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I have always loved The List of Adrian Messenger from my youth seeing the movie on tv. The score has a sly, witty theme that justifies the many variations. I'll take this score over anything Goldsmith wrote after Under Fire.
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Mr. Kev: Despite "dodgy" differences among copyright laws internationally, that German label equals "boot" in the USA. Maybe it's worth your while to avoid being "muzzled" locally by recognizing the laws in place within this forum's home nation. (Some might hate to lose your input around here.)
The FSM release of MORITURI was a major improvement over what came before, but I see the Intrada revisit as likely being well worth MY reinvestment. Last Child may consider this "a good but not a likeable movie," yet I find it a VERY good picture, with an excellent performance by Brando and a suspenseful Goldsmith score that is intimate yet powerful.
I never saw MORITURI until I borrowed its DVD from my film-music mentor very soon after Marlon Brando's death, wanting mainly to evaluate Goldsmith's music in story context. I don't relate to the score collectors who feel that film music ought to appeal to them regardless of whether they know the story, or understand how or why that music was created to work. Have those collectors never had a disc they own "rise" in their estimation after they actually watched the movie that inspired it? If that happens to them even once, why not figure that experiencing the film is pretty essential to grasping why the music exists as it does?
For people who actually view MORITURI, the story even bears an excellent title. (The initial title, anyway -- the "We who are about to die" half of the proclamation by gladiators in the arenas of Ancient Rome.) The Brando character is an extremely resourceful, anti-Nazi German who has fled his country rather than serve its military during World War II; but he finds himself blackmailed by the Allies into undertaking a probable suicide mission on their behalf. Masquerading as an SS officer -- what he himself despises most -- and completely on his own, this man must board a German cargo ship, then locate and disarm multiple explosives intended to keep the valuable material from Allied interception, knowing too well that his assumed SS identity also places a target on his back.
Dramatically, this is a textbook desperate-man-on-his-own situation; and as I stated, Brando is excellent in a role as a character who is playing a role before others, but is free to express his own tension and dread only in private. (As in Last Child's video link on the previous page.) Goldsmith's score though -- especially that limited use of the zither -- is far from THE THIRD MAN territory or atmosphere. That instrument impressively applies the main character's sense of great exposure, and very fragile hopes of his own survival, to that theme which the FSM booklet notes beautifully described as being "dark, sad, and mysterious." And some members of the "Cult of Goldsmith" (such as I) can't resist the force and appeal of those cues with the composer's trademark low-end piano over short bursts of muted brass. Even though I never saw MORITURI in the 1960s, this score, in sound and function, demonstrates what Goldsmith brought to so many movies that I grew up with back then and could find so exciting.
MORITURI is also a gorgeously photographed and directed picture. (It's a shame that Brando's attitude toward his director led him to disparage the movie itself for so long.) I bought the DVD for myself after seeing it; but now the Intrada release tempts me to grab the Twilight Time Blu-ray, before that discounted price slips away.
If I went on too long for some people, perhaps "sheltering in place" has left me verbose today.
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Plus, I visited Intrada's bricks and mortar store when they were in San Francisco about 23 years ago and purchased a CD of Herrmann's Cape Fear on Soundstage, an edition I have since heard referenced as a boot. Packaging was slight, but not uncommonly so. A boot? Hell, I don't know. They were selling it; I bought it. It sounds good.
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I'm sure any Goldsmith nugget worth his/her salt will be upgrading, as they no doubt did when the FSM issue hit town.
But it is a fact it was available to buy from many legitimate retailers throughout Europe, when it first came out.
We cannot change what went before.
No ... but we can try not to get "booted" from here for violating local policies. I'm just trying to get you to save yourself!
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Morituri was viewed by me around 1987(8?), when it was on Fox home video VHS tape.
I simply had to see it knowing it was photographed in B&W by Conrad "Outer Limits" Hall and had music by Jerry "Twilight Zone" Goldsmith … so Morituri was a priority with my inclinations toward 'art' cinema. Director Bernhard Wicki can be seen in Antonioni's La notte as a bed-ridden terminal case in the feature's earliest scenes.
I bought the b**tleg CD in 1995.
Bought the FSM CD in 2001.
Upgraded in 2004 with the 20th/Fox DVD.
Now I bought Morituri again in 2020.
Morituri has always been essential with me; I consider it to be 'core' Goldsmith.
I'm in agreement with much of Steven Lloyd's post, and curious to know if he (& others) upgraded by acquiring this latest incarnation on Intrada.
Finally, Morituri comes on its own without any other disc companion.
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At 0.08 seconds into Boat Drill..
Is that the first appearance of what would later develope into the Rambo ostinato?
Goldsmith used lower register piano notes so frequently from his arsenal of techniques that I wouldn't label such as 'Rambo'. Rapid low-end rhythms/ostinatos can be traced back through some of his scores preceding Morituri.
Oct '63 Seven Days in May
Dec '63 Shock Treatment
Jan '64 "The Vulcan Affair"
May '64 The Satan Bug
Sept '64 "The Deadly Games Affair"
March '65 Morituri
There are likely further examples, too, but I'd say this became a characteristic trait surrounding Goldsmith's stint on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
[maybe we can refer to it as a Napoleonic complex piano Solo?  ]
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