I miss DeputyRiley's series of excellent Complete Score Breakdowns and I have long planned to continue some myself after he stopped. In fact, I used to do these for myself years ago -- I did all of the Star Trek films before FSM put them out in complete form, as well as Elfman's Batman scores and a few other things including two big TV series projects (Batman: The Animated Series, which is also largely useless at this point thanks to LLL, and Columbo, for which I did the pilots, season one, and the first couple episodes of season two before I got married and stopped all that -- I believe some people have seen my posts on this board or Intrada's about how the complete first season scores plus the two pilots can fit on a single two disc set).
This past week I started working on a Complete Score Breakdown for Jerry Goldsmith's third ever feature score, Face of a Fugitive (1959) because I stumbled across the complete film online at Dailymotion. I ended up getting so into the music (and the film as well...not bad for a B-western) that I actually wrote up full track by track notes so it kind of evolved past just being a Complete Score Breakdown, though it served as that too. For those who missed it here's a link to the thread for my "advance liner notes": http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=113490&forumID=1&archive=0
In the case of Goldsmith's first ever comedy feature, Fox's Take Her, She's Mine (1963), I'm afraid I wasn't involved enough in either the music or the film to write notes, but I did do a full breakdown of the score for those who may be interested, which I will be presenting here. The film isn't terrible by any means, but both it and the score are cotton candy after the substance of Face of a Fugitive. Jimmy Stewart gives an enjoyable peformance in the film (the funniest gag is that his character keeps getting mistaken for Jimmy Stewart the actor), and I was also pleasantly surprised to see Audrey Meadows as his wife (I don't think I've seen her in anything besides The Honeymooners). You can watch the entire film in seven parts on YouTube starting here:
Here is my breakdown of the score and source music (I don't know how much of the latter was written by Goldsmith but I suspect some of the instrumental source was, at least.) Titles are my own:
1. Main Title 1:51 2. The Dish :39 3. Art 1:06 4. Hawthorne 2:25 5. Late Night Telegram :25
An Integral Part of Life (guitar source) :09 Hava Nagila (source) 1:00 The Fa-la-la stuff (source) :12 Here’s to the Girl Who Steals a Kiss (source fragments) :30, :53
6. A Skim Through Henry Miller 1:40 7. Battle Hymn of the Republic (source to score) :59 8. The Bird Girl 1:57 9. Paris Montage 1:17 10. The Protege 1:38
A Little Paris Song (source) :38 (second verse encore) :46
11. Two Very Different Rides 1:25
Restaurant Source :52
12. Not Another Cab Ride / 5th Floor Apartment 2:00
TOTAL SCORE TIME: 25:52 (TOTAL SOURCE MUSIC TIME: 18:02)
Goldsmith's score supports the film well, but aside from a few highlights including the main title and extended sequences, it really isn't a score that does much for me musically. It's not like The Trouble With Angels where there are more dramatic portions to offset the 60s comedy music. It just occasionally has light romantic stuff that leaves behind the comedy vibe, but nothing with any weight. And that's okay, because (like I.Q. for example) it fits the film...but (also like I.Q.) I don't exactly salivate for it on disc. That is fortunate, because according to Varese in their liner notes for their Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox box set, all of this score was lost, damaged beyond repair. This will likely forever remain that rare bird: a totally unreleased Goldsmith score. I can't fathom (nor can I really support) a new recording of this music, beyond a brief highlight suite perhaps as a bonus. As a Goldsmith bottlecap collector (ie. completist nut for my favorite composer), I would certainly buy a release of the original tracks if they could be somehow salvaged by modern technology with a whiz like Michael Mattesino at the helm. He has done just that for other "lost" scores (or lost portions of scores) for Kritzerland and Intrada. There have been expansions/thorough remasters of scores like Shock Treatment which Varese put out on their box set in truncated form and poor sound, so anything is possible.
I hope some people enjoy the work I did on this and I've decided to tackle The Man (1972) next since it's still complete on YouTube. After that, I'd welcome requests for what to do next out of the following: Black Patch (1957), Pursuit (1972), or Shamus (1973).
Great job Yavar! Happy to see this. I hope to see more. Not sure which one to suggest doing next because I'm not at all familiar with any of them, but I enjoy reading these nonetheless. Keep it up, keep the CSB spirit alive!
Great job Yavar! Happy to see this. I hope to see more. Not sure which one to suggest doing next because I'm not at all familiar with any of them, but I enjoy reading these nonetheless. Keep it up, keep the CSB spirit alive!
Possibly REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD since the boot had no identified cues.
I'd rather focus on stuff that hasn't even been released unofficially, but at some point I may get around to doing that just to give the tracks titles. I'd also be happy to tackle some of his TV projects if someone can point me towards Youtube (or Dailymotion) links online.
Definitely glad to see more complete score breakdowns.
I'm glad you're glad. I'll try to keep them coming for a little bit at least (must get back to schoolwork sooner or later). Just keep your eyes open for posts I do labeled as "Advance Liner Notes" as well, because those are also Complete Score Breakdowns, but with liner notes on top of it. The next one which I will be posting today is for The Man (1972), and as I did for Face of a Fugitive, I will be including track by track notes so it'll be labeled that way.
We now know the official track titles thanks to the Academy putting them on their website listing of written score holdings in their library. If I have time at some point I will compare them with my own and see about modifying my original complete score breakdown to feature Jerry's original cue titles.
