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REVIEW ARCHIVES: 
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)
Alan Goraguer
EMI

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, this trippy cartoon feature by Rene Laloux boasts a strange and wonderful soundtrack by Alain Goraguer. Simultaneously moody, psychadelic and funky, La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) is a hypnotic listening experience.

If you haven't seen the movie, it's highly recommended. As far as animated features go, they don't make 'em like this anymore. It's thoroughly in the "speculative" camp of science fiction, as opposed to planetary romance and space opera.

The music is a perfect fit. Flute, vibes and Rhodes provide gentle interlacing melodies over riffing guitars and clavinette, supported by a solid rhythm section. Nothing has ever sounded this serene, cerebral and raunchy at the same time. Leave it to the French!

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"Get the Laser"

Fantastic Voyage
Leonard Rosenman
Film Score Monthly

Fantastic Voyage was a cutting edge film for its time and Leonard Rosenman's score was fittingly edgy.

With its heartbeat tempo, clicking teletype machines and synth pulses, the "Main Title Sound Effects Suite" is musique concrete par excellence. This non-musical approach was employed because the filmmakers (Rosenman included) decided not to use music until the microsurgeons entered the patient's body in their tiny submarine. Once inside, Rosenmann uses full orchestra and atonality to accompany the tense, surrealistic journey through veins and major organs. The score only becomes conventionally tonal once the microsurgeons have completed their mission and exited the body.

With its rumbling lower register and skin-crawling upper register, the influence of the Fantastic Voyage score can be heard in many of today's sci-fi horror thrillers.

This thorough FSM edition sounds great and contains copious information about the film and many images from it.

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Fantomas
Michel Magne
Universal

Based on a pulp fiction series about an arch-villain anti-hero, the Fantomas film trilogy (’64, ’65 and ’66) were made in France and featured music by generally imaginative Michel Magne.

Magne’s approach is orchestral with occasional jazzy elements, and is similar in tone of Jerry Goldsmith’s Flint scores. It should be noted that Universal CD compilation does not contain Magne’s original work, but features a re-recording designed to sound like the original, even using the same instrumentation. The original tapes and manuscripts were lost in a fire, so arranger/composer Raymond Alessandrini recreated the score based on how it is heard in the movies.

"Main Title"

"L'Avventura Comincia"

Le Fatiche di Ercole / Ercole e La Regina di Lidia
Enzo Masetti
DigitMovies

Steve Reeves was one beefy slab of man steak. He strides through these cheesy sword-and-sandal epics like a bronzed Adonis (is there any other kind?) You might even say that Reeves was born to play Hercules. Well, why not? He makes Charles Atlas look like so much puffed chest.

Suitably, the scores that accompany these masculine fantasies are sturdy and purposeful, moving forth with a heroic purity of tone. This is golden age adventure music par excellence. Certainly there are somber moods when low brass threatens to pull the listener into murky villianous depths. But then, strings sweep in with magnificent even romantic earnestness to rescue you from the brink of some hideous fate.

Yes, it's like that.

Enzo Masetti's soundtracks for Hercules and Hercules Unchained (as they were dubbed for wholesome American consumption back in the late '50s) are presented on this two-disc offering for the first time on CD. The original LP releases blended dialogue with music (to appeal to children), but thankfully the DigitMovies release is free of grand pronouncements — except, perhaps, those made by the orchestra when horns blare and the choir "oohs" and "ahhs" with dramatic intent.

Like so many of DigitMovies releases this one features informative notes and reproductions of vintage movie posters and stills. A classy package for a couple of near classic scores from the era when heros were really fucking heroic and not some ego maniac jocks with sneaker endorsement contracts.

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"Jazz It Up (MC/M4)" (MP3 edit)
"The Car Chase" (MP3 edit)

The Marseille Contract / Fear is the Key
Roy Budd
Cinephile

Roy Budd has a distinctive sound. It's halfway between Lalo Schifrin and John Barry. Like the Argentine, Budd is a virtuoso keyboardist and has a penchant for using electric bass. Like his fellow Englishman, Budd is a master at creating tense intriguing Herrmann-esque moods through repetitious orchestral motifs.

