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Saimel Records proudly presents on this CD the complete original score by Carlo Rustichelli for the 1964 anti-war dama SETTE CONTRO LA MORTE (THE CAVERN) which was an Italian-German-American co-production starring a row of international actors from various countries: John Saxon, Rosanna Schiaffino, Larry Hagman, Peter Marshall, Nino Castelnuovo, Brian Aherne and Hans von Borsody. This was the last film of celebrated Austrian émigré director Edgar G. Ulmer who above all during the 1930s and 1940s had become known as “King of the Bs” in the USA and is nowadays primarily appreciated for his horror movie THE BLACK CAT from 1934 (with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) and for his somber film noir classic DETOUR from 1945.
SETTE CONTRO LA MORTE was based on an idea which Ulmer had already had for many years – a group of soldiers of varying nationalities and allegiances who get entombed in a cave for several months during WWII – and premiered in Italy and Germany in 1964 whereas the slightly altered US version THE CAVERN appeared one year later in 1965 and also contained some additional music written by the American jazz composer Gene DiNovi (which of course is not on our CD).
The setting at the beginning of the film is Italy in September 1944 when WWII has not quite run its course: An aerial bombardement forces seven people (six men and one woman) of different nationalities and with different political views to take refuge in a deep mountain cave where they are soon trapped by an explosion which blows up the entrance. Despite all animosities, they try to cooperate with each other, but all attempts in trying to find a way out are doomed to failure.and the tensions increase ever more, also due of course to the presence of the woman Anna.
In 1964 Carlo Rustichelli was one of the busiest film composers in Italy and he was at the peak of his career with more than 20 film assignments for all kinds of genres by the end of that year. Despite all this hectic activity, he wrote most of his scores and also those for smaller productions with so much dedication and passion that his melodic inspiration almost never ceased. A case in point is SETTE CONTRO LA MORTE where his full-blooded symphonic music supports and enhances the picture with all the emotional power it needs. At the time of the film´s release in 1964 CAM had issued a nowadays top-rare 45rpm EP (CAM CEP.45-122) of Rustichelli´s score with just five tracks. Oddly enough, several of the most important cues of the complete score were not included on this EP – the most blatant example is the Main Title which contains a full statement of the sweeping love theme which with its melodic beauty is so typical of the composer´s inimitable style. It forms one of the main ingredients of the score as well as a nostalgic and poignant harmonica tune heard for the first time when the seven refugees bid good night to each other in their respective languages.
The dramatic part of the score is filled with suspense cues for piano, saxophone and percussion with a bolero-like rhythm and an incisive dramatic theme which gets fully developed and reaches almost operatic Wagnerian dimensions in the brilliant underscoring of the long sequence in which the Canadian soldier drowns in the underground river.
For many soundtrack fans SETTE CONTRO LA MORTE may be a largely forgotten film score nowadays, but it is another example of the immense melodic and dramatic talent of Carlo Rustichelli and worthy to be appreciated on this new CD.
The CD will be available on November 25th at Rosebud in Spain and can now be pre-ordered there and also soon at SAE.
Here the track listing of the CD:
https://rosebudbandasonora.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=27642&osCsid=7381a5b1137eb6ad778638f0c2158c70
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Looks promising
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Hi, Stefan.
Since the phrase 'full stereo' is absent from the text, we can expect this recording to be monaural.
I see from Rosebud's site that the conductor is Franco Ferrara, but no reference to Gruppo Sugar. (does a chorus perform along with the orchestra?)
The mention of suspense in the description implies that this is one Rustichelli item which interests me more than some of this other scores.
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The orignal tapes are indeed in mono and the score was licensed from Sugar.
No chorus performs.
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If it's half as good as La Notte del Grande Assalto (which I have just finished playing) I'll be a happy chappy.
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If it's half as good as La Notte del Grande Assalto (which I have just finished playing) I'll be a happy chappy.
It is an impressive score, lyrical, passionate, intense, and I am quite sure you will like it. If you are already familiar with Rustichelli´s musical style, you will find here all his stylistic trademarks. The themes themselves are really strong and it could be that you will hum them for a long time after having listened to the CD.
