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Why the left one? They are identical twins, after all.
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Young was an amazing melodist. Memorable, lovely themes just kept pouring out of him.
Let me recommend also the CD of a cast album for a Broadway musical he wrote, called SEVENTH HEAVEN, derived from the same source as the early movie with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The songs are OK, but there is a ballet that is pure Young, and every bit as good as any of his film music.
BTW, I understand that another contributor to cancer inducement of the production of THE CONQUEROR was the fact that a lot of the contaminated red dirt from the location was brought back to the sets in Hollywood, for continuity, and that this also was a factor is so many people from this production getting cancer.
At least, that's yet another of the urban myths surrounding this film.
(I often wonder what prompted Dick Powell to direct it... That's an urban myth question in itself.)
I can remember seeing the comic book of this film when it first came out. In those days, it was quite natural for Anglo actors to play Asians, and no one thought anything about it, at least not in pirnt. This all changed very gradually, so that, by 1985, when Alec Guinness played a Hindu in David Lean's A PASSAGE TO INDIA, it seemed more than a little ridiculous, a fact which Lean seemed to be aware of, as he ended up cutting Guinness's screen time, specifically, an intricate dance sequence.
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Posted: |
Jun 8, 2010 - 11:34 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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THE CONQUEROR was a typical big-screen action film of the 1950s---and I thought it was lots of fun. You went to the theatre to enjoy these things on whatever level you wished, but not to expect intellectual insight.
THE CONQUEROR is on just about the same level as most of the action films today, I'm afraid. We haven't come far scriptwise, just more willing to spend $200 million on the productions.
As for John Wayne......considering that this was a very expensive (for the time) $5,000,000 production......I pose my usual casting question whenever anyone complains about the casting of a film: Who was available to RKO and Howard Hughes in 1954 for an extended period of time for shooting.....who was a major boxoffice star.....who could ride a horse successfully.....who was not under firm contract to another studio.....who had the requisite action skills to have done this film? Can you think of ANYONE, available in 1954?
It seems to me you had Gary Cooper (did you believe him as Marco Polo?), Tyrone Power (at the end of his Fox contract), Marlon Brando (could he ride well enough?), Alan Ladd (with miniature horses and short extras), Anthony Quinn or Jack Palance (not big enough names), Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster (who was probably away in Europe doing TRAPEZE), Orson Welles (using massive Clydesdales to hold him up), Robert Taylor or Stewart Granger (on loan from MGM, but probably busy with THE LAST HUNT), Jimmy Stewart, Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson(on loan from Universal), Edmund Purdom (fresh from his triumph in THE EGYPTIAN and ready to go into THE PRODIGAL!  ), Ernest Borgnine (a year before his Oscar), Charlton Heston (busy with THE TEN COMMANDMENTS)......etc.....etc.....etc.
In the end, you either make the film with John Wayne, if he is willing to do it, or you don't make it at all.
Such is the casting of most Hollywood films, even today.
The production, the art direction, the score, the photography (by about 4 major cameramen as I recall) is all super. (I was watching AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS several months ago, and several of the sets from THE CONQUEROR turn up in that one, surprisingly.)
Like so many of these films---PRINCE VALIANT, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, TEN TALL MEN, KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, THE KING'S THIEF, LAND OF THE PHAROAHS, SALOME, VALLEY OF THE KINGS, THE BLACK KNIGHT, KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, UNTAMED---you simply watch and accept THE CONQUEROR for the comic-book adventure that it is, or you'll be disappointed.
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Posted: |
Jun 8, 2010 - 11:49 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I often wonder what prompted Dick Powell to direct it... That's an urban myth question in itself......
Powell had directed SPLIT SECOND, a taut little thriller, for RKO and Hughes in 1953. SPLIT SECOND was produced by the major Hughes producer of that time, Edmund Grainger.
During this period Powell had founded Four Star Television, with Niven, Boyer, and Lupino, and was the executive producer for the company. He also directed some episodes of that series as his behind-the-scenes entry into TV.
THE CONQUEROR, which he directed, was also PRODUCED by him---his first feature as producer---and it's likely he, himself, brought the film to his friend, Hughes.
In the end, I suppose we're lucky that THE CONQUEROR featured Susan Hayward and not Powell's wife, June Allyson, who, instead of a sultry dance, might've performed "Cleopatterer" for Wayne's Genghis.
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I just saw this film (hadn't heard of it before), and I agree it would make a great cd, reminding of the good old golden era film music.
I found the love theme extremely beautiful..
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I've always wanted this score too...i'd like to see it with Omar Khayyam! 2 seldom heard Young scores.
Someday, someway, someone please...
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I am certainly not a US citizen and the notes on that website say:
"Digitized copies of many of the recordings are available for use in the department."
Therefore someone who is interested in Victor Young should really visit that university department.
I suppose that many of these records are not regular 33rpm LPs, but 78rpm shellac discs or acetates.
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That's fine if you want to specifically ignore the other note I mentioned about files being available on the internet (quoted below for anyone too lazy to read the site). Leave the inquiries to some other Citizen of the World with a serious interest.
Related Publications
Records for the music scores are available in the library's catalog, and many of them are available digitally on the Internet Archive. Digitized copies of many of the LPs are available for use in the department.
Why such an angry reaction? Have I written anything to offend you? Quite certainly not!
Sorry, but at first I didn´t see the note about those "related publications" on that other website and only now have found it.
Still, I am unsure what they really mean with "records for the music scores which are available digitally on the Internet Archive." Could it be that they rather mean the Young music scores/manuscripts which have indeed been digitized by the Brandeis University and can all be viewed on just this Internet Archive?
http://archive.org/search.php?query=%28victor+young%29+AND+contributor%3A%28Brandeis%29&sort=titleSorter
I will send an e-mail to them and ask them, but I still think that the LPs and shellacs are probably only available for use in the department. Otherwise these should also be seen on this Internet Archive. Or am I wrong?
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