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Posted: |
Dec 6, 2013 - 2:42 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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So I was watching and of course listening to "McLintock"a couple of days ago and couldnt help hearing the themes from "Hang'em Higher".The composer listed here was deVol and not Frontiere.Any clues?
Or did the production company use their " source " material...
I don't know whether this will answer your question or not, but.....
For whatever reasons, McLINTOCK went into public domain quite some years ago. After that, many companies releasing PD films on video picked up McLINTOCK because it was a well-known film with an important cast.
Around this time, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, also in public domain, went to court and the decision handed down was that although THAT film was in public domain, its underlying rights, including the soundtrack and original story, were not. NTA/Republic Video promptly covered all their underlying rights for WONDERFUL LIFE with renewed copyrights, and thus the film is pretty well covered today. By clever alternate means, they had "re-captured" at least part of the copyright on WONDERFUL LIFE and now pursue infringers.
It is my understanding that Batjac and the John Wayne estate tried to do this with McLINTOCK as well, particularly with regard to Frank DeVol's score. I'm not sure how well this succeeded, because there were, and still are, infringers on the film's status, but the case may not be as simple as WONDERFUL LIFE.
At any rate, it was reported at that time that at least one public domain video company had the bright idea that you could release McLINTOCK legally if you COMPLETELY RE-DUBBED THE SOUNDTRACK!!! I've never heard this video, but apparently they totally replaced the music track and dubbed the voices, either completely or where necessary. I'm not sure I'd want to hear this version, but it sure would be a curious thing.
It may be that you saw and heard this particular release, apparently over-dubbed using Frontiere's music, stolen from the HANG 'EM HIGH soundtrack album. I can't imagine that this would be any less illegal than using the original track, but it might be enough to keep prying legal eyes and ears at bay at least until you made some profit on your fast-tracked video.
Since I don't know exactly what you saw or heard, I'm presenting this old story as a possible explanation. Strange things often happen with independently-produced older films where there is no corps of lawyers waiting in the wings to go to court, unlike major-studio produced/owned films where there are lawyers in depth protecting the assets.
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