/ Soundtracks

Engage! Another film score from the Star Trek universe has been expanded on CD; this time, it's the score to 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection. The third Trek film to feature the crew of the USS Enterprise-D as featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation (although this film, like its predecessor First Contact, finds the crew manning the Enterprise-E), First Contact finds Picard, Riker and crew openly rebelling against a Starfleet plot: to help one alien race, the Son'a, steal a planet away from the

In 1976, John Williams was between Oscars – for Jaws and Star Wars, to be exact.  The year was filled with great film scores from the future legend – among them, Family Plot, Black Sunday and Midway.   Another of his fine works during America’s bicentennial year was for Arthur Penn’s western The Missouri Breaks, headlined by Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.  The actual score tracks heard in the United Artists picture have never been released, either on LP or CD; Williams re-recorded his

This week's latest releases from Intrada showcase a forgotten TV show of the '60s and an early highlight for a then-little-known 20th century composer. Fandango was, in its own way, one of the more impressive films of 1985. Directed by a first-timer (Kevin Reynolds) from the basis of his thesis film at the University of Southern California (the original of which found a fan in Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin Entertainment produced the film), the film revolved around a group of college friends

There’s even more film soundtrack news coming your way today, thanks to Kritzerland’s latest announcement!  The label will release a special two-for-one CD combining the scores to two vintage adventure films starring Charlton Heston: 1955’s Lewis and Clark drama The Far Horizons and 1954’s exotic Secret of the Incas, the latter of which is frequently cited as a direct inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.  This 1,000-unit limited edition is set for release by the first week

Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber set Sunset Boulevard to music, Franz Waxman was Norma Desmond’s composer of choice, having created the score to the original Paramount picture.  But Sunset wasn’t Waxman’s only Paramount film.  Nor was it his only collaboration with legendary director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. Waxman’s scores for the studio are among his most renowned works – think of A Place in the Sun, Come Back, Little Sheba or Rear Window, to name three.  The Kritzerland label, already

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh9GDlGZm7Y] "I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us." Fewer words sent a chill down the spine of millions of Trekkies on the night of June 18, 1990, toward the conclusion of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I," the third season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not since James T. Kirk engaged Khan Noonien Singh in the Mutara Nebula in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath

Before pioneering cinéma vérité techniques on groundbreaking films like Faces and Husbands, John Cassavetes was signed to direct his first major-studio motion picture with 1962’s Too Late Blues.  Handed the assignment on the strength of his first film, Shadows, Cassavetes was a brave choice to direct the story of jazz musician “Ghost” Wakefield and his struggle to stay true to himself while pursuing fame and romance.  This raw and revealing story starred Bobby Darin, no stranger to the darker

From four-legged critters to gun-blazing Westerns, La-La Land's release slate this week features some great, little heard soundtrack material coming out of the vaults. Outside of horror circles, the 1971 film Willard - about a misfit with an affinity for rats - is best known for its 1972 sequel, Ben, which featured an oddly sweet, wildly successful theme song sung by Michael Jackson (his first solo No. 1 hit). The films themselves were considerably less cuddly, a point driven home by a 2003

Everybody knows the music of Henry Mancini, whether the slinky jazz of “The Pink Panther Theme,” the wistful nostalgia of “Moon River” or the jaunty charm of “Baby Elephant Walk.”  But thanks to the dedication of labels like Intrada, Kritzerland, La-La Land and Quartet Records, more and more listeners are getting to know Henry Mancini the musical dramatist.  2012 saw a staggering number of Mancini soundtracks on CD – many appearing for the first time in complete form - arguably making him the

When producer Carlo Ponti and director Vittorio De Sica, both giants of Italian cinema, sought out Henry Mancini to score their 1970 film I Girasoli (or Sunflower, in English), the American composer jumped at the opportunity.  Though creative differences between producer and director plagued the production of the film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, Mancini turned out one of his strongest, most romantic scores.  Thanks to the team at Quartet Records, Mancini’s absorbing work on

Kritzerland strikes gold with another pair of archival soundtracks, released earlier today. One is a resurrected reissue of a Jerry Goldsmith score - the label's first - and the other pairs two scores by Alfred Newman on one disc, one expanded and the other never before released. Breakheart Pass was a hearty Western adventure starring Charles Bronson as an undercover agent attempting to uncover a villainous plot aboard a steam train hurtling toward an Army post. Alistair MacLean of The Guns of