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Years ago, whilst regarding the filmography of Rosanna Schiaffino, I noticed quite a number of her films were scores by Rustichelli.
From memory, there're a half-dozen:
-) La Betia '71 (on GDM)
-) The Cavern '64 (Saimel)
-) Ro.Go.Pa.G '63 (Quartet)
-) Romulus and the Sabines '61
-) The Minotaur '60
-) Dubrowsky '59
I don't think any other composer worked on as many Schiaffino films as Rustichelli.
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By the way, has anyone here on this board ever seen the film?
I have seen all three versions of the film: the Italian, the German and the US one. It is quite odd, but in each one of them Rustichelli´s original instrumental Main Title had been replaced by a country song with the title "The Cavern" composed by Carroll Coates and sung by Bobby Bare.
So if anyone knows that song from the film, please don´t expect it on our CD. The song was not part of the CAM master tapes at all, it was not composed by Rustichelli and we thereforere couldn´t use it. However, Rustichelli shortly quotes it in his Finale track for about 30 seconds and transforms it into a doom-laden orchestral march. I also write about it in the liner notes.
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If it's half as good as La Notte del Grande Assalto (which I have just finished playing) I'll be a happy chappy.
It is an impressive score, lyrical, passionate, intense, and I am quite sure you will like it. If you are already familiar with Rustichelli´s musical style, you will find here all his stylistic trademarks. The themes themselves are really strong and it could be that you will hum them for a long time after having listened to the CD.
Stefan,does anything exist from Rustichelli's 'The Executioner of Venice'.
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Stefan,does anything exist from Rustichelli's 'The Executioner of Venice'.
No, unfortunately LA BOIA DI VENEZIA is a Nazionalmusic title so that nothing exists anymore from that score. It is the same as with other swashbuckler movies scored by Rustichelli during that period of the early 1960s like IL LEONE DI SAN MARCO or LA TIGRE DEI SETTE MARI which are also lost. Maybe Rustichelli himself did have something, but nowadays nobody of all the labels has any access to that estate.
You will also hear some of the same tracks - for example the music for the sword fights was recycled from an earlier score, probably from IL COLPO SEGRETO DI D´ARTAGNAN from 1962 where in my opinon it appeared for the first time - in all of these movies.
Above all BOIA DI VENEZIA and LEONE DI SAN MARCO share some of the same music as for example the gondola wedding ceremony sequences appear in both movies. Both movies were directed by the same director Luigi Capuano almost at the same time and at the same locations in Venice with almost the same crew (only a few different actors). LEONE DI SAN MARCO has a quite similar powerful dramatic Main Title music for choir and orchestra as BOIA DI VENEZIA - it is not really the same music, but it has the same flavour.
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As you say I thought it sounded familiar
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I would say that about 50% of the music has been especially composed for BOIA DI VENEZIA and all the other music is stock music from earlier Rustichelli scores for adventure/swahsbuckler movies.
It is quite logical if you look at the so many fillm assignments composers like Lavagnino or Rustichelli had in 1963 or 1964. So many and ever more cheaply produced swashbuckler and peplum films were churned out in Italy above all between 1962 and 1964 so that there was no time or money anymore to write and record a full new orchestral score with about 40-50 minutes for each of these cheapies.
In this context it is interesting to note that on the just released Lavagnino CD DAMON AND PYTHIAS you will find one long action piece of which parts have been very often reused in quite a lot of more cheaply produced swashbucklers/peplums also scored by Lavagnino above all in 1963 and 1964. You can read about this in my liner notes for that CD.
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P.S. I am just curious ... did survive any elements from Teseo contro il minotauro (1960)?
No, unfortunately TESEO was also a Nazionalmusic title and therefore is lost. Only a miracle could help.
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By the way, has anyone here on this board ever seen the film?
No. This film was never on my radar, though, if it had been issued legitimately on home video in the U.S.A., I probably would have encountered it at sometime during my film collecting days.
Searching for this title now, I see it may have had a 'gray market' VHS release, but this was likely culled from a scratchy/jumpy public domain print.
Not aware of its being on DVD or Blu Ray ...
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