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Posted: |
Aug 21, 2015 - 5:16 PM
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By: |
greylocke5
(Member)
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The BIG films of the Golden Age went to Steiner, Korngold, Rozsa, Herrmann, Waxman, Tiomkin, Newman, North, Young etc., not Salter and Skinner..
No one has mentioned a certain Skinner Golden Age score in the vein of Steiner, Rozsa, etc. I was not aware of this film until I saw it on TCM last week.
It is THE EXILE, a 1947 Universal release starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr,, who also co-wrote the script. Based on an historical fiction novel about the years in Holland just prior to the Restoration of Charles II. There's a fictional love story with a Dutch farm girl, pursuit of Charles by murderous Roundheads, and a visit from Maria Montez as a former lover of Charles.
While this picture hardly qualifies as a lost masterpiece it does have several interesting aspects. It was the first of four American releases directed by the great Franco-German director Max Ophuls, and as such has some terrific camera work and art direction. Great supporting roles from Robert Coote, Nigel Bruce, and the supremely evil Henry Daniell (The climactic swordfight on a Dutch windmill between Fairbanks and Daniell is terrific.)
And what I though was an outstanding orchestral score by Frank Skinner. Pageantry music, love themes, you name it. If not quite as good as Rosza and Waxman it certainly comes close!
Yes, I, too, would buy a Skinner box set. But since the elements to THE EXILE are no doubt lost, I would love to see a re-recording of Skinner music, including THE EXILE, perhaps in the CHANDOS film music series. It would call for a full orchestra to do it justice.
Just dreaming, of course, as we all are when it comes to releases of Frank Skinner's music.
PS - don't look for this movie on DVD- it has never had a release. Maybe the Universal Vault series could release it some day - that may be the only way to get the music.
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Yes, wasn't it great to see THE EXILE again? What an exceptionally beautiful production, in a class by itself, it seems to me.
Are you aware of THE FIGHTING O'FLYNN? It's another Fairbanks Jr. swashbuckler with a Skinner score. In fact, when Skinner wrote his book about composing film scores he used this score as his model, with many written samples. (But called in the book THE IRISHMAN, because of copyright restrictions).
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Posted: |
Aug 21, 2015 - 11:25 PM
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By: |
greylocke5
(Member)
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Yes, wasn't it great to see THE EXILE again? What an exceptionally beautiful production, in a class by itself, it seems to me.
Are you aware of THE FIGHTING O'FLYNN? It's another Fairbanks Jr. swashbuckler with a Skinner score. In fact, when Skinner wrote his book about composing film scores he used this score as his model, with many written samples. (But called in the book THE IRISHMAN, because of copyright restrictions).
I was not aware of THE FIGHTING O'FLYNN so I just read up on it at IMDB. It sounds like a winner, too.
Pre-1950 Universal releases seem to be dominated by horror classics and Deanna Durbin flicks, all of which I love. And that's where they made their money. But unlike Warners, MGM, even RKO - many of Universal's other pre-1950 releases seem to be lost somewhere in oblivion. Still, if there's a print of a film that's decent enough to be shown on TCM you would think it would be also be available for issuance on DVD, or at least for streaming. We can hope.
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Posted: |
Aug 22, 2015 - 3:53 AM
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By: |
Mr. Popular
(Member)
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Monteverdi's been dead 500 years and recordings of his music alone will have sold more CDs this year than Varese Sarabande has sold of all their 2015 releases by living composers combined.
I wonder where you'll get the figures to prove this assertion. Plus, this is a false equivalency whatever actual sales are. Two different genres, so one might as well compare Monteverdi sales to Taylor Swift sales for all it matters.
More to the point - Monteverdi is the John Williams equivalent of his time, or, I don't know, maybe the Taylor Swift of his time. Whereas Frank Skinner would probably be more like one of these guys, and thus needs a David Munrow equivalent to bring him back to a potential audience.
Agreed. It's his usual attack on people who he seems to have problems with. I wonder if he knows ANYBODY over there? After all, just because a label doesn't release does not mean they aren't selling a lot of music to other fans who want it.
Besides, why keep attacking the label like that? I don't like every Lalaland release, for example, but I respect the guys over there for the effort to fill some other fan's wish list. Same goes for Varese, Bruce, Doug and any other label that works hard to help provide options and releases for the fans.
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BACK STREET (the 1961 version) is a great romantic score--in the vein of A CERTAIN SMILE and JOY IN THE MORNING. Skinner was a master at weaving adaptations and reinventions of "classical" thematic material with his own original scoring. BACK STREET is not much of a movie (a poor-man's Douglas Sirk) but the Brahms "borrowings" are glorious.
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Just thought I'd fire this one up again - just watched the blu-ray of 'Thunder Bay' and thought - what a wonderful score! Where's the Frank Skinner box set?!?
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Did LLL actually comment that they weren’t interested, or are they actually in the same boat as Intrada?
Yavar
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