But an element that frequently sets Budd apart is the use of tabla and other percussion instruments. He uses these sometimes exotic sounds to season his arrangements, rather than letting the percussion become the focal point.

On The Marseille Contract -- a thriller starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason -- Budd works his magic with the Indian hand drum and various chimes and bells. These sounds perfectly complement the electric bass runs, synthesizer throbs and orchestral mood swings that ensue. The CD reissue includes an uncredited and rather bland house mix of the main theme.

Budd's score for Fear is the Key, an Alistair Maclean thriller starring Barry Newman and Suzy Kendall, is best known for its swellingly dramatic main theme and its ten-minute "Car Chase" number. This latter track features the sounds of tire squeals, honking horns, crashing cars and police sirens alongside the jazzy orchestral funk. Elsewhere in the score, Budd explores Louisiana rhythm 'n' blues and soul.

These two scores may not be the first two on people's lips when Budd's name is brought up, but their solid and well worth hearing.

"Main Theme"

Il Federale
Ennio Morricone
DigitMovies

With Il Federale (aka The Fascist, '61), DigitMovies celebrates Ennio Morricone's 45 years as a film composer. This WWII comedy was Il Maestro's first movie score to be composed and orchestrated under his name. In other words, this first ever CD release (based on the original EP release) is historically important, but isn't likely to be listed among his greatest works.

That's not to say it's pedestrian. In fact, it has much of the unusual instrumental ideas that would become the trademarks of his greatest works, particularly for director Sergio Leone. The military element is well represented with marchs, but there also are many comical passages where flutes and woodwinds scramble along in the playful manner of children or small animals. These whimsical moods are often counter- balanced by moments of drama or intrigue.

At the very least, Il Federale is a fascinating document of a composer who entered his profession with considerable musical gifts at his command.

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"Main Title" (MP3 edit)

Les Felins
Lalo Schifrin
Universal

Les Felins (aka Joy House) is Lalo Schifrin's first major score and -- to borrow a term used by the composer in the CD's liner notes -- the foundation of his work in film.

The Argentinean composer was coming off the commercial success of various Verve projects when the opportunity arose to work with filmmaker Rene Clement on a movie starring Alain Delon and Jane Fonda. This sexy entertaining thriller proved a commercial dud in the U.S., but Schfrin regards the project as a key learning experience.

Certainly one can hear the musical seeds of Bullitt and Dirty Harry on Les Felins. The main title, with its rumbling electric bass, sultry woodwinds and percussion, sounds like a dress rehearsal for Bullitt. And the atonal choral wash on "Melinda" sounds like one of Dirty Harry's tense passages.

The CD also includes the Schifrin-orchestrated Jimmy Smith recordings of the main title and "The Cat," which were released around the same time on the organist's classic LP, The Cat. The CD's closer is a pop tune, "Le Chat," based on "The Cat" and sung by Claude Nougaro.

"Lady Shake"

"Main Title"

Missione Speciale Lady Chaplin / Fenomenal: E Il Tesoro Di Tutankamen
Bruno Nicolai
Digitmovies

At the height of the '60s spy craze, Bruno Nicolai was anything but "undercover". In '65 he scored Upper Seven, followed by Missione Speciale Lady Chaplin in '66, and a year later Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Agente Speciale LK and, with Ennio Morricone, OK Connery. Missione Speciale Lady Chaplin is the last of these soundtracks to get released on CD, and like many Digitmovies CDs it is a world premiere.

Directed by Alberto De Martino and starring Daniela Bianchi (the Bond girl in From Russia with Love) and European spy movie regular Ken Clark, Missione Speciale Lady Chaplin is closer in quality to the '60s Bond movies than most Italian spy flicks, which often favor comedic gags over real action and intrigue.

