Buy it... if you can't resist the funniest, most effective orchestral sex cue in the history of cinema, for John Du Prez highlights his otherwise breezy and predictable parody score with an operatic "Humping" cue that is alone worth the search for the album.

Avoid it... if less than five minutes of monumental symphonic glory is not worth the badly dated light rock that inhabits much of the acoustic and electric guitar-led romantic and crime caper material that dominates the remainder of the score.

A Fish Called Wanda: (John Du Prez) As one of the few films to have been confirmed by the media to be the cause of "death by laughter" for an audience member, A Fish Called Wanda resides on many lists of critics' funniest movies of all time. It represents the combined efforts of two legendary British comedians, John Cleese and Charles Crichton, the former famous for his involvement with Monty Python and the latter an established director and editor of English comedies from the 1940's to 1960's before coming out of retirement for A Fish Called Wanda, his final venture on the big screen. Both were nominated for Academy Awards (Cleese for just the screenplay, though he did reportedly direct some of the film as well), and while Cleese didn't earn the same recognition for his performance as a stuffy barrister in the movie, all of the other leads were at least nominated for a major award. Fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin stuttered his way to a BAFTA nomination while Jamie Lee Curtis earned Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for playing a seductive con artist. The most recognition was saved for Kevin Kline, however, who won the Academy Award for his memorable supporting role as Curtis' accomplice in the convoluted crime plot. The heist tale in A Fish Called Wanda is only a basic template (or an excuse, one might say) for the clashing of ridiculous characters in Cleese's story, all four leads exhibiting personality quirks that make each of their interactions hysterically funny. After a successful London robbery of precious diamonds, the American duo betray their British counterparts and spend the rest of the film attempting to lure Cleese's character into divulging where the Brits hid the loot before their arrest. The death of animals in the movie is grotesquely entertaining, as is the unrestrained anti-American viewpoints reflected by Cleese's drawing of the characters. Fallacies of logic are aplenty in the script and often serve one-liners that, in the case of several of them, have become classics ("You're the vulgarian, you fuck!"). The ensemble cast reunited in 1997 for Fierce Creatures, an attempt to capture the same undeniable spark with slight alterations to essentially the same characters, but without the same success. One of the intangibles of A Fish Called Wanda is its completely unheralded and rather short but highly effective score by English composer and conductor John Du Prez.

The film and television scoring career of Du Prez traces in most assignments back to his association with Eric Idle and other Monty Python connections, though he did follow A Fish Called Wanda with the scores for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and contributed music to Hollywood as recently as in portions of 2006's The Wild. The most intriguing aspect of his career was his name change; he abandoned his birth name of Trevor Jones in part to help distinguish himself from the South African-born composer of the same name who rose to stardom in the 1980's and made a fortune in the 1990's. His music for A Fish Called Wanda is, on the surface, not much different from the pop/orchestral blend that you'd expect to hear from any comedy during the 1980's, but Du Prez was forced to add significantly more intelligence to the mix because of the need for parody seriousness and source material sprinkled throughout the film. While the source-like sequences don't sound much like anything in the rest of the far more contemporary-styled score, these parody cues are handled quite well by the composer and will, for many listeners yield the highlights of the work. The heart of the score is Du Prez's love theme for the Cleese and Curtis characters, heard in a wide range of guises and lending the upbeat, sappy tone to the score's majority. The performances of the love theme are usually the duty of guitarist John Williams, whose acoustic tones are timeless compared to the snazzier light rock renditions of the idea that exist elsewhere. In "Main Title," you hear both sides of this equation, the guitar with soft string backing at 1:20 still easily digestible decades later while the rendition at 2:00 in the same track adds electric guitar, bass, keyboarding, and percussion that clearly dates the music. The prettier orchestral and guitar versions of this theme continue in "Wanda Meets Archie" and are joined briefly by piano in "Otto Jealousy." Extended treatment of the theme in "Wanda Visits Archie at Home," "Wanda Meets Archie at Flat (1)," and "Wanda Meets Archie at Flat (2)" includes some exploration of secondary phrases built upon the primary melody. Together, these cues occupy about ten minutes in the score, highlighted in between by a somber cello solo variation on the theme (expertly taking its main descending phrase and shifting it to ultra-melodramatic rising progressions) in "Archie's Sadness," forty seconds of string lament far too beautiful for this film but at least making an impact on screen while practically alone in the mix.

