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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

De Gemini, of course, is Italy's most famous harmonica player, who contributed to countless soundtracks including many Westerns. He recollects in detail the vital role he played in the making of Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for Sergio Leone's masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West, in which Charles Bronson plays a tortured soul known as "Harmonica".

"[Morricone] gave me a scrap of paper onto which he had scribbled some musical instructions: impressions of the kinds of emotions he wanted the filmgoers to derive from my playing," De Gemini wrote in regard to the scene where Bronson places his harmonica in the mouth of a dying Henry Fonda. "The aim was to perfectly simulate the famous 'last death rattle' as sounded on the harmonica."

In addition to soundtrack stories, De Gemini shares some humorous accounts from his career as a concert performer. On one occasion, De Gemini recollects how he inadvertantly started a riot at a festival performance when he responded to an audience member's obscure taunt about "playing the bells" with the appropriate musical retort.

"The crowd felt that I was truly calling them on, and started to pour onto the stage," De Gemini wrote. "The performers all fled... but I had to help the harp player to get her big instrument to safety before the stampeding herd crushed it."

De Gemini also tells many stories involving famous soundtrack composers.

"Francesco [De Masi] changed houses more often than most men change socks," De Gemini wrote. He also tells a funny story about a birthday party thrown by De Masi in honor of director Enzo Castellari who the composer forgets to invite.

The memoir section of From Beat to Beat is a quick read at about 85 pages per language, with additional pages devoted to "commentaries from friends," photos (the book has more than 400 images) and the Beat discography. It is certain to fascinate fans of Italian cinema.

[  to the top, baby!  ]

What It Is... What It Was!

"This book will fry your eggs." That's what the back cover states on this fascinating overview of the Black film explosion of the 70s and the art that helped to define it.

Flipping through this colorful book, one is compelled to concentrate completely -- at first pass -- on Ron Finley's grand collection of movie poster and memorabilia. The 70s -- according to expert Walt Reed -- was the golden age of the illustrated movie poster by artists such as John Solie.

Then, having ogled the super-fly visuals, it's time to read up on the history of the movies and the cultural explosion that made them possible. Wisely, the authors rely on first-hand accounts from more than 20 people, ranging from Melvin Van Peebles, Pam Grier, Roger Corman, John Singleton, Fred Williamson, Rudy Ray Moore, Isaac Hayes, Samuel L. Jackson, Ice-T, Quentin Tarantino and more. This way, one gets the history without the burden of intellectual analysis. In other words, it's a fun (and funky) read.

— Kristopher Spencer

Blood & Black Lace: The Definitive Guide to Italian Sex and Horror Movies & Delirium: A Guide to Italian Exploitation Cinema 1975-1979

Blood & Black Lace: The Definitive Guide to Italian Sex and Horror Movies and Delirium: A Guide to Italian Exploitation Cinema 1975-1979 -- the titles put it plainly -- you won't find art house favorites Fellini, Antonioni, Rosselini, and De Sica here.

Judging from the titles, it would seem that both books cover the same sordid territory. In fact, both books bear the name of Adrian Luther Smith, expert on Italian trash sinema and editor of Delirium magazine. Smith wrote Blood & Black Lace (the book not the classic Bava flick) and edited Delirium (which is an extension of the magazine).

So, are the volumes interchangeable?

To a limited extent, the answer is yes. After all, Delirium covers a finite time period, whereas Blood & Black Lace covers a few decades. The format is similar in both slim, slick publications. Movies are reviewed alphabetically (though Delirium reviews them chronologically as well) and each review contains a brief description, critical assessment, cast and crew info and -- most importantly -- video availability info (complete with alternate titles and soundtrack info).

Both books are amply illustrated, though Blood & Black Lace is in full color, while Delirium is black and white (with color cover). In terms of eye candy, Blood & Black Lace is the winner since it features, not only eye-popping color, but also original movie poster reproductions instead of the often cheesy video box reproductions found in Delirium. Plus, B&BL averages four illustrations per page, while D offers an average of two, and has a few more pages to boot.

