Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Sort of random items. Last Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle “Datebook” section discussing the upcoming weekend’s entertainment had a two-page feature on - of all things - the 1993 Mike Myers comedy vehicle So I Married An Axe Murderer, which noted film critic Peter Hartlaub writes up as a beloved San Francisco film. We know it here as a movie with a Bruce Broughton score that Intrada premiered on CD several years back. Hartlaub even discusses the music, albeit his writeup only refers to the movie’s numerous songs, not the score. In any case, he mentions a handful of other films from that year in his article: Another Stakeout, Hocus Pocus and Coneheads. I couldn’t help but think all of these movies he mentions had their soundtrack albums premiered on Intrada. Perhaps we should offer this guy a job though I’m sure he gets much better pay writing for the Chronicle!

Even more random. My close friend Rick Hauserman is today recovering from surgery. He’ll stay in the hospital for a short spell. We were talking yesterday, before he went in, about so-called roadshow movies and their aspect ratios. Rick is an expert on aspect ratios. Specifically, we discussed 1960’s movies that I had widescreen format one sheets hanging on my walls and two in particular: Mutiny On The Bounty, shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and Lord Jim, shot in Super Panavision 70. He explained that Bounty’s proper “ultra” ratio was 2.75:1 whereas Jim’s “super” ratio was the smaller 2.20:1. Trivia to many perhaps, but not trivia to me. So I told him I would absolutely die to see Lord Jim in it’s Super Panavision ratio and especially in stereo. Having grown up with it on TV and home video, I had only seen the movie in pan and scan with a mono soundtrack. Rick said I should check out the DVD that sat on my shelf. I told him there was no point since I had heard about people decrying the video presentations as not being accurate. I pulled the DVD off the shelf, still sealed after many years. Yep. What a fool I’ve been. The package said it was presented in a 2.20:1 aspect ratio with a three-channel stereo soundtrack. Ever the skeptic, I immediately put it into my player and prepared for the disappointment. Voila! My wish came true. Though I’m not ready to die just yet, I am certainly ready to take a break from producing soundtracks to enjoy the nearly three hours it’ll require to watch it. And hear it!