Like Nicolai's other spy soundtracks — and like continental European spy soundtracks in general — Lady Chaplin is very jazzy. A walking bass heard during the prologue sequence establishes the stealthy mood. The main theme struts with swinging brass and big band drums. In more tender moments sultry sax, soaring strings and flirtaceous flute cast a spell of romance.

Elsewhere, a recurring motif pits swinging brass and electric guitar stings against a bass guitar riff played with a plectrum for that Vic Flick-type feel. Likewise, "Lady Shake" takes the '60s spy spirit into poppier territory with irresistable go-go flare.

But Lady Chaplin has its fair share of dramatic moments, too, when brass and strings build tension and explode violently against crashing percussion. And a couple of mysterious cues that feature harp and low flutes sound like outtakes from John Barry's music for the underwater sequences in Thunderball.

Next to OK Connery, Missione Speciale Lady Chaplin is Nicolai's most varied and satisfying spy work.

In '68, Nicolai scored Ruggero Deodato's comic book-inspired Fenomenal e Il Tesoro di Tutankamen (aka Phenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen) — one of several Italian comic book characters to reach the big screen during the '60s along with Diabolik, Kriminal and Satanik.

The soundtrack for Fenomenal is similar to Nicolai's spy scores. As on Agente Speciale LK, for example, he employs Alessandro Alessandroni's cheerful chorus I Cantori Moderni to scat against lean pop orchestrations featuring electric guitar, vibes and organ. Nicolai's bright, light jazzy pop concoctions are made all the more colorful thanks to Alessandroni splashy vocal stylings.

From swinging moods to suspenseful cues, it's difficult not to imagine a comic book come to life. Fenomenal is irresistably fun.

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"Main Title"

Il Figlio Di Spartacus
Piero Piccioni
Digitmovies

Piero Piccioni's symphonic score for Sergio Corbucci's Il Figlio Di Spartacus (aka The Son of Spartacus, '62) is the fourth volume in Digitmovies' Italian Peblum (or Sword and Sandal) anthology series. Starring genre regular Steve Reeves, The Son of Spartacus is, naturally, an unofficial sequel to Stanley Kubrick's Hollywood epic Spartacus.

For full-blown cinematic exotica Piccioni's score for Son of Spartacus is about as good as it gets. The "golden age" heroic main theme employs kettle drums, brass and swirling strings to impressive effect. Other tracks go for the mysterious orient mood while others evoke eerie, supernatural ambience and frenzied tribal dances.

Claudio Fuiano's liner notes highlight the similarity of the more heroic bits to stuff John Williams composed for Star Wars many years later, and that claim isn't unfounded. Both strive for the magic and majesty of golden age filmmaking. While the music for Star Wars may be overly familiar by now, Piccioni's score for Son of Spartacus is well worth discovering.

Previous Peplum volumes include Enzo Masssetti's Le Fatiche di Ercole and Ercole e la Regina di Lidia, Carlo Rustichelli's Arrivano i Titani and Roberto Nicolosi's Roma Contro Roma (aka War of the Zombies). Arguably, volume five of Digitmovies' Mario Bava series, Armando Trovajoli's score for Ercole al centro della terra, also belongs in the Peplum series.

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"Main Title: Celebration"

The Film Music of Phillip Lambro
Phillip Lambro
Perseverance

If the name Phillip Lambro doesn't ring any bells then shame on you for not having his Murph the Surf or Crypt of the Living Dead soundtracks, both of which are available from Perseverance. In fact, Lambro might be completely forgotten if it weren't for Perseverance, which recently saw fit to collect most of the composer's remaining film music in this intriguing and well-annotated compilation.

In store are the scores for four little known films including Git! ('65), Father Pat ('70), Mineral King ('71) and Celebration ('71), though they aren't presented in that order.

The opening selections come from the environmental documentary Mineral King, which earned Lambro the National Board of Review award for the best music in a doc. Using a spare ensemble that favors brass and woodwinds, the music is austere and mournful, with a stoic beauty suggestive of nature on the brink of ruin by land developers.

