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Kritzerland is proud to present a world premiere limited edition CD release:
THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY
Music Composed and Conducted by Alfred Newman
Take an all-star cast (including Fred Astaire, Debbie Reynolds, Lili Palmer, Tab Hunter, Gary Merrill and Charlie Ruggles), a hit Broadway show (The Pleasure of His Company by Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner), a world-class director (George Seaton), and what could possibly go wrong? The answer is, in a word – nothing. The plot is a bubbly confection about a ne’er-do-well rich man named “Pogo” Poole (Astaire), who returns from his many travels to attend the wedding of his daughter Jessica (Reynolds), a debutante who hasn’t seen her father since he and her mother (Palmer) divorced. As in all bubbly confections, there are complications, misunderstandings, charm, laughs and the eventual happy ending. The Pleasure of His Company has all these in spades with an emphasis on the “pleasure.”
Hired to compose the score was the great Alfred Newman, who’d recently ended his long tenure at Twentieth Century-Fox. Newman had scored several of director George Seaton’s early films, including Chicken Every Sunday, The Big Lift, For Heaven’s Sake and Anything Can Happen, and just as Seaton had migrated from Fox to Paramount, so, too, did Newman. There he scored both The Pleasure of His Company and Seaton’s next Paramount film, The Counterfeit Traitor.
It’s hard to imagine a more luscious, melodic, beguiling and captivating romantic comedy score than what Newman delivered for The Pleasure of His Company. The score gets off to a stunning start with a great Newman theme, “Lullaby in Blue” – a theme that is the cornerstone of the score and will reappear at frequent intervals. The main secondary theme occurs soon thereafter, Newman’s Pleasure of His Company theme. There’s a wonderful theme for Astaire, a kind of “traveling music” that is infectious and fun. And there are other lovely themes along the way to the happy ending. The score is like a sparkling glass of champagne – sophisticated, lush, witty, tender and pure Newman.
This is the first CD release for The Pleasure of His Company and we present the complete score, the source music, and some demo cues, mostly in stereo from the original session masters housed in the Paramount vaults. A world premiere score release by Alfred Newman is always cause for celebration – so, pop open the champagne and be prepared to be charmed by one of the greatest film composers who ever lived.
The Pleasure of His Company is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.
CD will ship the last week of October, but preorders placed at Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks early (we’ve been averaging four weeks). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.
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Really looking forward to this release. Newman was the first film composer I was aware of, by way of AIPORT. It will be interesting to listen to this as a sort of companion piece to AIRPORT since George Seaton directed both films, and they bookend Newman's 1960's output.
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Dear Mr. Kritzer,
I don't know if you remember our conversation of many months ago in which I inquired about the possibility of a PLEASURE release and you told me it was already in your pipeline. I just want to reiterate now how happy I was when you first shared with me that good news. This is a major dream come true. There should have been an LP back in 1961, but alas there was none, and I had to content myself with the single re-recorded melody Newman included on his "Themes!" album.
What a joy it is this morning to be able to raise my champagne glass to your latest triumph!
Thank you, sir,
PNJ
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Preston, please don't be so reticent.
Tell us exactly how you feel.
Oh, yes....and DITTO!
Me
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I am back on board for this superb confection. Thank you, Bruce. While other labels ,by and large, took the summer off for us golden and silver age fans Kritzerland was there for us. A PLACE IN THE SUN was the highlight for me. I hope we will see more Franz Waxman and some Victor Young before the end of the year.
We have more Waxman coming - not sure if it will make it this year - and we definitely have Mr. Young and I'm sure at least one of those will make it this year.
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Does the CD include the Fred Astaire vocal?
and, ordered! 
No Astaire vocal.
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How long is the main score as opposed to the bonus tracks?
The score proper is around thirty-five minutes and there's an additional thirty-something minutes of bonus material - I think it's around seventy minutes.
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Thanks for the reply. I figured it was about that from the length of the bonus tracks but I wanted to make sure. 35 minutes is a good amount considering I doubt I'll listen to the bonus material very much.
This should go well with All in a Night's Work (Previn). I highly recommend The Counterfeit Traitor for anyone who hasn't bought it yet. I'm surprised the score hasn't sold out yet.
The bonus stuff is actually really wonderful, especially the demo versions of the two main themes.
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Strangely, given the cast and director, the film has never been released on any home video format. The film was originally copyrighted by the Perlberg-Seaton company and not by Paramount. I'm not sure who currently holds the rights.
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Strangely, given the cast and director, the film has never been released on any home video format. The film was originally copyrighted by the Perlberg-Seaton company and not by Paramount. I'm not sure who currently holds the rights.
Paramount holds the rights, just as they do with all their Perlberg/Seaton films. The film is available on amazon to stream - and for free if you're a Prime member.
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