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Review of Masquerade (John Barry)

2002 Prometheus

2018 Quartet

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... for a predictable John Barry entry in the romantic thriller genre, his softly lovely themes countered by understated suspense passages of moderate volume.

Avoid it... if you have no tolerance for Barry's excruciatingly slow tempos in every mode of operation, this score best experienced when condensed to a suite.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Masquerade: (John Barry) If you have ever gotten the impression that just about everyone in your life is out to kill you, then the 1988 romantic thriller Masquerade proposes that you might be right. A wealthy young heiress is the target, several men in her life wanting to split her money between them. The first is the captain of another rich couples' yacht, and given that this main character is performed by Rob Lowe, he's also copulating with the employing wife. Second comes the stepfather of the heiress who has a particular distaste for her. Finally, there's a corrupt cop who has a crush on the heiress but is content to scheme for her money as well. As the movie progresses, the yacht captain and the woman genuinely fall in love with each other and get married because of actual bonding, posing problems for the other two conspirators. While its story was moderately compelling in its pair of revelatory twists as each of the men is exposed in their involvement with the assassination plot, Masquerade was largely known for its significant sex scenes and nudity, which were too gratuitous for some critics and audiences. The movie was the last of John Barry's scoring assignments before falling very ill and taking some time off from the industry, capping a period that saw him mingle his final James Bond scores with sillier comedies and sultry, suspenseful romances like this one. As Barry's collectors will know, he rarely attempted to reinvent the wheel for these assignments, and some listeners will find Masquerade to be a largely redundant entry in this genre for him. But, as is also usually the case, there are lovely themes to be extracted from such works. The ambience for this one is very lightly orchestrated for strings and woodwinds at the forefront, with piano, harp, and brass supporting at times. A distant female choral effect contributes to two cues. The tempo of the score is always excruciatingly slow, even in the source cues, another trademark mannerism of the composer. Long conversational suspense passages like "Two Glasses/Violence, Not Affection" are awfully slow, and there is there is no actual action in the score despite the scenes of killings and explosions. Even the "Explosion" cue for the climax on the boat and elsewhere at the end is restrained to rhythmic fear.

Not surprisingly, the main attractions in Barry's music for Masquerade are his flowing melodies for the romantic side of the story. He coined two such themes in this, one for the main character, Tim, and the sailing of the yacht. The other is the more common love theme for the lead couple. The main theme is your typical, yearning string identity from Barry with pulsating woodwinds and broad brass backing. It debuts at 1:00 into "Main Title" and repeats several times in elegant but understated peace, downshifting to solo harp in "Masquerade." This idea becomes dark against the score's suspense motif in the middle of "Virgin Sacrifice" with slight choir, and that the choral mode for women's voices persists in the light panic of "Call the Police." After reclaiming its optimistic opening mode in "'Obsession' is Ready," the main theme moves to very high, solitary flute in "Pregnant," stutters on low woodwinds in "Your Move, Romeo," and merges completely with the suspense motif in "Explosion." In the closing suite, Barry follows the love theme with this one at 1:32 into "End Titles," reprising its initial performance format. Meanwhile, the love theme is slower and more fluid, in line with Barry's character romance melodies. Developed tenderly for one full rendition in "Graduation," it continues in "Compulsive Promptness" with low flute alternating with violins for the melody, and secondary lines are finally explored in full, mainly a short but elegant ascending passage. The love theme offers whimsy on violin and oboe lines in "Daddy Would Have Liked You," bass flute taking the rolling interlude sequence. Deconstructed in the darker "Face Slap," the theme struggles in variations late in "Violence, Not Affection" but returns to its loftier shades of romance in full form during "Married" with redundancy. After enjoying a brief moment on piano in "I Sleep Like a Baby With You," this identity informs a suspense crescendo late in "Pregnant" and becomes more tentative in troubled atmospheres during "Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While" (better alternate track title: "Tim & Brooke Stop Fucking") and "Birthday Gift." The love theme is tortured in the brief "No Crash," given a sadly muted performance at the outset of "Sabotage," timpani suspense building, and only its baseline survives in the morbid "She's Alive." It opens "End Titles" on strings with an extended introduction on piano and its flowing interlude.

