INTRADA Presents:
THE LAST WAGON
Composed and Conducted by LIONEL NEWMAN
THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES
Composed by LEIGH HARLINE
Conducted by LIONEL NEWMAN and ALFRED NEWMAN
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 101
The latest Fox double header from Intrada features two golden-age western scores. The True Story of Jesse James is director Nicholas Ray's reinterpretation of the James Gang story, focusing on Robert Wagner’s Jesse and Jeffrey Hunter’s Frank as the tormented, frustrated youths. Told in flashback the film details Jesse’s life from multiple points of view, showing a man who is simultaneously murderer and loving son, roving miscreant and devoted family man, criminal and folk hero.
This diverse character is admirably conveyed by Leigh Harline’s score, which veers from the tender to the disturbing with dizzying acumen. The composer brings all his versatility to bear on the score for The True Story of Jesse James, ringing each change in the twisting narrative with intelligence, sensitivity, and restraint. Harline brackets his score with variations on the popular American folk song, “The Ballad of Jesse James.” In its initial form, in “Prologue and Main Title,” the tune begins expansively, almost cheerfully, but quickly darkens into a desperate action cue. By film’s end, it becomes an emotional, full-fledged folk song, transforming Jesse from man into a legend.
The Last Wagon is an uncompromising tale of another anti-hero, a Commanche-raised trapper played with blunt intensity by Richard Widmark. After avenging the murders of his Indian wife and children, he’s being transported for trial when his wagon train is ambushed and massacred by Apaches; he is left to lead the survivors—a motley crew of mostly racist settlers—to salvation.
Lionel Newman’s score is a highly crafted mélange of traditional “Western” music, Native American figures, and suspenseful action cues. “Red Rock Crossing” effectively sets the stage, underlining the opposing forces of settlers and Indians with intersecting motifs, and suggesting the danger and difficulty of the passage through disputed territory. Here, too, is the introduction of the score’s outstanding romantic theme, its sweetness allowed to shine only briefly before it is swiftly interrupted by “Tragedy.” Newman doesn’t hesitate to unleash every orchestral color at his command for the film’s climactic sequences (“The Last Wagon”), bringing us to a pitch of excitement before releasing us with a brief but cathartic restatement of the love theme.
This release from the stereo elements archived at 20th Century Fox is limited to 1200 copies.
INTRADA Special Collection - Volume 101
Retail Price: 19.99
AVAILABLE NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6209/.f
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