Category Archives: CINEMA.

TERROR AT RED WOLF INN.

May 8, 2024 jonman492000 Leave a comment

Terror at Red Wolf Inn, The Folks at Red Wolf Inn, or Terror House is a 1972 horror mystery that takes us on a sometimes uncomfortable and nauseous trip to a holiday resort which holds some secrets. College student Regina (Linda Gillin) comes back to her room from class one day to discover she’s won a getaway vacation at the quiet Red Wolf Inn. Before she can even call her parents to let them know where she’ll be, the lodge owners arrange her transport, and she soon finds herself with two other young women as guests of a kindly old couple Henry and Evelyn Smith (Arthur Space and Mary Jackson).

The location is beautiful, and the food is fantastic, but something just doesn’t seem right. One of the guests suddenly vanishes after which the kindly old hosts seem more than reluctant to have anyone looking around the kitchen or the walk-in freezer. The movie has to it a somewhat unhinged charm and when watching it is better that you do not take it too seriously or you might end up as unbalanced as some of the characters. The film is a darkly irreverent horror/comedy, but the comedy element is under the surface and does not surface that much. The plot is predictable, and anyone watching would I think soon deduct just in what direction we are going here.

But this is not a film that needs much cerebral power to work out, just plain old home cooked horror. Or is it? Because as soon as the audience settles into what they are being led to believe is a straightforward horror tale, it alters and jumps out at you from all sides. And begins to confuse and confound so we do not know where we are going anymore. The film suggests scenarios and sub plots repetitively, but these suggestions never come to full fruition, which is a masterful touch as it leaves the audience on the edge of their seat literally.

The standard of the acting although a little cliched in places is admirable, the narrative flows with the cast all turning in good performances that are natural and believable. Linda Gillin is particularly good and makes the role her own portraying a lonesome college girl who is painfully eager to make friends, please everyone, and maybe find romance with the old couples rather odd Grandson Baby John Smith (John Neilson). There are a handful of standout scenes with some of these being for all the wrong reasons, the Shark scene for example, where the grandson batters a shark to death on the beach, is a little over the top as straight afterwards he vows his undying love for Regina, the battering of the shark kind of takes the tenderness out of that statement, his “I think I Love you” being lost in the violent outburst we have just witnessed literally seconds before.

For a relatively low budget production the film oozed suspense, and had to it a tense, and chilling persona. The most foreboding mood of the film is created via the performances of the aforementioned actors, Mary Jackson and Arthur Space. They convey an outer personality that comes over as being so very nice and are seen as the epitome of normality in many ways. However, there is always an underlying feeling that these are not ‘normal people’. This first manifests in a scene which must be one of the most bacchanalian and bizarre eating scenes ever committed to celluloid as all the guests and their hosts devour a crowned rib roast on Regina’s first night at the inn and in celebration of another female guest Pamela departing. The way in which all literally carry out an assault the food and are lost in the moment as if they are in a frenzy is disgusting, sensual, horrifying, and sickening all at the same time.

The sequence where we see Edwina (Margaret Avery) on her last night is also impressive, the three members of the Smith family dressed in butcher’s coats going upstairs to Edwina’s room accompanied by the soothing sound of a lullaby being played on a Harpsichord/music box, is real chilling stuff, the camerawork and the music going hand in hand to create an darkly unsettling atmosphere.

And the final visual comment of the movie, which although farfetched, we think yes, I somehow had already figured that one out. The film is a chilling and to a degree disturbing affair, which explores psychosis and trust.

It’s unusual that not many horror fans discuss this movie. I suppose there are some that don’t want to own up to seeing it, but I am not sure why, because numerous films have since taken its central plot and re-configured it, as in Motel Hell. I won’t say that it’s become a cult movie in recent years because sometimes the word cult is applied to films that are not that good, because Terror at Wolf Inn is essentially a good and effective horror movie.

Music for the film was the work of William (Bill) Marx, (son of Harpo Marx) who had previously scored horrors such as Count Yorga Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga. The composer once again placing his own individual musical fingerprint upon the production. The score for the movie has never been released, maybe because it is sparse, brief, and subdued, but one day we live in hope that this will also make its way to a CD so we may listen to the music away from the images.

ARTICLES, CINEMA., Interviews

HAMMER’S MUSICAL HERITAGE.

February 7, 2024 jonman492000 1 Comment

If you are of a certain age, you will probably like myself remember the many horror movies that were produced by Hammer Films in the UK.

The name of Hammer became synonymous with the horror genre and was linked invariably to films which were referred to as Gothic Horrors. These included tales of Vampires, Unmentionable Horrors, Zombies, Werewolves, and the occasional Mummy or two.

The Hammer movies from the late 1950’s through to the late 1970’s were always popular even when shown on a re-run, and when eventually the cinema going audiences appetite for such tales began to wane, the studio were able to rest upon their substantial laurels, releasing many of their films onto video and later to DVD and Blu Ray, plus of course the movies were regularly shown on television, attracting even more fans who had missed them first time around. The name of Hammer had always been at the forefront of British Horror, and even now some sixty years on when people see the name Hammer on screen, they know instinctively it is often a horror film.

The earlier Hammer productions such as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Curse of the Werewolf, had to them a look that was shall we say easy on the eye, the colours the sets, and of course the storylines were outstanding, with the photography on many of them being vibrant, with rich and luxurious colours giving the storylines an almost opulent appearance.

Films such as The Plague of the Zombies, and The Curse of the Werewolf, just had a look that (forgive the pun) screamed quality. The studio too invested in having top notch actors, and beautiful leading ladies. Familiar faces would crop up in each movie, with many of the sets being re-cycled and utilised over and over in varying scenarios, and for the most part being filmed at Bray studios.

Another important component within Hammer productions was the music, again the company invested wisely and heavily in this side of things, often engaging composers and musicians at the top of their game at the time to score and perform on their soundtracks. They also operated a studio system whereas they appointed a musical director, who would select various composers for each movie depending on their experience, whilst at the same time seeking out fresh talent. Over the years I have spoken to many composers that were involved in providing the rich musical tapestry for Hammer productions that we all as film music collectors appreciate greatly. Like many of Hammer’s movies the film scores for their productions have gone down into cinematic history and are oft called classics and iconic works.

Over four decades or maybe more, I have spoken to many Maestros, who have become part of the Hammer musical story, James Bernard, Harry Robinson, Malcolm Williamson, Tristram Carey, David Sinclair Whittaker, Carlo Martelli, Laurie Johnson, Christopher Gunning, Roy Budd, etc, and have also written biographies on so many others, Don Banks, Phillip Martell, Benjamin Frankel, Mario Nascimbene, Malcolm Arnold, John Hollingsworth, Ivor Slaney, Frank Spencer, Don Ellis, and Doreen Carwithen, to name a few.

Plus, have spoken to the surviving spouses or family members of others such as Franz Reizenstein, and Humphrey Searle. The wealth and the quality of the music that was written and recorded for Hammer movies was outstanding, this quality still shining through today. Many of these conversations were recorded and placed onto Movie Music International, thus preserving them for what I hope will be forever, but were presented as separate pieces, features, and articles.

After discussing a possible interview with composer Blair Mowat about his music for Hammer’s most recent movie Doctor Jekyll, in 2023. I thought why not combine them all, make these into a long article, a tome, or even a book. Which would chart the history of Hammer’s musical heritage. So here it is, a look into the world of the composers, and the musical directors for The House of Horror.

It would only be correct to begin with a composer and conductor who is probably mostly associated with Hammer and figures large within British film music. Although John Hollingsworth was not the studios first MD he was certainly the most well-known, he was responsible for scoring, conducting, and supervising the music at Hammer from the early fifties through to the early sixties, it was Hollingsworth that gave composers such as James Bernard, Richard Rodney Bennett, Malcom Williamson, Don Banks and Gary Hughes their breaks into writing for film. Hollingsworth began his duties at Hammer in 1954, his first assignment being The Stranger Came Home. A score that was composed by Leonard Salzedo.

Hollingsworth had worked for Hammer previously in 1951, when he acted as musical director on Never Look Back.

But it was when he took over from the studios MD Frank Spencer full time in 1954, that Hollingsworth began to make his mark upon the high quality of the scores that were utilised by the studio.

Hollingsworth had conducted for James Bernard before Hammer, and they collaborated on the music for two BBC radio plays, The Death of Hector and The Duchess of Malfi, and it was the latter score that made Hollingsworth think of Bernard when it came to assigning a composer on The Quatermass Xperiment, the score had originally been given to John Hotchkiss, but because the composer fell ill and could not continue, a composer had to be found quickly.

Hollingsworth approached James Bernard, who accepted, and the rest as they say is History as far as Bernard and his association with Hammer films is concerned.

As the composer recalled, “John Hollingsworth played a tape of my music from The Duchess of Malfi to the director of Quatermass, which was Anthony Hinds, and he agreed to let me write the score. This was my first project for Hammer and more importantly I think my first film score. But I was not allowed to use a full orchestra. I think that John Hollingsworth had decided to see how I got along with just strings and percussion, before letting me loose with a full orchestra,”

John Hollingsworth was born in Enfield Middlesex on March 20th, 1916, he was educated at Bradfield college and then went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music. As early as 1937, Hollingsworth had become an accomplished conductor, and found himself directing the London Symphony Orchestra. During the second world war, he joined the RAF, and in 1943, became the first RAF sergeant to conduct The National Symphony Orchestra, he toured with the NSO and gave concerts in both the UK and the USA. He conducted concerts in front of many dignitaries and world leaders, which included, Stalin, Truman, and Churchill. After the war Hollingsworth became much in demand and was made assistant to Muir Matheson and worked on films such as Brief Encounter. After three years he became musical director at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and Sadlers Wells London. Which was an association that would endure some ten years, he also became principal conductor for The Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra during this time and was assistant conductor to Sir Malcolm Sargent at the Proms. Hollingsworth, stayed at Hammer until 1963, his last full scoring assignment being The Devil Ship Pirates, which had music by Gary Hughes, but Hollingsworth contributed several themes to the score. He had also begun working on The Evil of Frankenstein, which was composed by Don Banks, but became seriously ill and was unable to continue. He died of T.B. on December 29th, 1963.

There were Musical directors or conductors associated with Hammer before John Hollingsworth, and after his death the studio turned to the likes of Marcus Dods to take over in the interim of Hammer securing a more permanent MD in the form of Phillip Martell. Dods conducted scores such as The Secret of Blood Island in 1965, which had a score by James Bernard. (not to be confused with The Camp on Blood Island, which the studio also produced).

But before John Hollingsworth there was Frank Spencer who was a composer that contributed to numerous motion pictures and shorts during the 1940, s and up to the late 1950, s.

To say his contributions to British cinema were immense is certainly something of an understatement, as he was like a Muir Mathieson figure, yet his name is not more widely recognised amongst collectors and aficionados of film music. He was for a short time associated with Hammer films scoring their version of the Dick Barton tales in the form of Dick Barton Strikes Back and writing the scores for movies such as Cloudburst and The Adventures of P.C. 49. Spencer was born on July 19th, 1911, in Edinburgh Scotland. He was the first musical director/supervisor for the Hammer studios, and it was his job to ensure that each of the films that Hammer produced and released received a score that was appropriate, although he was given the title of musical supervisor Spencer often wrote the scores himself.

His first scoring assignment is documented as The Jack of Diamonds in 1949, directed by Vernon Sewell the film was an adventure tale which focused upon an ex-soldier who persuades the owners of a yacht to take him to the Belgian coast to attempt to recover a treasure chest which he had hidden there during the second world war.

The film starred, Nigel Patrick, Cyril Raymond and Joan Carrol who was the director’s wife. The film was released by Exclusive films who later also distributed many of the early Hammer movies. During his time at Hammer from 1949 to 1952 Spencer was involved with many movies, Cecilia, (for which he shared a credit with Rupert Grayson), Room To Let, To Have and Hold, The Last Page, (U.S. A. title Man Bait), Two on the Tiles, (which was a Van Dyke release), The Dark Light, Death of an Angel, and The Rossiter Case are just a handful of pictures he wrote for.

He also worked on a few non-Hammer movies during the same period these included The Cat Girl (for AIP) and The Master Plan, where his stock or library music was used without him being given any credits, he also acted as conductor on a handful of projects these included The Black Widow, which was a thirteen-part serial produced by Republic films in 1951. Spencer contributed much to film as a composer, mentor and musical director, and it is somewhat disconcerting that he is overlooked and almost forgotten.

His score for Man Bait, is an exciting and dramatic work, with the music at times being placed over sequences that do not contain dialogue, which displays just how much music supports and underlines scenarios and scenes in film. The composer died in 1975.

Composer Ivor Slaney was also someone who contributed much to the world of British cinema and worked on a handful of Hammer productions at times under the supervision of Spencer, this was mainly before the studio became known for producing horror films. Born in West Bromwich in the Midlands of the United Kingdom on May 27th, 1921, his father Ernst Slaney had a big influence upon his leanings towards embarking on a career in music.

Ernst was the principal cellist in several orchestras including The Scottish national Orchestra, The Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and also held positions in the South African broadcasting Corporations Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic. Ivor became a member of the choir at St Stephens church in Bournemouth as a child and it was from here that his love of music began to develop. The young musician began to play the oboe and took a keen interest in the saxophone. Slaney went into the British army and was a member of the band whilst in service which gave him a good basic knowledge of music, this knowledge was increased when he began to be given tuition at Kneller Hall and later when he entered the Royal College of music, where he was given music lessons by Leon Goossens. It was at this time that Slaney met Malcolm Arnold, and the pair of aspiring musicians would often be seen together busking on the streets of London mainly around Kensington. Both Arnold and Slaney would join the London Philharmonic, but Slaney would not stay in a position with the orchestra unlike Arnold who would become one of its principal players. After the second world war Slaney became an oboist in the Covent Garden Opera house orchestra and at times would play in the Boyd Neel orchestra, Slaney being able to change styles and genres and on occasion performing jazz and acting as an accompanist for pianist George Shearing.

As the 1950, s progressed and the sixties dawned Slaney became in demand as a conductor at times for the BBC on the popular programme Morning Music, he also would conduct the 101 strings on several of their recordings of popular songs and tunes. It was also during this period that Slaney began to become involved with the writing of music for films, at first, he was musical assistant to Herbert Wilcox and would conduct and also do arrangements and orchestrations for Anthony Collins who scored The Lady with the Lamp. In 1952 Slaney worked for Hammer films for the first time, this was for The Lady in the Fog, and it was probably his old friend Malcolm Arnold that suggested Slaney as a possible choice for this assignment, as Arnold had worked on two productions for the company the previous year after Frank Spencer had parted company with them.

Slaney continued to score Hammer productions and decided to do something different on the movie Spaceways, where he employed a big band sound rather than the more conventional use of a symphony orchestra, his approach on this was groundbreaking with the brass section being given a larger slice of the musical pie. He also worked on Face the Music for Michael Carreras in which jazz giant Kenny Baker featured.

With the advent of commercial television, the composer became even more in demand writing pieces of music to accompany numerous advertisements, as well as writing music for the De Wolfe library which was utilised in radio shows and TV productions of the period, in fact Slaney’s music is still being used today and was featured in more recent productions such as the animated series The Simpsons, and the feature film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The composer also worked on several Children’s film Foundation productions and was responsible for the music and songs for Here Come the Double Deckers, which was a very successful children’s TV series that aired in 1970.

Slaney provided the music for two non-Hammer horror movies Prey and Terror both of which were released in 1978 and directed by Norman J Warren. The music for these movies was not the normal run of the mill horror fare, but were more complex works, working wonderfully with both the storylines and the images on screen. Ivor Slaney passed away in Milford on Sea on March 20th, 1998, he contributed much to the world of film music and made great contributions to the world of music in general.

A name that graced Hammer pictures during the 1960’s was Gary Hughes, who worked on a few historical/adventure dramas for the studio. Born Gareth McClean Hughes on March 21st, 1922, in Nanaimo Canada, Hughes initially began his working career as a print setter but always had a passion for music. Whilst being employed in the printing industry he began to study music in his spare time, he eventually achieved his goal and became a musician, at first as a trombone player and then progressed to doing arrangements, and then finally to becoming a composer. He re-located to England in 1955 with his wife Grace and settled in Richmond Surrey.

Hughes continued to do arrangements and work on his own compositions and was asked to arrange music for Sir William Walton, which threw him immediately into the limelight, and it was then that he began to work for several composers who were popular at that time. In 1960, he wrote the music for Linda which was conducted by Muir Mathieson, soon after this and on the recommendation of Mathieson he was recruited by John Hollingsworth for Hammer films and worked on a handful of movies, these included the period dramas, Devil Ship Pirates, The Viking Queen, Pirates of Blood River, A Challenge for Robin Hood, and most notably the swashbuckling English civil War drama The Scarlet Blade which starred Oliver Reed and Lionel Jefferies. Hughes worked with Muir Mathieson for the second time in 1964 on the Cy Enfield directed Hide and Seek. At the age of just 56, the composer passed away in Farnham Surrey, on April 25th, 1978, this was after a series of strokes, the fourth of these proved to be fatal. I feel that the world of film music was a poorer place after his death at such a relatively young age, as I am certain he would have continued to be a sought-after composer of film scores, his music was particularly suited to the adventure movies of the 1960’s but he was a versatile and talented composer, and arranger.

There is not a great deal of his music available on any format, although GDI records did include a cue by Hughes on The Music from Hammer Films Vol 2, which was the rousing theme from The Pirates of Blood River. The compilation is a must have as it contains so many themes and cues that are now what I would call Hammer classics, the collection and its predecessor volume one, are both crammed with the familiar sounds and rare music from Hammer’s musical archive. The two compilations were the pre-cursor to several releases from GDI the majority of which focused upon the horror scores from the House of horror. Many of these were full score releases for the first time, with others being themed compilations as in The Quatermass Collection, The Frankenstein Collection and The Vampire Collection. The label also released She and The Vengeance of She, by James Bernard and Mario Nascimbene respectively on one compact disc.

The Music from Hammer Films Volume one.

When GDI records first came on the scene, one has to remember that music from the Hammer horrors had not been that readily available, yes ok admittedly there had been a few compilations that had mainly been re-recordings and some of these were released as stories of Dracula etc with music tracked behind the narration, but I think you will agree with me that it was Silva Screen records in the UK that was the first label to make a concerted effort to release music from the Hammer Gothic Horrors, at first they concentrated upon James Bernard, simply because he was the composer that so many associated with the house of horror, because of his memorable and foreboding Dracula soundtracks. But Silva also turned its attention to other composers that had written music for Hammer, but of course these were all re-recordings as the label were told that the original tapes were either lost or destroyed.

Then up popped Gary Wilson and the GDI label, who had the original tapes to many of the Hammer soundtracks. The logical thing for GDI to do was release a compilation, a sort of best of Hammer if you will. The Hammer Film Music Collection, was to be the first compact disc of many in a series dedicated to the rich musical legacy of Hammer.

This first volume which included twenty-five themes is a real stunner of a collection, the disc opens with the taught and virulent theme from The Devil Rides Out as composed by James Bernard and is a perfect opener for what is to follow, a compilation that thrills, excites, and oozes evil musical renditions which evoke numerous memories of those brilliant looking horrors. James Bernard is quite rightly given the lion’s share of the disc’s running time, which is a fitting tribute to the man who was the studios composer in residence (or might as well have been) he scored movies for them from the mid 1950’s through to 1974 and was also involved on the TV series that the studio produced for ITV. The compilation boasts ten pieces by Bernard, including Dracula and The Devil Rides Out which are both still as threatening and atmospheric as they were when I first heard them.

Also included from Bernard we have The Curse of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Must be Destroyed, The Scars of Dracula, Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Plus, She, The Gorgon, and for me what I consider the best of Bernard in the form of The Kiss of the Vampire, which has a powerful and magnificent piano solo from Douglas Gamley.

Scottish born composer Harry Robinson or Robertson is well represented with four themes Twins of Evil, Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, all from the Karnstein family horrors as produced by Hammer. ,Plus there is also a brief piece from Countess Dracula, which starred the wonderful Ingrid Pitt as the noblewoman who murdered maidens and bathed in their blood to regain her youthful looks. Robinson provided all four of the films with highly atmospheric scores, but it was Twins of Evil that had been on many a collectors wants list to get some sort of release, its brooding opening building into a full blown riding theme that if tracked onto a western would fit like the proverbial glove, a style that composer Robinson turned to again on his Hawk the Slayer soundtrack a few years later. Vampire Lovers had been available before as a re-recording on an EMI long playing record alongside three other themes from Hammer horrors, but it appeared in the form of a suite which was arranged by Hammer’s musical director Phil Martell, what is included here is the film’s opening theme, a short but romantically tinged melody that is underlined wit a mood of virulence.

Lust for a Vampire is a very lush and opulent sounding theme, full of seductive layers which in my humble opinion was far too good for the film it enhanced. Countess Dracula was probably the most authentic sounding score that Robinson composed for a Hammer horror, he utilised cimbalom to great effect and further enhanced the film with lavish sounding strings that created an air of mystery. The film itself was not a great success at the box office, and that is probably why Robinsons score is at times overlooked.

Another theme that is most certainly deserved of a mention is The Mummy, which was released in 1959, its vibrant score was the work of German born concert pianist, turned composer Franz Reizenstein.