While many of these movies are hard to find, especially in theU.S., both books offer helpful info about the many alternate titles with which these flicks have been burdened. For example: the murder mystery "E Tanta Paura" loosely translates to "So Much Fear," but received such export titles as "Magnum 45" (Germany), "Terror Infinito" (Spain), and "Bloody Peanuts" (Sweden). Another example is the erotic feature "Amanti Miei" which loosely translates as "My Lover," but is also known as "Nude Angel of Schonsten" (Germany), "Cindy's Love Games" (U.K.) and "Tight Fit" (U.K. retitle). There are tons more, but here's one last favorite: "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave" simply became "Evelyn is out of her Tomb" (Belgium), "The Call of the Flesh," "Holocaust for a Virgin" and "The Madman's Crypt" (all France), "The Grotto of the Forgotten Corpse" (Germany) and "Sweet to be Kissed, Hard to Die" (?).

Needless to say, both books will peek one's interest in the trashier side of Italian cinema -- or sinema. And needless to say, both books have their fair share of both nudity and gore. Essential reading if your idea of cult movies isn't limited to "Faster Pussycat! KILL! KILL!" and "Pink Flamingos."

— Kristopher Spencer

The Book of Tiki

Sven A. Kirsten
Taschen

This is unquestionably the "Bible" of Tiki, but not of exotica in total. If you're looking for an overview of the musical movement (Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Yma Sumac, and so on), I recommend looking elsewhere.*

The Book of Tiki is a sumptuously illustrated tribute to the commercial architecture (hotels, restaurants) inspired by what Joseph Lanza, author of Elevator Music, calls "a celebration of America's power to mold the unknown in the image of reconstructed psychosexual fantasies of G.I.s who had been stationed in the islands during World War II." If that sounds somewhat academic, fear not The Book of Tiki is a technicolor pleasure cruise.

The Book of Tiki emerses the reader in the world of post war Polynesian Pop restaurants, bars, related collectibles, advertising illustration and design. Most of these tropical night spots were established in Hawaii and California, but also in disparate locations as far north as Alaska and as far east as Florida, and in every major city in between, not to mention abroad.

Don the Beachcomber is the acknowledged founding father of tiki chic. "Don" was really Ernest Beaumont-Gantt, a New Orleans native who moved to Hollywood in the 1930s to mix potent rum cocktails under fake palm trees. Ernest bought into the South Seas fantasy as much as anyone, even changing his name to Donn Beach. Drinks like the "Zombie" and "Tahitian Rum Punch" are his creations.

After Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic's is the most famous tiki chain. Vic's was founded by Victor Bergeron, described by author Sven Kirsten as "a patriarch, a gentleman, and a chauvinist in one." Vic encouraged "sophisticated savages" to "go native". Vic even had a wooden leg, as a result of a childhood bout with tuberculosis, that became a conversation piece to bolster his new persona (shark attack!). He also ran The Outrigger chain, but changed the name to Trader Vic's after rival Outriggers cropped up.

Along with Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, there are chapters on Stephen Crane, the founder of Kon-Tiki, and Danny Balsz, who founded an outdoor Polynesian theatrical spectacular called The Tikis in Monterey Park, Calif.

The influence of author James Michener, whose Tales of the South Pacific won a Pulitzer and mass popularity, is documented here, and to a lesser extent the subsequent popularity of MGM's South Pacific, the hit song "Bali Hai" and exotica musicians like Martin Denny.

Almost every spread of this 288-page tome is jampacked with colorful photos and graphics. It's very easy to get sucked in to the fantasy, especially while listening to the evocative sounds of exotica.

* REsearch's Incredibly Strange Music Vol. 1 has a chapter on Martin Denny, and Vol. 2 has a chapter on Yma Sumac. David Toop's Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes of the Real World deals with the genre in an elequent if oblique manner.

