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Posted: |
May 4, 2015 - 12:47 PM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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If this has already been posted, I'm sorry. I could not find it through the search engine.
On April 5, 2015, composer Richard LaSalle died at age 97.
He never really hit the big time, but looking at his list on IMDB, he seems to have worked fairly steadily through 1983, with 1961 - 66 being particularly prolific years.
I have not heard a lot of his music, but I like what I HAVE heard, with favorites being NAKED YOUTH (aka WILD YOUTH) from 1961, which incorporated a jazzy MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM main theme, and a hypnotic VERTIGO-like theme. Also his scores for the sci-fi pictures THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH and THE TIME TRAVELERS are quite memorable, with the latter having some heavy Herrmann overtones.
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Oh, man. I just added a new credit to his IMDb in the last few days and was thinking about him. What little I've heard has yet to bore me, so I hope to delve more into it one day.
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Posted: |
May 4, 2015 - 12:57 PM
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By: |
Rollin Hand
(Member)
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If this has already been posted, I'm sorry. I could not find it through the search engine.
On April 5, 2015, composer Richard LaSalle died at age 97.
He never really hit the big time, but looking at his list on IMDB, he seems to have worked fairly steadily through 1983, with 1961 - 66 being particularly prolific years.
I have not heard a lot of his music, but I like what I HAVE heard, with favorites being NAKED YOUTH (aka WILD YOUTH) from 1961, which incorporated a jazzy MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM main theme, and a hypnotic VERTIGO-like theme. Also his scores for the sci-fi pictures THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH and THE TIME TRAVELERS are quite memorable, with the latter having some heavy Herrmann overtones.
From Planet of the Apes The Television Series:
Richard LaSalle's "The Trap" is a fine score.
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Irwin Allen used him often in his TV projects. Early Los in Space, the final season of Land of the Giants, the City Beneath the Sea TV movie and Captain Nemo to name a few. Swiss Family Robinson as well. He was represented a little on the Buck Rogers and Planet of the Apes TV series albums that came out recently.
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Seem to recall taping some of his stuff off the tv way back, a few tv westerns and such like, and it was always decent.
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That's too bad, though he seems to have lived a long and full life. Wasn't he at Lukas's second FSM gathering that happened six or seven years ago?
It's cool at least that he (presumably) got to see his excellent Planet of the Apes score included on LLL's new release this January.
Yavar
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Posted: |
May 4, 2015 - 7:55 PM
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By: |
kirksworks
(Member)
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My favorite score of LaSalle's is for the little known MERMAIDS OF TIBURON (1962). The film is a mix of amateurish acting and writing, but it's beautifully photographed with much of the mermaid stuff shot underwater. There's really not another mermaid film like it, and LaSalle's score helps the film immensly. For years the only available copy of the film was a bad black and white dupe, but the color version is available now as an extra (?) on a DVD called Psychotronica Vol. 3, which mostly promotes the sexed up version of the film with lots of topless mermaids. That version is pretty silly, with the nude "mermaids" swimming around without their fish tails. But the original version has a certain aount of charm to it. Diane Webber, nude model from the 1960s, plays the mermaid queen in both versions, and it really is her doing all her own underwater swimming.
Coincidcentally, I happen to have been watching DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN last night, which I hadn't seen in years, and Aiden Quinn plays a NYC projectionist. The movie he was projecting was THE TIME TRAVELERS.
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I checked out the opening music to MERMAIDS OF TIBURON last night. Fans of the scoring to the series "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" should check it out.
I found it amusing that in the opening credits it stated it was the "nude version". Oh damn, I'll have to watch bare-breasts women under water -- that's it! My day is ruined! ;-)
He also did a nice theme to a short-lived series called "Westwind". Especially that second half with the wooden percussion. Unfortunately the intro closes early, cutting hte music. Apparently it sounds like it was tracked to the opening credits, not composed for it specifically.
I also added a missing TV series from his IMDb page last night: at least three episodes (that's all I could verify) of the 1976 series "Monster Squad".
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I looked up that main title music from the WESTWIND series on YouTube and darned if it isn't another case of LaSalle being "influenced" by another score. Tell me if that isn't a very close knockoff of the main title from ADVENTURES IN PARADISE.
I remember watching a late night showing of the obscure "B" Audie Murphy western (either APACHE RIFLES or ARIZONA RAIDERS) scored by LaSalle, and during one scene I suddenly realized I was hearing a bizarre mutation of Andre Previn's music from DEAD RINGER--perhaps it was an early case of "temp track syndrome."
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LaSalle's LAND OF THE GIANTS episodes repeatedly used a "variation" (uncredited) from Russ Garcia's MONSTERS OF JUPITER from FANTASTICA.
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Before there was Horner, there was apparently LaSalle. I've seen the complaint before, actually.
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Posted: |
May 11, 2015 - 6:32 PM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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Kirksworks wrote: " For years the only available copy of the film was a bad black and white dupe, but the color version is available now as an extra (?) on a DVD called Psychotronica Vol. 3, which mostly promotes the sexed up version of the film with lots of topless mermaids. That version is pretty silly, with the nude "mermaids" swimming around without their fish tails. But the original version has a certain amount of charm to it. "
I ordered a copy of that DVD, and lo and behold, that bonus "original" version (at least on my copy), is missing the dialogue track, and has only a nice, clear MUSIC AND EFFECTS track! This does not seem to be a switchable feature; or at least I couldn't find a way of getting the dialogue to come up. Both a blessing and a curse I guess. But if you watch the nude version first, you can grasp the plot. Then if you watch the original version, you at least know what going on, but can concentrate on the music.
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