Several secondary themes and instrumental motifs exist throughout A Fish Called Wanda. Du Prez's intermingling of their melodies and exchanging of instrumentation is far more intriguing than one would expect to hear in this score, exponentially increasing its impact. A forceful identity for the crime gang's exploits is heard almost immediately, bursting forth at 0:30 into "Main Title" and occupying almost all of "Robbery." Its ballsy brass phrases over electric guitars and aggressive drum pads add a touch of high style to their activities. In both of those aforementioned cues, Du Prez inserts a magical motif specifically for the diamonds, using metallic percussion and high strings to whimsically convey their value. The diamond and crime themes briefly merge in the latter half of "Robbery," and at about 1:25 into that cue, Du Prez's suspense motif is introduced. This nervous, harp-plucked rhythm in the minor-key with ominous string layers and occasional wailing guitars in "animal cry" mode is developed fully in "George Arrested" and is reprised in the more emotionally suspenseful "Assasination (3)." The prior two attempts by Ken to shoot the lone witness to the crime (which only succeed in killing her dogs) are treated to the main crime theme, as are the two chase sequences that close out the film. Interestingly, "Chase (1)" overlaps the crime theme with the instrumentation of the love theme, while the suspense motif is layered over the same crime theme in "Chase (2)," continued complexity where none really needed to exist. Kline's famous character, Otto, receives the most contemporary, jazzy identity, heard with electric bass and electric guitar pizzazz in "First Encounter With Otto" before dissolving in "Empty Safe," answering the love theme in "Otto Jealousy" and using its instrumentation to appropriately inform the suspense theme in "Archie's Robbery." Palin's stuttering Ken receives, not surprisingly, a melancholy theme for all of his unintentional executions of animals, though on album, this lovely oboe identity is restricted to "Ken's Sadness." Directly connected to this idea is Du Prez's source piece, "Choir Boy's" (yes, the grammar mistakes are in the cue titles), a brief performance by exactly what the title suggests for the funeral scenes involving the dead dogs. The "Main Title" has something of a unique melody for London itself, a pompous march with snare introduction and tolling chimes in heroic fanfare form that foreshadows the score's sex theme at about 0:25 into the cue. Its distinctly British tone adds later to the austere sincerity of Cleese's character.

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By the "End Title's," however, the score disintegrates unfortunately into a straight contemporary jazz performance of the love theme, a bright, saxophone-led expression of coolness that isn't surprising given the period, but a bit disappointing when considering the intelligent secondary ideas conveyed by Du Prez throughout the rest of the score. The rambling tribute to the love theme is joined by orchestra for its midsection and ends on the solo guitar in satisfying fashion, but it never shakes its dated personality. Special mention is saved in this review for Du Prez's sex theme in A Fish Called Wanda, heard in only one scene but making such a tremendous impact on screen and on album that it remains the unquestioned highlight of the score. Extending out of the fully orchestral pomp of the British motif at the outset of the score, this remarkably fluid symphonic idea is built upon operatic glory of the highest order, leaving behind all of the contemporary elements for an outstanding moment of orchestral bravado. It accompanies Otto's famous faux-Italian seduction of Wanda and his outrageous antics before and during sex. How Du Prez wrote this music as source for the film, however, is the key to its success. In "Sword Ballet," slightly distant sound mixing introduces the idea to suggest Otto's fencing practicing while listening to this dramatic music, and Du Prez reaches his crescendo just as Kline stabs a dummy at 0:40 into the cue, an important foreshadowing of the orgasm scene soon to come. In "Humping," the sound quality returns to full, and the classical movement is developed gloriously over the next two minutes in specific coordination with Kline's performance (and the disparate boring lifestyle of Cleese shown at the same time). As Otto rips off Wanda's boots and blows into them like horns (or an elephant), Du Prez does the same with his brass, unleashing a hilarious counterpoint sequence at 0:50 in response. Later, the composer matches the key of his music to Otto's singing in Italian, using Kline's voice as victorious counterpoint at 1:46 into the cue. Then, as Otto's legendary orgasm (Curtis had to bury her face into the pillows to keep from laughing while filming) begins abruptly, Du Prez at 1:54 repeats the stabbing motif from the preceding cue in blissful harmony. Indeed, "Humping" is one of the most effective and funny orchestral film score cues ever written for film, and it alone merits a search for the rare albums for the A Fish Called Wanda score. The identical Milan and Soundscreen commercial CD releases in Britain and France only (but still available for about $10 on the used market) are equal in contents but all feature track listings that omit two cues actually on the product. If you love the film as many do, don't hesitate to enjoy this solid souvenir and its famously grandiose "Humping" cue. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download