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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2007 - 5:30 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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I came to a conclusion long ago about Italian film scores from the 50s, based on conjecture, to put myself at peace.
1) Any country that dubbed practically all their movies into the seventies, even when they were shot on stages (you notice I don't call them soundstages)does not have sound in general as a strong suit. Their visuals is what they always had mastery of, probably because they were not hampered by restrictions that sound demands.
2)The major studios not only made a lot of films in Europe during the fifties to take advantage of their frozen dollars, they scored them there.
3)After being frustrated, when I was young, that I couldn't find a decent recording of THE VIKINGS I noticed not just Nascimbene( A FAREWELL TO ARMS) sounded that way but Rota (WAR AND PEACE), Lavagnino (THE NAKED MAJA) and Cicognini (THE BLACK ORCHID) too.
I think even with today's technology you can only get so much improvement when your original recordings are poor. During the sixties the recordings started to sound much better. The Legend label has done the best you can with what there is.
Understand they are not horrible in the films, but away from them, there is a flatness that took a decade to improve.
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Posted: |
Jul 14, 2007 - 9:45 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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The original big-screen roadshow release of SOLOMON AND SHEBA was in Super-Technirama 70 with 6-track stereo sound, and seemed technically fine, and on par with others like it. (It is true, however, that there is certainly evidence that the United Artists library has not been carefully preserved and handled, so the original tracks may well have deteriorated in 50 years.)
I do recall thinking at the time, however, that it was odd SOLOMON AND SHEBA would have been thought of well-enough to have been released as a roadshow in the first place. To my 19-year old eyes, it was the first real reserved seat "turkey" I'd ever seen. 
Unfortunately, it was only the beginning.....in a long line of standouts including KRAKATOA-EAST OF JAVA, SONG OF NORWAY, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, LAFAYETTE, and THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, among others.
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The vinyl version of Solomon and Sheba on the United Artist label is one of their most beautiful efforts, the album cover is covered in a fine maroon cloth and the iconic art work is layered onto the cover, and it's a gate-fold and on the back is the Super Technirama 70 logo embossed in gold. I mean it's a trip. And the music. Why, nothing unusual, it sounded crappy in the movie and it sounded crappy at home, just like all the foreign movies up to maybe Rocco and his Brothers or La Dolce Vita.
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Posted: |
Jul 15, 2007 - 12:25 AM
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By: |
CH-CD
(Member)
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The original big-screen roadshow release of SOLOMON AND SHEBA was in Super-Technirama 70 with 6-track stereo sound, and seemed technically fine, and on par with others like it. (It is true, however, that there is certainly evidence that the United Artists library has not been carefully preserved and handled, so the original tracks may well have deteriorated in 50 years.)
I do recall thinking at the time, however, that it was odd SOLOMON AND SHEBA would have been thought of well-enough to have been released as a roadshow in the first place. To my 19-year old eyes, it was the first real reserved seat "turkey" I'd ever seen.
Well! I was only 11 when I first saw it M, back in 1959.....and I loved it. Especially the scene at the ravine with the burnished shields.
Very spectacular, particularly when seen on a huge screen, in Technirama and 6 track Stereo.
Watching it today, it's a little bit heavy going, but I persevere because of the soft spot I have for it.
I still have the souvenir program and the Dell comic book (see below).
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Posted: |
Jul 15, 2007 - 5:08 AM
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By: |
philip*eric
(Member)
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I love reading all my contemporaries' reaction to seeing S&S in its initial roadshow run.
I remember getting my Dad to take us into Chicago so I could see this epic at, I believe, the United Artists theater. I was quite impressed as a kid by this epic - the dazzling Technirama 70 color photography, the beauty & sensuality of Gina Lollobrigida, the impressive sets & costumes , the bold sexuality(for its day),the epic battle scenes and Mario Nascimbene's pulsating ,evocative music score in stereophonic sound . I didnt think it was a masterpiece but it WAS impressive.
I remember years later (around 1970) buying the original satin foldout album in Racine , Wisconsin , and being so thrilled to finally finding a copy. How times have changed.