— Kristopher Spencer

Film Music - Screencraft

by Mark Russell & James Young
Focal Pressn
w/ Various Artists CD

When first offered the opportunity to review a book on film music, I wondered whether it would be the type of film music featured on ScoreBaby. Although I knew such a book would interest my readers, I wanted to be its author (I do have such a book in the works; chapters of which will be introduced on this page in the coming months). Not knowing what to expect, I encouraged the publisher to send the book anyway.

Once it arrived, I was immediately interested since it appeared to be a perfect blend of scholarly overview and multi-media entertainment. The content included some of the composers I regularly review on ScoreBaby (Lalo Schifrin and John Barry), along with some I periodically review (Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith), as well as many other important film composers, whose work may not be fodder for ScoreBaby, but is at least classic in its own right.

An overview of the chapter headings reveals the names of 13 notable composers, including Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Maurice Jarre, Jerry Goldsmith, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Michael Nyman, Gabriel Yared, Philip Glass, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, Zbigniew Preisner and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Noting the absence of Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Nino Rota, Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini (to name but a few), the authors/publisher certainly cannot claim this tome to be the most complete overview of film music. One wonders why Sakamoto and Glass made the cut with just a few film scores to their credit, while prolific film music giants such as Morricone and Williams were passed over.

On first flip-through, I found the book both colorful and well organized. This large format quality paperback is amply illustrated with related film stills, photos of the composers at work and reproductions of related composition manuscripts. Plus, the book comes with a CD featuring 13 tracks, one for each composer.

The track selection offers classic themes and passages from Psycho, The Magnificent Seven, Lawrence of Arabia, Alien, Goldfinger, Dirty Harry, The Hairdresser's Husband, The English Patient, Koyaanisqatsi, Dead Ringers, Edward Scissorhands, The Double Life of Veronique and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. All in all, a fine selection, though it only includes a couple of "groovy" soundtracks (speaking musically, rather than figuratively).

Each chapter/composer profile includes a brief biography with partial filmography and interview, followed by spotlight descriptions of the composer's work on particular films. Although this treatment cannot be considered comprehensive, it is easily digestible and certainly serves the purpose of tribute to the individual talents on display.

The "interviews", which are more memoir than Q&A, are perhaps the best part of these profiles, offering illuminating first hand accounts from the artists themselves. The late great Bernard Herrmann is the only composer to receive an extended biography in place of an "interview".

Naturally, the book includes a well-composed introductory chapter, and a short glossary of terms.

In final analysis, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to fans of film music in general. And with its wonderful assortment of film stills and CD, it's a pleasure for film buffs as well.

— Kristopher Spencer

Manifesto, baby!

What do we mean when we say a soundtrack is "groovy"? Do we mean the music is built on a groove? That is often the case, but not always. While it's true of many classic OSTs like Super Fly and Shaft, it isn't with the likes of Casino Royale or Our Man Flint. Those OSTs and many others are groovy in a way that may or may not be intrinsic to the music. They're groovy in a symbolic sense, in that they represent an era — namely the 60s and 70s — when many OSTs began to serve something more than just the movie's plot, but the cultural milieu as well.

It was during that era when OSTs started to bridge the gap between the orchestral score and the song-driven scores of movie musicals. Although orchestral scores have never really gone out of style, the demise of the traditional movie musical (outside of animated features, of course) opened the door for a new kind of OST — the kind that would complement the unabashedly sexy and ultraviolent films that were produced in that era of great social change.

In a way, "groovy" soundtracks never really went away, but gave way to even more youth-oriented OSTs where popular songs stand in for an original score, both in the movie and on the stand alone recordings. While such OSTs tend to outsell orchestral scores, they don't really have the charm of the "groovy" soundtracks that paved the way for them.

That's where Score, Baby! comes in. As a critical guide for reissued OSTs of the 60s and 70s, today's fans of film music get a chance to familiarize with some of the coolest music to ever hit the soundtrack rack at your record store. Enjoy.

— Kristopher Spencer