Have You Checked The Children? "When a Stranger Calls" Joins Fifties Double Feature On CD

Though a holiday weekend is soon to kick off here in the U.S., the Kritzerland label isn’t resting on its laurels. The soundtrack specialists have just announced two new releases featuring three wild (and wildly different) film scores.

One of the most successful thrillers of 1979, When a Stranger Calls, featured the second ever film score by Dana Kaproff (Cagney and Lacey, The Bionic Woman, Falcon Crest). Kritzerland released Kaproff’s first (1977’s Empire of the Ants) so it’s only appropriate that the label brings this long-awaited suspense classic to CD, as well. With a venerable cast including Colleen Dewhurst, Carol Kane, Charles Durning and Rachel Roberts, When a Stranger Calls had one question on everyone’s lips that year: “Have you checked the children?” Its tense score is as chilling today as it was in 1979. You’ll want to hear for yourself. Just don’t play this one in the dark!

When a Stranger Calls is joined by a two-for-one CD of I Married a Monster from Outer Space and The Atomic City! A 1958 low-budget sci-fi flick starring Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott, I Married a Monster has the distinction of carrying no music credit at all despite the presence of quite a bit of a memorable music! Why? The film was made during a musicians’ union strike, and so the studio was forced to go outside the United States to re-record selections from its publishing library. And so, voila! Straight from the Paramount vaults is a score composed by Victor Young, Hugo Friedhofer, Aaron Copland, Franz Waxman, Walter Scharf, Lyn Murray, Nathan Van Cleave, Roy Webb and more! Joining this altogether fascinating “original score” is 1952’s The Atomic City, composed by Leith Stevens, who is also represented on I Married a Monster from Outer Space! Gene Barry, Lydia Clarke and Nancy Gates starred in this low-budget thriller that was just a cut above, even earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Story and Screenplay!

These world premiere releases are scheduled to ship directly from Kritzerland the first week of July, but pre-orders from the label most often arrive an average of four weeks’ early! Both When a Stranger Calls and I Married a Monster from Outer Space/The Atomic City are strictly limited editions of 1,000 copies each. Hit the jump for pre-order links, track listings and the full press releases from Kritzerland!

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS:

With that repeated line of dialogue, audiences seeing When a Stranger Calls in 1979 were put on the edge of their seats in one of the most nail-bitingly suspenseful opening scenes ever put on film. Between that film and Alien, it was a 1979 double whammy of suspense and chills. Oh, it's easy from today's perspective to sit in judgment and say, "Oh, it's not so scary," much the same way that kids today seeing Psycho don't think that's scary. Why? Because these films have been ripped off so many times, and the envelope they were pushing has now been pushed so much further, that the classic chillers of old look positively quaint today. The fact that most new movies look and sound exactly the same makes movies like When a Stranger Calls even more unique - a truly low-budget film ($700,000) that came out of nowhere and went on to be an audience and box-office sensation (grossing over $21 million when that actually meant something). And quaint it wasn't in 1979.

When a Stranger Calls is sometimes called one of the first slasher films - only it's not a slasher film at all and there were certainly many that came before - in fact, if you want to talk slashing, Psycho would probably be at the top of the list. When a Stranger Calls has no slashing - what it has is pure suspense - there is literally no gore, just some blood in a flashback, but you never see any violence committed. Gore is easy - suspense, pure suspense, is hard. When a Stranger Calls began life as a short film called The Sitter, directed by Fred Walton. The Sitter was basically the first act of When a Stranger Calls. After the success of the 1978 John Carpenter film, Halloween, it was decided to expand the short film into a feature, starring Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst, Rachel Roberts, and Tony Beckley. The film was instantly influential and many low-budget copycat films happened for quite some time thereafter, including the same director's sequel, this one for TV, When a Stranger Calls Again. It was also remade in 2006, but the remake stretches out the original's opening twenty minutes to feature length - and guess what? It doesn't work.

When a Stranger Calls was Dana Kaproff's second film score - his first was for Bert I. Gordon's Empire of the Ants (released by Kritzerland) - and Kaproff deserves a good deal of the credit for the film's suspense level. It is simply unthinkable to imagine this film without his score because his score is as much a leading player as any of its cast. It's relentlessly suspenseful music - there are no pretty themes to lull you and give you security - just dread, pure dread, and then almost psychotic music for those moments when things, well, get out of hand. The score is written for strings, prepared piano, and percussion. It is a superb genre score and a classic.

This is the world premiere release of the soundtrack to When a Stranger Calls. The film, of course, was mono, as is this recording, taken from the original session tapes. We present every note of music Kaproff wrote, in film order, as that's the way it plays best - like a symphony of dread and terror.

I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE and THE ATOMIC CITY!

