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Posted: |
Oct 18, 2016 - 5:14 PM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Henry Mancini was only 70 when he died in 1994. He was slated to score "Ed Wood," and a few years earlier, he had recorded an album of his music from Universal monster movies. Let's imagine that Mancini had lived a healthy life for another, say, 15 or 20 productive years, like Morricone. Given the mood of the film "Ed Wood," along with the time period depicted, I wonder if Mancini would have turned in a score similar to his Universal horror work, peppered with loungey source tracks like those on "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Peter Gunn." Also, considering the 1990s lounge revival, might Mancini have been tapped to write a score for a hip film using his signature style, similar to Pete Rugolo's being hired to score "This World, Then the Fireworks?" Mancini had become a darling of the lounge crowd, so I can imagine a slew of new interviews with younger journalists, similar to those conducted with Esquivel, Martin Denny, and Les Baxter in their twilight years. Mancini lamented in his bio that he excluded the dramatic music on most of his 1960s score albums. Considering the 1990 album with the Universal monster music, might Mancini have recorded albums with orchestral suites of the dramatic music from "Charade," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," or "Days of Wine and Roses?" I know this is all speculation, but I can't help but wonder what those years may have been like for him. What do you think?
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Henry Mancini was only 70 when he died in 1994. He was slated to score "Ed Wood," wow!
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I think you are right. Around 1996 there was a large easy listening revival and Mancini was hot again. He could have made a comeback, perhaps he would have scored Austin Powers for example. This is one of those large what if's. Same thing with Bernard Hermann, he dies just before his comeback years.
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Speaking of a career renaissance, it's unfortunate Maestro Mancini didn't get to see the original tracks from some of his most impressive scores released. He certainly made a point of regretting not including Audrey Hepburn's special vocal on the Breakfast at Tiffany's LP. I hope he would have enjoyed the Intrada disc.
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Henry Mancini was only 70 when he died in 1994. He was slated to score "Ed Wood," and a few years earlier, he had recorded an album of his music from Universal monster movies. Let's imagine that Mancini had lived a healthy life for another, say, 15 or 20 productive years, like Morricone. Given the mood of the film "Ed Wood," along with the time period depicted, I wonder if Mancini would have turned in a score similar to his Universal horror work, peppered with loungey source tracks like those on "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Peter Gunn." Also, considering the 1990s lounge revival, might Mancini have been tapped to write a score for a hip film using his signature style, similar to Pete Rugolo's being hired to score "This World, Then the Fireworks?" Mancini had become a darling of the lounge crowd, so I can imagine a slew of new interviews with younger journalists, similar to those conducted with Esquivel, Martin Denny, and Les Baxter in their twilight years. Mancini lamented in his bio that he excluded the dramatic music on most of his 1960s score albums. Considering the 1990 album with the Universal monster music, might Mancini have recorded albums with orchestral suites of the dramatic music from "Charade," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," or "Days of Wine and Roses?" I know this is all speculation, but I can't help but wonder what those years may have been like for him. What do you think? Jon Caps writes in his Mancini book "Burton initially had wanted Mancini when he thought of trying to reproduce the Universal Studios type of melodramatic scoring of that drive-in monster-movie era."
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Posted: |
Oct 19, 2016 - 2:27 PM
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By: |
DS
(Member)
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I can't imagine "Ed Wood" having a better score than it already does, but I'm sure Henry Mancini would've done an absolutely brilliant job. It is interesting to imagine an alternate reality where Mancini scored "Ed Wood" and then became Tim Burton's go-to composer (granted, this didn't happen with Burton and Shore, but the mind boggles anyway). I think it's safe to assume Mancini would've done more animated films, even though "Tom & Jerry - The Movie" bombed. Another collaboration with Arthur Hiller may have been a possibility. Hiller changed composers quite a lot, but it's possible Mancini and him would've reunited on "Carpool" (which, interestingly, Bill Conti was rejected from and replaced by John Debney). It's extra hard to speculate about what Mancini may have done had he lived longer because some of his collaborators from the late part of his career - Blake Edwards, Paul Newman, Michael Crichton, and Franklin J. Schaffer - were retired from directing films by the time Mancini passed. Because Mancini had already scored the final films of these directors, it would've largely been younger filmmakers seeking him out.
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