Intrada Presents:
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET
Composed by LEIGH HARLINE
DANGEROUS CROSSING
Musical Direction by Lionel Newman
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 106
Intrada presents its latest double header from the music vaults at 20th Century Fox— two 1953 film-noir entries from opposite ends of the spectrum: the budget-conscious Dangerous Crossing and the idiosyncratic, carefully crafted classic Pickup on South Street. Dangerous Crossing is set against a background of ritzy high life, taking place entirely on a sleek ocean liner making a fog-bound Atlantic crossing. Directed by Joseph M. Newman, Crossing tells the story of a radiant young bride, Ruth (Jeanne Crain), whose brand-new husband (Carl Betz) disappears at the start of the voyage. She spends the rest of her honeymoon trip trying to convince a boatload of skeptics that he actually does exist. The score is a deft patchwork of cues written for several earlier Fox films -- a combination of the work of the legendary Alfred Newman and another studio stalwart, Sol Kaplan. Most of the Newman material is derived from The Snake Pit (1948) and the majority of Kaplan’s from The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), all rearranged and re-recorded fresh for this film.
Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street focused on a raffish demimonde populated by pickpockets, stoolies, and b-girls, telling the story of a cocky pickpocket (Richard Widmark) who gets mixed up with a ring of Communist spies when he inadvertently lifts a wallet containing stolen microfilm. Leigh Harline’s score is a departure from his usual sweet melodies, and steps out from its first notes with a bold, jazz-infused swagger. The theme first heard in the “Main Title” weaves its impudent way throughout, providing a kind of musical jolt and jostle as invigorating as the subway ride where the plot first explodes. Blossoming, also, is Pickup’s love theme: a sex-and-sax-led version of “Again,” the hit song originally written by Lionel Newman (with lyrics by Dorcas Cochran) for the 1948 film, Road House. Like the love story, this theme will eventually morph from the purely sultry to something far more complex (“Candy and Skip”).
Both titles are presented in crisp mono from the original elements at 20th Century and are limited to 1200 copies.
INTRADA Special Collection - Volume 106
Retail Price: 19.99
AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6295/.f
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