The collection is magnificent and will delight any fan of Hammer films and the gothic horrors that they produced. This excellent compilation takes us on a musical journey of terror and spans from the 1950’s through to the early 1970’s.

Other titles that are also included are, The Brides of Dracula, Hands of the Ripper, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, Moon Zero Two, Quatermass and the Pit, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, and so much more. The music is conducted by Marcus Dod’s, John Hollingsworth, Phil Martell, and Franco Ferrara and all taken from the original sound recordings, there are no re-recordings here. And this was just the beginning.

GDI went on to release numerous CDS and license some of the scores and compilations to other labels. I spoke with the label’s director Gary Wilson in 2005 about the recordings and what he had planned.

Q; Why Hammer film music?

Well why not, there is so much quality music from these films, and it’s never been released before, well at least the original stuff has never been issued, people have had to make do with re-recordings. OK they are faithful re-recordings but there is nothing that can beat the original sound of Hammer. Hammer movies have always been special to me they were a big part of my growing up, I remember seeing The Brides of Dracula, it scared the pants off me, but at the same time I found that I was very attracted to the movie, not just the story but the look of it, the rich colours the actors and also the music. I think I was about thirteen at the time so I should not have really been in the cinema watching it.

Q: So how did you manage to persuade Hammer to release the music into his care, as many record companies had tried and failed?

It was a pure fluke, an accident or maybe fate if you like. I was at Hammer’s offices to discuss another project that I was toying with and was talking to Roy Skeggs whom I knew very well anyway. I noticed a big pile of boxes in one of the offices that were just dumped by the look of it and were not labelled. Being the curious person I am I asked Roy what they were, to which he replied, “Oh they are just some of the music tapes to a few of the Hammer movies”. I sort of held my breath for a moment because I could not believe my luck and was amazed that this stuff was just laying in old boxes in an office literally rotting away. A lot of the tapes were not labelled so it was a bit of a mammoth job sifting through them all matching music to videos etc. Obviously, I was familiar with things like Dracula and lots of other James Bernard material but when it came to other items it took quite a time to sort them all out. A few were in very poor condition, but things like Twins of Evil, Countess Dracula, Crescendo and Demons of the Mind were in very good condition considering the way the tapes had been stored – it was a difficult but also a rewarding task to find music that I had been told had been lost.

Gary told me that there were approximately eight boxes in all, so he certainly had his work cut out for him, he had to first identify music tracks, then index everything – but why had no-one noticed them before?

I suppose the answer to that is nobody had bothered to be nosey enough (laughs). No seriously what had happened was Phil Martell who was Hammer’s musical director had died and his daughter had gone to clear his house and found all these tapes plus manuscripts and other musical items. So because she did not realise what they were, she decided to clear the house and try and sell the things but luckily Hammer found out about the sale and instructed their lawyers to re-possess what was rightfully theirs. Phil Martell had been approached on numerous occasions by various record companies to see if they could release the original scores, but Martell had always stopped any such contract being signed. He did however authorise and supervise the Silva Screen re-recordings, which were conducted by Neil Richardson, but even David Whitaker admitted that he was not keen on the way things were done on those sessions – so I was very lucky to get the tapes and for Hammer to grant permission for the music to be issued on CD.

So, did you pick up any of the actual manuscripts when he acquired the tapes?

No, it’s a shame but I am not sure if they survived the move from Martell’s house to Hammer, although I did manage to see a few things when we were discussing the tapes with Hammer. But the manuscripts are no real use to me as a music producer/record label because we have the tapes and that’s all we need.

The collectors, I don’t think would be interested in the manuscripts, our recordings are the originals – so when collectors put them on their CD player they are hearing the music as it was heard in the movies.

Some of the tapes must have needed a lot of restoration work – and were there any at all that did not make it?

A few were no good at all but most survived. I was disappointed that the original Dracula score by James Bernard was in a very sorry state, and we only managed to salvage a couple of tracks from it. The Curse of was also in very poor condition but we did some work on it and got it into a fair state. But considering the amount of time that they had been in storage, well dumped in boxes at Martell’s house, the majority were OK. I handed them over to a guy called Peter J. Reynolds who is a wizard at things like this, he is amazing, and he and his assistant Steve Cook worked their magic on them – these guys are the best as far as I am concerned.

The first GDI release was a compilation The Hammer Film Music Collection Volume One, and then the Comedy compilation followed, and soon after came a volume two of Hammer film music, Why did you not release a full soundtrack to start things off?

I wanted to make fans and collectors aware that we had a lot of Hammer music to release, so I thought I would get their attention by releasing a few compilations, then sort of hit them with a full score.

The full score was The Mummy which has music by Franz Reizenstein – why did you choose this particular score?

I just had so many memories of this movie. I think it is one of Hammer’s best from this period, it looks so good, rich in colour and there are some great performances in it. Peter Cushing is magnificent and Christopher Lee is very convincing in the role of the Mummy and the music is wonderful – again it is so rich and strong, it had to be this score.

Q: Going back to the comedy compilation – this included music from all of Hammer’s On The Buses movies and also things like That’s Your Funeral, Man About the House etc, It also had in its running order music from non-Hammer movies such as George and Mildred and Rising Damp. Why did you go for this type of compilation instead of another horror collection at first?

I thought it would be better to release the comedy collection because then the collectors would know that we were not just going to concentrate mainly on the Hammer horror stuff. After all, Hammer did make a lot of films away from the horror genre and this was our way of saying we had all types of music from Hammer and not just the horror material. I personally think that the Hammer made comedies were on a par with the Carry On movies, if not in some ways better, and the soundtracks were all very good, written by top composers and including loads of catchy little songs and musical cues.

Talking of songs, on the first Hammer collection compact disc, you included the song from Moon Zero Two, why did you include this after all the movie did bomb out big time for the studio?

I know, the film was a disaster for Hammer, but nowadays it’s something of a cult movie. The score by the trumpet player Don Ellis was a departure for Hammer, but the song is great – I know at times it’s irritating to listen to but maybe that’s the appeal of it. Hopefully we will be releasing the full score on CD in the future.

So to the future then, what’s up on the agenda for GDI in 2006?

The soundtrack market is not good at the moment, but there again the music market place in general is in a downward spiral, sales are very slow, no-one has any spare cash to waste on music, so a lot of things are being downloaded. Luckily soundtracks from Hammer movies are not widely available on the world wide web but because of slow sales and not wanting to put a lot of work into a project for it to lie on the shelves forever, or end up in the mark down bins, I have been very cautious and have been talking to a number of other record labels about the option of licensing things to them to release. LA LA LAND RECORDS in the States was one of them but that looks as if it won’t be going ahead. I have been talking to Ford Thaxton who is a great guy, and he has a few ideas that just might come to fruition – we will have to wait and see.

So you have a catalogue of around thirteen albums now, and also have licensed three compilations to another label in the UK – what came after The Mummy?

It was the Quatermass Collection. I wanted this one to come out because the first Quatermass movie was an important one for Hammer and a very important one for composer James Bernard. It was his first ever Hammer score – of course he went on to do so many films for them that are considered to be iconic. He is Hammer music as far as I am concerned – of course the album also included music by Tristram Carey for the movie Quatermass and the Pit. When you listen to James Bernard’s Quatermass it reminds me of Psycho but then when you think about it, it was written before that, so maybe Bernard Herrmann was influenced in some way by James Bernard – I would like to think so anyway”.

After The Quatermass Collection, you issued The Vampire Lovers. Now this is a classic Hammer movie and Harry Robinson’s music at times really hits home as being virulent and foreboding. You said at the time that Lust for A Vampire was coming soon, but this has never been issued as a complete score, only in the form of a few tracks on the Vampire Collection. Is there any reason that the complete score has not been released?

Yes, the tapes were not as good as I thought, so maybe after some work Lust for A Vampire will get a release, I cannot say. Twins of Evil was however issued and out of all the CDs was I think probably one of our best sellers. I also wanted to do Countess Dracula another Harry Robinson score, but things have not been good in retail outlets for soundtracks, so I have held this off for a while, and again the tapes do require some work.

I was stunned when James Bernard passed away but he was always very supportive of you wasn’t he?

He certainly was. He came to a couple of launch parties, along with Veronica Carlson and Ingrid Pitt but James was one in a million it was very sad when he died.

What reaction have you had from the composers of the scores you have released?

Not many have really said much. Carlo Martelli telephoned me to say that he thought the CDs were well done and as I have just said James Bernard was always complimentary. Carlo even offered me some tapes of his scores. He is a very underrated composer – he was the ghost writer on a number of scores for other composers during the 1960s and 1970s, receiving no credits at all.

What about Captain Kronos by Laurie Johnson, a great score and a really ingenious take on the Vampire legend. Will we ever see this; it has been announced and then delayed so many times?

You will see this on CD, when I cannot say, but it will come out I promise.

And it did on BSX records a few years later.

Aswell as GDI let’s not forget the work done by British label Silva Screen on re-recording music form Hammer films, previous to the appearance of GDI,the labels Music from the Hammer Films compilation was originally released onto LP record in 1989 with a lavish and ominous looking gatefold cover. The label also released the collection onto CD, with extensive notes and several stills from the movies included on the recording.

The compilation featured James Bernard, David Whitaker, and Christopher Gunning, with music from Dracula, Dracula Prince of Darkness, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Dracula has Risen from the Grave, Hands of the Ripper, and a gloriously powerful suite from Vampire Circus. The music was prepared by the composers and Hammer’s MD Phil Martell who supervised the recording with Neil Richardson conducting The Philharmonia Orchestra. At the time this was a groundbreaking release and included music that collectors and Hammer fans had been requesting for many years. After the success of this release Silva focused upon other Horror film music producing the excellent Horror compilation, and then an album showcasing the music of James Bernard entitled The Devil Rides Out the Adventure film music of James Bernard, all were re-recordings, but these were faithful renditions, and snapped up by collectors. I was fortunate to be able to attend the sessions for both of these releases at Whitfield Street studios in London.

The Sessions Part One.

The Horror Album.

In November 1995, I travelled to London’s Whitfield Street recording studios to sit in on the recording sessions for two albums that were being recorded by the British soundtrack label Silva Screen. These were The Horror collection and The Devil Rides Out music for Hammer films composed by James Bernard. The label had found success previously when they re-recorded music from other Hammer horrors in their landmark album Music from The Hammer Films and were hoping to repeat this success with these two re-recordings of classic horror music. On this occasion the first sessions were to focus more upon non-James Bernard scores and to my delight Witchfinder General was on the schedule, Philip Lane had reconstructed the music from the score by composer Paul Ferris and had arranged the principal themes into a wonderful suite, which included the haunting love theme and opening theme from the movie.

***Mike Ross Trevor and David Wishart at the consul***

The recording engineer for the sessions was Mike Ross Trevor who was a familiar face to many collectors of movie scores.

The orchestra was The Westminster Philharmonic, which numbered nearly one hundred musicians, under the very able guidance of conductor Kenneth Alwyn. I arrived late thanks to British rail and was met with a crowd of young girls and boys making a bit of a din and holding cameras in hand. Sadly theses were not for James Bernard, Carlo Martelli or Buxton Orr, but for Madonna who was recording an album in the studio next door. I got through the crowd and into the studio, the session had already started, and the orchestra were in full flight giving a thunderous performance of Buxton Orr’s Corridors of Blood, I have to admit I did not recognise this at first but soon was reminded of what it was by David Wishart. I also did not recognise David Stoner, which was a little remiss of me! I had spoken to David Many times but only met him the once before, I soon however recognised the voice when he told me “It’s going really well”. Also in attendance at that time were composers Carlo Martelli, Buxton Orr plus Dimitri Kennaway (Benjamin Frankel’s stepson) and his Mother Frankel’s widow.

The music recorded that first day was mainly that penned by Buxton Orr and also sections of The Curse of the Werewolf by Frankel, this I found to be a thrilling experience as Frankel’s music in particular just oozed energy and contained a melodic pastorale theme. Carlo Martelli’s music for The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, should also have been recorded in that session but due to a few problems with The Curse of the Werewolf, which is a very difficult score to perform Martelli’s music was postponed until the next session which was on the following day.

Day two I was looking forward to because Witchfinder General would be recorded, the session was running late because of the previous day getting behind with Frankel’s score for Hammer’s lupine classic, and still proved quite a challenge for the orchestra, it was after all a more or less fully atonal work, and the Westminster philharmonic had to have a few attempts at it before they got it sounding the way it should. After approx; nine takes and the marvellous conducting skills of Kenneth Alwyn everything fell into place and it sounded marvellous.

***Carlo Martelli with David Wishart.***

Carlo Martelli was present once again and I took a few minutes to speak with him, the composer was somewhat worried about how the orchestra would cope with his music for Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb as it too was involved and difficult. However, the orchestra took things in their stride and turned out a polished performance which the composer seemed pleased with.

Next up was the classic British horror The Night of The Demon, this surely is one of the most iconic pieces of music from a horror movie, composed by Clifton Parker, for this recording the orchestra performed the overture, and filled the studio with the sound of horror and foreboding and evoked memories of the demon in question seeking out its victims and ending their existence, swiftly and mercilessly.

Witchfinder General came next, and after a short break the orchestra came back into the studio to prepare for this, the music was by Paul Ferris, who had sadly passed away just one month before this recording.

The orchestra acquitted themselves marvellously, and special mention must be made of the string section and the beautiful delicate guitar solos of Harvey Hope. The re-construction by Philip Lane included an arrangement of the principal themes, which were condensed into a six-minute suite, Lane combining the prelude and also the love theme which was arranged by Ferris in the movie to accompany Ian Ogilvy’s character as he rode home to his fiancée. During this part of the recording, I was invited to sit in the middle of the orchestra which is an experience that I will never forget.

Also, during this session, the music of Humphrey Searle was on the agenda, and included his brilliant music for Robert Wise’s chiller The Haunting and the Hammer movie The Abominable Snowman, both re-recordings went well with The Haunting still making me feel slightly edgy and uneasy.

James Bernard studying the score for Devil Rides Out.

Composer James Bernard arrived, The Devil Rides Out was to be recorded, but time was running out and the recording was a little rushed, but they decided to just go for it and try and get it in one take, so after a very quick run through Kenneth Alwyn raised his baton and the orchestra launched into the virulent sounding composition The Power of Evil, This concluded the session, but we would return in two weeks for more dark delights.

The Sessions Part Two.

The Devil Rides Out.

This was for the James Bernard compilation, that would include, The Devil Rides out, The Kiss of the Vampire, She, and music from both Quatermass movies as scored by the composer. Kiss of the Vampire, I think was the main attraction for me at least. The wonderful piano music from the score had been arranged by the composer for this re-recording into The Vampire Rhapsody. I spoke to the composer who told me that the solo piano part had originally been performed by fellow composer Douglas Gamley, but for this session it would be played by Paul Bateman, who produced a flawless performance par excellence. The stunning performance remains with me and a highlight of this recording, and without sounding clichéd or corny I was literally mesmerized by Bateman’s performance. Which was eloquent and elegant.

Music from She which he had arranged into a suite, was also recorded, with Bernard confessing this was one of the hardest scores he had composed and had more problems with it than all of his other works for Hammer, but it also turned out to be his own personal favourite. The suite included Ayesha Theme, The Desert Ride, Bedouin Attack, and In the Kingdom of She, they also recorded the music used for the end sequence where Ayesha enters the flames and perishes.

The Quatermass Suite, David Wishart said was “Real Horror stuff” and after hearing it I totally agreed. The suite again arranged by Phillip Lane was terrific, it is tense and dramatic music that is performed on strings and percussion only, this rivals the work of Herrmann in my opinion and is more complex and certainly more harrowing in its overall sound than Psycho or Vertigo. The sessions had gone well, and we had time to record additional tracks which were destined for The Horror album. Gerard Schurmann’s Konga, and The Horrors of the Black Museum, and Buxton Orr’s The Fiend Without A Face among these. As the sessions ended, I was confident that both these compilations would do well for Silva Screen and also that the label had once again restored and preserved some wonderful music from film, which might have been lost forever.

GDI records first full score release was The Mummy, which had a brilliantly atmospheric soundtrack by Franz Reizenstein. The composer was born in Nuremberg on June 7th, 1911, his father was a doctor and also an excellent amateur pianist, his elder sister was an artist, and his elder brother played the violin. Reizenstein’s Mother was also very musical and was astonished when her two-year-old son could sing back any of the songs that she had just sung to him in perfect pitch and time. At the age of just four Franz began to teach himself to play the piano, and it was also at this time that he begun to compose short pieces of music. When Franz was a teenager the sudden death of his father inspired him to compose a piece in his memory. At 17, Reizenstein decided to study composition under Paul Hindemith in Berlin. Despite opposition from his uncle he eventually went to Berlin in 1930. As the thirties progressed the Jewish Reizenstein relocated to the Royal College of Music in London, where he continued to study composition under Vaughn Williams and also continued his piano studies under Solomon. Reizenstein never returned to Germany, instead he adopted British nationality and remained in London until his untimely death at the age of 57. He left a wife, Margaret, and a son John.

Although Reizenstein was thought of as a serious musician and composer, by this I mean he composed mostly for concert hall performance. He did make several forays into the world of film music, most notably the The Mummy, which was the composer’s film music debut. His score is sweeping and dramatic but remains romantically laced and highly melodic and lavish. The central theme that he wrote for the movie doubles as a love theme of sorts and depicts the Mummy’s (Kharis) centuries old obsession for Princess Ananka. Reizenstein reprised the principal theme throughout his score and it was performed in a number of variations and arrangements which utilised an assortment of instrumentation. Although the central theme is essentially the heart of Reizenstein’s score, the composer also created secondary and other minor themes for the soundtrack which are just as important and integral to the movie and the story that is unfolding upon the screen. The images of the Mummy frantically smashing its way into John Banning’s (Peter Cushing) library and study is underlined and accompanied by rasping brass, which blares out over driving and urgent sounding strings that are themselves supported and punctuated by a chaotic sounding Xylophone.

This exciting composition stops abruptly as Banning’s wife Isobel enters the room, Kharis sees her and believes her to be he lost love Ananka at which point he ceases his attack on Banning and beats a retreat out of the house and into the night. The sense of excitement and atmosphere of Kharis’s ferocious attack on Banning is assisted greatly by Reizenstein’s highly volatile and vibrant musical score. The movies climatic scene is another example of how much the score aided the impact of the images and just how images and music can and should work in film as one. Kharis returns to Banning’s house, this time the evil Mummy is intent on killing him, things however do not go to plan and Kharis abducts Isobel, pursued by the Police, villagers and Banning, Kharis is chased into a swamp. Booming percussion racing timpani and short brass stabs underline the scene. When Kharis is shot down Reizenstein’s urgent timpani begins to slow as if to be the heartbeat of the Mummy, and as the creature disappears below the swamp Reizenstein’s musical accompaniment fades and eventually stops. Reizenstein was at the top of his musical game when Hammer asked him to write the score for The Mummy, his music being quite unique with the composer placing his stylish and original musical fingerprint upon the production, the idiom of his music being unmistakably 20th Century but not avant-garde.

Many composers in the first half of the century became beguiled with the twelve tones series system, but Reizenstein found that the strict system cramped his natural style and he never cared for the tight intellectual music it produced. Reizenstein’s music flows naturally from melodic ideas and harmonies with which the listener can easily identify. He composed concertos for piano, violin and cello with orchestras, and two large-scale choral works, Voices of the Night, and Genesis. The latter was commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival of 1958, which was held at Hereford Cathedral. The success of Voices of the Night led the BBC to commission him to write the first opera for radio, entitled Anna Krasus. It was the British entry for the prestigious Italia Prize. Reizenstein also composed music for several documentaries and provided incidental music for a number of BBC productions. Shortly after completing his score for The Mummy, he wrote the music for Sydney Hayers movie shocker Circus of Horrors which was also released in 1959. As a composer Reizenstein was versatile and this became even more evident when Gerard Hoffnung asked him to write two works for the Hoffnung Concerts.

At first Reizenstein was reluctant and refused, he argued that he was a serious composer who would be reluctant to let his hair down at the Royal Festival Hall, Hoffnung persevered, however and Reizenstein contributed the witty Concerto Popolare or (the piano concerto to end all piano concertos) and the hilarious Lets Fake an Opera.

A composer that by his own admission was the odd man out at Hammer was Harry Robinson, he had originally been a pop or rock and roll musical director, whereas the majority of the other Hammer composers were classically trained. Robinson was a regular composer at Hammer and worked on some of the studios most popular horrors. Films such as The Vampire Lovers, Lust for A Vampire, and Twins of Evil, became firm favourites with Hammer devotees and soundtrack collectors. (but at the time of this interview had not been released). I met Harry some years ago, and eventually got around to interviewing him during the summer of 1994. He was a gentle and courteous Scotsman, who was always prepared to answer questions and give you as much information as possible. The interview I did with Harry was on a Saturday afternoon which was a hot and very dusty day in London. We sat by his pool at his home, and I remember him telling me he had managed to get out of going to a wedding reception by telling his wife he was being interviewed by a very important journalist. Which is something I did giggle about for some time.