Next up is Lambro's music for Father Pat, a doc about a famous Catholic priest. Lambro was and still is an athiest, but there is a certain tone of reverence and ceremony in this music. Also there are passages of dissonance suggestive of moral conflict or at least moral questioning. Lambro also references Father Pat's Irish heritage in lilting sing-song passages.

Celebration, a U.S. propaganda film for foreign distribution about different kinds of American celebrations, offered Lambro a chance to stretch stylistically. The Italian street scene music is especially evocative. Other cues evoke the legacies of Native Americans (simple, repetitive flute lines) and religious freedom (chiming bells).

Finally, there's Git!, a notoriously bad feature film about a dog that even Lambro considers "a dog." Clearly, the best thing about the movie is the music, which is somewhat reminiscent of the great American composer Aaron Copland. Lambro is working on a small scale compared to Copland, but the expansive Americana sensibility is apparent.

In fact, much of Lambro's work featured on this very fine CD suggests that his heart really wasn't in scoring mainstream movies. Clearly, he's the conservatory-trained musical mind more at home composing new symphonic works in the vein of Copland, Ives and other "serious" American composers. That's no knock. His style simply is more cerebral than most movie's require. That said, The Film Music of Phillip Lambro is a fascinating musical document that is certain to satisfy fans of esoteric scores.

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5 Bambole per la Luna d'Agosto (5 Dolls for an August Moon) is the score for an uncharacteristically easy going Mario Bava murder mystery. It's kind of a "10 Little Indians" for the swinging 60s set, taking place in an ultra modern beach house on a private island. There's a lot of cocktail swilling party games and carefree infidelity, and -- oh yeah -- some timely murders. The movie, despite its collection of dead bodies, is a rather light affair, thanks particularly to Umliani's breezy, beat driven score. It's easily one of his best. It's been said that the movie is a half-hearted Bava film. The film's score, however, is whole-heartedly Umiliani. Latin rhythms, Hammond organ, piano, flute, vibes, jazz guitar and rolling bass predominate the arrangements.

La Morte Bussa Due Volte (Death Knocks Twice) is even more laid back. The latin rhythms receive fuller orchestration with strings, horns and wordless female vocals (courtesy of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni). Again, the film is suspenseful, yet the score avoids suspense in favor of ballads (like the enchanting "My Face") and pulsing Latin dance numbers, most notably "Bob E Hellen" which, along with "Danza Citar Free" from 5 Bambole... , appears on Easy Tempo Vol. 3.

Both scores are highly recommended for fans of Umiliani and of groovy soundtracks in general.

Femmine Insaziabili
Bruno Nicolai
Right Tempo/Easy Tempo

Femmine Insaziabili is a stellar outing by Ennio Morricone's frequent collaborator. It's the soundtrack for a sexy thriller, regarding an "insatiable female" or so the title suggests. Lara Saint Paul provides her fine pipes on a couple of vocal tracks (like "I Want It All", natch!), but most of the disc focuses on Nicolai's great arrangements. Tracks like the deliriously sexy "Sguardi Teneri" and "I Tuoi Sospiri" are fine examples of Nicolai's penchant for wordless female vocals in an instrumental setting.

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Film Music
Armando Trovaioli
ViViMusica (CAM/Beat Records)

"Silencio" by Angelo Badalamenti

Film Noir
Various Artists
Milan

The latest from Milan Records isn't your typical film noir soundtrack compilation. While we do get a 1993 Elmer Bernstein reading of Bernard Herrmann's 1956 theme from The Wrong Man, it's an exception both in terms of film history and style. With it's chipper tempo and jaunty orchestration it isn't likely to make anyone think of the dark secrets and darker deeds that characterize the film noir genre. On the other hand, most of the selections are from more recent film noir such as The Usual Suspects, Mulholland Drive and Crash.

