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Review of Cinderella Liberty (John Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have a soft spot for John Williams' 1960's light
drama and romance sound, Cinderella Liberty translating it into a
bluesy breeze for harmonica.
Avoid it... if you expect much substance to this score outside of its two soft, song-represented themes, the remainder functioning as barroom source material.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Cinderella Liberty: (John Williams) At a time in
the 1970's when intimate character movies were frequent headliners,
director Mark Rydell's Cinderella Liberty was a prototypical
exposition of acting and heart. The 1973 film tells of a U.S. Navy
sailor who is treated for a medical condition in Seattle while his ship
is in port. When the Navy loses his paperwork despite clearing him
medically, his ship leaves without him, and he is stuck in a "Cinderella
liberty" shore leave situation without pay or purpose. He meets and fall
in love with a hooker and ultimately adopts her like a family despite
his minimal resources, guiding the woman and her bi-racial son to
respectability. Despite the Navy's discovery of the paperwork, he allows
a disgraced fellow sailor to assume his identity while he pursues a new
life. The movie is short on action but dives deep into the goodness of
James Caan's performance in the lead and is a rare look at the seedy
underbelly of Seattle during that era. Two of Rydell's prior
high-profile movies had used the music of John Williams, who took those
opportunities to start redefining his career towards a larger orchestral
presence. While this transition was well on its way by 1973,
Cinderella Liberty gave him the chance to reprise the style of
his 1960's comedy and light dramas that had originally paid his bills.
His sensitive approach to the topic blended source music applicability
with traditional underscore duties, but all of his efforts were largely
bait for an inevitable album release and several major awards
nominations. He teamed up with popular songwriter and performer Paul
Williams for two songs that doubled as John Williams' instrumental
themes for the film, and Paul Williams' performance inflection was
perfect for the down-and-out but likable demeanor of the film's story.
Between the songs and the score that often supplies doses of pop, blues,
and funk, the soundtrack for Cinderella Liberty sometimes slips
into orchestral territory for the love affair at the center of the plot.
When the composer does traverse that romantic route, the
string-dominated result is pleasantly effective but nothing out of the
ordinary for Williams. Of greater interest in the score are the
harmonica performances by famed performer Jean "Toots" Thielemans, whose
fantastic personality dominates the romantic half of the work. This
score was one of Williams' earliest notable collaborations with such a
soloist, and the results were already impressive.
Structurally, Williams' score for Cinderella Liberty is defined by the two themes that drive the songs, with the remainder serving as straight source-like material, mostly for barroom settings. Paul Williams' performances of two variants of "Wednesday Special" are quite different, the first for the "Main Title" playing up the bluesy spirit in the score as a humorous juxtaposition to Caan's performance as the unlucky, aggrieved sailor. A substantial instrumental bridge sequence emulates the instrumentation of the score but plays up the guitar and piano to a greater degree. The "End Title" version pushes the vocals further back in the mix and adds a tasteful touch of reverb, allowing a Hammond organ and brass to really punch through the vibrancy of the song in its own long bridge sequence. The melody of this song isn't particularly prevalent in the score, punctuating the feel-good spirit of "The Ferry Ride" and eventually coming to represent the relationship that forms between the sailor and the hooker's son. The soundtrack's love theme is "Nice to be Around," and Paul Williams' performance doesn't function quite as well, in part because of clunky lyrics. The instrumental base for that song translates into an equivalent in "Nice to be Around" with Thielemans's harmonica in the lead instead. The blues ensemble of piano, bass, and percussion thrive with this idea, wooing strings eventually joining for depth. Similar exploration is made in "Cinderella Liberty Love Theme," with some hints of brass added to the backing. That performance is stripped back to a straight piano, woodwind, string, and more subtle bass rendition in "Maggie and Baggs" and "A Baby Boy Arrives," the latter retaining the harmonica while adding a more hopeful glaze to the ensemble performance. Williams shifts the theme to hipper funk in "Boxing Montage" for a nice break from the sappiness. Other cues are singular in the work, including the saxophone and guitar parties in "New Shooter" and "Neptune's Bar" for nightlife settings; this material is tougher to tolerate in retrospect. Straight from the lounge is Williams' "Maggie Shoots Pool," consisting of fairly innocuous keyboarding with brass accents. As typical at the time, the album recording was distinct from that for the film, and the original film version has never been released on its own. Intrada Records pressed the only CD of the legacy LP record recording in 2008, reportedly stating at the time that they licensed an album reissue for remastering only because the film version added little extra of interest. Their treatment of the album presentation is more than adequate for this charming but somewhat insubstantial time capsule of a soundtrack. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 34:54
* Performed by Paul Williams
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes extensive information about the score and film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Cinderella Liberty are Copyright © 2008, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/3/24 (and not updated significantly since). |
