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Review of The Flim-Flam Man (Jerry Goldsmith)

2000 Film Score Monthly

2020 La-La Land

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... on either the fuller 2000 or 2020 albums if you seek a superior presentation of Jerry Goldsmith at the forefront of his creative, parody Western mode.

Avoid it... if the use of harmonica, banjo, accordion, and accelerated tack piano to augment the wild symphonic comedy overwhelms an otherwise decent character theme that informs most of the work.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Flim-Flam Man: (Jerry Goldsmith) A happy-go-lucky 1967 comedy about con artists at the top of their game, Irvin Kerschner's The Flim-Flam Man features a script that shows the development of an apprentice by the master. By the end of the film, after being chased by dumb police and bilking money from unsuspecting fools in business, the younger con artist proves his loyalty to the older one by sacrificing his freedom for George C. Scott in the role of the master. The comedy of the tale relies upon the absolute silliness of the chasing and destruction in the movie, its action notable at the time for the quantity of car wrecks and other damage to the small-town Kentucky location where the story is set and the filming occurred. Despite its outrage, Scott's performance fell flat with audiences and The Flim-Flam Man lost a significant amount of money in theatres. Not to blame for that failure was composer Jerry Goldsmith. Often lost among the composer's grand, large-scale scores of the early silver age were his variety of comedies, parody westerns, and smaller character drama scores like A Patch of Blue that rarely receive due attention in the decades after the composer's death. Many of these efforts feature a genuine Americana spirit unique to Goldsmith's mannerisms, one not overly inspired by the style of Aaron Copland or Elmer Bernstein but instead conjuring themes and rhythms that defined Goldsmith's own style of home-grown American spirit. It wasn't uncommon for Goldsmith to use the harmonica, acoustic guitar, and fiddle during these years to promote that sound, and The Flim-Flam Man throws in an accordion and hack piano to the equation, aiding in the flamboyant flair brought about by the work's numerous chase sequences. While the score has a distinct heart via its one dominant theme, supplying the sensitive character contemplation of wholesome goodness that the composer was known for, the work is also rambunctiously funny in parts. The wild parody flavor pilfers the Western genre at its more ambitious passages, straying almost to serious action in that mode at times. At a time before his synthetics provided laughs in the mix, Goldsmith employs percussion like a snare drum for a train engine for that role here. But, in the end, for a score saturated with the essence of Goldsmith's sound of Americana, it's the folksy bluegrass spirit helps set The Flim-Flam Man apart from his other music of the era.

One of the reasons why The Flim-Flam Man remains an amusing entry in Goldsmith's comedy realm is because of its superior stereo mix. The content of the music itself has the rhythmic bounce of Take a Hard Ride, the harmonica movements of Magic, and the romantic interludes for woodwinds that would later define A Girl Named Sooner and countless others. The spread of the instrumentation of The Flim-Flam Man is its greatest asset, with the strings joined by deviously spread oboe, French horn, and the eclectic collection of supporting personality instruments of harmonica, banjo, piano, guitars, accordion, marimba, and wood percussion that bounces back and forth in the soundscape. Contributing to the unique sound of The Flim-Flam Man is Goldsmith's process of recording the piano rhythms separately and then speeding them up to give them a tack piano sound that is infectiously rambunctious in the comedy cues from "No Rest for the Wicked" to "The Getaway." The cue "Stolen Property" is especially addictive in its upbeat mock-Western rhythms, and the score's separate tape recordings were masterfully reassembled for the album presentations of the work, allowing a vibrant stereo mix that is quite splashy for a recording of that age. Thematically, the score is extremely devoted to its long-lined main theme for the con man duo of the tale, introduced immediately on harmonica in "Main Title" and featuring in practically every major moment thereafter before its upbeat summary in "On the Road Again." It even translates down to the soft, dramatic portions near the end of the score. The aforementioned piano rhythms form the basis of a secondary chase motif for the score, and these moments, clustered in the first half, are arguably the highlight of the whole work. Goldsmith's infectiously amusing music for The Flim-Flam Man has long been represented across a variety of albums, with selections featured on the famous Society for Preservation of Film Music's limited tribute CD to Goldsmith in 1993, though those excerpts did not contain some of the more difficult-to-edit assembling of chase cues. An even shorter sampling was included on Varèse Sarabande's massive 2004 compilation, "Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox." But it was released properly in 2000 by Film Score Monthly (along with the totally unrelated, far more restrained A Girl Named Sooner) on a very well-produced, limited product that sold out. In 2020, La-La Land Records slightly expanded that presentation to include one extra short cue ("Stolen Property II") on a dual album with The Detective. On either of these formal offerings, this score will bring a smirk to your face.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

2000 Film Score Monthly Album:
Total Time: 33:08

• 1. Main Title (1:41) • 2. A Good Trick (0:16) • 3. No Rest for the Wicked (3:46) • 4. A Little Inspiration (1:38) • 5. Stolen Property (3:14) • 6. The Getaway (3:00) • 7. The Main Line (2:17) • 8. Times Gone By (1:07) • 9. The Visitor (3:23)

• 10. Good Night/The Homestead (2:46) • 11. The Hayseed (1:17) • 12. A Poor Ending (0:51) • 13. Run for It (1:08) • 14. Curly's Plan (2:44) • 15. Curly's Farewell (1:16) • 16. The Waiting Game (1:24) • 17. On the Road Again (1:12)

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2020 La-La Land Album:
Total Time: 34:20

• 13. The Flim-Flam Man Main Title (1:44) • 14. A Good Trick/No Rest for the Wicked (4:06) • 15. A Little Inspiration (1:40) • 16. Stolen Property (3:14) • 17. The Getaway (3:03) • 18. The Main Line (2:19) • 19. Times Gone By (1:10) • 20. The Visitor (3:26)

• 21. Good Night/The Homestead (2:48) • 22. The Hayseed (1:20) • 23. A Poor Ending/Run For It (2:02) • 24. Stolen Property II (0:50) • 25. Curley's Plan (2:46) • 26. Curley's Farewell (1:17) • 27. The Waiting Game (1:27) • 28. On the Road Again (1:15)

NOTES & QUOTES:

Both the 2000 Film Score Monthly and 2020 La-La Land albums contain detailed notes about the films and scores.

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