Such a compilation is certainly welcome, of course. It's great to hear music from Naked Lunch, The Elephant Man and Taxi Driver in the same program. However, the liner notes fail to identify the sources of the material, so it's up to the listener to either know or guess where the selections originate from. Such an oversight doesn't make a lick of sense, but whatever.

While most of the selections have cinematic origins, the opening track, "Turning Pages," comes from the non-soundtrack album Goodbye Swingtime by the Matthew Herbert Big Band. It's worthy of inclusion, but it also makes one wonder how many other noir-inspired "imaginary soundtracks" failed to make the set. Licensing hang-ups, perhaps?

All told, Film Noir is mostly worthwhile, and with minor programming tweaks could be the perfect soundtrack for your own dark secrets and darker deeds.

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"Fountain Scene" (MP3 edit)

The Final Comedown
Grant Green
Pure Pleasure/Blue Note

Post-bop jazz guitarist Grant Green's score for the Oscar Williams' film about racism (starring Billy Dee Williams) is a jazz funk gem. In truth, the score should be credited to Wade Marcus, a veteran arranger for both R&B and jazz artists, who composed and conducted most of The Final Comedown; Green is used primarily as a soloist.

As Blue Note's first soundtrack release, The Final Comedown differs from most of the label's catalog. Sure, there are rare groove numbers ("Slight Fear and Terror" and "Father's Lament" among others), but there are several pensive cinematic tracks (such as "Past, Present and Future" and "Battle Scene") that lend the score some dramatic weight.

Destination Moon /
First Men in the Moon
Leith Stevens / Laurie Johnson
Citadel/Silva Screen

Back when these two sci-fi features were made ('50/'64) the moon was still a thing of mystery to the general public. With the first moon landing not coming until '69, filmmakers and public were still able to fantasize about such a lunar adventure without getting caught up in reality.

Destination Moon was Leith Stevens' first sci-fi feature. Stevens delivers in a big way, creating a dramatic and atmospheric space symphony in five parts: "Earth," "In Outer Space," "On the Surface of the Moon," "Escape from the Moon," and "Finale." It should be noted that this Citadel release is not the original recording of Stevens' score, but a version recorded by the Vienna Concert Orchestra in '57. The film, a George Pal production, won the Oscar for best special effects.

More than a decade later, Laurie Johnson (of Avengers fame) scored the more fanciful First Men in the Moon. Johnson's score is more bombastic and more outwardly romantic than Stevens' score. However, there's plenty of exotic outer space atmosphere and other worldly sounds to balance out the heroic orchestral pageantry.

A Fistful of Film Music: The Ennio Morricone Anthology
Ennio Morricone
Rhino

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Fluchtweg St. Pauli
Peter Schirmann
Crippled Dick Hot Wax

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Five on the Black Hand Side
H.B. Barnum
Beyond/MGM

"This is how you dance" (MP3 edit)

Follow Me!
John Barry
Harkit

Harkit Records' recent reissues of lesser known John Barry scores has ranged from the sublime (Boom!) and soaring (The Dove) to the slightly silly (The Wrong Box).

The score for Follow Me! (1972), a romantic comedy starring Mia Farrow and Topol and the last film directed by Carol Reed, will definitely please the ears of Barry fans.

The main theme has a haunted quality similar to that heard on Boom! The orchestral moods are reminiscent of the quieter passages in his 007 work thanks in part to his signature use of low flutes. He also makes effective use of the pizzicato sound he perfected years earlier on his "Stringbeat" recordings — even combining it with wah-wah guitar. And he cooks up some tasty '60s-style beat music as well ("This is How You Dance").

Barry's strengths are on full display on Follow Me! If you love his other work, it follows that you'll want to hear this one as well.

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4..3..2..1...Morte - Perry Rhodan
Anton Garcia Abril & Marcello Giombini
GDM

Forbidden Planet
Louis & Bebe Barron
GNP Crescendo

Forza G ("G" Force)
Ennio Morricone
Cinevox

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Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene
Ennio Morricone
Dagored

Ennio Morricone's soundtrack Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene is a moody, orchestral score that holds its own considering the hours of great music Morricone has produced. I'm not saying you'll go away whistling the stuff the way you do with the spaghetti western themes he's famous for, but its a quality listen nevertheless.

