"HELP MEEEEE!" "The Fly" Is Back! Horror Classic Joins Crime Drama "Wallander" On CD

Take a look over to your right…if you’re anything like me, it might be hard to suppress a smile at the fearsome Fly! Yes, horror pictures have changed quite a bit since 1958, and even since The Fly was remade in 1986 with Jeff Goldblum as the eponymous bug-man. But for thrills and chills, it’s hard to beat the original Fly: “Once it was human…even as you and I!” Kritzerland is revisiting the fifties classic along with its sequel, Return of the Fly (1959), on a new two-for-one CD, and is also issuing a soundtrack to Sweden’s Wallander television films for the first time on CD. Both releases are limited editions of 1,000 copies and due to ship by the last week of August, though pre-orders frequently arrive weeks earlier.

Twentieth Century Fox brought The Fly to life with a script from future Shogun novelist James Clavell based on the short story by George Langelaan. The Fly was Clavell’s first screenplay job; he would go on to write even more indelible films like The Great Escape and To Sir with Love.) Kurt Neumann (Rocketship X-M, Kronos) would direct, though he would be dead before the film ever hit general release. He assembled a cast including Al Hedison (who would soon change his name to David), Patricia Owens and horror icon Vincent Price. The team of Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter was enlisted to provide the score to this widescreen sci-fi/horror melding, and in reissue producer Bruce Kimmel’s words, the duo created “a symphony of terror and things gone wrong, all in that unbelievably great Fox stereo sound.” The Fly was such a success that Fox almost immediately gave the go-ahead for a sequel. After all, you can’t keep a good Fly down. Return of the Fly welcomed back the composers, as well as star Price, for the tale taking place some fifteen years after the first film.

The Fly and Return of the Fly were both previously released in a box set on Percepto Records (which also included 1965’s Curse of the Fly, composed by Shefter sans Sawtell), which has been long out of print. For Kritzerland’s reissue, both scores have been completely remastered. In addition, a couple of shorter cues have been combined, while the famous "Fox Fanfare" has been eliminated. The Fly is presented in stereo, and Return to the Fly is in mono.

Kritzerland next turns its attention to Henning Mankell’s Wallander, as scored by Adam Norden! The complete text of the press release runs after the jump, and you’ll also find pre-order links and full track listings!

The label describes Henning Mankell’s Wallander as follows:

Believe it or not, it didn't all start with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. No, Nordic crime novels, movies, and TV shows had been around long before. One of the most successful of the Nordic crime authors was Henning Mankell with his series of Wallander books. They were beautifully written and seemed like naturals for movies and TV, and so we first got a series of Kurt Wallander movies based on the books that had been written to that point in the 1990s; those starred the wonderful actor Rolf Lassgard. Then the decision came that Wallander would start up again, this time as a TV series (with occasional movie releases), called, simply enough, Wallander. That was great news for Wallander fans. This time we got a new Wallander, Krister Henriksson. As good as Lassgard had been, Henriksson was even better, perfectly embodying the character. The first series consisted of thirteen ninety-minute films and was shot in 2005/2006. The composer of all series one's thirteen films was Adam Norden.

A prolific composer, he really captured the essence of the films and the characters with his evocative and perfect music. His music is a key element in making those films unique. The scoring usually consists of recurring themes for Kurt and Linda, and the approach to orchestration is usually spare and filled with interesting textures and melodic invention, somehow capturing perfectly the loneliness, the cold, the sordidness of some of the crimes, the despair. Most of the music is contemplative in nature, but there's some wonderful action music, too, especially in the Mastermind film. While some of the music has been available as downloads only and only outside the United States, it has never had a proper CD release. The show now has so many fans, thanks to its being aired in the UK and elsewhere (and now on DVD) that doing a CD release seemed like a no-brainer. The selections as presented here were personally chosen and assembled by Norden (who also contributes to the liner notes) and are from his masters, which he owns. If you're a fan of the Wallander films, especially of that brilliant first series, then this will be a lovely souvenir of the music that made that series so memorable. If you haven't seen the series, the music stands perfectly well on its own and is a wonderful listening experience.

Both The Fly/Return of the Fly and Henning Mankell’s Wallander are accepting pre-orders now at the links below!

Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter, The Fly/Return of The Fly (Kritzerland KR-20026-2, 2012)