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 Posted:   Apr 17, 2015 - 3:20 PM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

I direct this plea perhaps a little more at MV (LaLaLand) and Roger (Intrada), because Bruce (Kritzerland) already stated some time ago that by the time he looked into licensing titles that were otherwise exclusive to Varese Sarabande's Goldsmith @ 20th Century Fox box set, all the ones that he considered worth doing were spoken for.

I assumed from his statement then that there were indeed some items that weren't spoken for yet but which were too dubious for him to release...in other words, S*P*Y*S. smile (Just to be clear: It's okay by me that he doesn't share my desire for *every* Goldsmith title; I'm just grateful he's tackling those titles from the Herrmann @ 20th Century Fox box that Varese doesn't hold in perpetuity!)

Now it may be that whatever titles weren't spoken for yet still aren't, because the folks at Intrada and LLL (and any other labels that work with Fox) happen to share Bruce's judgment on the viability of the remaining titles. It may also be that by now, all the remaining titles from the set have been spoken for after all, and this is a useless post because we Goldsmith nuts just need to learn to be patient.

But *just in case* someone out there needs convincing that the few remaining odds and ends are deserving of individual releases, I'm going to make the case:

S*P*Y*S -- I know I go on about this one a bit so I'll keep it brief. It's a lot more zany fun than its reputation suggests, and I for one think it is among Goldsmith's most creative scores. Anyone who loves Looney Tunes: Back in Action should give S*P*Y*S a chance. There's a lot more to it that the grating main title... And if the John Scott score can be included to fill out the disc, even better!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -- one of Goldsmith's *most* gorgeous scores, but many people don't know about it because it was written for TV and only available on the Fox Box. Since it only ran about 15 minutes or so on that set, I would hope there is more unreleased music from this that could be salvaged for a complete release with today's technology. But if those 15 minutes are all there is, it still deserves an affordable release, and would make nice filler for...

Anna and the King -- This is one I'm particularly surprised not to see out yet in definitive form, especially after Intrada did The Detective/Von Ryan's Express/Fate Is The Hunter/Shock Treatment in short order. When the Fox Box originally came out everyone talked about what a GEM this was. I get that it's obscure and that TV projects tend to be a bit more difficult. But this is such lovely music that I really hope it hasn't been written off and someone is working on it! Personally, in addition to everything Goldsmith recorded for the show, I would also be excited if scores for the series by other composers like Richard Shores were included.

Two I guess I don't really need to make a case for: The Chairman and Damnation Alley, but sadly they both seem to be a matter of missing elements more than anything else. But I for one would be happy with a release of whatever survives, perhaps with re-recorded synth tracks for the latter if financially feasible (but if that happens I hope they also include versions of the tracks without the reproduced synths).

C'mon fellas -- let's make the Varese set fully obsolete, except as a collector's item! The remaining unreleased gems shouldn't remain unheard by everyone unable to afford the hefty price tag 12 years ago...

Yavar

P.S. It wasn't included on the Fox Box due to lack of salvageable elements at the time, but has anybody since then taken a look at Take Her She's Mine? With all the late advances in technology, perhaps this is one that can now be restored!

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 17, 2015 - 4:43 PM   
 By:   Zooba   (Member)

Hi Yavar. I'm also a great admirer of Goldsmith's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. I put together a compilation of the score taken from an old VHS of a TV Broadcast of the movie many years ago. As far as I know, the Movie has never been released on VHS, DVD or Blu-ray. Anyway I'll have to find my old compilation of every bit of music in the film even if with dialogue under. I think it totaled around 28 minutes.

Here is a really great cue that was not on the Fox Box release. It underscores the scene where Francie is walking by the house that her father told the school is her address in order for her to be eligible to go to that school. It's a charming almost "minuet" like version of the Main Theme.

I would love to have a complete soundtrack of A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, one of Goldsmith's most beautiful, delicate and touching scores.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iCdZRXGipI

 
 Posted:   Apr 18, 2015 - 5:34 AM   
 By:   chriss   (Member)

Anna and the King -- This is one I'm particularly surprised not to see out yet in definitive form, especially after Intrada did The Detective/Von Ryan's Express/Fate Is The Hunter/Shock Treatment in short order. When the Fox Box originally came out everyone talked about what a GEM this was. But this is such lovely music that I really hope it hasn't been written off and someone is working on it! Personally, in addition to everything Goldsmith recorded for the show, I would also be excited if scores for the series by other composers like Richard Shores were included.

Yes, this really is a gem! Hopefully this will be re-released.



 
 Posted:   Sep 7, 2015 - 4:31 PM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

I figured I'd bump this sadly-overlooked thread for Anna and the King.

We know thanks to zooba's personal tape that about half the score to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is unreleased. Do we have any idea how much more music is unreleased for the Anna and the King scores?

I recently did a breakdown by episode for chriss and perpetualone on the Intrada board and figured I'd cut and paste it here:

"According to IMDb there are 12 titled episodes plus the Pilot, so 13 episodes in all of 26 minutes each. The Varese Goldsmith at Fox box had roughly 16 minutes of Goldsmith's contribution, taken from three episodes: the Pilot, Anna's Romance, and The Chimes. So Goldsmith wrote (at least) three. According to this Jon Burlingame article Richard Shores also scored three episodes.
http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2004/022004.html

I don't know if any other composers wrote original music for the show besides those two, but I suspect there were occasional original bits and pieces written for episodes with largely tracked scores, as happened occasionally on shows like Star Trek or from Fox, the Planet of the Apes TV series (remember how LLL's complete release featured original music from more episodes than expected).

For those curious about a time breakdown by episode for what Varese released:

Pilot - 6 cues, 9 minutes
Anna's Romance - 2 cues, bit under 3 minutes
The Chimes - 2 cues, just over 3.5 minutes
Plus about a minute and a half between the main and end titles...there's gotta be more, right?"


I know that the Pilot episode has been released on DVD as a bonus feature for the original King and I film. Does anyone who owns that edition bothered to watch it and figure out if there's any unreleased music besides the 6 brief cues on the Fox Box?

And surely there must have been more music recorded for Anna's Romance and The Chimes besides 3 minutes each. Anyone happen to have a personal tape recording of any of the 12 other episodes of this show?

Yavar

 
 Posted:   May 22, 2018 - 11:48 AM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

I've now see the English language version of the Anna and the King pilot episode (the only episode of the series to get a commercial release in the original English). I'll put out a complete score breakdown for it sooner or later. Suffice to say: there is unreleased music, even though out of all three episode scores represented on the Varese release, the pilot had the most music (six cues totaling roughly nine minutes). Most strikingly to me was the realization that the March of the Royal Children on the Varese is terribly truncated, ending in an awkward edit on album -- either a complete goof on their part, or perhaps the tapes they had were damaged and they had to improvise that edit. But if that's what happened they should have checked the composite audio track for the episode itself, because during that sequence I'm fairly certain it is completely music-only (and sounds great), with the full march playing out in full (at least twice the length of the Varese track, if I remember correctly). It's a pretty central cue in the score so surprising that Varese opted to shorten it to less than a minute in length.

Yavar

 
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