film, a 1984 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel of repression and racial tension in colonial India.

Newman incorporates traditional Indian elements into his score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the 2012 surprise hit about English pensioners reinventing themselves in retirement in Jaipur.

And Young won his only Oscar (alas, posthumously bestowed) for “Around the World in 80 Days,” the star-studded, light-as-a-feather, though admittedly charming mega-winner at the 1956 Academy Awards. It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read Jules Verne’s novel – though it does provide a rare opportunity to see Ronald Colman in color.

No need to pack your valise for Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: There’s no balloon in Verne’s original, but as long as there’s champagne, who cares?

April 15, 2023
Happy 91st Birthday John Williams!

Happy birthday to the Master, 91 years-old today. I wish I could forget the horrible movie, because John Williams truly is the Last Jedi. Is there any doubt? Here’s a taste of what we can expect this summer.

John Williams is a living reminder of when the movies still had magic and soul. I will be forever grateful for everything this man has contributed to our entertainment and dreams of a better world.

Thanks for everything, and a very happy birthday, Maestro!

February 8, 2023
Dickens Movie Music Picture Perfect

‘Tis the season for… “Humbug!”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have a Dickens of a time with a garland of music from movies inspired by his writings. Tune in for selections from “Nicholas Nickleby” (1947) by Lord Berners, “Oliver Twist” (1948) by Sir Arnold Bax, “David Copperfield” (1969) by Sir Malcolm Arnold, and “A Christmas Carol” (1951) by Richard Addinsell.

Blame it on an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There will be more of gravy than of grave about it. Take your pick of Dickens on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

December 17, 2022
Myths & Movie Music Clash of the Titans

Release the Kraken!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s a mythological mash-up, with music from four films inspired by classical myths.

“Helen of Troy” (1956) is based on events recounted in Homer’s “The Iliad.” Like the more recent film “Troy,” this version glosses over any participation by the gods. Could it be their wrath that caused this Robert Wise-directed spectacle to be plagued with difficulties?

Reportedly three people were killed during the making of the film, extras were injured by a runaway chariot, and 80 percent of the two-acre recreation of Troy was burned to the ground by a cigarette. On the bright side, it was Bridgette Bardot’s first film made outside of France, and Rossana Podestà played Helen. A spectacle indeed! Max Steiner provided the lush, romantic score.

“Clash of the Titans” (1981) is not to be confused with the 2010 CGI-fest. This is the real deal, with special effects by legendary stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen.

Just as special is its luxury casting of supporting roles, including Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus, and Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Sian Phillips, and Ursula Andress as fellow Olympians. Burgess Meredith is among the mortals, Flora Robson turns up in one scene as a witch, and Perseus is played by newcomer Harry Hamlin, soon to find fame on television’s “L.A. Law.”

The composer, Laurence Rosenthal, studied at the Eastman School and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He also wrote the music for “Raisin in the Sun,” “The Miracle Worker,” “Becket,” and the 1977 version of “The Island of Dr. Moreau.”

“Clash of the Titans” would be Harryhausen’s final film. Despite flashes of his inimitable brilliance, in sequences like the one involving Medusa, and the creation of something of a cultural icon in the Kraken, the effects came to seem a little too retro in the wake of “Star Wars” and “Superman.” Though a sequel, “Force of the Trojans,” was pitched to M-G-M, it was not to materialize. Harryhausen died in 2013, after a lengthy retirement, at the age of 92.

It would be a crime against peplum to put together a program of this sort without at least a nod to Hercules. The peplum genre originated in Italy with Maciste, a supporting character in the 1914 classic “Cabiria.” So powerful did this strongman prove that he became an industry unto himself. The Maciste craze reached its muscular peak in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. When the films arrived in the United States, in hilariously dubbed versions, the character was invariably renamed Hercules, Samson, Atlas, Goliath, or any other mythological, Biblical, or historical bodybuilder you can think of.

A peplum revival sprang up around “Conan the Barbarian” in the early 1980s. We’ll hear a selection from “Hercules” (1983), starring Lou Ferrigno, television’s Incredible Hulk. The music is by Pino Donaggio.

Finally, we’ll make things right again with an extensive suite from the ultimate Ray Harryhausen mythological playground, “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963). This is the one that features the climactic battle with the skeleton army. The music, by Bernard Herrmann, brilliantly suits the visuals. We’ll hear a superb re-recording of the score on the Intrada label, with the Sinfonia of London conducted by Bruce Broughton.

You won’t want to myth it, no bones about it! It’s a quest for classical mythology this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

July 30, 2022

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