Harry was born in Elgin in Scotland on November 19th 1932; his real name was Henry MacLeod Robertson. Harry’s career was a varied one. He not only composed music for motion pictures, but acted as musical director on West End shows such as Lionel Bart’s Fings ai’nt Wot they Used to Be, and Maggie May, and took care of the musical duties on show such as Oh Boy and Six Five Special, Harry worked with some of the best-known artistes from the 1960s including The Beatles, Liza Minelli, Tommy Steele, and Judy Garland,

Q: I began by asking the composer how he became interested in writing music.

Harry Robinson: It was a film that got me interested in music, I went to see Dangerous Moonlight as a kid. The film I don’t think I can remember but I did take notice of the music which was The Warsaw Concerto, by Richard Addinsell. The melody kept going around in my head; even after a few days I still kept hearing it. It virtually haunted me and I felt that I had to do something about it. I became determined that I would have piano lessons and learn how to play this music, but I set myself a time limit of just 12 months. I don’t think I realised just how difficult that would be, but I was young and I suppose a little bit naive. I pestered the life out of my mother and finally she gave in and agreed to let me have piano lessons; I think because I was so enthusiastic I learnt very quickly and soon managed to play the Richard Addinsell piece. I even performed it in front of an audience and won a competition for my rendition of the music. I would have been contented with that but as time went on, I began to discover other types of music and wanted to learn more. I pestered my mother again, who found a music teacher who was English, but was living close to my hometown of Elgin in the Highlands of Scotland. He was recovering from the illness tuberculosis and had been told that the air in Scotland would help his path back to fitness. He was a composer but had begun to teach to pay his way. I had instruction in composition, harmony, and counterpoint from him. After finishing my lessons with him I became bored with music; probably one of the many phases that I went through, and I decided that I would become an archaeologist. I went to university to study the subject, but I then contracted TB myself and had to cease my studies; after all I could not go into damp places etc. with a weak chest, so my days in archaeology were cut short. I went back to music and I ended up teaching but this I found so tedious. I don’t think that I am one of these people that can relay to others my love of music via lessons, so I decided to head south and ended up in London.

When Harry first arrived in London, it was a bit of a struggle as he was not known and needed to try and establish himself.

I must tell you and also any aspiring young musician out there that might read this in years to come, that the streets of London are not paved with gold, far from it London can be one of the loneliest cities in the world. After a while I eventually began to pick up jobs here and there and started to work as an arranger in a recording studio in Denmark Street. After a chance meeting in a coffee bar, I ended up doing some work for DECCA and arranged and conducted the music on a record called The Tommy Rock Story, which was basically a send up of Tommy Steele, but it must have caught his attention because I ended up being his musical director for a while. It was whilst working at DECCA that I had to change my name. This was because the cheque that they paid me with was made out to Harry Robinson and not Robertson. It would have been a nightmare to try and change it and the bank would have been difficult, so out of laziness I suppose I opened an account in the name of Robinson. And that’s how Harry Robinson came about, plus I was living almost from day to day then and I needed the cash to eat.

Was this around the time that you became interested in writing for films?

No, not really, I had not actually thought about doing that at this time; this was in the late 1950’s remember, so I did not start writing music for films till around the mid 1960’s. It was at this time that I had a number one record. I formed a group, well sort of formed a group, it was session musicians really, we called ourselves Lord Rockinhams XI. The record was one of these novelty tunes called Hoots Mon, that was quite fun. But I never started writing for films until I became involved with the Children’s Film Foundation, this was firstly as a writer and then I started to direct the films. OK they were not blockbusters or Hollywood material, but these movies gave young talented actors their first break into the world of film.

When did you first become involved with Hammer films?

This was in 1968, but not for a film, I was asked to write the theme tune for a television series called Journey into the Unknown. Hammer were the line producers for this; it was a 20th Century fox production overall. Phil Martell, who was Hammer’s musical director at that time was going to be conducting the music. I had heard that he could be somewhat difficult, or at least I had heard he liked to get his own way, so as you can imagine I was a little apprehensive about even walking into the studio. But after our initial frosty meeting, we went for some liquid lunch and things settled down. I ended up writing the theme for the series and scored four of the episodes. It was about a year later when I had a call from Martell, asking me if I would be interested in doing a film for him. Of course, I said yes, and the movie turned out to be The Vampire Lovers. I must admit I was worried when I first started work on the movie, after all Hammer had a reputation for using classically trained composers, such as James Bernard, Benjamin Frankel, Malcolm Williamson, and their like. I was basically a pop music arranger, so it was all very new to me, I felt like the odd man out. I had however had some indication of what it was like scoring films because of my connections with the Children’s Film Foundation and I had in that same year scored another horror picture for American International Pictures entitled The Oblong Box, which was produced by James Nicholson. I think this is why I got The Vampire Lovers, because A.I.P. were co-producing the picture with Hammer. So maybe someone at A.I.P. had asked Hammer if I could do it. This helped me also as I had a fair idea of what A.I.P. expected from composers and was not going in completely blind – anyway Phil was there to guide me. Both Hammer and A.I.P. were tuned into what they wanted musically and were very supportive of composers. I did think that maybe there would have been some sort of conflict between the two, but they left me to my own devices I composed the score in a style that I thought suited the film and apart from a few timing tweaks by Phil Martell, the music you hear on the soundtrack is what I wanted to do. I had always been a big fan of American International’s Edgar Allan Poe stories, and of course Hammer’s gothic horrors had always impressed me, so it was a privilege and something of a dream come true to be working for both the companies at the same time.

You worked on a spoof horror during the 1970s called House in Nightmare Park, I asked him about this assignment.

House in Nightmare Park – that still sends a shiver up my spine (laughs). It was a comedy horror with Frankie Howard and Ray Milland if I remember correctly, strange little film, the producers asked for a meeting because they wanted to hear what music I had written but the budget was quite small and they would not let me have any musicians until they were satisfied with the music so I had to play the entire score to them on piano. Now I am not the best piano player in the world, and I was a little nervous, so I kept stumbling over the keys and making mistakes; I think they thought this was all part of the score, anyway they liked it, and approved the use of musicians.

Your next Hammer assignment was Lust for A Vampire.

You know, I did not like that movie, I thought it was a very weak picture. There was no real story, just a load of tits and bums wobbling around; some of the acting was less than professional – it relied on the uncovering of flesh rather than the unfolding of a storyline. 1971 was a very busy year for me with Hammer. I scored three pictures for them; one being Lust for A Vampire, the others were Twins of Evil, and then Countess Dracula. It felt like I was constantly in the studio. It’s funny, all the vampire movies I scored for Hammer have in recent years attained something of a cult status, probably for all the wrong reasons, but they are popular.

Countess Dracula, was not really a vampire movie, was it?

Not as such, apart from the title. It was based on some factual material, and I think the movie worked well but it was not that popular at the box office. I think audiences felt cheated that it was not a vampire movie in the time-honoured Hammer tradition.

Twins of Evil is a bit of a swashbuckler; loads of action plenty of bare flesh and your score which sounds like a western soundtrack. What made you decide to score the picture like this?

You know, I had always wanted to score a western and had never been asked, so when I saw the first rushes of Twins of Evil I thought, well there’s horses in it and people dashing around the countryside so why not. I will do a western theme of sorts to match this. Surprisingly it worked and everyone loved it.

I spoke to Harry about a recent Silva Screen release Music from the Hammer Films. This was a re-recording of some of the Hammer horror music, but Harry was not represented at all on this recording. Had he been approached by Silva at all?

No, I only heard about this after it happened. I remember that some of my Vampire Lovers music made it onto an EMI LP some years ago. It was a studio-two record with a Dracula story on the A side and I think four suites of music on the B side. They were arranged and conducted by Phil Martell; I had nothing to do with them. I would like to see the original Hammer music released; and now with the popularity of the compact disc there are so many possibilities. Technology has moved on so much it might even be possible to release some of Hammer’s real vintage scores (remember this interview took place before GDI records came on to the scene JM). I have often thought that I could arrange some of the music I wrote for the vampire movies, Twins, Lovers and Lust into a suite and have it recorded or maybe performed at a concert. We could call it music to watch Tits and Bums by, or something like that (laughs). But seriously, I would like to do something so that my music will be heard away from the movies.

Have you heard the Silva Screen re-recording?

Yes, as I said it was a bit of a surprise, but I did get the CD. I thought it was OK; faithful on the James Bernard music but I thought Vampire Circus was a little lethargic and drawn out to be honest, which is surprising because Phil Martell was present at the recordings, so I am told. I thought Phil would have said something – maybe he has mellowed in his old age.

What would you say was your favourite score for a Hammer film?

Harry Robinson: It’s always difficult when you get asked a question like this. I always feel if I say “Oh, loved that score” I might sound a bit full of myself; do you know what I mean? Well, you will probably be surprised at my answer, I think I prefer Demons of the Mind to any of the others. I also thought the film was very good. It was a horror I suppose but a film that made you think a little. It was to be called Blood will have Blood, but the censors decided that you could not have blood in the title twice – why I am not sure? The film called for a score that obviously matched its storyline, but I also got a chance to be melodic on this picture which was a nice change from all the atonal and loud non-musical stuff. I used traditional instrumentation and enhanced this with a Moog synthesiser. I also liked my score for Countess Dracula, a lot. I tried to infuse some sort of credibility into the sound of the score – I used cimbalom and romantic sounding strings for the main title, which seemed to work well.

You worked on Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde, what happened on this assignment?

I am so glad that you asked me that (laughs). Yes, well, let’s just say that I had artistic differences with the director and the producers. I did not like the movie – I thought it was a rather shoddy production, so I asked Phil Martell to get me off of it. I have one saying in life and that is IF YOU ARE NOT HAVING FUN THEN GET THE HELL OUT and I was certainly having no fun on that film. Phil was great about it and suggested another composer for the picture; David Whitaker I think.

Q: That’s right. It was his first Hammer film I think; so, I suppose he has you to thank for becoming involved with Hammer.

Harry Robinson: Don’t know whether he would say thank you for that or not.

Q: Have you got any particularly fond memories of a movie at all?

Harry Robinson: Well, there was the time when I nearly caused a strike at Hammer. I was on the set of Twins of Evil, where I had to play piano off set for a scene and during a break in the filming, I was talking to one of the movie producers. I picked up a chair and sat in it discussing some things with him and when filming resumed, I forgot to put the chair back where I had got it from. You would not believe how much trouble this caused. The crew were up in arms, the set director went mad – in fact the whole thing came to a standstill. I said sorry very quietly and departed.

So, did that put you off going on location at all? I ask this because some time ago there was a programme on TV called Cinema and they ran a feature on Hawk the Slayer, which you produced I think – it showed footage of you in a very wet forest.

My God. You have got a good memory John, that was an age ago, that’s right I did co-produce Hawk and of course wrote the score. It was unfortunately not a great success. It was at the same time as things like Krull and Dragonslayer were around – both of those flopped as well. Hawk did reasonably well at the cinema because it was a quite low budget film, so we did not have a lot riding on it. I wrote some of the score whilst on location. I would see how the scenes were coming out and then do a bit of writing or just jot down some ideas as and when I got them. It was an interesting experience because I had most of the score ready before the cameras had stopped rolling.

Something like Morricone does with Leone you mean?

Well, I would not say I am in the same league as Morricone but yes, I suppose so. We did try and emulate Kurosawa on Hawk the Slayer with camera angles and the style of direction etc. but I think we sort of leaned more towards Leone in that respect – Hawk being a fantasy western if you like. That’s why the score has little trills and motifs on it when we see the hero or the villain of the piece; it was my homage to Morricone and the spaghetti western score.

There was a rumour that Hawk the Slayer would have a sequel – was this true?

Yes. I did want to do a sequel, but the film studios were very cautious after the bad ratings of the first picture. After all, if a big movie like Krull had bombed what chance did we stand with a film with a fraction of the budget. I did not give up though, I tried to get television companies interested in doing a series based on Hawk; we even went to New Zealand to do some location scouting but it never came to fruition.

Have you ever turned down an assignment or had a score rejected?

Harry Robinson: I have been very fortunate not to have anything thrown out. I of course refused to work on Doctor Jekyll and sister Hyde but other than that, everything has gone according to plan.

You worked with Freddie Francis on The Legend of the Werewolf – what was he like to work with?

Freddie was great, quite a character in fact He knew very little about music, so just let me go my own way on the picture. I can tell you something about directors; not many of them know anything about music but very few of them will admit this, so when you come across someone like Freddie it’s a breath of fresh air.

Did you ever meet up with any of the other composers that worked on Hammer pictures?

Harry Robinson: Can’t say I did. There was the occasional Christmas party but, as I said, I felt like the odd man out in the company of many of them; after all they were real composers, and I was a pop arranger that just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

How long did you normally get to score a movie; maybe you could use Vampire Lovers as an example?

I think I got about four weeks to score that movie; obviously it does vary from assignment to assignment. Countess Dracula, I had six weeks to complete the score and Twins of Evil was about the same. It also depends on the editing on the film; you know, you write a cue, and it sounds good and fits perfectly, and then the editor rings up and says I have had to cut out fifty seconds from that scene and all the timings go out of the window and you must start again. It’s a nightmare sometimes.

At what stage of a project do you like to become involved?

As early as I can get involved really. I do like to see a script, if possible, but the next best thing is to go and see what is happening on set and get a feel for the movie or TV programme. Invariably though, the composer is the last thing that the director will even think of, so we have to come in when the film is in it’s rough cut stage; spot the movie with the director or producer and then go away and have the score ready by the day before we got the job (laughs); well it’s not that bad but nearly.

As a writer and also a producer have you ever hired other composers to score your projects?

No, but obviously I have worked on certain projects and other composers have scored them, as a producer/composer. I am very conscious of both the production side of things and the music. I think that is why I have scored most of my own productions. I don’t think I would leave the composer alone and probably would end up doing it myself or changing things around.

What is Virtual Murder?

That’s a TV series which I co-produced and also wrote the theme for. It was shown on the BBC and we are talking about another series of six episodes. It’s a bit like Dr Who meets The Avengers.

What size orchestra did you use to score the Hammer movies?

Sadly, by the time I got to Hammer the music budgets had been reduced so we had to be a little bit clever. I think we utilised around sixty musicians/players, but this was not all at once; many sessions would just have fifteen to twenty players, so we are not talking about a huge symphony orchestra. I would try and make the music sound fat, or bigger than it was by using strings and brass – I hate what I call spidery sounding music. So, I adapted things to suit each individual film or scene. It was quite easy to make a score sound grand even if we were only using a maximum of thirty musicians. On Lust for A Vampire, I think I started out with fifty players and then reduced them down as we progressed in the scoring schedule. Horror movies in particular need a powerful and atmospheric score; it’s often the music in a horror movie that scares the pants off the audience rather than the gruesome scene on screen.

How do you work your musical ideas out – do you write them straight to manuscript, use a piano or maybe a synth?

Recently, because of my arthritis, I have taken to using a computer. It works rather like a word processor but with music. That way I can store what I have done – but I did use piano at one time. Also, I was a very quick writer, so as you can imagine because of my illness, it is very frustrating when I can’t get the notes down as quickly as I want to. That is why I have not been doing anything musical I am just not able to write quick enough.

So, what is next for Harry Robinson?

Good question – I am still writing scripts and stories; this is easy with the word processor, but I think my days of writing film scores are over. This illness is horrible; I have good days, bad days, and just bloody awful days. Today has been a good day, and I have enjoyed our chat.

So have I. Thank you very much for your time.

Harry Robinson/Robertson passed away on January 17^th 1996 in Wandsworth, London.

A composer who certainly belonged to the world of “Serious Music” was Elisabeth Lutyens, who worked on a few Hammer films, and wrote a groundbreaking soundtrack for the Freddie Francis directed, Amicus films horror The Skull (1965). Born Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens on July 9th 1906, in Bloomsbury London. She began her musical studies in Paris and then continued these at the Royal College of Music.

She was to become the first Female composer to write music for films in Gt Britain. During the early 1930s she made various attempts to break into the world of film scoring, but it was finally via the efforts of Muir Mathieson that she actually became involved in film music, it was because of this well know British movie music icon that Lutyens was given her first scoring assignment in 1944, this was not a full motion picture score however, but was for a Royal Air force newsreel film for which she provided a march entitled Bustle for WAAF,s which was likened in style to the quirky theme and scores that Malcolm Arnold composed for the St. Trinians films was received well.

It was at around the same period that Lutyens also composed music for Crown Film Unit productions in which the composer decided to give the documentaries she worked on music that has more of an epic sound abandoning at this time her normal twelve-tone style approach to composition. After this she became in demand and worked on a further four documentaries and with these completed, she was commissioned to work on several short films. Her approach to scoring films was somewhat different from other composers working in film during this time, Lutyens preferring to wait until the movie was completed or in its rough-cut stage before even viewing it and then deciding what music should be provided, her outlook and opinion of music in film was that it should not be overpowering or overbearing but should underline and maybe punctuate discreetly. Whilst other composers at this time such as Sir Arthur Bliss, saw music as a more integral component and an equal part of the film making process with composers being involved at times long before the cameras had started to roll and the scores running continuously in the background. In 1960, Lutyens began to work more regularly on feature length movies, her first foray into this area being Don’t Bother to Knock, it was at this time that Phil Martell began to work with Lutyens and he would conduct the majority of her work for the cinema, whether it be for Hammer or Amicus and was of the opinion that She had a natural flair and aptitude to create music for film.

It was Martell, who eventually guided her in the art of film scoring and at times was the voice of restraint when Lutyens occasionally employed a more experimental style. But it was her twelve-tone system that attracted Hammer films and othe Horror producing companies to the composer, as her sound and style proved to be more than effective, with the collaboration between Hammer and the composer being very productive, and it is probably true to say that it was Lutyens music for horror films that brought her recognition and monetary security more than any other genre. Dr. Terrors House of Horrors, The Earth Dies Screaming, The Skull, and The Terrornauts. all benefited from Lutyens original and distinctive sound. Her Hammer scores included Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960), and Paranoiac (1963).

Lutyens did not regard her film scores as highly as her concert works, but she still relished being referred to as the “Horror Queen”, which went well with the green nail polish she habitually wore. She, passed away on April 14th 1983. Very little of her film music has been released, which is a great pity, as she was a composer way ahead of her time. There is an interesting suite of music from The Skull on a compilation entitled, Love from A Stranger -Four British Film Scores, which is available now also on digital platforms. I say a suite but in fact it is seven cues from the score, which have been arranged into longer pieces, in many ways the music mirrors the style employed by James Bernard on films such as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, but there are to be fair more hints of melodies, although the majority of Lutyens music is atonal and action led. Which was considered the norm for music in horror movies at this time. It is probably the most interesting section on the compilation;

This is a movie that was based upon the book The Skull of the Marquis De Sade which was penned by Psycho author Robert Bloch. The movie was a moderate success at the box office, but since its original release has become a much-revered addition the British made Horror Genre. Lutyens score was a considerable asset to the movie and the composer really came into her own when scoring an almost twenty-minute dialogue free sequence which occurred in the latter part of the movie. The orchestration of the score is particularly interesting as the composer included inventive use of percussion, brass, organ, cimbalom and two bass clarinets but omitted the use of violins.

The music on this NMC records compilation comprises of an almost eighteen-minute suite. Which includes seven sections from the score. I would not say that this is a typical horror score although it does contain its fair share of foreboding and fearsome sounds. It is a formidable and intelligently constructed work that can easily be put into the category of being classic British film music. The music is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Jac Van Steen.

Elisabeth Lutyens was the first Female composer to work on a Horror score in England, but she was not the only Female composer to write for Hammer Films. Doreen Carwithen wrote the suitably robust and swashbuckling soundtrack to the studios production The Men of Sherwood Forest in 1954 which was conducted and supervised by John Hollingsworth. It was in my own opinion a case of the music being far better than the film it was intended to support. Carwithen was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire on 15th November 1922. As a child she began to take music lessons from her mother who was a music teacher the young Doreen starting both piano and violin with her aged just four. Her Sister Barbara was also highly musical, and the two siblings had perfect pitch. At age sixteen Doreen began composing by setting Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils) to music and wrote a piece for voice and piano. In 1941 she began her training at the Royal Academy of Music and performed cello in a string quartet and would at times play with orchestras. She was a member of the harmony class that was overseen by British composer William Alwyn, who after seeing her enthusiasm and potential also taught her composition. Her overture One Damn Thing After Another, received its premier performance at Covent Garden under the baton of Adrian Boult in 1947. The same year she was selected by the Royal Academy to train as composer of film music on a scheme that was sponsored by J Arthur Rank.

In 1961 she became William Alwyn’s second wife, and decided to change her name to Mary Alwyn, as she disliked the name Doreen, and took her middle name Mary as her Christian name. She later worked as a Sub Professor of Composition at the RAM. She was devoted to her husband and acted as his secretary. After he died in 1985, she decided to establish the William Alwyn Archive and William Alwyn Foundation to promote his music and initiate related research projects. She then also returned to her own music. In 1999 a stroke left her paralysed on one side. She died in Forncett St Peter, near Norwich, on 5 January 2003. During her time as a film music composer, she wrote over thirty scores, her first scoring assignment being for segments of the documentary short, This Modern Age (1946).