1-1 "Main Title," 18 pages 1-2 "Swimming Party," 3 pages 1-3 "Art Lesson," 4 pages 2-1 "Campus March," 2 pages 3-1 "Twist," 1 page 3-2 "The Telegram," 2 pages 3-3 "Guitar Intro," 1 page 3-4 "Hava Nagila" (traditional; guitar-vocal), 2 pages 3-5 "Fa La La La" (by Ernie Sheldon; guitar-vocal), 1 page 3-6/3-7 "Here's to the Girl Who Steals a Kiss" (adapted by Ernie Sheldon), 2 pages [arranged by Urban Thielmann; guitar-vocal] 4-4 "Late Reading," 4 pages 5-1 "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (vocal), 1 page 5-1a ["segue from Battle Hymn"], 2 pages 5-2 "Mollie Returns," 9 pages 6-1 "My Little Girl in Paris," 8 pages 6-2 "Young Lovers," 6 pages 6-3 "Chantez," 1 page [page 3 only] 7-1 "Paris Drivers," 7 pages 7-2 "Plaisir D'Amour" (by G. Martini), 4 pages [arranged by Arthur Morton] 7-3 "Night Visit," 5 pages 7-4/8-1 "Calling for a Taxi," 5 pages 8-1a "False Arrest," 10 pages 8-2 "Take Her, She's Mine (waltz arrangement)," 5 pages 9-1 "Problem Parents," 4 pages 9-2 "The Seven Year Itch," 3 pages 9-3 "The Flea Picker," 3 pages 9-4 "The Emperor's Lost Pants," 6 pages 9-5 "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon), 2 pages [melody line only for cue orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 9-6/10-1 "Jerry's Baby (Twist)," 9 pages [full score; orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 10-2 "Twistin' Baby" (by Lionel Newman and Jonathan Hughes), 3 pages [arranged by Jimmie Haskell; conductor score] 10-3 "Take Her, She's Mine (Twist)," 2 pages [melody line only] 10-3a "Take Her, She's Mine (Twist)" (Dance Band), 5 pages [full score; orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 11-1 "Mollie's Farewell," 3 pages 11-2 "End Title," 4 pages
Again I wouldn't really be eager for a complete new recording of this score, but if a suite were compiled of the best few cues it would make a nice bonus on some release. But maybe the original recording can be salvaged with today's new technology, as Mike Mattesino has been able to do with some other scores previously thought too damaged to release.
So it turns out that Mike Mattesino and especially Chris Malone WERE able to salvage (part of) this score and Intrada released it over a year ago, as most of you are aware: http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12179/.f
I for one have warmed up to the score somewhat thanks to this new great-sounding album, and I encourage those on the fence to listen to our in depth Soundtrack Spotlight episode, where we talk to Mike, Chris, and John Takis who wrote the liner notes... really proud of how this turned out, and there's tons of fascinating behind the scenes info even if you don't care much for this score: https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/6920147-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-take-her-she-s-mine-1963
Finally, I thought some folks might be interested to know just which cues didn't survive to be salvaged on the Intrada album (we provide a sample of one in the podcast). I have bolded them below:
1-1 "Main Title," 18 pages 1-2 "Swimming Party," 3 pages 1-3 "Art Lesson," 4 pages 2-1 "Campus March," 2 pages 3-1 "Twist," 1 page 3-2 "The Telegram," 2 pages 3-3 "Guitar Intro," 1 page 3-4 "Hava Nagila" (traditional; guitar-vocal), 2 pages 3-5 "Fa La La La" (by Ernie Sheldon; guitar-vocal), 1 page 3-6/3-7 "Here's to the Girl Who Steals a Kiss" (adapted by Ernie Sheldon), 2 pages [arranged by Urban Thielmann; guitar-vocal] 4-4 "Late Reading," 4 pages 5-1 "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (vocal), 1 page 5-1a ["segue from Battle Hymn"], 2 pages 5-2 "Mollie Returns," 9 pages 6-1 "My Little Girl in Paris," 8 pages 6-2 "Young Lovers," 6 pages 6-3 "Chantez," 1 page [page 3 only] 7-1 "Paris Drivers," 7 pages 7-2 "Plaisir D'Amour" (by G. Martini), 4 pages [arranged by Arthur Morton] 7-3 "Night Visit," 5 pages 7-4/8-1 "Calling for a Taxi," 5 pages 8-1a "False Arrest," 10 pages 8-2 "Take Her, She's Mine (waltz arrangement)," 5 pages 9-1 "Problem Parents," 4 pages 9-2 "The Seven Year Itch," 3 pages 9-3 "The Flea Picker," 3 pages 9-4 "The Emperor's Lost Pants," 6 pages 9-5 "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon), 2 pages [melody line only for cue orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 9-6/10-1 "Jerry's Baby (Twist)," 9 pages [full score; orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 10-2 "Twistin' Baby" (by Lionel Newman and Jonathan Hughes), 3 pages [arranged by Jimmie Haskell; conductor score] 10-3 "Take Her, She's Mine (Twist)," 2 pages [melody line only] 10-3a "Take Her, She's Mine (Twist)" (Dance Band), 5 pages [full score; orchestrated by Jimmie Haskell] 11-1 "Mollie's Farewell," 3 pages 11-2 "End Title," 4 pages
I guess the most interesting to me would be the End Title, apparently a score cue written by Jerry but left off of the Intrada, as well as apparently not being in the film itself? I'll confess there's more that didn't survive the ages than I expected, even taking into account that some is clearly source music. I'd have to do some work to see how many of these even survive within the film itself; I suspect some of them went unused.
I'd also be happy to tackle some of his TV projects if someone can point me towards Youtube (or Dailymotion) links online.