Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Picture Perfect

Piano Madness Movie Music on Picture Perfect

This week on “Picture Perfect,” Peter Lorre gets more than his share of left-hand piano repertoire, in “The Beast with Five Fingers” (1946). Max Steiner’s score, built on Brahms’ transcription of the Bach Chaconne, is one of the highlights of an hour of music from movies about madness and the piano.

The program will also include a macabre concerto by Bernard Herrmann, written for the Laird Cregar thriller “Hangover Square” (1945), about a deranged concert pianist in fog-shrouded London. Alan Alda seeks fame at all costs – even Satanism – in “The Mephisto Waltz” (1971), with music by Jerry Goldsmith, and just a touch of Franz Liszt. And power-mad pedagogue Hans Conried lords it over a legion of his long-suffering pupils, in the Dr. Seuss fantasy “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T” (1953), with music and songs by Frederick Hollander.

We’re mad about the piano this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

October 10, 2020
Circus Movie Music Vampire Circus & More

And you thought clowns were scary! Join me for a suite from David Whitaker’s score for “Vampire Circus,” on this week’s “Picture Perfect.”

It’s part of an hour of music from movies set under the Big Top, including “The Greatest Show on Earth” (Victor Young), “Trapeze” (Malcolm Arnold), “La Strada” (Nino Rota), “Big Top Pee-Wee” (Danny Elfman), and “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (Leigh Harline).

That’s a clown car full of calliopes! The circus train rolls into town this week, on “Picture Perfect” – now at a new time – SATURDAY EVENING AT 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org

October 3, 2020
Circus Movie Music Picture Perfect on WWFM

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Children of all ages! May I have your attention, please?

Step right up! This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s music from movies about the circus!

In 1964, George Pal produced and directed an adaptation of Charles G. Finney’s dark fantasy novel, “The Circus of Dr. Lao.” “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” was envisaged as a real showcase for its star, Tony Randall, who plays not only the mysterious proprietor of an itinerant Old West circus, but also Merlin the Magician, the great god Pan, a Serpent, the fabled monster Medusa, the blind fortune-teller Appolonius of Tyana, and the Abominable Snowman!

The unusual score is by Leigh Harline, who freshens up tropes of the American Western by applying some Eastern spice. We’ll hear selections from the film’s original elements, remastered for the Film Score Monthly label.

We’ll also have music from two Academy Award winners: Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” voted Best Picture of 1952, with a score by Victor Young, and Federico Fellini’s “La Strada,” Best Foreign Language Film of 1956, with music by Nino Rota.

Malcom Arnold wrote the music for “Trapeze,” Carol Reed’s 1956 love triangle on high (with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Gina Lollobrigada), and Danny Elfman understands that every day’s a circus for Paul Reubens in “Big Top Pee-Wee,” from 1988. I know you are, but what am I?

Finally, with Halloween right around the corner, I couldn’t resist including a suite from Hammer Film Productions’ “Vampire Circus,” from 1972. The composer is David Whitaker, of “The Sword and the Sorcerer” cult status.

Music for the circus takes center ring, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now at its new time, this SATURDAY EVENING AT 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

October 2, 2020
Metaphorical Big Cats on Film

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

This Saturday, on “Picture Perfect,” the focus will be 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” – NOW AT A NEW TIME – THIS SATURDAY EVENING AT 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

(If you miss it, enjoy it later as a webcat – er, webcast – at wwfm.org!)

September 19, 2020
Airport Movie Music on Picture Perfect

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’re ready to take flight, at our new time – Saturday at 7 pm – with music from movies about airports and airplanes.

In the original “Airport” (1970), producer Irwin Allen established the prototype for disaster movies of all stripes by placing an all-star, aging cast in spectacular peril. Burt Lancaster! Dean Martin! George Kennedy! Jean Seberg! Jacqueline Bisset! Helen Hayes! The list goes on and on, longer than the longest runway. The bongo-laden theme is by veteran film composer Alfred Newman,” from the last of his over 200 scores.

Another movie with something of the same feel is “The V.I.P.s” (1963), allegedly inspired by the real-life love-triangle of Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Finch. The story is set at London Heathrow Airport, where flights are delayed because of a dense fog. The film was written by Terrence Rattigan and the parts cast from another laundry list of stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Maggie Smith, Rod Taylor, and Orson Welles, with Margaret Rutherford in an Academy Award-winning performance. The music is by Miklós Rózsa.

By contrast, Steven Spielberg’s “The Terminal” (2004) is an (intentionally) comic take on the predicament of a hapless Eastern European who finds himself in a kind limbo, trapped in an international arrivals terminal in New York, after his country erupts into civil war, so that his passport and other documentation are no longer valid. His plight mirrors that of real-life Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian who lived for 17 years in a terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Tom Hanks plays the unfortunate traveler, who makes the terminal his home, and Catherine Zeta-Jones the airline attendant with whom he strikes up a relationship. The music is by regular Spielberg collaborator John Williams, and I think you’ll find it quite different from the Williams known for his work on “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”

Finally, we’ll turn to the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest” (1959), a film in which Cary Grant encounters love and danger in, on, and from a variety of planes, trains, and automobiles. Planes are particularly significant. During the course of the film, it’s revealed that the title is in reference to a Northwest Airlines flight; Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) must do all she can to avoid getting on a plane with Phillip Vandamm (James Mason); and of course, Roger Thornhill (Grant) flees from a strafing crop duster. Bernard Herrmann’s opening fandango propels us into the adventure.

Rush more to Rushmore. Departure time is this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 12, 2020

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