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Zulu/Four in the Morning
John Barry
RPM

The Fox
Lalo Schifrin
Aleph

Listening to Lalo Schifrin's Oscar-nominated score for the The Fox, one is struck by two things: Aside from one samba number, the score could stand alone as a perfectly serious classical work; and that it is unlike any of the Schifrin's other work, which tends to draw upon a jazz background rather than a classical one. Suffice it to say, if you're a fan of Schifrin's crime themes (Mission: Impossible, Bullitt, etc.), than you may find this work somewhat challenging -- at least upon first listen; it's more approachable after the initial exposure. As the liner notes point out, this score has more in common with Schifrin's Verve studio album Marquis de Sade, where he experimented with Baroque forms in a jazz context. Here, string quartet and small symphony explore more pastoral, classical impressions -- think Debussy's "La Mer" or Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" (though far more subdued). Although The Fox -- a film adaptation of a D.H. Lawrence story about lesbianism -- was originally released in 1968, Schifrin re-recorded the score in Õ99 for this release. Of trivial note, the main theme has been used in French TV commercials for women's stockings.

Foxy Brown
Willie Hutch
Motown

The French Connection /
The French Connection II
Don Ellis
FSM Silver Age Classics

Thanks to Film Score Monthly (the Silver Age Classics series), the liner notes are great, shedding light on virtually every track. Well done.

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Friday Foster
Luchi DeJesus
Beyond/MGM

One of great things about the Soul Cinema collection is the fact that cool soundtracks like Friday Foster finally get heard.

Everyone knows that Pam Grier is the queen of blaxploitation movies. In Friday Foster, she plays a magazine photographer assigned to take snaps of America's richest black man. Along the way she uncovers a racist plot to kill black political figures. Luchi DeJesus' score for Friday Foster is as tough and funky as the movie's heroine. It was never released on vinyl, so its release on CD is more than welcome. DeJesus' screenwork includes Detroit 9000, Black Belt Jones and several other films. Here, he provides passages of dramatic tension and passages of dirty funk, featuring vocoder-distorted scat vocals.

Track titles include: "Mackin/Fancy Pants/Glad Rags," "Skin City," "Hasty Exit/Wheels/Cat & Mouse/Spider & Fly," "Position #69" and many others.

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"Richard Diamond" (MP3 edit)
"The Fugitive" (MP3 edit)

Thriller/Richard Diamond
The Fugitive
Pete Rugolo
Fresh Sound Records/Silva Screen

Pete Rugolo, legendary arranger and composer (for Stan Kenton among others) was one of many jazz artists to score for TV crime shows of the late '50s and early '60s.

Fresh Sounds, a Spanish label, has compiled Rugolo's music for Thriller (’60-’62) and Richard Diamond (’57-’60). It displays Rugolo’s ability to not only swing but compose dramatic music as well. Like Mancini, Rugolo used the cream of West Coast jazz soloists. The liner notes includes helpful scene descriptions for each of the tracks, which already have such evocative titles as “The Hungry Glass,” “Girl with a Secret” and “Twisted Image.” 

Rugolo’s work on the later TV show, The Fugitive (’63-’67), is more ambitious. Performed by the London Studio Symphony Orchestra, The Fugitive features jazz elements, but is understandably influenced by Bernard Herrmann’s Hitchcock work of the previous decade.

On the whole, Rugolo's music for both shows (and The Fugitive) isn't as aggressive as Elmer Bernstein's crime sound and his compositions aren't always as catchy as Henry Mancini's, but fans of the genre are sure to appreciate his ability to create dramatic nuance and mood.

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Fumo di Londra
Piero Piccioni
Black Cat

Futuremuzik
Peter Thomas
Scamp