Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Movie Music

Bible Movie Epics on the Radio

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, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

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

April 11, 2025
Spring Hope & Movie Music New Beginnings

Has the world got you down? Spring is a time of hope and renewal. This week on “Picture Perfect,” enjoy music from movies about fresh growth, new beginnings, and second chances.

You can’t get much more spring-like than “The Secret Garden,” after the novel of Frances Hodgson Burnett. A spoiled orphan raised in India returns to England and her aloof uncle’s gloomy mansion on the Yorkshire moors. Gradually, she is drawn outside of herself by a cantankerous gardener, a saucy robin, and a fey lad named Dickon, who has a particular affinity with wild creatures. Her transformation, signified by the titular garden, the maintenance of which teaches her to nurture, improves the lives of all around her.

The story has been adapted numerous times, including a classic version with Margaret O’Brien, in 1949. In 1993, Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope backed a lovely adaptation directed by Agnieszka Holland. The music was by Zbigniew Preisner.

“The Best Years of Our Lives,” from 1946, is one of the most beautiful films to treat the subject of American soldiers readjusting to civilian life following World War II. A trio of veterans returns from overseas to find their lives irrevocably changed. It isn’t easy, but they rise to meet all challenges with the help of family and friends. The film is all the more moving and inspirational for its characters’ integrity and tenacity.

The cast includes Frederic March, Dana Andrews, and real-life veteran Harold Russell. Russell was awarded a special Academy Award for “bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance.” Russell had lost both his hands in an explosion. Honored also with an award for Best Supporting Actor, he is the only figure ever to win two Oscars for the same performance.

The film won nine Oscars in all, among them Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (March), Best Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Music (Hugo Friedhofer).

Based on a novel of Anne Tyler, “The Accidental Tourist,” from 1988, stars William Hurt as a travel writer, the loss of whose son leads to emotional sterility and estrangement from his wife, played by Kathleen Turner. He is eventually brought around by a quirky dog-trainer (Geena Davis, in an Academy Award-winning performance). It’s a movie about letting go, and having the courage to move forward. The understated score is by John Williams.

Finally, sports movies have always been a popular genre through which to tell stories of resurrection and redemption. “The Natural,” Barry Levinson’s 1984 adaptation of the novel of Bernard Malamud, tells the tale of a baseball player (played by Robert Redford), who is struck down in his prime, only to be reborn in mythic triumph. The inspiring music is by Randy Newman.

Put some “spring” back into your step, with music from movies about new beginnings and second chances, on “Picture Perfect,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

March 21, 2025
Golden Age Movie Music on KWAX

Musically, the Academy Awards lost me some time ago. I’m an orchestra guy and a product of the 20th century (if not the 19th). This morning on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll hark back to a halcyon era when indelible movie themes were indispensable components of the overall cinematic experience.

I don’t want to give it all away in my Facebook teaser – in fact, during the course of the show, I won’t even identify the pieces until after each one of them is played, so that you’ll have the added enjoyment of guessing along at home – but trust that you’ll likely recognize most of them, all Best Original Score winners or nominees from highly-decorated films.

As a bonus, the show will open with a 90-second montage of introductory fanfares from the great studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age. So you’ll want to be there when the lights go down. Celluloid memories will be stirred by reel music, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: Oscar-winner John Williams (right), with presenters Henry Mancini and Olivia Newton-John, in 1978

March 1, 2025
Hollywood Behind the Scenes Academy Awards Special

“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

This week on “Picture Perfect,” on Academy Awards weekend, we take a look behind the scenes at self-reflexive movies that offer glimpses beneath the industry’s glamorous veneer.

We’ll hear music from Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), a film that’s been called the greatest movie about Hollywood ever made. Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, a faded silent movie actress who believes she’s still “big; it’s the pictures that got small,” and William Holden is an unsuccessful screenwriter-turned-gigolo. Real life director Erich von Stroheim appears in an interesting role as Desmond’s butler – who was once a director! There are also cameos by Cecile B. DeMille and Hedda Hopper, who play themselves. Franz Waxman wrote the Academy Award winning score.

Vincent Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) stars Kirk Douglas as a ruthless producer, who uses and abuses everyone around him – including Lana Turner, Walter Pigeon, Dick Powell, and Gloria Grahame. Yet everyone’s career seems to blossom from exposure to this S.O.B. The music is by Philadelphia-born David Raksin, who is best-remembered for his theme to the all-time noir classic “Laura.” His theme for “The Bad and the Beautiful” has also become a jazz standard.

Peter O’Toole dominates “The Stunt Man” (1980) as a tyrannical director who blackmails a fugitive from the law into acting as a stunt man in his current film. The line between fantasy and reality begins to blur. Dominic Frontiere wrote the music. It’s probably not what anyone wants to be remembered for, but I always find it interesting that Frontiere served time for scalping tickets to the Super Bowl! Of course, he scalped a half-million dollars’ worth, and his wife owned the Los Angeles Rams.

Finally, director Michel Hazanavicius succeeds brilliantly in his virtuosic homage to classic American cinema, “The Artist” (2011). To my knowledge, if we discount Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie,” from 1976, “The Artist” was the first silent feature to be released since Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times,” which was already an anachronism in 1936. “The Artist” was the recipient of five Academy Awards – half of its ten nominations – including one for Best Picture.

The story deals with “A Star is Born”-type dynamic, with a fading actor of the silent era gradually eclipsed by the success of a rising young actress. Yet Hazanavicius manages to turn it around to come up with an honest-to-goodness, feel-good movie, a real rarity in contemporary cinema.

Ludovic Bource’s Oscar-winning score is evocative of time and place, breezy, yet when necessary poignant, with moments of spectacular action music which could have been written by Alfred Newman or Franz Waxman. For a classic movie lover, the first five minutes alone are priceless. And love that Uggie!

Stars are born and celebrities fade this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

February 28, 2025
Romantic Movie Music for Valentine’s Day & War

Most of us crave some level of stability in our lives (for some of us, perhaps now more than usual), but when it comes to the movies, nothing enhances romantic passion quite like societal upheaval.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” for Valentine’s Day, there will be plenty of valor, nobility, and sacrifice to tug at the heart strings, as we listen to music from movies that examine love in time of war, including selections from “Casablanca” (Max Steiner), “Doctor Zhivago” (Maurice Jarre), “The English Patient” (Gabriel Yared), and “Cyrano de Bergerac” (Dimitri Tiomkin).

War supplies impediments, spectacle, often tragedy, and possibly even a few Oscars. Tune in for an hour of impossible love, missed opportunities, and doomed romance, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

February 14, 2025

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