Other assignments soon followed and she was particularly busy during the late 1940,s through into the mid-1950,s when she also acted as assistant to Muir Mathieson and at times often acted as an arranger or orchestrator on film scores by other composers, and was used many times to assist composers who were running out of time on certain assignments, most of these she received no credit for. She also composed the music for Elizabeth is Queen in 1953 which was the official film of the coronation her other documentaries included Teeth of the Wind (1953), The Stranger Left No Card (1952) and On the Twelfth Day (1956) where her music took the place of dialogue. Her film music is showcased on an entertaining compilation that is released on Dutton Epoch records.

The compilation which was released in 2011 includes music from a handful of films and projects that Carwithen scored during the late 1940,s and into the early to mid-1950,s. The compact disc opens with an overture from the 1954 Exclusive films or Hammer production The Men of Sherwood Forest as you can probably work out from the title the film is about Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws who in this particular adventure battle to put Richard the Lionheart back on the English throne. The film which was released a while before Hammer decided to resurrect Dracula and friends was directed by Val Guest and is not a movie that would win any awards or indeed be nominated for any, but the rousing and robust musical score which Carwithen penned is certainly an asset to the production. The music is not as glamorous or shall we say as anthem like or lavish as Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s famous foray into writing for the famous long bow archer in tights, but nonetheless it’s a work that is certainly more than just interesting, it has to it a depth and substance that oozes character and also possess subtle but affecting melodies that are fleeting but attractive.

The central themes from the score were taken by Philip Lane and arranged into an overture which can also act as a concert piece, the majority of the more melodious parts of the score came from the opening trumpet flourishes which Lane took as his starting point, it was a well-known fact that Carwithen always wrote the main title or opening themes for her film scores last, firstly concentrating on the main fabric of the score or individual themes for certain characters and then fashioning her main credits theme from all aspects of the score. The Men of Sherwood Forest, is regarded as Carwithen’s finest score and an important milestone in her career which outshone the movie for which it was composed, in fact the composer thought that the film was, and I quote, “Ghastly”.

The performances on this compilation are by the BBC Concert orchestra under the direction of Gavin Sutherland, who has been particularly active in resurrecting British film music and also a champion of light music, the quality of the performances within the compilation are second to none also the sound achieved is authentic and it is as if we are hearing the scores from the films rather than a re-recording. The compilation also includes music from The Boys in Brown (1948). Directed by Montgomery Tully the film included an impressive cast list Richard Attenborough, Barbara Murray, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Warner and Jimmy Hanley, the films storyline focuses on a group of young offenders who are in a Borstal and the governor played by Warner attempts to reform them and turn their lives around. The opening movement, Main Titles and Opening Scene, includes a fanfare of sorts that is performed by trombones, this introduces a taught and dramatic sounding theme that is performed by the string section with violins taking centre stage and being supported by rich but dark cellos that are themselves aided by basses and underlined and punctuated by timpani. The mood of the cue changes quite dramatically as brass and percussion take the piece to a more urgent level, the composer adding low woodwinds and quite sinister and apprehensive strings to create an uneasy mood.

This section more than any of the others included on the compilation for me has a familiar sound to it and reminded me so much of the work of British composer William Alwyn, which I suppose is not surprising as it was Alwyn who schooled Carwithen in composition. Carwithen was given guidance by two giants of film music the aforementioned Alwyn and also Muir Mathieson and it was whilst working as Mathieson’s assistant that Carwithen began to write for film, very often un-credited and stepping in for other composers who for whatever reason had fallen behind deadlines etc.

Carwithen,s first film score was for the 1948 production To The Public Danger directed by Terence Fisher who as we all know was to go on to become one of Hammer studios most prolific and respected directors. Produced by Highbury studios this was in essence a public information film, I say public information as it was a film that was produced to highlight the dangers of drink driving. Carwithen wrote just the opening and closing music for the film which is presented on the compilation in a short arrangement, this was the first of two films that Carwithen scored for Fisher the second being Mantrap in 1952/53 and music from that movie is also included on this compilation in a thirteen-minute suite. It is a compilation worth having and displays the way in which British film music evolved.

Hammer returned to Robin Hood a few times, with director Terence Fisher helming the 1960 movie, The Sword of Sherwood Forest. It starred Richard Greene who reprised his popular TV role as Robin for the big screen in glorious technicolour. The movie also starred Peter Cushing who was excellent as The Sheriff of Nottingham and had a suitably rousing musical score by Welsh Born composer Alun Hoddinott, the composer was not actually a film music composer, in fact during his long and illustrious career as a composer of serious or classical music. Hoddinott working on just this movie but also writing for two or three projects for television, but his main focus was composing music for concert hall performance. The movie also featured Nigel Green as Little John and Richard Pasco as Edward Earl of Newark and included small parts for Oliver Reed and Derren Nesbitt. Basically, it was an extension of what TV audiences had been served up from 1955 through to 1959. The soundtrack also included songs penned by composer Stanley Black. Hoddinott was born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire, Wales. He was educated at Gowerton Grammar school before attending the University College, Cardiff, and later studied privately with Arthur Benjamin. His first major composition, the Clarinet Concerto, was performed at the Cheltenham Festival of 1954 by Gervase de Peyer with the Hallé Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli.

This brought Hoddinott to the attention of many, the composer following this with a string of commissions by leading orchestras and soloists. These commissions continued up to his death, in 2008, he was championed by some of the most distinguished singers and instrumentalists of the 20th century. These include singers such as Dame Margaret Price, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Sir Thomas Allen, Jill Gomez, Sir Geraint Evans and more recently Claire Booth, Helen Field, Gail Pearson, and Jeremy Huw Williams. Instrumentalists have included Ruggiero Ricci, Dennis Brain, Osian Ellis, Cecil Aronowitz, Nia Harries, Roger Woodward and John Ogdon to name but a few, and more recently euphonium player David Childs, cellist Kathryn Price, trombonist Mark Eager and song pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen.

The composer was prolific, writing symphonies, sonatas, and concertos: his style evolved over a long and distinguished career, from the neo-classicism of the Clarinet Concerto to a brand of serialism which allowed a tonal framework to the structure, combining a penchant for dark textures and brooding harmonies like that of another British composer, Alan Rawsthorne. However, his move into opera from 1970 helped to expand his style and range. His music often displayed a brooding, and darkly expressive persona. One of the best examples is his rhapsodic Poem for violin and orchestra, inspired by a line from James Joyce, The Heaven tree of Stars.

Alun Hoddinott was also a gifted teacher and as Professor of Music at University College, Cardiff, was responsible for the expansion of the Department of Music (with a purpose-built building) which became the largest in Europe in the 1980s. Hoddinott taught a number of talented composers during his time at Cardiff, including the Irish composer John Buckley and Welsh composers Karl Jenkins, Jeffrey Lewis, Gwyn Parry-Jones, John Metcalf and Christopher Painter.

It was I think during the 1960’s that Hammer became more prominent and prolific, their horror tales becoming infamous amongst the cinema audiences of the day. But of course, Hammer did turn its hand to other genres, including Sci-Fi, Comedy, Adventure and Drama, and although we do not readily associate the studio with these genres, they made a good job of bringing them to the big screen.

A series of movies that comes to mind is the Prehistoric tales with the likes of Hammer glamour trio Rachel Welch, Victoria Vettri, and Julie Ege sporting those animal skin bikinis, and the stop-go action special effects of dinosaurs doing battle with man and other beasts. One Million Years BC, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Creatures the World Forgot, and the ill-fated Prehistoric Women or Slave Girls as was entitled in some countries.

The first three titles were all successful at the box office, but the lesser-known Prehistoric Women fared not so well, the composer on the movie was Carlo Martelli, who told me in interview about his experience on this movie and his less than fruitful experience with producer/director Michael Carreras.

“Carreras was a total philistine when it came to music. He did not have the remotest feeling for or understanding of it. As for taking an active role in where any music was to be placed, or what style of music etc, he did unfortunately try and do this, in common with many other composers that work in film, I had to sit and listen to vast amounts of preposterous and ill-informed drivel, and whilst doing this try to keep a straight and serious face. It is a sad fact that nowadays many directors, producers and so-called music supervisors are musically illiterate. Many composers such as I have to suffer a great amount of indignity from these people. There is nothing worse than being engaged to score a film, and when the music is ready being told that it is unsuitable or wrong by someone who is tone deaf”.

So, if the composer did not get on with Carreras, why, did he return to Hammer for Slave Girls?

“I suppose it was all down to money again, but Slave Girls was really a favour for Phil Martell, the film was a fiasco, I was deliberately set up on this by Martell, It happened as follows, Phil had not been able to find a composer for the film, I think that Carreras first choice was a European composer but they had turned it down. So, Martell came to me and misled me about the film, he originally told me that the score he required would only be a very sparing one, fifteen minutes at the most. He also said I would have three weeks to complete it. This to me sounded like a schedule made in heaven, it was sheer luxury compared with other scoring assignments. Well in the end it transpired that the movie required fifty minutes of score, and I would have less than ten days to complete it. As a result of this deceit the music I had already written was totally unsuitable, and I had to start again, thus another session had to be booked, which took us way over budget, and then I had to do some re-writes, which again added more to the cost By this time Carreras was very annoyed indeed, but obviously he did not know the full facts of the story, Martell made sure I took all the blame for his mistakes. As a result, I never worked directly for Hammer again”.

Although the composer had bad memories of Slave Girls, his music was still supportive and interesting, the score was never released, but sections of it have made their way onto the likes of You Tube and the odd track has appeared on compilations of music from Hammer movies. The composer scored The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb which was also issued as part of the Hammer film music series on GDI records, listening to the score its sounds as if it is performed by a very large orchestra, I asked the composer what size orchestra was he allowed to utilise for this score?

“I was encouraged to use a larger brass section; this was to achieve a big sound where it was necessary. This section consisted of 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones and 2 tubas. The remainder of the orchestra was made up of, 2 flutes (which doubled as piccolos), cor anglais, bass, clarinet, double bassoon, timpani, percussion, harp, 4 cellos, 14 violins, 3 double basses and a heckelphone. Hammer had only a small budget for music on their films, or at least that is what I was told. But they did employ some of the best musicians around at the time. Thus, the performances were always very good, and by writing in a certain fashion, I was able to make the orchestra sound larger than it actually was”.

Carlo Martelli and fellow composer Gerard Schurmann collaborated on a few things some being Hammer films, so I enquired about their association.

“Gerry, taught me the technique of writing music for film, he had heard a performance of my second symphony on the radio, and had marked me as someone that he would approach if ever he were hard pushed for time on a project and required some assistance. In 1963, I worked with him on two movies, Dr. Syn, and The Ceremony, and then indeed on all of his subsequent film scores. A great deal of the music in these movies is mine, indeed much of it reappears in scores that I have written, so it becomes confusing at times, who has written what. The music for The Ceremony for example was re-cycled and arranged differently and used again on The Lost Continent, so this is why I said I never directly worked for Hammer again but was involved indirectly”.

The scoring process is different for every composer, did Martelli have a set way of scoring a picture,and did he consider the orchestrating of a score as important as the composing?

“I would normally just look at the movie I was asked to score just once. This was normally with either the director or the producer and editor, and in hammers case the MD. We would reach a decision as to where the music was to be placed etc, and then go home and await the cue sheets. I never read a script, this was a pointless exercise, because by the time I would get to scoring the movie, the script had probably been altered umpteen times. I have at times written music for films without seeing them, this was when I was ghost writing for certain composers. As for the question of orchestration, yes, totally, it’s all part and parcel of the same thing. It would be unthinkable to hand over my music to an orchestrator or arranger, and yes, the orchestration of the score is just as important as the composing”.

The scores for the three successful Prehistoric tales as produced by Hammer were by Italian Maestro Mario Nascimbene. Born in Milan, Lombardy Italy as Mario Ernesto Rosolino Nascimbene on November 28th 1913. Mario Nascimbene as he became known was to become one of the most successful Italian film music composers of the 20th Century.

He studied composition and conducting at the Guiseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan under Ildebrando Pizzetti, after which he began to write various pieces of chamber music and ballet’s, he began to write music for Italian motion pictures in the 1940,s, his first assignment being L‘amore Canta (Love Song) in 1941. He was certainly one of the most original composers to come out of Europe during this period as he was not frightened to experiment with sounds, and created a unique electronic process where he enhanced the sound of everyday things turning them into musical instruments of sorts, items such as bicycle bells and typewriters would feature within his soundtracks and even the sound of clocks. The utilisation of this type of experimental writing would be passed on to composer Ennio Morricone who worked with Nascimbene on a handful of film scores, most notably Barabbas in 1961, where Morricone provided additional music.

The composer often incorporated instruments such as the harmonica and jaws harp into his works, which gave it a unique sound, thus attracting film makers from outside of Italy to his somewhat quirky but effective style of scoring. Nascimbene however also wrote more conventional sounding film scores which were highly melodic the composer creating lush and lavish works that were sublime and romantic sounding, these included The Barefoot Contessa A Farewell to Arms Room at the Top, and The Vikings. Nascimbene also worked on the Hammer production The Vengeance of She which was laced with jazz elements in the form of a theme written for tenor sax and strings, that accompanied the young girl at the centre of the film’s storyline. All, of Nascimbene’s Hammer scores were recorded in Rome at the forum studios under the baton of famous musical director Franco Ferrara who also conducted many of his other film soundtracks including Solomon and Sheba,(1959) Alexander the Great (1956) and Romanoff and Juliet (1961), to name but three. He died on January 6th 2002 in Rome Lazio. Nascimbene’s scores for the Hammer dinosaur sagas, were released on both LP record and then to compact disc in Italy by intermezzo music, appearing on the Legend record label, but the sound quality of these recordings was not without distortion, which is something I hope will be remedied at some point in the future.

GDI did include cues from the movies on their compilations, as well as releasing the full score for The Vengeance of She which was paired with James Bernard’s soundtrack for She and presented on one CD.

A composer who scored several movies for Hammer was Don Banks, The Australian-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, trained on piano, saxophone, violin and trombone. The son of a jazz musician, he grew up and was educated in Melbourne. After serving with the Army Medical Corps during the war years, he studied at the University Conservatorium of Music and graduated with a diploma in composition. Banks moved to England in 1950 to continue his training under the Hungarian émigré Matyas Seiber, while supporting himself financially as a sideman in a dance band.

During the fifties he composed a few concertos and chamber music which attracted critical notice. He won several prestigious awards, including the Sir Arnold Bax Society Medal (1959). One of his works, ‘Four Pieces for Orchestra’ was performed by the London Philharmonic in 1954. Due in part to his father’s legacy, he also remained very much steeped in jazz, both as a player and as arranger. He became more prolific as a jazz composer after cultivating a friendship with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth.

The resulting creative partnership spawned a series of works which fused classical music and jazz, including “Settings from Roget” (1966). He later created pieces like ‘Nexus’ (1971), for jazz quartet and symphony orchestra; and ‘Take 8’ (1973) for jazz and string quartet.

Furthermore, Banks was at the cutting edge of combining traditional acoustic instruments with electronics, including using some of the first available synthesizers, eventually becoming a founding member of the British Society for Electronic Music.

Primarily for commercial reasons, Don Banks joined Hammer studios in 1962. He wrote several atmospheric scores for thrillers and horror films, collaborating with two of Hammer’s musical directors Philip Martell and John Hollingsworth. Banks also scored films for Hammer’s rival Amicus at the same time. Outstanding examples of his work for film include his jazzy, typically 60’s ‘film noir’ score for Hysteria (1965); his eerie, dramatic theme for Nightmare (1964), which was full of foreboding and terror, Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966) and the equally polished and diverse score for The Reptile (1966), with its predominant Indian influences. Banks decided to part company with Hammer after five years to resume what he referred to as more serious musical pursuits.

In 1972, he returned to Australia to take up a position with the Canberra School of Music, followed thereafter by appointments to the music board of the Australian Council for the Arts and as head of composition to the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. Physically frail and having had leukaemia for the last eight years of his life, he died in September 1980, aged 56.

Another Australian born composer that worked on Hammer films during the 1960’s and early 1970’s was Malcolm Williamson, again he was what one would refer to as being a serious music composer as in classically trained and writing predominantly for the concert hall. Born on November 21st, 1931, his Father was a Minister and his Mother acted for a living. The composer took an interest in films from an early age and began to focus upon music during his pre-teen years, studying French horn, Piano and Violin at the Sydney Conservatory. The composer later studied composition with Sir Eugene Gossans. Whilst a teenager and growing up in Australia Williamson worked on a handful of documentaries, scoring them with music that was largely atmospheric and atonal as opposed to being melodic with developed thematic properties. In 1950 Williamson travelled to London where he continued to study music under the tutelage of Elizabeth Lutyens and Erwin Stein. In 1952 the composer settled in England and was already at this time in his early twenties considered by many to be a performer of note, with the assistance of Benjamin Britten and Sir Adrian Boult, Williamson had his first works published. The composer has probably contributed to almost all genres of music contributing many works for concert hall performance as well as writing operas, and ballets.

He was introduced to Hammer films musical director John Hollingsworth in 1960, and Hollingsworth suggested that Williamson should write the score to the studios production The Brides of Dracula, this was the second movie in Hammers Dracula cycle, but was not as successful as its predecessor which starred Christopher Lee as the infamous blood sucking Count. It is a movie that has since attained that cult status and is noted for its originality and also its lavish looking cinematography and beautiful sets. The role of Dracula this time being played brilliantly by actor David Peel. In many ways Peel suited the role better than Lee as he had a persona of refinement and sophistication about him that was tinged with shades of virulence, which for me personally seemed to be closer to the Bram Stoker character.

The score was a success for Williamson and is now looked upon as one of Hammers finest soundtracks, it contained organ music which the composer had studied, but did not perform on this score.

After working on Brides of Dracula, the composer began to score numerous documentaries as well as focusing more upon writing symphonic works such as ballets and operas. Hammer contacted the composer on numerous occasions to work on feature films that they had produced, but he was too busy to break away from his writing for the concert hall. It was not until 1969 when Hammer’s new musical director Phil Martell contacted him offering him Crescendo that Williamson agreed to take the assignment. “ I was actually in that movie as well” recalled the composer “I was asked to play the piano in certain scenes so that they could film my hands, this was for authenticity apparently, I even wore James Olsen’s ring on my little finger, I remember my hands were far more hairy than the actors so I had to be shaved before the filming could begin, but I was paid rather handsomely for this”.

The assignment went well for Williamson and the score for Crescendo is probably one of the studios most melodic and romantic sounding works. His next foray into horror territory came in 1970 with The Horror of Frankenstein.

In interview the composer recalled that this was not such a pleasing experience for him. “ I had specific ideas about the sound that I wanted to create for the film, I planned to use clarinets which would start with piccolo clarinet to double bass clarinet there would be eight in total which would be supported or underlined by strings and percussion. But things did not go entirely to plan and I was asked to add flutes and also oboe which I did reluctantly, this resulted in the sound becoming more of a conventional woodwind sound, which for me completely defeated the object and diluted the sound that I was attempting to create. I also used the tuba to accompany the monster in the film, which was a mistake on my part, it did not really work that well and made the character seem clumsy and awkward, or so I thought at the time, but seeing it in later years maybe it was not that awful, maybe I just did not understand what the studio was trying to achieve, but I was not the only one. Ralph Bates who I knew personally was the leading actor in the movie and he too was not pleased with how the film was going. It was an attempt to combine Hammer horror with comedy or satire, which just did not work”.

In 1973 Williamson composed the score for Nothing but the Night, which was a Charlemagne films production, the company had been set up by actor Christopher Lee and Anthony Keys and Nothing but the Night, was their first release. In 1975 Williamson was appointed The Master of the Queens Music and was the first non-Briton to take up the position writing music for Royal Occasions. In 1976 he was awarded the CBE. In 1984 Williamson scored his fifth and final film score which was for the Sherlock Holmes thriller, The Masks of Death. The soundtrack included a lavish sounding waltz and a wonderful typically British sounding military march. Malcolm Williamson passed away in Cambridge on March 2nd, 2003.

Williamson like several composers who wrote scores for Hammer worked with both John Hollingsworth and later Phillip Martell, the latter has always been looked upon as more of a conductor or musical director, but in fact Martell was a fine composer in his own right.

The name of Phillip Martell is now synonymous with the Hammer horror movies of the mid 1960, s through to the early 1980’s. Martell was born in the east end of London in 1915, he came from a very poor family but because he was attracted to the sounds of the violin coming from a neighbouring house where a music teacher , the young Martell set his heart of being able to play violin. His Father managed to get together enough money to buy a violin for his son and at the age of five Martell began to practise. As he grew and became more proficient Martell was advised to go to the Guildhall school of music and sit the entrance exam, he did this and passed. He began to study at the school under the tutorship of Benoit Hollander who more or less immediately saw the potential in the young Martell, after a while under the guidance of Benoit, Martell aged just eleven years got a scholarship at the Guildhall this would run for three years and at the age of fourteen he was awarded another scholarship which again gave him another three years of study. He continued under the watchful gaze of Hollander until he was fifteen when to earn some money Martell began to play in orchestras that were in cinema’s accompanying silent movies. This was something that Hollander was not keen on as it meant that his star student was wasting time performing when he could be practising to become what Hollander had envisaged for him a top concert violinist. Martell began to have a change of direction at this time and started to work in music more as a job and a way of earning money, rather than aspiring to be a great performer. He remained at the Guildhall at this time, taking lessons in piano and studying composition and harmony. Martell managed to get a job in a west end theatre as violinist and soon established himself as a talent and was given the position of lead n the orchestra. It was whilst at the theatre that the conductor was taken ill, and the theatre manager asked Martell to step in and conduct the orchestra which he did. It was at this time that Martell first met Val Guest, who then began to ask Martell to act as musical director on films that he directed such as Miss Pilgrims Progress, in 1950 and Mister Drakes Duck, in 1951.

