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Dennis the Menace: (Jerry Goldsmith) Attempting to
continue the enormous fiscal success of
Home Alone (one of the top
few grossing films of all time back in the early 1990's), producer John
Hughes tells a very similarly-themed live action tale of Dennis Mitchell,
perhaps the most famous kid in the history of comics. Created by Hank
Ketcham and introduced in the newspaper comics in 1951, Dennis has become a
favorite in periodicals ever since, and his appearances have expanded to a
weekly television series, an animated program, and the 1993 feature film,
Dennis the Menace. The film was largely ignored by audiences that had
already enjoyed their fill of two
Home Alone pictures and identified
Dennis the Menace as a recycled old formula. The casting and settings
were very well done, often appearing in live action just as you have
expected them from reading the comics, but the film suffered from two fatal
flaws: first, the slapstick, cruel comedy towards Dennis' neighbor, Mr.
Wilson, had already been done to more deserving people in the aforementioned
Home Alone films, and secondly, the inclusion of Christopher Lloyd's
'Switchblade Sam' character --a thief and in today's culture, probably a
pervert, too-- who served only to make parents even more weary of wierdos
wandering around the neighborhood. For composer Jerry Goldsmith, he seems to
have caught the John Hughes train (and plane and automobile) of success too
late to really take advantage of it in his effort to further expand his
considerable quantity of ventures into the light comedy realm in the early
1990's. His score for
Dennis the Menace resides within a film that
caused parents to glance for an hour and a half at the nearest exit, giving
it a disadvantage over, for instance, his numerous scores for Joe Dante's
more adult-friendly films. Goldsmith's exercise in
Dennis the Menace
is just that: a workout of marathon comedic proportions.
In Goldsmith's comedy writing, whether it's for
Matinee,
Bad Girls, or
Mr. Baseball, there is usually a
redeeming quality existing in the form of a love theme or other tender
variation for fans who aren't interested in the bombast of orchestral
slapstick action. Without any of that kind of truly endearing element in
Dennis the Menace (at least not one developed long enough to warrant
score-altering treatment), the score is one giant slapstick progression,
alternating between variations on two themes: the one for Dennis and one
sort of sneaky mischief motif like the deep woodwind one utilized by John
Williams in
Home Alone. The primary theme has some perhaps
intentional likeness to
The Great Train Robbery (and an interlude
that probably unintentionally mirrors
Poltergeist's children's
theme), which might have some stretched relativity to the subject matter.
With electronics kept at a minimum until some enhanced background tingling
in the last two cues (with their high volume a little annoying at the very
end), the orchestra's identity is led by tuba and harmonica, representing
the two primary characters to the best of their abilities. These
performances by the solo instruments weave in and out of the full ensemble
throughout the score. It would be the most consistently robust and frenetic
score from Goldsmith until
Looney Tunes: Back in Action, which has an
appropriately similar genre style, though
Dennis the Menace lacks the
instrumental or locale-specific creativeness of that later score. Among the
highlights of
Dennis the Menace --and with so many starts and stops
from start to end, it's hard to recall any one of them over another by the
conclusion-- are the victorious fanfare for brass at the outset of "Hung Up"
and the suite-like presentation of thematic ideas (a la
Matinee) in
the finale cue, "Toasted Marshmallow." Overall, Goldsmith has to be
commended for the difficult and sheer level of energy he maintains in
Dennis the Menace, but it is that same energy, along with a lack of
any substantially interesting or enjoyable solo theme material, that also
sinks the score. The album is long out-of-print on the doomed "Big Screen
Records" label, and is only recommended for the die-hard Jerry Goldsmith
collector.
***
| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.22 (in 111 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 120,039 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes biographical information about Goldsmith and the producer of the film.
