/ Soundtracks

Some small but significant premiere releases have bowed from Intrada this week: a dynamic sci-fi score from the '70s and a comedic action romp from the '90s. Ravagers was a brooding post-apocalyptic film featuring Richard Harris as a vigilante safeguarding against the titular band of marauders hell-bent on killing any survivors they can find. Art Carney and Ernest Borgnine co-starred in this forgotten thriller, and the score was composed by Fred Karlin, a jazz arranger who gained prominence in

Our apologies for not getting these titles to you earlier, but there's been a lot of action on the indie soundtrack label front, with two titles announced by Film Score Monthly late last week and three from La-La Land that went on sale yesterday and are selling briskly. Over at FSM, the label released Friday a short but powerful score to the film Testament, a 1983 drama featuring Jane Alexander as a mother coping with the fallout from a nuclear blast outside their California suburb. The

Les Baxter sure gets around. The past year has seen reissues of the maestro's scores from a number of labels including Intrada, La-La Land and Kritzerland, and the latter ups the ante today with the release of the exotica master's score to 1960's infamous Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio, or The Mask of Satan). Mario Bava's Italian horror classic stars Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Arturo Dominici and Ivo Garrani in the tale of a vampire/witch put to death by her brother who is reborn

Sony's Masterworks Broadway label has announced the next three titles it will rescue from the vaults of Columbia and RCA Victor, and the albums have one person in common: Richard Rodgers. Still one of the most-recorded composers of all time (Rodgers' "My Funny Valentine," co-written by Lorenz Hart, was the third most-covered song of 2010 according to ASCAP, no small feat considering the song was written in 1937!), Rodgers' collaborations with both Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II are represented in

Fans of Hugo Friedhofer and Alfred Newman have had much to applaud lately, thanks to Kritzerland’s recent reissues of Friedhofer’s One Eyed Jacks and Newman’s The Counterfeit Traitor. Our friends at Intrada last night delivered more for fans of those Golden Age titans with the release of the scores to Two Flags West (1950) and North to Alaska (1960) on one CD; Friedhofer composed the former while Alfred Newman conducted. For the latter, Alfred’s brother Lionel handled scoring duties and also

Film score collectors are among the most insatiable music purchasers, but luckily, there’s frequently a steady stream of releases. Three new and exciting titles have just been announced. Direct from Los Angeles on the estimable Kritzerland label comes Phillipe Sarde’s score to Roman Polanski’s 1986 film Pirates. A continent away in Spain, the Quartet Records label has been growing an impressive library of soundtracks, and the label has recently announced two new additions: John Barry’s 1965

Blake Edwards’ Trail of the Pink Panther, from 1982, is best remembered as the final film in the long-running series to feature Peter Sellers. The extraordinarily talented, mercurial actor had died in 1980, but Edwards paid tribute to his colleague by stitching together outtakes and old material to continue the story of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. (1983’s Curse of the Pink Panther was shot concurrently by Edwards, introducing Ted Wass as Clifton Sleigh, an inept New York policeman on the

Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Sister Act. Catch Me If You Can. Today’s Broadway is populated by adaptations of familiar movies; in 1961, such screen-to-stage transfers were rare. When they did occur, the authors usually changed the title of the film to signify that their musical version was, indeed, a new work. (Imagine producers today allowing authors to diverge from a famous property's title!) Such creative freedom resulted in some of the most inspired musicals in stage history, and one such

As previously reported, Film Score Monthly's two newest titles are the premiere releases of three great scores: an underrated sci-fi epic and two TV-movies with music from legendary film composers. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) is exactly what it sounds like: the Daniel Defoe classic on the surface of Mars. Paul Mantee is the marooned astronaut and Victor Lundin is "Friday," the Martian slave laborer who escapes and befriends him. (Also appearing as Mantee's doomed co-pilot was a pre-Batman

Just a quick heads-up to our film score fans: La-La Land's new reissue of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is now live and ready to order. Two thousand copies will be made of this set, which we originally posted on here. Order it here and hit the jump for the full track list.

It's not too great an exaggeration to state that without Alfred Newman, we probably wouldn't be discussing film music here at The Second Disc, or anywhere else. In a career spanning 40 years and some 200 films, Newman played an integral, early role in the art of composing original music for cinema. He was rewarded with a whopping 45 Academy Award nominations and nine wins, and even made music the family business. Brothers Lionel and Emil had impressive careers, while sons Thomas and David

Not too long ago, La-La Land Records announced it had only one title due out March 15. Now they've revealed what score they've unearthed - but it's something that's been reissued before. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) is one of the most madcap comedies ever released by Hollywood. Part road picture - groups of people working against each other to find a hidden stash of cash in California - and part Tinseltown epic (dozens of comedians and movie stars appear in the film, including Sid

Intrada's first releases for March involve two premiere score releases from two very different eras - a roadshow flick from the '60s and an action satire from the late '90s. First up is Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, a 1965 ensemble comedy from England starring luminaries including Benny Hill, Terry-Thomas and Red Skelton. Ron Goodwin's light, poppy theme went on to have some success as a pop single, although the resultant album was an odd one, featuring music and dialogue in