Martell took to film scoring with relative ease because of his experience in performing for silent movies and because of his time in the theatre. Two years after Mr Drakes Duck Martell moved to Angel Productions and it was here that he worked on Cosh Boy amongst others, Val Guest still wanted Martell to be involved with the music for his movies so in 1954 he asked Martell to work on The Runaway Bus and later The Lyons in Paris.

In 1963 Martell was asked to be the musical supervisor for Hammer and began by taking up where John Hollingsworth had left off on the Don Banks score The Evil of Frankenstein. Martell returned to Hammer in 1964 to supervise and conduct Hysteria and that is where he remained until 1978 finishing his time with Hammer on the company’s final movie The Lady Vanishes. But he did return to the podium as it were for Hammers television productions Hammer House of Horror in 1980 and then worked on two episodes of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense in 1983. Martell did not confine himself to working on hammer productions however and during the 1960,s through to 1985 he acted as supervisor on movies such as, Dr Bloods Coffin, Die Monster Die, The Horror of it All, Brides of Fu Manchu, The Frozen Dead, Dr Terrors House of Horrors, The Skull, The Ghoul, The Legend of the Werewolf, Masks of Death, and The Terrornauts, to name but a few. He worked with Amicus films and Tyburn, pictures, one of his last supervisory assignments was to be present at the recording of the milestone release from Silva Screen records Music from the Hammer Films, the label had hoped that Martell would conduct the sessions but due to ill health he was unable to, and Neil Richardson took his place. Philip Martell passed away in 1993 he had suffered a stroke in 1988 and never really recovered from that. Martell was a musical giant an immense talent and without his contributions I know that British film music would have sounded very different. James Bernard worked with Martell probably more than any other composer involved on Hammer productions, with Don Banks running a very close second, Martell was known for being quite stern, but he got results, and Hammer’s musical legacy is a fine example of his attention to detail and to assigning the right composer to each film.

Although sometimes things did not always go to plan, as in the 1972 movie Dracula AD 1972.

Music composing duties altered on this production, Hammer, not commissioning James Bernard, but instead turning to Mike Vickers, the score does its job and supports and enhances where it needs to, the former Manfred Mann group member provided the film with a funky sounding pop orientated score which although many said was inappropriate at the time, works very well in the context of the film adding much atmosphere to the proceedings. It certainly was a modern sounding work for a Hammer movie but also contains some of the elements that are familiar from the preceding Hammer Dracula’s, and even has references and nods of acknowledgement to the familiar Dracula theme or a deviation of it at least by James Bernard.

Vickers incorporating the familiar Dra-cu-la motif it into the fabric of the score. It includes some other composing traits that Bernard employed, these are more prominent within the opening cue, as Vickers utilises growling brass and rumbling percussion to depict the Counts demise in the pre-credits sequence. This was under the instruction of Phil Martell, who greatly admired Bernard’s music, and was said to be reluctant to have Vickers as composer on the picture. Vickers was falling behind schedule on the film so Martell, asked Don Banks to step in and provide additional music cues for the film. Vickers was not offered the next instalment of the Hammer Dracula cycle.

Which was The Satanic Rites of Dracula, Hammer wanted a more contemporary sound for the movie, so American composer John Cacavas was assigned to the picture. He had scored Horror Express the year before and his music had received a great deal of interest and praise. Cacavas formed a friendship with actor Telly Savalas whilst working on the movie in London, and it was Savalas that asked him to provide the theme and scores for the popular TV series Kojak for which he become known for, providing the scores and alternate opening themes between 1973 and 1978. John Cacavas was born in Aberdeen South Dakota USA in 1930. His father was a Greek immigrant his mother an American. Cacavas displayed an aptitude for music at an early age and began his career at the age of 14, when he formed a band. He went onto study music formally at The Northwestern University. During the 1970’s Cacavas, worked on several popular TV series which included, Hawaii Five-O, The Bionic Woman, Mrs Columbo, and Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century. He also scored a handful of TV Movies, such as Superdome and The Time Machine. The composer did work on feature films, but his work for the silver screen was overshadowed by his music for TV. Movies he composed for included Airport 75 and 77, Hangar 18, Gangster Wars, and they’re Playing with Fire. The composer wrote an upbeat and serviceable score for The Satanic Rites of Dracula, the music still had moments that were a reminder and a nod to the older Dracula soundtracks but there was a new and fresher sound present, that underlined the narrative perfectly.

The film too was far better than its predecessor, full of action and was certainly an interesting slant on the story of Dracula, it had an impressive cast, this included, Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, Peter Cushing as Lorrimer Van Helsing, Michael Coles as Inspector Murray, William Franklyn as Peter Torrence, Joanna Lumley as Jessica Van Helsing, Richard Vernon as Colonel Mathews, Barbara Yu Ling as Chin Yang and Freddie Jones as Dr Julian Keeley. It was a violent film in places even by Hammer’s standards, but the studio was attempting to attract younger audiences, and the House of Horror were finding it difficult with rival studios attracting audiences that Hammer wanted, with movies such as Count Yorga and its sequel both being popular, and both set in contemporary times. The Satanic Rites of Dracula was to be the last Hammer Dracula film that starred Christopher Lee, the actor had become disillusioned with the way in which the studio was heading with the storylines.

However, Dracula did return in The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, and so did James Bernard. And although the film was not to everyone’s taste, it still attracted attention. The production was a joint venture between Hammer in the UK and Shaw Brothers in China, because the appeal of Hammer horror’s seemed to be diminishing the studio thought that they would attempt to attract attention via combining the story of Dracula with the genre of Martial Arts which was at that time popular with British cinema audiences after a glut of Chinese movies were dubbed into English and began to do the rounds at the cinema’s. Peter Cushing played Van Helsing, with the glamour provided by Julie Ege, with Robin Stewart as Leyland Van Helsing, and the Count portrayed by actor John Forbes-Robertson, with the voice of the Count being provided by David de Keyser.

The movie did not get a release in America until 1979, and was re-titled The seven Brothers meet Dracula, which really does not have the same hook as the original title, sounding more like a comedy than a horror. Composer James Bernard returned to write the score which had a distinct Chinese style to it. It is probably one of the lengthiest scores for a Dracula movie, the composer writing over an hour of music for the film. He then composed a Chinese sounding March for an album that was released that included dialogue from the movie or at least a story based upon the movie.

The original score was not issued until many years later, but in my opinion the music far outshines the movie and is a highpoint of Bernard’s career. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, Hammer’s final foray into the Dracula legend was met with mixed reactions and is not the studios finest moment. James Bernard scored twenty-two movies for Hammer, and he worked on two episodes of the company’s television series The Hammer House of Horror which was aired by the independent television companies during the 1980’s. Bernard is without a doubt the composer who is mostly associated with Hammer, his music for the Dracula cycle being the most prominent. Actor Christopher Lee made many an entrance as the prince of darkness accompanied and heralded by James Bernard’s vibrantly chilling chords.

The Dracula theme as it is now widely known is a simple three chord phrase that musically actually says Dra-cu-la. The three chords conjure up perfectly the atmosphere and create that mood of dark foreboding, with an underlying tense and urgent sense of impending doom. James Bernard was born in the Himalayas, the son of a British army officer. He spent much of his early life on the northwest frontier.

His career as a film music composer began back in 1955, when he scored the Quatermass Experiment. The film was very successful for Hammer, and it was this initial encounter with the house of horror that would lead Bernard into a career as a composer of film scores, and an association with the studio that was to last some nineteen years. In 1947, Bernard left the Royal Air Force and enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London. Bernard had met Benjamin Britten during his last term at school in 1943, and Britten had advised him that if he wanted to write music as a career, he would have to get a proper grass roots musical education. To get this, Bernard would be advised to enrol into one of the better music colleges, so when the time of Bernard’s de-mobilisation was nearing, he contacted Britten, who suggested the Royal College of Music, “As an ex-serviceman, I managed to get a grant from the government”, recalled the composer. He attended the college for two years, where studied composition with Herbert Howells, “He was a gentle and very charming man, who was a patient and very kind teacher, not at all severe, and as a composer in my opinion is much underrated and somewhat neglected”, said James. Mr. Bernard studied piano with Kendall Taylor, but soon realised that it was not really his destiny to become a concert pianist. At times Bernard would see Benjamin Britten, who encouraged the young and aspiring composer in his attempts at writing and in his musical studies. When the time came for James to leave college, he had really made up his mind that he wanted to compose and just that, he recalled: “Before I left college I was asked to go and see the registrar, this was a composer whose name was Hugo Anson. He asked me what I intended to do now that I was leaving the Royal College of Music, so I told him that I was going to make a career out of writing music, hopefully making a living out of doing this. To which Anson laughingly replied, oh, you can’t do that, that is only for people like Vaughn Williams, Benjamin Britten and William Walton, and their like. I decided that it would be better to say nothing to him, so I kept quiet and said my farewells.”

During the time between leaving college and earning a living from composing music, Bernard endured a rather sparse period, artistically speaking. This period lasted for about twelve months or so, during which time the composer tried to break into the appropriate musical circles. It was Benjamin Britten who came to the rescue. Britten telephoned James and told him that he was writing an opera called Billy Budd, would he copy out the vocal score as he wrote it? “Ben said would you come and do it, of course I leapt at the chance,” said the composer. So, James went to Suffolk, where he lived on and off whilst working with Britten. During the time that he worked on the opera Billy Budd, James met the tenor Peter Peers, E.M. Foster and Imogen Holst, who in Bernard’s words was “A remarkable, highly gifted and talented composer, conductor and teacher. She was also quite a plain and unaffected person, she had her hair parted in the middle with a bun at the back, she wore no make-up, but her personality absolutely shone. Imogen felt that Britten had continued where her father Gustav had left off.” James spent at least a year working alongside these gifted and very talented people, learning from them, and drawing on their considerable expertise and vast experience, all the time being inspired by them. After the opera was finished Bernard moved on, but stayed in contact with Britten, and continued to study composition under the tutorship of Imogen Holst, which Britten had advised him to do. In fact, Bernard was still receiving instruction from her when he began to work for the B.B.C. He began to write music for radio plays,

“At about this time a very good writer friend of mine, Paul Dehn, was doing work for the B.B.C. and it was via Paul that I had managed to meet a lot of people that were associated with radio. My first opportunity to compose music for a play came when I was asked to write the music for The Death of Hector, this was based on an episode of Homer’s Iliad and was directed by Val Gielgud, who was Sir John’s brother.” After this first foray into composing for a play on radio, James received several commissions and assignments at the B.B.C. He worked on new and classical plays; among them Dr. Faustus and The Duchess of Malfi, and it was because of scores such as this that James was to begin a career in film music and was offered The Quatermass Experiment.

The Curse of Frankenstein(1957) was a breakthrough work for Bernard, as it was this score that the composer was allowed to use a full orchestra under the supervision of John Hollingsworth. Hammer scores always gave the impression of being really large scale, and being performed by a huge symphony orchestra, this was in fact not the case. The orchestras assembled for a Hammer film score often numbered thirty to forty musicians, the music budgets on these movies were quite low and did not allow for an orchestra any larger, but the orchestra was often made up of some of the best musicians around at the time as the composer explained. “I was rather spoilt, because of the very talented people that the orchestra was made up of – these were highly respected and very distinguished musicians, and some of the most talented at their particular trade, and I was very fortunate to have them perform my music. Hugh Bean was usually leader, and then there was Jack Brymer on first clarinet with Leon Goosens on first oboe. This was the standard of the musicians throughout the orchestra that had been assembled; all of them were first class performers”.

The use of these very talented individuals was mainly due to Hammer’s musical director during the 1950’s and early 1960’s, John Hollingsworth; he was also musical director at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and because of his association with the opera house Hollingsworth often used members of the orchestra there to perform on a soundtrack for a Hammer movie. James recalled memories of Hollingsworth, Dods and Martell who were all Hammer MD’s that he worked with.

“John was a wonderful conductor, he gave many composers their start in film music, and these included Malcolm Arnold, Malcolm Williamson, and Richard Rodney Bennett. He was not the sort of musical director that would be constantly looking over your shoulder or calling you up to see how things were going, in fact he very often did not look at the score until the night before we were due to record it. He trusted the composers to use their own judgement, but of course if something was not right, he would very quickly point it out and advise and assist in putting things in order. I could always go to John if I had a problem on anything. He was an extremely busy man, as well as being musical director at Covent Garden he was also assistant to Sir Malcolm Sargeant, which meant that he would often conduct proms etc. After John died in 1964, Hammer were without a permanent musical supervisor for about a year, and this is when Marcus Dods became involved with Hammer, he conducted only two of my scores The Gorgon (1964) and The Secret of Blood Island (1965).

He was very good, I always found him to be charming and very skilful Marcus was temporary supervisor of music for Hammer for a period of twelve months, after Marcus came Phil Martell, and he was appointed resident musical director and supervisor. Now Phil did tend to want more involvement on the scores and he did have a far more active role than his predecessors, but never to the point where he would actually alter any of my music. He was really a quite excellent conductor. He knew instinctively where music should be placed on film, and because of his intuitive knowledge and craftsmanship in the placing of music it was able to add a far greater effect, giving the scene or sequence far more atmosphere and depth. Phil and I would spot the films together; we would go through them reel by reel, scene by scene, planning what type of music was best suited to the scene and if indeed a particular piece of film should be scored at all. This was something that I also did with John Hollingsworth when he was musical supervisor. From time-to-time directors would sit in on the sessions, which could be helpful. One director that never came to any of these sessions was Terence Fisher. He of course was Hammers star director, he always said that he was not musical at all and was very happy with what I was doing. Phil Martel was the perfect person to be a music director, especially when time was pressing and the tension mounting, as it often does at recording sessions for film scores. He had the iron control that is required of a conductor at times such as these.

It was Phil that got together several of the old Hammer film composers to work on the company’s television series, The Hammer House of Horror. I scored two of the episodes in the first series, The House that Bled to Death and Witching Time. The latter I thought managed to perfectly capture some of the old Hammer films atmosphere, the other episode was more of a murder thriller type story rather than an actual horror. On the scores for the television series, we used a reduced size orchestra, but it seemed to work very well. Phil Martell also used a few young composers on this series. Phil did ask me to write some music for the second series, but by this time I had already moved to Jamaica, and it would have been rather awkward for me to work like this. The second series also was a little different from the first, in that it tended to lean more towards the psychological thrillers as opposed to horror, which is something that Hammer seemed to be moving towards at that time.”

She is one of James Bernard’s favourite scores, but it also caused him a fair number of headaches and sleepless nights.

“She, required a lot of music, a great deal more music than any other Hammer film that I had scored before. I remember having to work through the night, and at one point I got terribly stuck I decided that I would leave the work and go and have a few hours’ sleep, and after I had done so, I returned to the problem and thankfully very quickly solved it.”

Writing music for movies must be a rather arduous and very demanding task at the best of times, and many composers in the 90’s began to employ an array of technical gadgetry to assist them in their quest for the appropriate music for a picture. Also, in recent years the job of the orchestrator has become more and more prominent; composers often use more than one orchestrator, in fact up to sixteen in some cases. I asked the composer what he thought of this practice?

“I have always done most of my own orchestrations, although there have been a few exceptions. For example, The Kiss of the Vampire, do you remember the scene where all the vampires meet at Dr Ravna’s castle for a masked ball, they needed a sequence of waltzes that had to be written in the Viennese style. I had already written the waltzes in advance of the main score, because they needed them for when they were filming those particular scenes. I then had to move on and start work on the score itself, I did not have the time to orchestrate the waltzes, so I asked John Hollingsworth to get somebody to do it for me, he managed to engage Douglas Gamley, who did a marvellous job.

The only other time that I had someone do orchestrations for me was on The Damned, and this was for the rock music that was required on the soundtrack. I must admit though, when I do a score, I am always very doubtful about what instrument should be playing which particular piece. I do like to sketch out the complete score first, I like to work out timings and make notes on probable orchestration. At this stage the music is written on two or three staves, or maybe more if the music is particularly complex. I then begin to orchestrate, I sit down with the twenty-four stave manuscript in front of me and begin to fill it up, but even at this stage of the proceedings I will often have second thoughts and change things, but this is all part of the composing process.”

And what was his opinion of electronic music in film? “Electronics on film scores can sometimes be very effective, especially if they are used as a support for conventional instruments. I have never used a synthesiser as such, but this does not mean that I am opposed to them if a director asked me to use one or incorporate one into a score I would obviously oblige and accommodate them as best I could. I did in fact use a type of keyboard which was electronic on my score for The Gorgon, it was played in unison with a soprano voice. This produced an effective and haunting sound that was the voice of the Gorgon, and it was this call that beckoned victims to their fate. Hammer has always preferred to have orchestral scores for their movies, especially the gothic horrors, and I believe these types of films do need symphonic scores rather than synthesised ones. Electronics would not be able to create the correct atmosphere for Dracula, Frankenstein, and their like”.

When writing a score for a movie at what stage of the production did Mr. Bernard like to become involved? “As early as possible, I like to see a script if one is available, and then I know exactly what the film is all about. I can then start to think of possible thematic material. I am always pleased if there is a chance for me to write something that is romantic, it comes as a pleasant break from all the horror stuff. Although I can remember being asked to take a softer approach on one of the Hammer Dracula movies. Taste the Blood of Dracula, was directed by Aida Young and she told Phil Martell that she felt that the score that I had composed was far too discordant. She thought that a more romantic approach was required. At first, I was very cross indeed. I thought how dare she, but one carries on. So, I wrote a love theme called ‘The Young Lovers’, and I must admit it worked very well indeed, and it is one of my personal favourites, along with She and The Devil Rides Out. Normally the next part of the scoring process is to see the fine or rough cut of the film, it is then that one can begin to work out the precise timings and make a start on the detailed score. Things are seldom as easy as one might think. When one has planned a section with all the timings just so. the editor will often ring you up and say that he has cut out something like twenty feet of film out of a particular scene. So, all the timings and calculations go out of the window. It is at times such as this that I normally go and pour myself a stiff drink. Of course, music is sometimes required whilst filming is taking place, like on The Kiss of the Vampire with the waltzes or on She when I had to compose some music for the scene at the beginning of the film that took place in a Cairo night club. These are usually separate pieces that do not disrupt the build-up of the main musical score”.

There is another side to James Bernard that maybe film music collectors are not aware of. He actually won the prestigious Oscar for the best original film story this was for a thriller entitled Seven Days to Noon. The film was released in 1951 and garnered the young Bernard and his friend Paul Dehn an Oscar each. “Basically, Paul and I concocted this story and Paul wrote it down. We then sold it to Boulting Brothers, and to our surprise got Oscars for our trouble. The ceremony that we had was very different from all the glittering razzmatazz that we see nowadays, in fact it was not a ceremony at all. We did not get to go and receive our awards in America; we found out that we had won via an article in one of the London evening papers. A few weeks later a representative from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences arrived at our home in Chelsea, with him he had a cardboard box, which contained our Oscars. It was a case of one quick drink, a handshake and, well, that was it really, no fanfares and certainly no lengthy acceptance speeches.”

It is a great pity that the master tapes for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula by James Bernard were in such poor condition that they could not be restored, but thankfully James Fitzpatrick’s label Tadlow music re-recorded both classics and released them on one CD and on a double LP set. The scores were performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic, conducted by Nic Raine. And were a faithful re-creation of both for the most part, although I did notice a slight difference in tempo on the Dracula recording. But this is a small price to pay to hear this glorious music in full. Bernard’s Hammer scores all have in common a distinct harrowing but at the same time attractive appeal and atmosphere, and this is mostly because of the composer’s use of crashing and conflicting harmonies, which he created by doubling a motif a tone higher, which is displayed to perfection in his ominous Dracula theme.

The composer’s music at times is virulent, frenzied, and racing, with timpani and other percussive elements setting the pace, with the snares often adding punctuation. But there are glimpses throughout of romantic interludes or at least hints of them, the composer often did not have the opportunity to integrate these into his scores, but on the rare occasions he did they were glorious, as in Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Scars of Dracula and most notably Frankenstein Created Woman.I think one of the most exciting and exhilarating pieces of music written for a Hammer horror has to be The Final Battle cue from Dracula(1958), James Bernard’s score underlines and supports the sequence perfectly, filled with foreboding, terror, chaos and action, with the cue coming to a close in a glorious crescendo of brass and strings as we see the infamous count Dracula turn to dust before our eyes, all that is left is his signet ring as his body turns to dust, which t is blown away on the breeze. Thankfully this cue was included on the Tadlow recording.

LISTEN TO HOW THE MUSIC WORKS WITH THIS ICONIC SEQUENCE.

Phil Martell added a few new names to the Hammer scoring rota, when he took over as musical director.

One of these was composer John McCabe, who produced a distressing and taught sounding score for Fear in the Night (1972). The tense and chilling musical score is quite stunning. McCabe who was more a composer of what was termed serious music for the concert hall, made just a handful of excursions into the world of movie music, and sadly the soundtrack for Fear in The Night was never released in its entirety, but a suite of music from McCabe’s dark and edgy score did make an appearance on a Hammer long playing record which was Hammer Presents Dracula on the EMI label, and later was re-issued onto CD by Silva Screen records.