Bill and Marge - happy as clams, in love and about to be married. He's affectionate, a dog lover, thoughtful - the perfect man. Until - he's not. It's a girl's worst nightmare - the loving man she just married is suddenly not the man she thought he was. Why is he suddenly no longer affectionate? Why is he not affectionate to the dog? Why is he not affectionate to anything? Stranger still, why are some of the other men in their town behaving the same way? If only she'd seen the poster for this film, she'd have known exactly what was going on - because there's no mistaking it with a title like I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Made in 1958, I Married a Monster from Outer Space is not as lurid as its title would suggest. It's actually a very well made, thoughtful, low-budget sci-fi film with an excellent script, which has gathered a loyal following over the years. Starring Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott, the film is a textbook example of how to make a terrific little film on a terrifically low budget.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is its wonderful score. The film carries no credit for music at all, despite having really effective music and quite a bit of it. The reason for the lack of a music credit is simple: In 1958 there was a musicians' union strike. And so Hollywood studios had to go outside the United States and Canada to record music for their movies. In certain cases, especially in the case of the very low-budget I Married a Monster from Outer Space, they would re-record selections from existing scores that were owned by the studio's publishing companies. Therefore, what we have is a score composed by Victor Young, Hugo Friedhofer, Aaron Copland, Franz Waxman, Leith Stevens, Daniel Amfitheatrof, Walter Scharf, Lyn Murray, Nathan Van Cleave, Roy Webb - well, you get the idea. The surprising thing is how well it all works and how seamlessly it all plays.

Today, it would be called temp tracking, but back then it was born out of necessity and budget. It's actually kind of a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, where several of the greatest film composers of all time have music in the same film. The music, housed in the Paramount vaults, was in mostly excellent condition. A little wow and flutter on a couple of tracks was the only problem and we've left it as is because the music is so good and the problems only last for a few seconds.

Our second feature is a tense little low-budget thriller from 1952 called The Atomic City, starring Gene Barry, Lydia Clarke and Nancy Gates. The basic plot is simple: Enemy agents kidnap the son of a nuclear physicist in Los Alamos, New Mexico; their ransom demand isn't money, however - the bad guys want the physicist to turn over the formula for the H-bomb. Directed by Jerry Hopper, the screenplay was written by Sydney Boehm, a great writer who wrote several great films, including When Worlds Collide, The Big Heat, Union Station, Violent Saturday, The Tall Men, The Revolt of Mamie Stover, Shock Treatment and many others. His screenplay for The Atomic City was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story and Screenplay - very unusual for a low budget programmer in 1952.

The superb music was composed by Leith Stevens. Stevens made his mark in the early 1950s, beginning with two sci-fi scores that became instant classics - Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide. After The Atomic City, he would go on to write great scores to some iconic films, including War of the Worlds and The Wild One. He worked in almost every genre, turning out scores for such films as the noir classic The Hitch-Hiker, Scared Stiff, Private Hell 36, World Without End, Julie, But Not for Me, The Interns, A New Kind of Love and many others, as well as for such classic television fare as The Twilight Zone, Have Gun - Will Travel, Gunsmoke, The Untouchables, Burke's Law, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and on and on. His music for The Atomic City is greatly responsible for the tense atmosphere and keeping the film an edge-of-the-seat thriller. The music was thankfully preserved on a set of acetates in excellent condition. These were transferred as carefully and lovingly as possible, and we hope you'll be pleased with the result.

You'll find pre-order links just below! And don't forget to check out the special offers on each CD's page!

Dana Kaproff, When a Stranger Calls: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Kritzerland, 2012)

Main Title
The Ice Maker
Phone Calls in the Night
Have You Checked the Children?
Waiting/The Caller Confronts
He’s in the House
Curt and Tracy
Following Tracy/Curt on the Streets
Cat and Mouse
Be My Friend/Escape
The Mirror/Curt Remembers
The Flop House
Hide and Seek/ I’m Not Here, I Was Never Born
He’s Back/False Alarm
Sleepless Night/Closet
Disconnected/Strange Bedfellows
End Title

Original Soundtrack Recordings, I Married a Monster from Outer Space/The Atomic City (Kritzerland, 2012)

Paramount Seal/Firmament Music/Prelude (Nathan Van Cleave; Victor Young)
Red Cross Juke Box #3 (Victor Young)
The First Victim/Watched (Victor Young; Roy Webb)
Never Before (Ray Livingston and Mack David)
Monster’s Image/The Letter (Victor Young; Hugo Friedhofer)
Honeymoon Eve (Walter Scharf)
Transformation of Schultz/Marge Trails Bill/Marge Watches Transformation (Hans J. Salter; Roy Webb; Hugo Friedhofer; Franz Waxman: Victor Young)
Marge’s Return (Hugo Friedhofer; Victor Young)
Tell Her/The Intruder (Franz Waxman; Victor Young; Hugo Friedhofer)
Juke Box (Paul Weston)
He’s Dead/Marge’s Misgivings/Marge’s Frustrations (Aaron Copland; Victor Young)
Human Men (Franz Waxman; Victor Young)
Search for Space Ship (Leo Shuken and Sidney Cutner; Franz Waxman)
Fight with Monsters (Victor Young; Leith Stevens)
Back to Life/Captain Collins Dies (Daniel Amfitheatrof; Victor Young; Leith Stevens; Aaron Copland)
To Know Love/Finale (Hugo Friedhofer; Walter Scharf; Franz Waxman; Victor Young; Aaron Copland; Lyn Murray)
Main Title/Atomic Montage
Atomic Childhood
A Tense Situation/The Telegram
First Contact/Mark 3B File
The Trap
Back to Washington/Retribution
The Puye Ruins
Tommy Escapes
The Chase Part Two
The Rescue/Finale
Bonus track: Santa Fe Fiesta (source music)