Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Hi All,

I miss DeputyRiley's series of excellent Complete Score Breakdowns on the FSM board and I have long planned to continue some myself after he stopped. In fact, I used to do these for myself years ago -- I did all of the Star Trek films before FSM put them out in complete form, as well as Elfman's Batman scores and a few other things including two big TV series projects (Batman: The Animated Series, which is also largely useless at this point thanks to LLL, and Columbo, for which I did the pilots, season one, and the first couple episodes of season two before I got married and stopped all that -- I believe some people have seen my posts on this board or Intrada's about how the complete first season scores plus the two pilots can fit on a single two disc set).

This past week I started working on a Complete Score Breakdown for Jerry Goldsmith's third ever feature score, Face of a Fugitive (1959) because I stumbled across the complete film online at Dailymotion. I ended up getting so into the music (and the film as well...not bad for a B-western) that I actually wrote up full track by track notes so it kind of evolved past just being a Complete Score Breakdown, though it served as that too. For those who missed it here's a link to the thread for my "advance liner notes":
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6958

In the case of Goldsmith's first ever comedy feature, Fox's Take Her, She's Mine (1963), I'm afraid I wasn't involved enough in either the music or the film to write notes, but I did do a full breakdown of the score for those who may be interested, which I will be presenting here. The film isn't terrible by any means, but both it and the score are cotton candy after the substance of Face of a Fugitive. Jimmy Stewart gives an enjoyable peformance in the film (the funniest gag is that his character keeps getting mistaken for Jimmy Stewart the actor), and I was also pleasantly surprised to see Audrey Meadows as his wife (I don't think I've seen her in anything besides The Honeymooners). You can watch the entire film in seven parts on YouTube starting here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJMb6CEFVks

Here is my breakdown of the score and source music (I don't know how much of the latter was written by Goldsmith but I suspect some of the instrumental source was, at least.) Titles are my own:


1. Main Title 1:51
2. The Dish :39
3. Art 1:06
4. Hawthorne 2:25
5. Late Night Telegram :25

An Integral Part of Life (guitar source) :09
Hava Nagila (source) 1:00
The Fa-la-la stuff (source) :12
Here’s to the Girl Who Steals a Kiss (source fragments) :30, :53

6. A Skim Through Henry Miller 1:40
7. Battle Hymn of the Republic (source to score) :59
8. The Bird Girl 1:57
9. Paris Montage 1:17
10. The Protege 1:38

A Little Paris Song (source) :38 (second verse encore) :46

11. Two Very Different Rides 1:25

Restaurant Source :52

12. Not Another Cab Ride / 5th Floor Apartment 2:00

I Turn the Wheel for You (source) 2:35

13. The Raid 2:02

Restaurant Source #2 2:45

14. Parents 1:16
15. Nuts :35
16. Killing Cooties :54
17. Costume Woes 1:56

Boat Party Source 7:42

18. Goodbye 1:02
19. The Next Problem :45

TOTAL SCORE TIME: 25:52 (TOTAL SOURCE MUSIC TIME: 18:02)

Goldsmith's score supports the film well, but aside from a few highlights including the main title and extended sequences, it really isn't a score that does much for me musically. It's not like The Trouble With Angels where there are more dramatic portions to offset the 60s comedy music. It just occasionally has light romantic stuff that leaves behind the comedy vibe, but nothing with any weight. And that's okay, because (like I.Q. for example) it fits the film...but (also like I.Q.) I don't exactly salivate for it on disc. That is fortunate, because according to Varese in their liner notes for their Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox box set, all of this score was lost, damaged beyond repair. This will likely forever remain that rare bird: a totally unreleased Goldsmith score. I can't fathom (nor can I really support) a new recording of this music, beyond a brief highlight suite perhaps as a bonus. As a Goldsmith bottlecap collector (ie. completist nut for my favorite composer), I would certainly buy a release of the original tracks if they could be somehow salvaged by modern technology with a whiz like Michael Mattesino at the helm. He has done just that for other "lost" scores (or lost portions of scores) for Kritzerland and Intrada. There have been expansions/thorough remasters of scores like Shock Treatment which Varese put out on their box set in truncated form and poor sound, so anything is possible.

I hope some people enjoy the work I did on this and I've decided to tackle The Man (1972) next since it's still complete on YouTube. After that, I'd welcome requests for what to do next out of the following: Black Patch (1957), Pursuit (1972), or Shamus (1973).

Yavar

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Other threads in this series:
FACE OF A FUGITIVE (1959) Advance Liner Notes: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6958
TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE (1963) Complete Score Breakdown: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6966
THE MAN (1972) Advance Liner Notes: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6967
CRAWLSPACE (1972) Advance Liner Notes: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7213
DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE (1971) Complete Score Breakdown: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7216
The Waltons: THE CEREMONY (1972) Complete Score Breakdown: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7219
DAMNATION ALLEY (1977) Advance Liner Notes: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7223
PURSUIT (1972) Advance Liner Notes: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7236