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Rent-A-Cop: (Jerry Goldsmith) A "bad cop, good
hooker" film fresh off the factory line,
Rent-A-Cop really has
nothing distinct to tell about it. A former Chicago police detective is
kicked off the force after a sting goes wrong (but it wasn't his fault,
of course) and he is forced to work as a department store security guard
while masked as Santa Claus. That would be Burt Reynolds wearing the
costume. And then you've got a prostitute with a heart of gold who is
the only person who can help the cop solve the case that involves him.
That would be Liza Minnelli with the shrill voice. The cop hesitates,
the hooker persists, they both suffer from the same danger, and they're
forced to save their lives together and bring down the stereotypical
eccentric 'vice lord' and his criminal gang of thugs. There's no need to
belabor the self-explanatory romantic aspect of the story. One of the
only things that worked reasonably well for
Rent-A-Cop is the
on-screen chemistry between Reynolds and Minnelli (or Burt and Liza, as
the movie poster said in huge letters), re-uniting as a couple on the
big screen for a second time. Other than their strangely funny and
enjoyable pairing, the film's ridiculously predictable plot left no
other redeeming element to the production (unfortunately, director Jerry
London's career would be littered with such entries). The only other
exceptional aspect of the film would turn out to be the score by Jerry
Goldsmith. Rather than hearing Minnelli sing (or screech, depending on
your preferences) throughout the picture, listeners got Goldsmith music
that stands some distance apart from the other works by the composer in
the late 1980's. At the time, the film seemed like a completely
unexplainable abnormality in Goldsmith's career, because despite the odd
diversion for
The 'Burbs that would follow a year later
(understandable given that it is a Joe Dante film), the composer had
spent the decade toiling with fuller drama, suspense, science-fiction,
and horror.
Meanwhile,
Rent-A-Cop seemed like a project
destined for the music of Lalo Schifrin, Burt Bacharach, or Bill Conti,
someone who could infuse the score with the jazzy romance it needed
while also throwing in some hokey pop action for the light crime
thriller parts. Perhaps not surprisingly, that's precisely what
Goldsmith wrote for the topic, though he did so while staying
comfortably within the realm of his usual stylistic techniques of using
a blend of synthesizers and orchestra. The most memorable part of
Rent-A-Cop is the clear evidence that Goldsmith succeeded in
writing the only true Bill Conti theme of his career. In fact, the
jazzy, pop-based light rock theme that he provides is the closest thing
his fans would ever hear to a Goldsmith-written James Bond theme of that
era, and the idea remained a personal favorite of the composer for some
time. Extremely dated in its early 1980's style, the theme was
remarkably well-suited for the location and characters of the film. A
whimsical piano and lofty, romantic strings set the mood before a solo
trumpet enters to the rhythm of an electric bass, light percussion led
by drum pads, and soft keyboarding. As the thematic performance lightly
sways with elegance, a younger listener might have to look around and
make sure he isn't standing in an elevator. Goldsmith does offer a
little more muscle in the brass and drum hits in the theme's latter
moments to give the music some genuine meat. The bridge section has an
ascending progression that once again betrays the composer's excusable
obsession with his eventual primary melody for
The Russia House.
People who search out the score are always seeking this theme, for it
repeats three more times and prominently over the end credits. The
score's darker half really isn't that menacing; how could it be after
such a charming title theme? In "The Bust," Goldsmith establishes his
suspense and villain's theme, a rather mundane minor third-constricted
meandering of marginally creepy tones. Constituting these sequences is
the electronic rhythm that pulses during the game sequences of
Hoosiers, joined by a unique, sweeping 'swish' sound that crosses
from right to left in the soundscape at an appropriate pace.
The standard host of Goldsmith's usual sample
collection enters the scene at various points of the rhythmic portions
of
Rent-A-Cop, accompanied by an interesting, slower, alien-like
'warbling' sound that bounces around in the background of later
accelerated cues. The score rarely takes the action to the next level,
with the opening blasts of horns in "Worth a Lot" similar in attitude to
the concurrent
Extreme Prejudice. A propulsive action cue is
revealed in "Lake Forest," in which the tingling electronic rhythm is
joined by a piano rumbling in deep octaves as well as a trumpet hailing
over the top of the entire ensemble. Along with the addition of chopping
strings to accentuate the underlying rhythm, this cue hints at ideas
that would mature in
Basic Instinct. Overall, however, the action
material isn't as memorable as the highly affable light rock title
theme. The action is airy enough to flow decently with the romantic
thematic statements, so the album functions as a consistent and readily
identifiable Goldsmith listening experience. A 1988 album presentation
prepared by Goldsmith for release by Intrada Records included 35 minutes
of music that emphasized the title theme's placements. Some uneven edits
plague that product, including a sharp cut at 1:35 into "Jump," when two
different recordings were awkwardly spliced (with outstanding sound
quality cutting to a far weaker recording). The performances by the
Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, in a regular Goldsmith recording locale
at the time, are not always perfect, but they're not as obviously bad an
ensemble as some of the composer's fans have argued. After that album
fell hopelessly out of print, Intrada acquired the rights to
Rent-A-Cop to offer an expanded, limited successor in 2009. With
the original master tapes in outstanding condition, the label was able
to assemble the complete score in phenomenal sound quality, restoring
many of the action sequences (including the climax) to the listening
experience. Also featured are a couple of Christmas carols that
Goldsmith recorded with the ensemble for use as department store source
material, and both are nicely arranged and appropriately awash with
reverb. Overall,
Rent-A-Cop is a pleasing and lightweight album,
and, especially considering that the 2009 album did not promptly sell
out, a safe addition to any collection of Goldsmith music of the 80's.
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| Bias Check: | For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.26 (in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert of the 1988 album includes no extra information about
the score or film. The 2009 album includes lengthy notation about both.
