Darn near three years since I did one of these!
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First up…the expansions.
Varèse’s Deluxe Love Field (1992) release added a bunch of material - including some action music! - to what many had previously considered a fairly one-dimensional score typical of the composer’s softer character works of the 1990s. It’s no classic, but it’s definitely an improved presentation of the work. ***½ up from ***.
I could say the same for Intrada’s new presentation of Matinee (1993) which had an all-too-short feeling to its original album. At the very least, the martial Mobilization makes for a very fun addition to the listening program. Not an upper echelon accomplishment in the Goldsmith/Dante partnership, but nonetheless a slightly enhanced one here. ***½ up from ***.
Varèse also put out a Deluxe version of L.A. Confidential (1997) which revealed a slightly richer work in its longer presentation, though it remains at the same rating for me as it’s a score that is immensely helped in the public eye by being attached to such an acclaimed film in the way that Goldsmith’s similar action / thriller scores of the era were not. ***½.
And we got a Deluxe Rudy (1993), adding in the brief but notable material that didn’t make the original album - including a surprisingly downbeat version of the main theme - as well as source music and some bonus tracks that don’t seem terribly different from the film versions (perhaps they were just mixed differently on the original album). Likely won’t change your opinion of the score though. ****1/2.
The main benefit of La-La Land’s new presentation of The 'Burbs (1989) was getting the full score back in print at reasonable prices, as that older Varèse Deluxe version was hilariously expensive on the used market. The sound was supposedly improved in the newer release, though I didn’t notice a difference. ****½ for the best Goldsmith/Dante pairing.
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Next up…the new discoveries.
Going off the original album presentation, Executive Decision (1996) gets *** for being a fairly unremarkable but also inoffensive version of the composer’s 1990s action style. Goldsmith’s unused The Public Eye (1992) also gets *** as it feels a tad repetitive and also a bit of a retread of the vastly superior The Russia House. The goofy **½ Mr. Baseball (1992) gets some credit for not taking itself too seriously, but oh goodness parts of that album are an extremely challenge to enjoy. Though they’re less challenging than Jerry’s utterly insane material for the U.S. release of the parodic S*P*Y*S (1974), a ** score only worth seeking out if you want to understand the origins of his Dante scores.
La-La Land’s Goldsmith at 20th series has produced some more interesting discoveries though. His score for the TV movie A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1974) continues the kind of warm, low-key character scoring he was doing a lot of this decade; it gets ***½ from me, and you should seek it with confidence if you like stuff like Babe or A Girl Named Sooner. Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) rambles a bit into the composer’s Americana / Western style of the era, and helping preserve a ***½ rating is the intriguing alternate material done by Alexander Courage when the film had to be partially rescored. Selections from the first season of Room 222 (1969) are short but sweet (***), while the multiple episodes of the sole season of Anna and the King (1972) are more substantial and find the composer doing a capable mid-budget extension of his East/West fusion sound, the ***½ work being a far more distinctive achievement than what he did for The Spiral Road over a decade earlier. Only the **½ Prudence and the Chief (1970), which straight yanks a theme from an earlier Goldsmith Western, counts as a disappointment here.
And we got the long-awaited reissue of the MacArthur (1977) album program - and the debut of its separate film recording - courtesy of Intrada. To be honest, the album recording probably remains the superior listening experience, not only because Goldsmith grouped several short cues together but because a decent portion of the incremental film recording tracks are march-like source music. Still, having any version of this score around at a reasonable price is a nice change of pace from, like, my entire history of listening to film music. It’s no Patton (what could be?), and honestly in its occasionally insular demeanor it’s a little closer in temperament to Islands in the Stream from the same year, so perhaps be wary if that latter work left you cold. I for one thought it was terrific and currently have it as my #32 Goldsmith score. ****½.
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And finally…the rerecordings!
Intrada gave us a two-fer with Black Patch (1957) and The Man (1972). The former is like Face of a Fugitive from two years later: an embryonic Western score that blends others’ familiar styles with hints of Goldsmith’s mannerisms in the genre that would become more pronounced the following decade. The latter, done for a forgotten movie where James Earl Jones played America’s first Black president, is rather short but has some fine moments of Jerry’s Copland-adjacent brass writing. ***½ for both.
A more recent welcome surprise has been Leigh Phillips’ series of recordings related to Jerry Goldsmith at the General Electric Theater, done first as digital releases after a Kickstarter campaign and now on CD courtesy of Intrada. Whereas an earlier album of Elmer Bernstein’s work for the show featured expanded arrangements specifically for album listening, here Philips either used or recreated the original arrangements Jerry did across the eighth, ninth, and tenth seasons (1959-62) plus a multi-part piece of unrelated library music (Autumn Love). Like earlier releases of the composer’s music for The Twilight Zone and Thriller, the main attraction is hearing Goldsmith’s distinctive voice being unleashed so early in his career. But whereas those other episodic scores tend to be a little more homogenous, the GE Theater anthology presentation gave Jerry a much more diverse canvas to work with, and so you can not just early fascinating previews of his military music but also his character dramas, harmonica-infused Americana, thrillers, and Jewish epics. **** for the whole set; TBD how I’d break that down by each season.
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Prior entries
- Volume 1: The Don is Dead - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=87191
- Volume 2: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=87454
- Volume 3: Hawkins on Murder, Winter Kill, and Babe - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=87666
- Volume 4: The Twilight Zone series - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=88329
- Volume 5: Islands in the Stream film recording and The Last Castle expanded - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=88765
- Volume 6: The Detective, Von Ryan’s Express, The Challenge, and Total Recall 30th Anniversary - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=89652
- Volume 7: Inchon 3CD release, Looney Tunes: Back in Action Deluxe, Studs Lonigan, Stagecoach (1966) film recording, The Loner, and Amazing Stories S1E17 - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=90860
- Volume 8: The Spiral Road, Thriller, Shamus, Face of a Fugitive, and Take Her, She’s Mine - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=97685
- Volume 9: Cabo Blanco, Extreme Prejudice Intrada, Rio Conchos rerecording remaster, and Legend Quartet - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=103309
(Message edited on Monday, October 21, 2024, at 10:37 a.m. and Monday, October 21, 2024, at 10:42 a.m.)
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