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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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