An interview I conducted with the composer was sadly misplaced and lost, although it was published in an early Music from the Movies magazine which too is proving elusive.

Martell also engaged Chris Gunning for The Hands of the Ripper (1971). A suite of Gunning’s music from the movie was in the line up on Music from the Hammer Films again released by Silva Screen as a re-recording. Gunning also scored Hammers Man About the House which transported the TV sit com to the big screen in 1974.

HANDS OF THE RIPPER CHRISTOPHER GUNNING.

He also assigned David Whittaker to a handful of films. I spoke to the composer back in the 1990’s.

How did he become involved with Hammer films?

“A lot of years before I started to do things for Hammer, I had contacted Phil Martell asking him if he would be able to conduct one of my scores, I wanted to be in the sound box with the engineer to supervise the proceedings. Unfortunately, because of a very small budget I could not afford Phil. But as a sort of thank you for thinking of him he called me and asked if I was available to score a picture for Hammer. Of course,

I was thrilled to do this, and the film turned out to be Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde. I know that the film was being worked on by another composer who had certain disagreements with the producers, but I got along fine with them. I then was asked to do Vampire Circus, I always remember seeing the film for the first time and thinking how camp the Vampire was at the start of the film, but I kept that to myself”.

VAMPIRE CIRCUS.

What size orchestra did you use on Vampire Circus, because it sounds like a huge symphony orchestra?

“It certainly was not huge, after seeing the film I decided that it needed a big orchestral score, at that time Hammer’s formula for an orchestra line up was around one hundred and twenty musicians, and it was up to the composer how those players were utilized. With some guidance from Phil Martell, I spread them out as I saw fit, I think we used about sixty players for each session”.

What was Phil Martell like to work with?

“Phil did have a bit of a reputation, he however was ok with me, I don’t think we disagreed about a lot of things, and any difference of opinion was always handled diplomatically. He was always quite serious, and although there were not many light moments with him, I think we hit it off both professionally and outside of the studio”.

THATS YOUR FUNERAL.

Whitaker also scored Hammer’s less than successful comedy That’s Your Funeral (1973).David Sinclair Whitaker was a composer who became familiar to collectors of soundtracks, and cinema goers alike. His contributions to the world of motion pictures have been both varied and memorable, and although he did not work on hundreds of movies, he certainly made his mark on the films he was involved with. He also made a name for himself composing and arranging for artists such as The Rolling Stones and Lisa Stansfield. The composer sadly passed away in January 2012.

Composer Leonard Salzedo, worked for Hammer films and for the 1958 release of The Revenge of Frankenstein, Hammer turned to Leonard Salzedo to compose the music. Salzedo was born in London on September 24th, 1921, his interest in music began at the age of just seven and he started to experiment with composition at the age of twelve. On leaving school the young Salzedo began to study piano as well as continuing his violin lesson which he had started whilst attending school. He later took lessons in harmony with William Lloyd-Webber and finally enrolled at the Royal college of music in 1940. Whilst there his violin tuition was provided by Isolde Menges, plus he was tutored by Herbert Howells in composition, Sir George Dyson in conducting, Dr Gordon Jacob in orchestration and finally received lesson in Chamber Music from Ivor James. Salzedo remained at the college throughout the second world war and completed his studies in 1944. Between 1950 and 1966 Salzedo composed a number of works for concert hall performances well as performing as a violinist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was also during this period of his career that Salzedo acted as musical assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham, and it was Beecham who conducted Salzedo’s first symphony in 1956. Two years before this, however Salzedo had completed his first film score for the Hammer studios, which was The Stranger Came Home directed by Terence Fisher. “I got The Stranger Came Home because of Malcolm Arnold” Salzedo explained. “I had told him I was very keen to write music for the cinema so Malcolm spoke with John Hollingsworth who was Hammer’s musical director at the time”. Salzedo continued his association with Hammer for several years, but The Revenge of Frankenstein would be his final Hammer credit for over two decades. “I was asked to score the Frankenstein movie because James Bernard was not available at the time. It was John Hollingsworth who approached me to work on the movie and he would direct the music, but during the scoring process john became very ill and was unable to work he had been told to rest by his doctors, so it was Muir Mathieson who conducted my score of course he was another great talent in the film music arena”.

Although Salzedo wrote the music for six Hammer movies and one episode of Hammer House of Horror for television the composer’s music does appear in The Curse of the Werewolf (1960), which contained an original score by Benjamin Frankel, for some reason a short sequence of the movie contained music by Salzedo for which he was not credited. “I am not quite sure how this happened” said Salzedo. “I think maybe the producers wanted a particular sequence scored and it was easier to just track my music to the movie rather than got back to Ben Frankel and ask him to provide more music”.

Benjamin Frankel was born in London in 1906, he had originally served as an apprentice to a watchmaker, he became a proficient pianist and played violin, he began to study music composition at the Guildhall School of Music in London in 1923. His career in music began as a jazz violinist, mainly in night clubs and he also performed with bands aboard ships. He worked as a musical director in London’s West End which included working on productions and shows by Cochrane and Noel Coward. In 1949 Frankel scored the thriller Night and the City but his music was removed from the film outside of England because of contractual disputes and the movie was re-scored by Franz Waxman, it was not until 2003 that Frankel’s music was heard outside of the U.K. and it is thought that if his music had remained intact on the American print of the movie it would have been the breakthrough that the composer so richly deserved. One of his best loved pieces of music was actually an enchanting number which is essentially light music but was featured in the movie So Long After The Fair which starred a fresh faced jean Simmons and a handsome young actor named Dirk Bogarde in 1950. When the film was first released it was this piece that attracted most people and because of its popularity was recorded by Charles Williams and his orchestra, and more recently has appeared on a recording from the Marco Polo records stable. The composer also wrote a similar haunting piece for A Kid for Two Farthings, which was an enchanting British movie from 1955, which starred Diana Dors and David Kosoff, again Frankel’s music was recorded by another orchestra and George Melachrinois is probably the composer who most think wrote the charming piece.

Frankel worked on several Ealing comedies one of the most prominent being The Man in the White Suit, (1951). But it is probably the composers more robust and complex writing for cinema that he is best remembered for, Battle of the Bulge, Curse of the Werewolf and The Night of the Iguana etc all contained striking and vibrant scores. Frankel seemed to be more at home or at least more comfortable when writing complex and even more extreme sounding music for film, but even within the extreme music for Curse of the Werewolf the composer does at one point return to a more simple, more melodic style in a delightful pastoral piece which itself in many ways echoes the composers work on So Long at the Fair.

Apart from and as well as his music for film the composer has written extensively for the concert hall and based many of his compositions of serious music on a personal version of the twelve-tone serial technique, which he also employed within several of his scores for the cinema, stretching the tonality of his music to the limit, with effective and resounding results.

He died on February 12th, 1973, in London. Frankel’s music on The Curse of the Werewolf is highly original and at the time of it’s composition was thought of as being something of an experimental and modern approach to scoring a movie, but it supported, punctuated and embellished superbly the scenes of horror and mayhem that were unfolding up on the screen, driving the action and underlining the terror and almost chaotic and frenzied marauding of the werewolf in its search for blood. Frankel’s score also I think created a greater atmosphere of urgency and a sense of sadness and frustration. Naxos records released a re-recording of the score, and the thirty-five-minute re-recording of the score is certainly well worth investing in, it is performed with an abundance of energy by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, who launch themselves into the performance under the baton of world-renowned composer/conductor the late Carl Davis. The compact disc also contains a suite of music from Frankel’s score to the 1950 movie So Long at the Fair, the love theme from The Net (1953) and over thirty minutes of music from the 1955 movie The Prisoner which is a world premiere recording. The disc is presented well with striking artwork and contains some very informative notes by the composer’s stepson Dimitri Kennaway. The Curse of the Werewolf was also represented on the Silva Screen Horror compilation, in the form of a suite.

Richard Rodney Bennett was a composer of serious orchestral works, jazz songs and music for stage and screen. Within his concert hall repertoire his most famous compositions include a First Symphony, a piano concerto and four string quartets, as well as scores for operas, such as the dramatic “The Mines of Sulphur“. Bennett was born into an artistic family (his mother was a pianist and composer, his father a writer of children’s books), Bennett wrote a cantata, “Put Away the Flutes“, while still in his early teens. He enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1953, graduating from there three years later. He subsequently continued his studies under the Avant Garde French composer/conductor Pierre Boulez in Paris, eventually becoming proficient at fusing jazz and serial techniques, in addition to mastering jazz piano. In 1959 Bennet scored the Hammer movie The Man Who Could Cheat Death, (under the name of Richard Bennett). John Hollingsworth who was the companies MD, had noticed Bennett and brought him on board to score the movie. The composer returned to Hammer in 1965 when he wrote the music for The Nanny which starred Bette Davies, he then worked on The Witches for the studio in 1966.

He was a composer who easily describes the saying Chameleon like, with much of his best film music being strongly jazz infused, notably The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). Other well-known scores include the romantic, melodic themes for Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974), the latter two garnering both Oscar and Grammy Award nominations.

The composer re-located to New York in 1979, where his Second Symphony had been commissioned by Leonard Bernstein eleven years earlier. Bennett’s fondness for jazz was given free rein in the 1990’s, when he began to play jazz piano in cabaret, including performances at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London and a season at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, invariably accompanied by vocalists Claire Martin or Marian Montgomery. He had also held the international chair of composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1994 to 2000. He died in 2012.

Tristram Cary, pioneer of electronic music.

Another composer who worked for Hammer films was Tristram Cary. Born in Oxford England on May 14^th 1925, Tristram Ogilvie Cary was the third child of the novelist Joyce Cary and Gertrude Margaret Cary (nee Ogilvie). He was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford and Westminster School, London. He served in the Royal Navy between 1943 and 1946, which interrupted his education, whilst in the Navy; Cary developed independently the idea that was to eventually become tape music. Upon his demob from the service, Cary took a BA at Oxford and then headed for London, where he studied composition, piano, horn, conducting and viola. The composer passed away in 2008, aged 82. The Composer at the time of this interview was living in Australia, so the questions and the answers were sent by letter as it was a little while before the World Wide Web had become such a vital part of our lives back in August 1996.

I began by asking the composer who he studied with whilst he attended Trinity College of Music in London?

“I studied with a number of people, Alec Rowley and George Oldroyd for composition, James Murray for piano but I cannot recall who my teachers were for Viola and conducting. I did also undertake to learn the Oboe whilst I was at the college, but again the name of the tutor escapes me now. I was 24 years of age by the time I got out of the Royal navy, and I had already written quite a lot of music by this time plus I had taken my Oxford Degree. I do not want to dismiss the teaching I was given by Oldroyd and Rowley, but saying this by that time I was going my own way more or less, and neither of them seemed to fully understand what I was doing in the field of electronic music. The whole thing was frustrating, but I needed a diploma in case I had to teach in the future”.

Many film music enthusiasts and fans of Hammer films associate Tristram Cary with the music for mainly Hammer productions, in fact this is a little bit of a fallacy, as Cary was responsible for composing just two scores for the house of horror. As the composer explained.

“I did Quatermass and the Pit in 1967, and then in 1972 I returned to Hammer to work on the music for Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb. I cannot remember how I got involved with Hammer, 1967 was a frantically busy year for me, I am sure that it was Phil Martell who called me asking me to write the score for Quatermass. I have to be honest and say that I was not keen on the idea of doing the score, there was a lot of work to do, they wanted masses of electronic music plus a great deal of orchestral music in addition to this, but I had three kids to feed all of whom were in fee-paying schools and I needed every penny I could get, so of course I said yes”.

Did Phil Martell conduct both the composers scores for Hammer?

“Yes, Phil did conduct both the scores, which was something I was a little uncomfortable with as I would normally undertake this task myself. But he was the MD and it was his job to oversee the sessions and make sure everything was going to plan.”

Cary’s first encounter with writing music for film came over a decade before his involvement with Hammer when in 1955 he wrote the score for the famous Ealing studios comedy thriller The Lady Killers which starred Alec Guinness amongst others. How did the composer become involved on the production?

“I had by this time already done some work for the BBC, the director of The Ladykillers- who was Sandy MacKendrick-had been listening to some of my music for BBC plays etc, consequently Sandy thought that my style of writing would be well suited to the black comedy that was The Lady Killers. I went to Ealing and had some discussions, pretending that I was very experienced in the art of scoring movies, (which of course was not the case), and they knew that. Anyway, they asked me to submit a couple of test sections, which I did. These two sections were recorded at the end of another recording session which turned out to be a John Addison score. Anyway, they laid these tracks to the film, and they seemed to like them, because the very next day, they offered me the job. I was good friends with Sandy afterwards, and I last saw him a few years before his death in Los Angeles”.

The Composer worked on some episodes of DR WHO for the BBC; did he think that television was easier to work on as opposed to scoring a movie or feature film?

“It all depends on the actual job, remember back in the 1960’s TV lengths were much vaguer because you did not know the actual timings until the scenes were shot-Hence, much more flexible sections were necessary, with extensions and cuts possible, unlike the rigid timings on film. But, Easier? Neither seemed to be particularly easy at the time, and there is never a job without its unexpected surprises”.

Laurie Johnson is another composer that scored a Hammer production, Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, was a little out of the ordinary as far as the Vampire legend according to Hammer was concerned. Born in London in 1927, Laurie Johnson received his musical education and training at the Royal College of Music. At the age of 18 he had several orchestral works published, which also had been broadcast on the radio. At the same time, he was composing and arranging for the Ted Heath Band. Later he went on to work on compositions and arrangements for most of the major bands of the fifties. Without a doubt the composer who sadly passed away at the age of ninety-six on January 16^th 2024, is mostly associated with the music for the TV series The Avengers. His infectious theme music for the series soon becoming popular and is still referred to as being one of the finest TV themes ever. During his career the composer wrote the music for many TV shows and also worked prolifically in film, scoring movies such as The First Men in The Moon, The Belstone Fox, Dr. Strangelove and Tiger Bay to name but a few. In fact, he worked on over four hundred movies during his career. The score for Captain Kronos, contained some outstanding themes, but because the film did not follow the normal Vampire movie formula, audiences were a little confused by it, consequently the film did not do that well when it was initially released. However, it has since become a go to film for horror fans and is looked upon as a refreshing and original approach to the legend of the undead.

The film also contained music by Malcolm Williamson, but this was not on the credits, and I think is maybe a case of the scoring sessions were finished and the film might have needed more music, so the additional cues were tracked onto the film. How did Laurie Johnson get the assignment, how much time did he have to score it and what was the working relationship like with Hammer’s musical director, Philip Martell?

“I became involved on this picture because it had been written and directed by Brian Clemens, who had also been the main script writer on The Avengers, and at around the time of Kronos he had become a partner with myself. I cannot recollect the amount of time that I had to score the picture, but I always specified a minimum of one month. The orchestra on this score consisted of a large string section, horns, and solo trumpet. Philip Martell was musical director for Hammer, so it was he who conducted. Which was something I would normally undertake, when possible. I found him to be a very able and affable person, and I had in fact employed him myself on a number of occasions as associate conductor. This is an arrangement that I find very helpful, as it enables me to either conduct or supervise from the control room, as I feel necessary. Over the years this arrangement suited my long-term friend and business partner Bernard Herrmann and myself on both our film and recording sessions.”

In 1994 Laurie Johnson formed the London Big Band to give Capitol a world class orchestra consisting of 25 of the very best British jazz musicians. He had the intention of establishing a programme of concerts and recordings with international star guests.

Composer Edwin Astley is also better known for his TV music rather than his film scores, and it is his upbeat themes that he remains famous for. The composer penned the score for the 1962 Hammer production The Phantom of the Opera, the movie which was directed by Terence Fisher starred Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Michael Gough, and Edward de Souza. To say that Astley was prolific is something of an understatement. As a child I was not aware of the fact that so many of my favourite TV themes were penned by one man, and that was Edwin Astley. Remember the opening shot of Robin Hood, where Richard Greene fires an arrow from his long bow accompanied by the proud nine note fanfare also do you recall the catchy and rather cheeky seven note motif for The Saint as played by Roger Moore. These are just two examples of some of the most well know pieces of TV music from the 1960,s. Edwin Thomas Astley was born in Warrington in 1922. His father was a manual worker mostly working on building sites. Astley left school before he was sixteen and started work at the age of 14 working in an office where ovens were made. He was always attracted to music and took a keen interest in all things musical. He was given a violin by a relative and decided that he wanted to make music a career. He joined the R.A.S.C. band when he was still a teenager and took up the clarinet and saxophone, by the time he had reached his 18th birthday Astley was not only performing music but was arranging it for the band. In 1945 he won a cash prize for a song that he had co-written and was lucky enough to have it recorded by Dame Vera Lynn no less. It was also at this time that he met and married Hazel Balbirnie. After leaving the army Astley joined the Peter Pease dance band and soon had become accomplished enough to lead his own band, he re-located to London and was given a job at the music publishers Francis, Day, and Hunter where he acted as an arranger for various vocalists.

During the late 1950, s Astley moved into writing music for television, one of his first being Robin Hood which became a popular series with adults and children alike. Another early TV series that he worked on was The Buccaneers, which led to him becoming involved on shows such as Danger Man. In later years he worked on Randall and Hopkirk Deceased and provided some of the scores for The Persuaders. He worked on movies from as early as 1959, The Mouse that Roared for example. The score that he, composed the score for Hammer’s version of The Phantom of the Opera included an original operatic composition, which was a soaring and affecting piece.

In 1973 he wrote a serviceable soundtrack for Digby the Biggest Dog in the World. During the late 1970,s Astley went into semi-retirement, and moved to the countryside, but even there he could not stay away from music, he constructed a recording studio at his home and installed a number of synthesisers and started to work on building a music library working on various projects with and for Pete Townsend (his son in law) and doing arrangements and orchestrations of tracks that had been made successful by The Who and The Rolling Stones transforming them into symphonic pieces that were performed by the LSO. He died in Goring, Oxfordshire on May 19th, 1998.

Another composer who scored just one Hammer movie was Don Ellis who was an American trumpet player and composer who worked on Hammer’s ill-fated so called western in space Moon Zero Two, the movie was not a great success for the studio, despite the presence of actor James Olsen, and an array of well-known British actors such as Warren Mitchell, Bernard Bresslaw, Michael Ripper, Sam Kydd, and a host of beauties including Catherine Schell, and Andriene Corri.

The films storyline was predictable and the acting a little lack lustre, its plot plot revolved around a space salvage expert and his partner who become embroiled with a group of criminal’s intent on hijacking a small asteroid made of sapphire and crashing it into the moon to be discovered later. The only place that they can bring the asteroid down without drawing attention to themselves is a mining area that is on the far side of the moon. But to do this without being found out they have to dispose of the miners that are working the claim. Unbeknown to the criminals the same salvage team that they are working with have been hired to locate a missing miner at the claim by his sister, which could complicate matters and very often does. It is not a great movie, in fact it’s a bad movie, a kind of poor man’s Space 1999, if you like. But saying that maybe Space 1999, did base some of their costume design on the Hammer film as there are certainly similarities. The score although supportive was nothing special apart from the song performed by British singer Julie Driscoll, who had achieved chart success the year before with the song Wheels on Fire. But the song for the movie was memorable for all the wrong reasons, the lyrics being cliched and the vocals being quite brash and shouty. The composer had worked on the Mission Impossible TV series in the States before Moon Zero Two and two years later went on to score The French Connection. He also provided the scores for movies such as The Seven Up’s, The French Connection ll, and wrote the music for a few episodes in the TV series Doctor’s Hospital.

The main title song from Moon Zero Two that played over the film’s animated opening titles, was included upon a GDI records Hammer compilation. Don Ellis was born in Los Angels on July 25th 1934, the composer died young at just forty four years of age in Hollywood in 1978.

Humphrey Searle.

Information about the composer Humphrey Searle, was gathered from his widow Fiona Searle a number of years ago and this information has been transcribed from a letter that she sent to me on March 22^nd 1996. In which she responded to questions that I had sent to her.

M. Where was your husband born, and what musical education did he receive?

F.S. “Composer Humphrey Searle was born in Oxford England on August 26^th 1915, He received some musical education whilst attending school in Winchester, he attended college in Oxford and studied the classics, after leaving college he won a scholarship to study at The Royal College of music in London. He also took private tuition at around the same time as attending The Royal College of Music with John Ireland. Searle then was offered an opportunity to study with Anton Von Werbern in 1937 in Vienna, he was the only British composer to study with Von Werbern”.

J.M. How did he become involved in writing music for film?

F.S. “I think it was sheer chance that H.S. first wrote for the cinema, he was asked to write the score for the film The Baby and the Battleship, after the originally commissioned composer was dropped by the films producers. The music was a great success for him and gained him a reputation for being able to work quickly, often delivering the scores before the allotted deadline and also for being able to create good atmospheric music”.

J.M. Recently Silva Screen have included a re-recording of your husband’s atmospheric music for The Haunting, on a compilation album along with his music for The Abominable Snowman did you have the manuscripts for the company to work on their reconstruction?

