Soundtracks

Intrada has two very interesting catalogue soundtrack titles up for order today – but it’s their plans for later in the month that have film score fans dizzy with anticipation. Today brings another set of scores from Basil Pouledoris in Cherry 2000 (1987), a sci-fi cult classic with Melanie Griffith as a sexy automaton of the future, and The House of God (1984), a barely-seen 1984 adaptation of the satirical medical novel of the same name. While Cherry 2000 will be familiar to fans of Pouledoris, having been released by Prometheus Records some years back…

2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? was far from a commercial sure bet.  Joel and Ethan Coen’s film reset Homer’s Odyssey to 1937 Mississippi, set to a score of period folk music.  Yet it defied the odds, garnering critical praise, Oscar nominations for its screenplay and cinematography, and perhaps most surprisingly, the biggest-selling soundtrack of the last decade.  Universal has just announced that a 2-CD expansion of the original soundtrack will be released on August 16 including 13 songs recorded during original sessions for the film which remained unreleased. O Brother sparked…

La-La Land Records has a great slate of archival soundtrack titles up for order today. First up is a big one: the score to Breakdown, a 1997 thriller written and directed by Jonathan Mostow (who would later become a moderately successful action director with films like U-571 (2000), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Surrogates (2009)). It starred Kurt Russell as a husband whose wife is abducted in a small midwestern town en route to California. The score, previously , was composed by Basil Pouledoris (the late composer noted for such scores as Conan…

Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin has never been one to be boxed into any single genre.  He created one of the most memorable television themes of all time with his “Mission: Impossible,” recorded jazz albums for labels like Verve and Creed Taylor’s CTI, and scored innumerable films, racking up six Oscar nominations in the process.  Now, after the recent release by Quartet Records of Schifrin’s score to Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You, another one of living legend Schifrin’s most unknown scores is being issued by Film Score Monthly in a new, complete edition. …

Rory Calhoun as Marco Polo?  The California-born star of films like How to Marry a Millionaire and camp cult classic Motel Hell was cast in the title role of 1962’s freewheeling Italian historical epic (shot in CinemaScope, no less!) Marco Polo.  When the film was picked up for release in America, it was courtesy the wild ones at American-International Pictures!  This Marco Polo was directed by Hugo Fregonese and featured a multi-cultural cast with Calhoun playing opposite Yoko Tani.  And like many of American International’s best or most notorious pictures – Sadismo,…

One word describes a television movie event that harkened back to epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. That same word is the title of a soundtrack from one of film’s great musical legends that’s become one of the most-desired archival releases. And now, the wait is over: Intrada Records today announced the release of the complete original score to Masada (1981). Masada was based on the siege of the titular Jewish citadel in Israel in A.D. 73. The defenders of the citadel held bravely against the looming Roman army, but Rome’s empire was too…

Film score collectors, don’t put those wallets away just yet.  Kritzerland announced a rare treat from Pino Donaggio, The Berlin Affair, on Friday.  Varese Sarabande’s CD Club makes its release announcement today, and Film Score Monthly has just confirmed another two titles including one unique surprise.  First up is a two-for-one CD from the pen of Laurence Rosenthal, 1966’s Hotel Paradiso and 1967’s The Comedians.  Second is a rare musical to be released on the Film Score Monthly label.  Until now, FSM’s releases have largely been dedicated to orchestral scores, including songs,…

In a rare Friday announcement, Kritzerland this morning unveiled its latest soundtrack reissue/restoration.  From Pino Donaggio, the renowned composer of Carrie and Dressed to Kill, comes the score to 1985’s The Berlin Affair in its first-ever CD release. Liliana Cavani’s film was based on Junichiro Tanazaki’s novel The Buddhist Cross and dealt with its controversial themes head-on.  In 1938 Berlin, Louise, the wife of a young Nazi, enters into a romantic relationship with artist Mitsuko Matsugae, the daughter of a Japanese ambassador.  Their torrid affair spirals into a web of jealousy, blackmail…

If you’re a voracious reader of pop liner notes, there’s a good chance you might have come across the name Franke Previte. If not, you’re about to have a chance to reconnect with the man and his music. Previte was the lead singer of Franke & The Knockouts, a New Jersey band whose best-known song, “Sweetheart,” went to No. 10 in 1981. Of course, like so many other bands, they’re probably best known for what they did after splitting up; the band’s second drummer, Tico Torres, went on to sit behind a…

Intrada’s newest release batch has only one catalogue score (the other is a symphonic piece by Arthur Rubenstein) but it’s a keeper: it’s the earliest film work of legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith currently on CD. City of Fear, a 1959 thriller about an escaped convict who believes himself to be in possession of a canister of heroin – but in fact has something much more dangerous – was only one of the first half-dozen credits for the young Goldsmith, and only his second film score after a host of television work. But…

This Friday is a momentous occasion for fans of Superman: after a decade on the air, the television drama Smallville – which focuses on a teenaged Clark Kent’s transition into adulthood, bringing him closer to his destiny as the Man of Steel – will complete its run with an extended series finale that will likely finally see actor Tom Welling wearing the blue tights and red cape (even if for a brief moment). Though some have certainly reacted with bemused shock that Smallville is still on the air (including this author), the Superman mythology…

One year before Curtis Hanson made film noir hip again with LA Confidential, director Lee Tamahori and screenwriter Pete Dexter proved that there was still a lot of life in the old form.  They assembled an all-star cast led by Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer Connelly and John Malkovich for Mulholland Falls.  The production was top-notch, with the legendary Haskell Wexler (In the Heat of the Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Thomas Crown Affair) signed as cinematographer, and jazz icon Dave Grusin enlisted as composer.  Grusin’s score is now…

This week’s soundtrack reissues from Intrada are an underrated ’70s soundtrack album making its CD debut and the premiere of a ’50s World War II score. First up, the score to Sleuth, a 1972 film adaptation of the Tony-winning play by Anthony Shaffer. The British playwright adapted his own work for the screen, and All About Eve director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was at the helm, with a stellar cast anchored by Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, both of whom were nominated for Oscars for their performances. The score, written by John Addison (who…