I have the British dvd which looks and sounds pretty damn good. The movie , after many viewings, seem not as impressive today, but it still has some old fashioned movie excitement and magic that current films cant duplicate. sorry, manderley, it may be a "guilty pleasure" but it isnt a "turkey".
I have read that all of Tyrone Power's scenes(about 2/3s of the movie) survive - Fox once showed several on the old show "That's Hollywood". Wouldnt it be great to see those all put together today as was done with I, CLAUDIUS with Charles Laughton .
I think Mario Nascimbene's score deserves a deluxe treatment - hopefully, this new release gives us better stereo sound.
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Posted: |
Jul 15, 2007 - 5:49 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....sorry, manderley, it may be a "guilty pleasure" but it isnt a "turkey".....
So.....you think not a turkey but more a pheasant roasted in the kitchens of Solomon, with wild dates and figs, from the oasis of the 36 palms, dipped in nectar, and kumquats floating in wine..... You all like it so much, perhaps I was hasty (.....now I'm hungry!)
I DO wish Power had been able to finish the film, I think it would have been a better picture.
.....I was quite impressed as a kid by this epic - the dazzling Technirama 70 color photography, the beauty & sensuality of Gina Lollobrigida.....
You will find yourself checking your own age when you discover that Gina Lollobrigida celebrated her 80th birthday on July 4th of this year. She looks pretty good still, but time does fly, doesn't it?
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I love hearing from all of you who saw this film as a roadshow. I never did. Frankly, I don't remember wanting to. I thought it looked hokey then, and think it looks hokey now. Finally caught up with it when it was shown on the old "Sunday Night Movie" program, back in the early 60's, and was most impressed with the burnished shields sequence, and all those Egyptian chariots plummeting over that cliff, in slow motion yet! And, to be honest, in that amazingly tasteful, given the circumstances, dance to the pagan god, I am still transfixed by that jewel in Gina's navel! And I still wonder if she had trouble getting it out of there, given whatever glue was used...
I read the Dell comic when it came out, but don't still own it. I loved all those Dell movie versions, and can remember the covers of most of them, like STORY OF RUTH, TIME MACHINE, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, and many others.
I do still have the souvenir program, though; I've always loved those. I even had the satin-covered lp of S&S, but actually sold it off years ago, probably to the original founders of Footlights in New York. I found the satin lp in Jordan Marsh, in Boston, for only, get this, 99c(!), along with a LOT of other soundtracks. There was another time when I was at Kaufman's dept. store in Pittsburgh, and found a cache of those old 20th Fox soundtracks, like DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, ROOTS OF HEAVEN, etc., all for 99c! Amazing the things one finds here and there!
Like Manderly, I think S&S would have had more dramatic heft were Power to have finished it. With Brynner, I was always wondering if that hair was real... But the score was good for the kind of film it accompanied. At the time, I thought of Nascimbene as more second-rate, compared to his Hollywood counterparts. Now, I'm interested in anything that has a recognizable theme. (A favorite guilty pleasure, in fact, is scores from all those sword-and-sandal epics I grew up on at the local theatres, though I do remember seeing COLOSSUS OF RHODES at a theatre in Pittsburgh during its no doubt one-week run.)
I'm buying the upcoming CD more for the CARTHAGE IN FLAMES, but will allow myself to be pleasantly surprised by the S&S...
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.....most impressed with the burnished shields sequence, and all those Egyptian chariots plummeting over that cliff, in slow motion yet!
The SPCAs were impressed too. Vidor, like Bondarchuk in 'Waterloo' didn't seem bothered that the horses were actually killed. All for a cooked up sequence that has neither symbolic meaning nor actual Biblical precedent. Miss Lollo's navel jewelry apart, it would've been more religiously 'tasteful' actually to have HAD a little more pagan eroticism and a little less choreographed cornball in the dance.
The whole thing was an attempt to modernise a Theda Bara throwback that never stood up originally. Solomon's penchant for foreign ladies and their divinities had nothing to do with her. She'd 've been better as a black actress maybe, or at least a very dark one.
I find Nascimbene's orchestral bits here better than anything where the crooners leap in.
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)