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Valley of the Kings/Men of the Fighting Lady (1954)
Music by Miklos Rozsa
Valley of the Kings/Men of the Fighting Lady Valley of the Kings/Men of the Fighting Lady Valley of the Kings/Men of the Fighting Lady
Click to enlarge images.
Price: $19.95
Limited #: 3000
View CD Page at SAE Store
Line: Golden Age
CD Release: December 2004
Catalog #: Vol. 7, No. 17
# of Discs: 1

Released by Special Arrangement with Turner Classic Movies Music

Valley of the Kings (1954) was an Egyptian adventure starring Robert Taylor as an American archeologist in what would eventually become the "Indiana Jones" mold. Taylor and co-star Eleanor Parker defeat Arabian thugs and two-faced Europeans amidst much of the trappings of the Indiana Jones films: desert treks, street chases, ancient ruins and cliffhanging action.

Scoring the film was M-G-M's reliable Miklós Rózsa, who effortlessly tailored his Eastern European style to the Egyptian locale, with harmonic-minor twists both sinister and mysterious. Rózsa's score includes an enveloping love theme for the burgeoning romance between Taylor and Parker, a lighthearted chase scherzo, and grand statements for the titular valley itself.

This CD features Rózsa's complete underscore to Valley of the Kings, plus bonus tracks of the film's source music (the cues which Rózsa himself supervised). As a special bonus, FSM has gone treasure hunting and excavated Rózsa's music to another film of African riches: King Solomon's Mines (1950) starring Stewart Granger. Although King Solomon's Mines itself features only native percussion and source music, Rózsa composed and recorded a traditional piece of exciting underscore for the film's trailer; that has been unearthed and included here, although the piece is incomplete.

Continuing the parade of Rózsa rarities, this CD also includes the soundtrack to Men of the Fighting Lady (1954), a verite-style feature about bomber pilots during the Korean War. Besides main and end titles (interpolating "Wings of Glory," a patriotic song not by Rózsa), the film is virtually unscored—except for its finale, in which a blinded bomber pilot must make an emergency landing with only his wingman as a guide. This is scored by Rózsa with a special piece entitled "Blind Flight"; although written for the film, the length of the piece (19:47) allowed Rózsa to treat it more as a self-contained concert work, making it one of his more unusual film contributions.

The CD is entirely in stereo—remixed from the original 35mm masters—except for the trailer from King Solomon's Mines, which is in mono. Liner notes are by Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall. 

Miklos Rozsa Scores on FSM
About the Composer

Hungarian-born Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) is a titan of film music. Responsible for such classic scores as Spellbound, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, El Cid and many others—from biblical epics to 1940s films noir to historical dramas—his signature style is one of the most pleasing and dramatic in film. He was under contract to M-G-M from 1948 to 1962 and FSM has released a great deal of this classic music; also available are his latter-period scores such as The Green Berets and Time After Time.IMDB

Comments (6):Log in or register to post your own comments
Just acquired this terrific CD from SAE. I had missed this set and only was aquainted with Intrada re-recording of the theme. Some of the source music seems to be the unused music from EL CID (or BEN HUR?) here. Pretty cool set. This one is a gem!



Some of the source music seems to be the unused music from EL CID (or BEN HUR?) here.[/endquote]

Except this came out first, 1954. Still a great listen, though.

It's been a favourite of mine for years. I never really listened to Men Of The Fighting Lady, but Valley Of The Kings is a great listen. Because MGM took care of their music tapes, I have a few of Rozsa's original fifties scores sounding great in stereo: Knights Of The Round Table, Valley Of The Kings, The Kings Thief, Diane, Tribute To A Bad Man & Lust For Life.

Amazingly, Knights Of The Round Table/The Kings Thief, Diane, Tribute To A Bad Man & Valley Of The Kings are still available.

The FSM CD ARCHIVE should not be underestimated. I'm glad lot of stuff is still there so it's nice catch u on stuff missed.

Some of the source music seems to be the unused music from EL CID (or BEN HUR?) here.[/endquote]

Except this came out first, 1954. Still a great listen, though.[/endquote]

Ahh. Yes of course. Interesting.

This album seems to have disappeared from SAE, so I can only assume that it’s gone OOP. I’m really glad I glad I got the album when I did about five or six years ago as it’s a great album and the “Blind Flight” cue is a really interesting piece.

Track List
Instruments/Musicians
Click on each musician name for more credits
For more specific musician lists for the scores on this album, go here:
Men of the Fighting Lady
Valley Of The Kings

Leader (Conductor):
Miklos Rozsa

Violin:
Sam Fiedler, Sam Freed, Jr., Werner L. Gebauer, Sidney Greene, Mort Herbert, Arnold T. Jurasky, Bernard Kundell, Joy Lyle (Sharp), Arthur Maebe, Sr., Lisa Minghetti, Irving Prager, Lou Raderman, Albert Saparoff, Byron Williams

Viola:
Cecil Figelski, Allan Harshman, Virginia Majewski, Reuben Marcus

Cello:
Alexander Borisoff, Julian Kahn, Edgar Lustgarten, Michel Penha

Bass:
George F. Boujie, Louis Previati, Arthur Shapiro

Flute:
Arthur Gleghorn

Oboe:
Philip Memoli

Clarinet:
Gus Bivona, Mort B. Friedman, Alex Gershunoff, D. H. McKenney, Hugo Raimondi, Andrew Young

Bassoon:
Charles A. Gould

French Horn:
John W. "Jack" Cave, Vincent DeRubertis, Herman Lebow

Trumpet:
Raymond Linn, Uan Rasey, Joe Triscari, James C. Zito

Trombone:
Walter Benson, Herb Taylor, Simon Zentner

Piano:
Jacob Gimpel

Guitar:
Jack Marshall

Harp:
Catherine Gotthoffer (Johnk)

Drums:
Frank L. Carlson, Irving Cottler, Mel Pedesky, D. V. Seber

Orchestra Manager:
James C. Whelan

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