F.S.” No I did not have the original manuscripts, Philip Lane who did the re-construction work had to acquire the rough scores from the British library (who have all the manuscripts, letters etc) and he did an excellent job re-constructing The Haunting score”.

J.M. Your husband worked for Hammer films how did he become involved with the company?

F.S.” I am not quite sure how he became involved with Hammer, but I think it was something to do with John Hollingsworth, who was at the time working for them also, and he contacted Humphrey for The Abominable Snowman”.

J.M. What was your husband’s working relationship like with The Haunting director Robert Wise?

F.S.” Humphrey got on very well with Robert. He and his wife Pat became great friends of ours and we later visited them at their home in Hollywood”.

J.M How much time did your Husband have to complete the score for The Haunting; I ask this because it was quite a complex score?

F.S.” I think Humphrey had very little time to complete the music for The Haunting, but this is something that is normal for composers, who work in film it is the nature of the job”.

J.M. Did your husband have a favourite piece of music that he had composed, or maybe a favourite film score?

F.S.” I can’t really answer that as I am not sure if he had a favourite, but I do know he was very fond of the settings of James Joyce’s Ulysses, which I know was very important to him”.

J.M. Did he orchestrate all of his own music?

F.S.” Yes, he did, he felt that that was an important part of composing, he also conducted a great deal of his concert music and all his music for film, BBC radio and Television works”.

J.M. Did he conduct his score for The Abominable Snowman, as this was a Hammer production and normally John Hollingsworth did the honours?

F.S. “I cannot be sure about that particular score, I know that H.S knew John very well and respected him very much, so maybe Hollingsworth did conduct on that occasion, but H.S scored that film before I had met him “.

J.M. How did he compose his music, did he use an instrument or write straight to manuscript?

F.S. “He would compose at his old upright piano, which he had inherited from his grandfather who was a minister who composed music for the Church”.

HAMMER COMEDY.

We really cannot forget that Hammer produced some successful non-Horror films, some I have already mentioned as in the Prehistoric sagas, and the adventure yarns, but the studio also produced some successful comedies. And so, to a Bus depot somewhere in England and to the main garage of Town and Country Buses. On the Buses was the first in three big screen adaptations of the highly popular TV series from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The only thing that really changed was the name of the bus company, in the TV series it was called Luxton and District. The first in the trilogy which was titled after the series was directed by Harry Booth and released in 1971. Then came Mutiny on the Buses in 1972 which was followed by Holiday on the Buses in 1973. The films were full of saucy innuendos and very much evoked the style and language of the successful Carry On movies, which had become the staple of British film comedy.

The central character of all the storylines was Stan Butler played by Reg Varney, who always seemed to be having bad luck. The plot for the first in the series of films revolves around Stan who is getting increasingly annoyed at his Mum and his sister Olive, who keep buying expensive items on hire purchase, but the money he earns for overtime working as a bus driver means that he can afford it…or at least so he thinks. His job is secure, because there is a shortage of bus drivers so all the time this is the case his overtime prospects are good. Until that is the bus company decide to employ women drivers. Stan gets worried that he will lose all his overtime and then he will not be able to make ends meet, with no help from his family including his work-shy Brother-in-Law Arthur.

He and his conductor and friend Jack, decide to sabotage the company’s plans and make life difficult for the new Female employees. It turned out to be one of Hammer’s most successful films, and that is why two sequels were produced in quick succession, but these sequels although successful, were overshadowed by the original movie. Maybe it was the novelty of seeing the TV series on the big screen that attracted audiences initially. In every show and the subsequent movies, both Stan and Jack are hotly pursued by the grinning inspector Blake or Blakey who sees his mission in life is to get the better of the work dodging, scam planning duo. His, catchphrase became nearly as popular as the characters. With the phrase “I hate you Butler” goingdown in TV history and transferred to the big screen well.

GDI records in the UK had already released a themes compilation from Hammer movies most being from horror films. The label decided that it was fitting to release a second compilation again of horror music and then came up with The Hammer Comedy Film Music Collection, with selections from all three of the On the Buses films opening the collection. Let us say straight away the music for these comedies was very tongue in cheek and was often a musical wallpaper rather than an actual film score, the music being constant, active and very busy in the background of the antics on screen but saying this it did its job and was an integral part of each and every movie. Punctuating and underlining each gag, punch line or comedy caper that was taking place on screen.

“It’s a great life on the Buses” which was performed by singing group Quinceharmon opens the compilation.

This is a very jolly sounding vocal, in fact you can almost see the singer’s broad smiles as they perform it which evoked shades of the 1970’s group The Brotherhood of Man or even Paper Lace. This jaunty, cheeky, and bouncy little ditty sets the scene perfectly for much of what is to follow both in the movie and on the remainder of this compilation. The actual score was the work of Max Harris and was very much in the same vein or style as the musical backing for the song, as in it was jaunty and more like a travelogue than a score for a movie, however it served the film well.

The end title from the soundtrack makes an appearance in track two, which is basically an edited version of the theme. Track three is taken from Mutiny on the Buses, with the music provided by Australian born composer Ron Grainer, who of course found a place in music lovers hearts with his theme for Dr Who. The music again acts as a background and really does not add much to the proceedings. Tracks four through to track seven are taken from the final instalment of the Buses trilogy, Holiday on the Buses, composer Denis King was responsible for the score to this, and although it is easy going material and pleasant enough it is far from memorable. King found fame in writing for the small screen, with his Galloping Home cue from Black Beauty.

Hammer had produced some comedy films in the past, The Ugly Duckling for example, but during the 1970’s they were particularly successful at turning TV sit coms into popular box office draws at the cinema. Man About the House for example from 1974 and Love Thy Neighbour too. Both were given a new lease of life when they opened on the big screen. The music for Man About the House, was composed by Christopher Gunning, who later became well known for his many TV themes and scores, Wild Africa, Big Battalions, and Poirot among them. Again, the music for the big screen version of Man About the House is easy and light, with two of the cues fitting into the Muzak category which we would probably hear in the dentists waiting room or as elevator background, the selections from the score do however include some up tempo chase music and a catchy title song performed by Annie Farrow.

Love Thy Neighbour, is represented on the collection by three cues, the score was by British composer Albert Elms, who was a composer and musical director that was particularly active in the 1950,s and also worked steadily through the decade of the 1960,s scoring television shows and motion pictures.

Elms was also a well-known composer of military music. He was born in Newington Kent in the United Kingdom in 1920. He had always showed a keen interest in music and in 1934 he joined the Royal Marines Band, taking to sea in 1937, after three years of active service and taking part in the evacuation of refugees during the Spanish Civil war Elms returned to dry land but the second world war interrupted his plans to involve himself more in music and he spent much of the next six years serving on cruisers such as Ajax, and Arethusa, it was whilst on Arathusa that he took part in the Norway evacuations in the April of 1940 and a year on also took part in the shelling of Vichy French ships which were in Algeria, the action was ordered by Winston Churchill to stop the ships falling into the hands of the Nazis.

During 1941 elms also saw active service on escort duties for convoys that were heading for Malta, he was reassigned to the Orion at one point and it was at this time that the Arethusa was bombed by German aircraft and was hit badly, in fact the section of the ship where Elms had been serving was destroyed and all of the Marine contingent in that part of the cruiser were killed. Elms was demobbed in the summer of 1949, it was at this time that the young composer found work with the publishers Francis Day and Hunter in London, where he began to work on composition of popular music and acted as an arranger. Whilst at Francis day and Hunter Elms gained a lot of experience in composition and arranging, he decided to become a freelance composer in the early 1950’s, and began he to work on the incidental music for British TV shows providing the background scores for The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956) which featured a very young William Russell, plus he wrote rousing compositions for other popular shows such as The Buccaneers, (1957), and worked on twenty six episodes of Ivanhoe (1958) which was one of roger Moore’s first starring roles for television. In the sixties he began to move into the composition of music for movies and worked on The Breaking Point, Bluebeards ten Honeymoons and Treasure in Malta. He became a much in demand composer and worked on Thorndike for the BBC, plus wrote the incidental music for prime time 1960’s series such as The Champions.

In the 1970, s Elms continued to work steadily writing the music for the big screen version of the comedy TV series Love thy Neighbour and became the musical director for The Benny Hill Show. After this Elms decided to return to the composition of military music and it kept him gainfully occupied for the remainder of the decade. In 1973 Elms was approached by the director of music for the Royal Marines band who wanted a piece of music to commemorate the battle of Trafalgar, Elms obliged and his march Battle of Trafalgar premiered at the 1974 Royal Tournament, the composition became a favourite of the Royal Marines Band and was also performed at St Paul’s Cathedral as an orchestral work with choir being conducted by Sir Charles Groves in 1981, and later at The Royal Albert hall on the 200th Anniversary of Trafalgar. Albert Elms passed away on October 14th, 2009, he was 89 years of age.

The compilation also contains music from vintage Hammer comedy in the form of Up the Creek, and it is a treat to hear Tony Lowry’s typically British sounding comedy musical flourishes from the 1958 naval caper, which starred David Tomlinson and Peter Sellers under the direction of Val Guest. The film was a popular one and spawned a sequel, Further Up the Creek, which contained a score by Stanley Black, the packed compilation also includes two vocals from Nearest and Dearest, with the song The More you Laugh being performed by Hilda Baker, in true Nellie (he knows you know) Pledge fashion. Plus, there is a cue from the movie I Only Arsked, which was an adaptation of the TV series The Army Game, that is represented by the vocals of actor Bernard Bresslaw on the song Alone Together. The final selection is by composer David Whitaker and is taken from the movie That’s Your Funeral, which was released in 1973. And is probably something that the composer would have rather forgotten, and a case of the music being far better than the film it was written for.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Hammer films have always had the best quality music, and the studios always endeavoured to champion the use of symphonic music whenever they could in their pictures. Other composers that contributed to the rich musical heritage of Hammer, included, Monty Norman, David Heneker, Malcolm Arnold, and Gerard Schurmann.

The latter being a prolific composer of both film scores and music for concert hall performance. But I think this is why the film scores for Hammer were so precise and affecting, because many composers employed by the studio were from the “serious music” fraternity, mostly being classically trained, having been tutored by Benjamin Britten, and his like.

In recent years Hammer began to produce movies again, assigning composers such as Marco Beltrami and more recently Blair Mowatt to their films, who both produced wonderfully effective soundtracks, and I look forward to the studios next chapter in film and music. But, maybe those glory days of sumptuous and rich sounding scores, that were eloquent and supportive, have passed and are lost in the mists of Hammers history. But at least thanks to music labels such as Silva Screen, GDI and Tadlow, we have some of them to remind ourselves of just how great the music was, and still is. And, we have the films which we can watch at our leisure on the regular TV re-runs, DVD and Blu Ray. Hammer’s association with the horror genre has always been uppermost in the thoughts of film buffs and film music connoisseurs, but the quality and the expertise of the filmmakers and composers extended beyond those iconic gothic horrors, as I have attempted to explain. I am certain or at least I am hopeful, that the music and the films as produced by Hammer will live on forever, setting the benchmark for the horror genre, and creating a blueprint which can be referred to by up-and-coming composers of film music.

Like the infamous Count Dracula, the music for Hammer studios will never die, it will maybe fade away but will be resurrected at some point in the future, rising to impress, influence and entertain.

ARTICLES, CINEMA.

ITALIAN NEO-REALISM.

November 10, 2023 jonman492000 1 Comment

A look at the films that inspired so many to make movies. I just scratch the surface with a handful of titles, that I would refer to as iconic Italian Cinema.

When Italy entered the second world war on the side of the Nazi’s in 1940, the Cinecitta studios were commandeered by Mussolini who put his army in charge of them. This meant that filmmakers found themselves without a location to make movies, and thus it was at this time that directors decided to take to the streets of Rome and other cities to commit to celluloid their hopes, dreams, and visions.

Filmmakers such as Visconti, Rossellini, and De Sica, who were to become known as the pioneers of the neorealism movement in Italy, went onto the streets and began filming in real locations, shooting their movies in natural light without the assistance of any artificial or studio lighting.

The movies that they produced were seen as true to life, the people of Italy taking them as more realistic documentations of life in the country at the time, rather than the contrived and flawless visions of utopia as conveyed by the Fascists.

These Golden age productions as they were also referred to, included seminal Italian films, such as Roma Citta Aperta, Ladri di Bicicletti, I Vitelloni, La Strada, and Viaggio in Italia.

The movies often using unknown actors or even just ordinary members of the public, setting the story in depraved areas of a city, and focusing upon the poorest people in the country. Whilst also at the same time concentrating upon the struggles of the working class. This type of film was at its most prominent from 1943 to 1952 and showed a side to life that was directly the opposite to that which was being purveyed by Hollywood filmmakers, Ironically the films now referred to as Neo Realism proved to be popular with audiences outside of Italy and being more appealing mostly to audiences more in the States and the UK. It was the realism, the grittiness and the more often than not, monochrome photography that too added an attraction to this genre. In the spring of 1945, the grip of Mussolini over the Italian people came to an end, when Il Duce was executed, and Italy was liberated from German occupation.

This period became known as the Italian Spring, which saw a break from old ways in the country and fostered a more realistic approach to making films. Italian cinema and movie producers stopped utilizing elaborate studio sets and began more frequently shooting on location in the countryside and city streets in a realist style.

Although the birth of neorealism in Italy has been widely disputed by academics and filmmakers alike, the first neorealist film is thought to be Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione, which was released in 1943, during the German occupation of the country. The genre itself was influenced by Poetic Realism, Marxism, and Christian Humanism, and in turn it influenced, French New Wave Cinema, Cinema Novo and Iranian New Wave as well as others.

The style employed within the Italian films in the genre was influential through the decades, and a similar style of filming and using non actors in various scenes can be seen in films such as in Kubrick’ Spartacus, and Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, and Quemada. Even the films of British directors Ken Loach, Ken Russel, and Mike Leigh are too a degree influenced by this style of filming, the filmmakers very often opting to go with lesser-known actors in some of the roles and camera work that resembles a documentary style at times, as in Peterloo in the case of Leigh.

Both Leigh and Loach have a lifelike social and practical style of direction, their movies often focusing on the British working class, very like Italian directors focused upon the day-to-day struggles of the working class in Italy. With actors speaking in their native language or in the case of British movies the accent/dialect of the region that they came from. Loach said that using subtitles would be preferable rather than asking actors to change the way they speak, because by asking them to do this, would make the performance false. The neorealist style in Italy was developed by a circle of film critics that contributed to the magazine Cinema, including: the already mentioned Visconti and the likes of Gianni Puccini, Cesare Zavattini, Guiseppe De Santis and Pietro Ingrao. Who at the time were restricted in what they wrote in the way of politics because Mussolini’s son was editor in chief of the publication. Several of the filmmakers involved with neorealism, learnt their craft whilst working on the Calligrafismo genre of movies which were popular during the early part of the 1940’s. This genre is a complex form of cinema, which is adept at recalling many cultural tendencies and, at the same time, of co-ordinating them in a comprehensive communicative, and dramatic form.

I am going to begin my look at films in the category of Neorealism with Roma Citta Aperta, or Rome open City. I will begin with the musical score because I am not sure why but the scores for many of the neo realism movies seem to have faded into obscurity.

The music for Rome Open City was penned by Renzo Rossellini. Who was the younger brother of Roberto Rossellini who directed the movie. Renzo was born on February 2nd, 1908, in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a composer and actor, known for Rome, Open City (1945), I Fratelli Karamazoff (1947) and Paisan (1946). He died on May 13, 1982, in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

The soundtrack from Rome Open City was never released, although there is a two-minute cue from the score on Amazon music, which has very bad sound quality. For most of the movie’s duration the music works as a good film score should, extenuating and supporting without being intrusive or overpowering, even if the music is almost continuous, which was the style at this time.

Set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Rome the eternal city, the film Rome Open City is the first in a trilogy of war movies helmed by Filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, the film shows the watching audience what life was like under the heel of a cruel and oppressive occupier in the form of Nazi Germany. It focuses upon the day-to-day existence that ordinary people are enduring under ever increasingly difficult circumstances, concentrating of a handful of figures working for the resistance who are attempting bravely to resist the occupiers. Many say that the movie is a propaganda exercise, but there is so much more to this iconic piece of cinema.

The director sees the resistance against the invaders through the eyes of not just the people, but via the actual city itself. With the familiar sights of Rome taking centre stage to the narrative, becoming more like a character within the storyline rather than just a location.

It is a powerful and compelling tale that was co-written by Federico Fellini, and the way in which Rossellini navigates the production in a very documentary like style, adds greater impact and creates higher levels of emotion to the proceedings. The images created being some of the most touching and moving in the history of cinema.

The next movie I suppose can be compared to the work of the likes of Chaplin on The Kid and maybe might have served as some of the inspiration, emotion, courage, and sentiment that we see in the Hollywood blockbuster The Champ. Ladri di Biciclette / The Bicycle Thieves from 1948 is maybe the most intense drama about a boy and his father in the history of cinema. One of the main characters Antonio, earns a living from, and feeds his family by using his bicycle. One day the bicycle is stolen, and Antonio wanders the streets of Rome trying to find it.

His son Bruno accompanies him in his search, the relationship that we see between father and son on screen is somewhat like that of the relationship we will witness in a later De Sica movie between an elderly man and his dog, in the superb Umberto D (1952). Antonio and his son lose their faith in finding the stolen bike and at the same time lose faith in humanity and life itself.

The musical score by Alesandro Cicognini, is superb, and is a wonderfully supportive and expressive soundtrack. I often think that there could be a compilation of the music from these Italian classics, in a similar way that CAM records released the scores from the films of Fellini, which were by the likes of Rota and Bacalov. But, apart from the odd track here and there on digital platforms and you tube the genre goes musically unrepresented as it were.

I suppose because of the age of the films and the sound quality of some of the recordings which were made during World War two or just after, it’s hardly surprising that full scores do not exist. However, maybe a selection of suites from a handful of the movies could be reconstructed and re-recorded and given a new lease of life and thus preserving them for future generations. But I am dreaming again. Because Neo-realism had a short life only running from 1945 through to 1952, it is a genre or a collection of movies that stand out because there are relatively few of them, but they are all wonderfully expressive and made with a care and precision by the directors and the producers that were involved under extraordinary conditions. It is a genre of film that has endured and maintained a fascination for many as well as attracting new followers of all ages and continues to do so after all these years.

The next movie is from director, Luciano Visconti, La Terra Trema /The Earth Trembles which was released in the same year as The Bicycle Thieves, tells the story of poor Sicilian fishermen who are being exploited by fish wholesalers. One of the families involved is trying to escape the restrictions that the rich employers have imposed upon them and buy their own boat. But even their fellow fisherman and villagers refuse to help them in any way, because they fear the ramifications from the bosses if they do. Even the weather it seems is against them and their venture. The movie is divided into five sections, that include three main narratives, a prologue or introduction and an epilogue. The first part of the story explains who the Valasros family are, and their attempt to improve their standard of living by breaking away from greedy employers and buying their own fishing vessel.

They tell the wholesalers at the market that they deserve better prices for their catch, but this ends in chaos and one of the family the eldest son Ntoni being arrested and put into jail for throwing a set of weighing scales into the sea. But the bosses soon realise it is better to have them out of jail and working so that they can continue to profiteer from the fisherman’s hard work. The family had previously attempted to form a co-operative of all the fisherman to make sure everyone got a fair price, but this was stopped, and no one joined. So, the family then mortgage their home and buy a boat and start their own business. The second part of the story shows the watching audience how vulnerable and alone that the family are, and their realization that maybe being your own boss is not as glamorous and profitable as they first thought, not considering that being their own boss also made them responsible for the costs of maintenance etc on the boat. When they set off and a violent storm strikes it damages their craft badly. But they have no money to repair it, at this stage in the story the other fishermen encouraged by the wholesalers begin to ridicule them.

The third part of the story focuses upon how the family becomes even more vulnerable and how their lives decline, with the social aspects of the situation for the family being revealed. Basically, they have done all of this for nothing, to make no progress because even though they had their own boat the wholesalers still set a price for the fish that they caught. In the movies Epilogue, the eldest son of the family Ntoni, swallows his pride and goes back to work for the bosses again as a labourer in the wholesale market, because they have plenty of work as their profits have made it possible for them to purchase a new fleet of boats. The movie is shot in one place, and apart from the scenes that are filmed on the ocean and the scenarios of when a family member is jailed and then when the family go to the bank to sign the contract for the mortgage, we remain in the village of Aci Trezza, which at times purveys a mood that is somewhat claustrophobic. Whilst thinking of making the movie as early as 1941,

Director Visconti, was conscious that music would play an important role within the narrative, he enlisted the help of composer and conductor Willy Ferrero who had also directed the music for The Bicycle Thieves, the composer adapted Sicilian folk songs and tailored these to meet the needs of the film. But on watching the movie one does notice that the use of any kind of music is rather sparing, until that is we move towards the story’s conclusion, when we hear more underscore beginning to edge its way into the proceedings. This has a tragic style that effectively underlines and supports the family’s fate, containing shades of melancholy and purveying a mood of isolation. Other than this the director relies upon the natural sounds of the sea and the wind, shouts and sounds from the village streets, whistling from one of the characters in the movie, plus emotive and melodic pieces played by another family member on screen.