On the darker side of the score is the suspense and conspiracy motif, which exists in two variations. The general one consists of a series of two-note phrases with urgent wavering counterpoint at the motif's fullest, the accompanying deep piano thumps a trademark Barry tool of threat. The varying adaptation eventually kicks the motif up to three notes to represent the cooked cop, which is a nice structural choice given that the number of conspirators in the story increases at that time from two to three. (Barry's scores, while often sounding simple, are not always simple-minded.) The main conspiracy motif most clearly occupies the first minute of "Main Title" and returns at the cue's end. It worries on string layers at the outset of "Virgin Sacrifice" and becomes softer but creepier in "Tony Dies" against dissonant whole notes. The idea shifts to the longer, more meandering line for the corrupt cop in "Two Glasses," and this adaptation haunts the start of "Ann is Dead" on flute and low strings and later interrupts the love theme in "I Sleep Like A Baby With You." The motif previews the alarm at the outset of "Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While," becomes elongated in agony alongside the love theme during "No Crash," and occupies anxious piano in "Your Move, Romeo." It emerges victorious over the other identities at the height of "Sabotage," and the adaptation for the evil cop thrives on reserved brass in the second half of "Explosion" as the character is appropriately dispatched. These themes are perfectly adequate to their task, but the score will disappoint in its tepid response to the killings and action, leaving the tone of the orchestra restrained even at its loudest. For those familiar with Barry's scores in the Bond franchise, the most depth you get from this ensemble are the passages of stalking and light melodrama you hear prior to actual commencement of chasing. His source material for Masquerade retains the snail-like pacing but does offer some blues and rock spirit alongside more comfortable jazz. The score was released on a 2002 product from Prometheus that combines 44 minutes of the actual main presentation with 12 minutes of Barry's unrelated source material. The sound quality is rather muffled for the score's age, and the experience runs a bit long. An even longer 2018 Quartet Records presentation elongates the experience by a few minutes. A 15 to 20-minute suite would be ideal for this moderately attractive and functional score. There's nothing here that you had not heard from Barry before, for better or for worse.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

2002 Prometheus Album:
Total Time: 62:51

• 1. Main Title (3:18) • 2. Graduation (1:01) • 3. Compulsive Promptness (1:50) • 4. Masquerade/Daddy Would Have Liked You (3:10) • 5. Face Slap (1:08) • 6. Virgin Sacrifice (3:08) • 7. The Fight/Tony Dies/Call the Police (4:16) • 8. Two Glasses/Violence, Not Affection (5:15) • 9. Married (1:17) • 10. Ann is Dead/I Sleep Like a Baby With You (1:55) • 11. "Obsession" is Ready/Pregnant (3:01) • 12. Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While/Birthday Gift (1:25) • 13. No Crash (0:34)

• 14. Your Move, Romeo/A New Plan (2:30) • 15. Sabotage (1:40) • 16. Explosion (4:46) • 17. She's Alive (0:59) • 18. End Titles (3:13) • 19. Made for Each Other (version 1) (1:30) • 20. Pity the Poor (1:52) • 21. Made for Each Other (version 2) (1:07) • 22. It Was You (1:34) • 23. The Last Dance (2:09) • 24. Lobster - House Blues (2:00) • 25. Lobster - House Rock (1:09)

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2018 Quartet Album:
Total Time: 59:55

• 1. Main Title (3:21) • 2. Graduation (1:04) • 3. Masks (1:36) • 4. Compulsive Promptness (1:51) • 5. Masquerade (1:19) • 6. Daddy Would Have Liked You (1:59) • 7. Face Slap (1:11) • 8. Virgin Sacrifice (3:10) • 9. The Fight-Tony Dies/Call the Police (4:19) • 10. Two Glasses/Violence, Not Affection/You Couldn't Kill Anyone (4:24) • 11. Tim & Brooke Break Up (1:42) • 12. Married (1:18) • 13. Ann is Dead/I Sleep Like a Baby With You (1:59) • 14. Obsession is Ready/Pregnant (3:05) • 15. Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While (1:30) • 16. No Crash (0:36) • 17. Your Move, Romeo (2:36) • 18. Sabotage (1:42) • 19. Explosion (4:49) • 20. She's Alive (1:02) • 21. End Credits (3:17) Additional Material: (12:05) • 22. Tim & Brooke Cool It for a While (Alternate) (0:30) • 23. Made for Each Other (Source) (1:33) • 24. Pity the Poor (Source) (1:55) • 25. Made for Each Other - Version 2 (Source) (1:08) • 26. It Was You (Source) (1:37) • 27. The Last Dance (Source) (2:11) • 28. Lobster-House Rock (Source) (1:10) • 29. Lobster-House Blues (Source) (2:01)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The inserts of both albums contain detailed notes 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 Masquerade are Copyright © 2002, 2018, Prometheus Records, Quartet Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/1/25 (and not updated significantly since).