While I have, of course, been familiar with the name Leonid Raab as one of the foremost orchestrators of the golden age of film music, I was unaware that he also wrote his own original film scores.
I happened upon his work while watching FOLLOW ME QUIETLY, a minor detective mystery produced by RKO in 1949. His major influence seems to have been his frequent collaborator Franz Waxman as some of the music was suggestive of that composer's style. The music was well spotted and never overwhelmed the story. He even found room for a romantic melody to develop. It was impressive but not particularly showy which may indicate why he tackled only 4 film scoring assignments in his career (according to the IMDB).
Clearly he was in demand for his orchestration work and let that lead his career, but I feel he had the chops to stand on equal footing with any of the composers working in the 40's and 50's. It's a shame that potential was seldom tapped.