The composer Willy Ferrero was born in the United States to Italian parents, he was to become an important figure in the musical world of the neo realism movies as produced in Italy, born May 21,1906 in Portland, Oregon, he began his career surprising everyone by directing orchestral concerts at the age of six years. He was known for being a very sensitive and elegant musician and preferred rhythmical motifs. He has the great merit of having acquainted the wider public to the expressionism of Ravel. He died prematurely on March 23, 1954, in Rome, Italy, after working on a handful of Italian movies, but although his output may not have been in the same league as Nino Rota, his contributions were as expressive and effective as Rota. After the film was completed, a voice-over commentary written by Antonio Pietrangeli had to be added, since no Italian was spoken by the participants. At the beginning of the film, the narrator states that “Italian is not a language of the poor.” Another brilliant example of the neo realism genre.

Luchino Visconti was a director who was to coin a phrase way ahead of his time, he like many other directors that were making movies in the 1940’s through to the 1950’s understood well the impact of cinema upon the masses, Visconti more than other filmmakers took chances with the movies he made, but these more often than not paid off with the director being one of the most successful filmmakers in Italy and now hailed as a genius around the world. He displayed his unquestionable flair for story telling early in his career with the movie Ossessione, which was a movie based upon James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, a story that was later committed to celluloid by American filmmakers, but the later version of the tale significantly fades in the shadow of Visconti’s version of the story.

When watching the movie, one straight away picks up upon the intensity and passion that the director managed to extract in the performances of the key characters. Clara Calamai is in a word amazing as Giovanna, who decides that she wants to be free from the older man who has given her so many opportunities and transformed her life for the better. Within the last part of the movie, we see the actress at her best in the biting and effective twist that serves as the moral redemption for the monstrous crime that was committed.

Equally excellent is actor Massimo Girotti, who appears as Gino the man who awakens a passion and an obsessive side within Giovanna. Girotti makes the character come to life and makes him so believable, that one forgets that this is a movie. Juan DeLanda portrays Giuseppe, who is the older man who fell in love with Giovanna and her vivacious and lively character. DeLanda also creating a believable and at the same time sorry looking character.

Cinematography is the work of Domenic Scala and Aldo Tonti, who’s stylish and creative camera work gave the movie a natural appearance. The score was by Giuseppe Rosati, Director Visconti also added the operatic arias of Verdi and Bizet to the soundtrack, which work in the context of the narrative. Ossessione is a film that should be treasured and is a movie that should be shown regularly so that future generations can savour and enjoy it, as this is a master filmmaker at his best.

Let us now turn to Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D from 1952, which I mentioned briefly at the beginning of this article. As I watched the movie for about the 50^th time, I marvelled again at the high level of acting excellence on display by the title character actor Carlo Battisti, who portrays convincingly a retired civil servant called Umberto Domenico Ferrari. Watching the performance, one might think that he is a polished professional, but wait that is not the case, Battisti was a non-pro-actor, which means that he has to be congratulated even more for his stunning performance in the role. It is like he knows instinctively what the director wants from him, the films story is one of loss, and the central character is someone that could be either you or I, having reached the final stages of our lives and taking tentative steps in case we make yet another mistake.

Umberto now retired and has had a life that is filled with work and even more work, for which his past employers are grateful. But now he resides in a damp and desolate looking room that is infested, with his outlook on life being bleak, as is in keeping with numerous neo-realistic examples from Italy. He becomes unwell and is sent to a hospital but upon his return he is told by his landlady that she wants him out, his dirty dank room being ripped apart. He is on the streets, alone and miserable, I say alone but he does have one companion, a small dog called flag, who we soon realise is Umberto’s only friend.

I suppose this part of the story can be to a certain extent likened to a Chaplin film, but there are no comedic interludes, and the central character has no companions apart from the dog. The cinematography is excellent with the camera work of Aldo Graziati following the unlikely friends, with the affection and care for each other shining through all the gloom and misery. It shows us that no matter how bad things are that the strength of a real friendship between a man and his dog can be stronger in dire times than the relationship between two humans.

The score plays a vital part in creating even more emotion and underlining various scenarios, composer Alessandro Cicognini providing an effective and suitably melancholy soundtrack for the movie, which is subtle but also powerful because of the way the music is placed and orchestrated.

Our next example of Neo realism is set in Northern Italy, in which we see women leave their families and jobs and move to the rice fields to work harvesting the crop. A pair of lovers Francesca (Doris Dowling) and Walter (Vittorio Gassman) are second rate criminals who stage a robbery at a hotel where they steal a valuable gem, after which Francesca joins a group of workers to try and elude capture by the police. One of her fellow workers a young and sensual woman called Silvana (Silvana Mangano), befriends Francesca, and start to become close to her. She finds a beautiful piece of jewellery hidden in in Francesca’s mattress.

After arriving at a lodge, they encounter a recently de-mobbed army sergeant Marco portrayed by Raf Vallone, it is not long before he becomes attracted to Sivana. Which leads to a relationship that has tragic consequences. Riso Amaro or Bitter Rice (1949) is an innovative neo-realistic drama that is laced with romance, very much like it’s storyline the visual style of the movie is a combination of both Hollywood melodrama and Italian neorealism.

It was the film that introduced Silvana Mangano to cinema audiences, who portrays an extremely beautiful and sexy woman. Doris Dowling is also excellent, performing as the long-suffering Francesca, a woman who has been abused by her lover.

Directed by Giuseppe de Santis, the film was scored by Goffredo Petrassi, Petrassi of course is known for his involvement with composers such as Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai who he tutored, the composer scored very few motion pictures as he was primarily known for concert hall compositions.

Petrassi was born near Rome in 1904 and was considered by many to be one of the most significant and influential Italian composers of the 20th Century. At the age of fifteen the young Petrassi began to work in a music shop to support his family, and this is probably where his love and interest of music was expanded and cemented. He is however. more associated with music for the concert hall, with his output in this area being prolific. Because of the composer’s commitments to teaching and the world of classical music his forays into scoring movies were few and far between, although when the composer did work on movie score’s he always produced works that were supportive as well as being thematic. Petrassi began to write for films back in the 1940’s and in total during his career he wrote the music for ten pictures, these included six feature films and four shorts.

The composer’s credits for film include Bitter Rice, (1949), Under the Olive Tree (1950), La Pattuglia Sperduta (1954), and Cronaca Familiare, (1962).

La Strada, is the film that established Federico Fellini as a renowned filmmaker. It is the tale of a sweet and angelic girl Gelsomina (Guilietta Masina), who is sold by her mother to a travelling showman Zampano (Anthony Quinn) for 10,000 lire and a few kilos of food.

Zampano who exhibits feats of strength by breaking a chain wrapped around his chest, performs in village squares and then passes the hat for whatever the normally small crowd is prepared to give. He teaches Gelsomina a drum roll, as part of his introduction. But he doesn’t treat her well and when she tries to run away, he beats her.

They eventually join a small traveling circus where they meet a tight-rope walker who convinces Gelsomina to question her what choices she has. Directed by Federico Fellini in 1954, it is aa sad and affecting story, which contains some wonderful performances from Anthony Quinn, Guilietta Masina, and Richard Basehart.

The haunting an effective music is by Nino Rota, a composer who was to have a long association with Fellini, as well as collaborating with many other Italian filmmakers and then in later years working with American directors.

Rota also scored Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli, aka Rocco and His Brothers, which was directed by Luciano Visconti and released in 1960, this is seen as one of the last neo realism movies to come out of Italy during what is termed as the golden age and is also a movie that the director has said is his favourite out of all his films. It acted like a bridge between vintage neo realism and a more contemporary form of the genre. Like many neorealism movies it is at times complex, but then there are joyous and simplistic interludes which makes the movie a delight to sit and watch. All of the cast members are excellent in their portrayal of their characters, each performance being genuine and entertaining.

A young Alain Delon is outstanding as Rocco: who is a gentle and caring individual, who at times because of these qualities is somewhat weak. His brother Simone is quite the opposite and is played by Renato Salvatori who convincingly assumes the persona of the character on screen.

Simone is wild, and unstable, he is also a person who is easily led to fear, addiction, and despair. Another performance in the movie that certainly deserves a mention is that of Katina Paxinou’s in the role of the boy’s mother Rosaria: she is religious and at times a little superstitious but has a domineering control over her sons. But saying this she is mostly good hearted and kind.

A mention should also be made of a minor role played by Claudia Cardinale as Ginetta. Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli, is probably Visconti’s most powerful movie, though on watching the film today it may seem a little dated, but that is to be expected as it was made over four decades ago, I think it is a window into the Italy of the 1960’s at a time when cinema in Italy was developing and becoming a medium that many other countries were taking their lead from.

Nino Rota’s haunting score is rich, but also subdued, the composer relying on sparse sounding motifs to accompany the storyline. As one sits and listens to the score one can pick out slitters of themes that the composer used in later movies with one reoccurring theme in particular baring a striking resemblance to his work of The Godfather some twelve years later.

In 1955 Rota also penned the score for Il Bidone, which focuses upon three men, Augusto, Carlo, and Roberto who are all con artists, but sometimes work together. Augusto is the oldest, and the most experienced in his role of a deceiver. They all seem to be immune from any feelings of guilt, and to the idea that their victims are not wealthy highflyers but are mostly uneducated peasants. Each of the trio of villain’s is at a different stage of life, Carlo and Augusto begin to examine what they’re doing more critically, their doubts about what they do to make money stemming from a certain incident. But Roberto, who is the youngest of the three is still living for the moment as it were, never thinking of the future, and always prepared to take money from anyone, without any conscious. Carlo yearns to make a legitimate living as an artist, and this is why he is nicknamed Picasso, he knows that he can do it but can he earn a living from it? Carlo’s wife Iris, and their adolescent daughter Silvania stand by him no matter what. Carlo has told Iris that his frequent absences is because of his job as a travelling salesman with Augusto, but she decides enough is enough as she can no longer bury her head in the sand about what he’s doing. Carlo meets his young daughter who he at first does not recognise, as he has not seen her for years. He must decide to either help her further her education and or change his lifestyle. The movie featured two American stars Richard Basehart as Carlo, and Broderick Crawford as Augusto, with Italian actress Giulietta Masina as Iris and Franco Fabrizi as Roberto.

Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1929 with Alfredo Casella. Nino Rota began his involvement with film scoring in 1933 with his work on Treno Popolare, he was 22 years of age, since that first assignment the composer was to work on literally hundreds of film and TV projects and was responsible in my opinion for placing Italian film music on the map and paved the way for the likes of Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai and their like.

Rota was able to create numerous themes and scores that had to them a haunting and lasting appeal, they were also appealing because of their simplicity and their ability to mesmerize and attract both in the context of the music and image working in unison and as melodic and alluring music away from those images. And although he was much in demand during the 1940’s, 1950’s and the 1960’s when he created memorable themes and scores such as Romeo and Juliet, The Leopard, The Taming of the Shrew and Juliet of the Spirits to mention but a few. He continued to fashion quirky but at the same time classically laced works for the silver screen into the 1970’s.

Scoring many movies for the respected and esteemed filmmaker Federico Fellini and working on blockbusters that included Waterloo, and box office draws such as Death on The Nile. Rota had a distinct style of scoring, at times his music was an integral component of the storytelling, on other occasions it was a subdued background to the action, but his style and sound lent much to every movie that he was involved with.

What would Amacord be without its now familiar theme. The last motion picture he worked on was The Hurricane in 1979. He died relatively young at the age of 67, in Rome on April 10^th, 1979.

A group of women wait silently and nervously at a mine in Sicily, their menfolk are underground. The sulphur mine where they are employed is shutting down and the miners have decided to stay underground to change the minds of the owners of the mine. But they also know that if they stay underground more than three days they could die. After they return to surface somewhat despairingly, they all go to a bar where workers are being recruited to work for a French employer, the man doing the recruiting Cicco (Saro Urzi) tells the miners he can get them over the border for 20,000 lire per person. A bus load of people decides to take a chance and head for the border with their belongings, paying out the money in a last-ditch attempt to get decent jobs with fair wages. This is the story or at least the beginning of it for the movie The Path of Hope which was released in 1950.

Amongst the bus passengers are Saro (Raf Vallone), and his three young children, Barbara (Elana Varzi), and her partner Vanni, (Franco Navarra) the latter pair are in trouble with the police and being hunted. They transfer from the bus to train and when it arrives in Napoli Cicco tries to run off with everyone’s money but is stopped by Vanni. Vanni makes plans with Barbara to meet at the border if anything should go wrong. When they arrive in Rome, Cicco alerts the police to Vanni, and in the ensuing gunfight both Vanni and Cicco manage to escape. All the other people on the bus are arrested and are ordered to return to Sicily, or they will be charged with illegal entry into the country and jailed. Which they agree to do, but instead Saro takes charge and the group head north to reach France.

The journey is a difficult one and the hardship that they suffer on the trek brings Saro and Barbara closer together. Director Pietro Germi’s Il Cammino Della Speranza / The Path of Hope fits perfectly into the genre of Italian neo- realism and has stood the test of time admirably, despite negative critical reviews.

Many see Saro as the hero of this tale, but it is the group of ordinary people who are trying to better themselves that are heroic. Leaving their homes and place of birth to go out into the unknown and risk everything for the chance of employment in another country and a chance to better themselves and their families.

Music for the movie was the work of revered Italian Maestro Carlo Rustichelli, who wrote a symphonic classically slanted score for the movie, utilising strings and brass to create romantic and dramatic interludes.

Because of the year in which it was released a soundtrack was never issued, and now I do not think it will ever be. There are so many scores from Italian Neo-realism movies that are not available or at least not available in their complete form. Yes, there are snippets on the likes of you tube, and even a handful of tracks are now available on digital platforms, but the sound quality is distorted and scratchy. At least we have the movies which are a delight to watch and also listen to. This has been a look at the Italian neo-realism genre, there are many other movies within this genre and also movies that came later that were inspired by these black and white classics. If you have not seen these films now is the time to seek them out and I promise that you will not be sorry, they are superb pieces of cinema.

ARTICLES, CINEMA., Reviews

WHO IS THAT MUSCLEMAN?

November 1, 2023 jonman492000 2 Comments

PEPLUM! SWORD AND SANDAL, SWORD, AND FANTASY,

OR ADVENTURE, THAT IS THE QUESTION.

A brief look at the genre that was dubbed Sword and Sandal or Peplum.

Hercules, Goliath, Samson, Maciste, and other such characters were regularly featured in Italian produced Sword and Sandal movies, or to give them their correct genre name, Peplum or Pepla. (the latter being the plural). I must say now that I have never been a great fan of this genre, but I also have to admit that the films were bountiful in the action and imagination departments, rich in colours and had wonderful costumes, they also did from time to time have an interesting or quirky storyline, but I personally found these mini epics or Biblical leaning tales a little too slow and at times downright boring.

They became the staple fodder of many Saturday morning picture clubs that were so popular in the 1960’s in the UK, I am proud to say that I was an ABC Minor, and was one of the kids cheering on the hero and hissing and booing the in the traditional pantomime way. At the time of seeing my first Peplum I was very young, probably about eight or nine years of age, so this would have been around 1963 or 64, but I knew even then that these movies were different as in sometimes the actor’s mouths did not move when dialogue was being heard. (not that you could hear it most of the time above the hullabaloo of the kids screaming).

Of course, dubbing improved as the years rolled forward, but I still never appreciated fully the antics of Gladiators, Romans, Greeks, Barbarians, and Saracens as various scenarios played out on screen in these dramas that were set in ancient times. But saying that I did enjoy films such as El Cid and Spartacus.

Compared to the adventures of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, which were also regulars at the Saturday morning fracas, the Sword and Sandal tales seemed rather tame, after all Buck and Flash were real heroes who fought the bad guys and always won. And the episodes all had cliffhanger endings, with a trailer for the next episode being shown as soon as the action had finished with a voice over telling everyone in the cinema “Don’t Miss the Next Thrilling Episode”.

I think it was the duration of those early peplums that I had the problem with, a serial would be twenty or maybe thirty mins in length whereas a feature film would be at least eighty, which for an eight- or nine-year-old is a long time to sit still in itchy seats dodging kia-ora orange drink cartons that were being thrown everywhere and trying to make head or tail of what was going on up there on the screen.

As I said I think my first real encounter with an Italian sword and sandal epic was in the early 1960’s, when the Astoria cinema was showing Goliath and the Barbarians, starring the muscle-bound American actor, Steeve Reeves who was supported by Chelo Alonso as the love interest (she played a small part in Leone’s The Good the Bad and The Ugly at the beginning of the movie, Angel eyes killed her husband).

The original title of the film was Il Terrore dei Barbari, which I found out years later, so was it really anything to do with Goliath at all? Its tag line said it all, A Thousand and One Women Dream of his Embrace! I think I enjoyed it, I say I think because I can’t really recall much about it, all I knew at the time that there was a lot of swordfights going on, displays of strength and nasty baddies, with the central character being the hero of the piece even if he did kiss that girl in the film (Yuk).

So maybe I will start my look at the Peplum or The Sword and Sandal adventure genre with this movie from 1959. Although it was produced in the final year of the 1950’s it never reached the U.S.A. or the U.K. till the early sixties. The print I saw probably was edited heavily, which made it a little incomprehensible at times, and had a musical score by Les Baxter, which replaced the original Italian score by the talented Maestro Carlo Innocenzi.

I will say here and now that the score by Innocenzi is in my opinion far superior and more in keeping with the epic sound as created by the likes of the great Hollywood composers of the 1930’s 40’s and early 50’s. The film which was directed by Carlo Campogalliani is listed as an adventure, but always seems to be discussed as a peplum and included within that genre of film. It had a simple plot, when barbarians invade his village and kill his father, a local man (Reeves) vows revenge and begins to wage a one-man war against them. The man we can only assume is Goliath in the title of the film.

But Goliath was a name thrown into the hat by American film makers, a name taken from the book of Samuel in the Bible and applied to the Reeves character, (remember the story of David and Goliath) why? Well I don’t know and the American distributors probably did not either.

The character of Hercules however had appeared a year previous in Pietro Francisci’s film Le fatiche di Ercole (Hercules) that was scored by composer Enzo Masetti, the movie starred Steve Reeves, and it was this production that was responsible for spawning a series of nineteen movies that were produced from the late 1950’s onwards, and which some forty plus years later were still being produced, the hero returned to the screen in two movies in 2014 that were released almost simultaneously, but neither did well at the box office.

Of course, there was the version that was released in 1983 with strong man Lou Ferringo (The Hulk) in the title role, which was produced by Italian film makers, directed by Luigi Cozzi and had a score by Pino Donaggio, but the less said about that particular outing the better, apart from the score or at least the rousing march like theme from it. The production is totally forgettable before you even finish watching it. In fact, I think it is fair to say that most of the Hercules films produced after the decade of the 1960’s are not worth viewing, many of the more recent entries trying to place the hero in a contemporary dateline, as in New York City, which does not work at all.

This is what happens when non-Italian film makers get involved and think that they can improve on a series of films that have entertained audiences for years. Yes, the original Italian movies maybe cheesy and cliched, but there is just something about them that makes fans return to them often and made me in the end take a shine to a handful. I suppose we must ask the question was the Hercules series a peplum, or was it a fantasy adventure?

Hercules features in Greek mythology, so does this mean that movies such as Clash of the Titans can also be called peplum even if they were not produced by Italian filmmakers? Or are they Sword and Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery or what? Films in this at times quirky and outrageous genre, were given the name Peplum by French movie critics in the early 1960s, and although it is a label that stuck, it was a rather cruel way of referring to the films as a collective, at first being regarded as an insult by many Italian, producers and directors, the harsh way in which the Peplum was named also happened a few years later when critics dubbed the Italian made western the Spaghetti western or Macaroni western. And these were not the only types of Italian movies that were given nicknames to describe them, Filone, (a type of bread), Giallo, (the colour yellow), Mondo, (world, because they were-mainly documentaries). I think they were meant as a disparaging label at first but after a while become something that was quite endearing.

Sword and Sandal movies that included a strong man figure such as Hercules, or Goliath, often featured American actors in the central role, such as the already mentioned Steve Reeves, with other Stateside names such as Paul Wynter, Mark Forest, and Reg Park stepping into the sandals and donning the Enkyklon (Greek Toga) to bring these characters to life. And as the genre of the Peplum developed and grew, we would see more and more non-Italian actors being given leading roles, such as Cameron Mitchell, which Italian studios thought maybe would make the movies more acceptable to American audiences. Again, this was something that happened in the Italian western and the Gothic horrors as produced by the likes of Bava and Argento.

Actors would be given American sounding names, and composers also would write under an alias,

Even the Italian-American actor Lorenzo Luis Degni, (Lou to his friends) was given a more Americanised sounding name and was credited as Mark Forest, for his appearances in examples such as La Vendetta di Ercole, aka Goliath and the Dragon. Which was directed by Vittorio Cottafavi, in 1960. and Maciste l’eroe più Grande del Mondo aka-Goliath and the Sins of Babylon, which was helmed by Michele Lupo, in 1963,and contained a rousing score by Francesco De Masi. Which we come to later.

Sword and Sandal epics would often be co-productions with cast and crews from all over Europe, but predominantly being from Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. At the same time as the Italians were making their peplums, American film crews were utilising the facilities of Cinecitta for numerous Biblically slanted productions, (Ben Hur, King of Kings, Sodom and Gomorrah etc), and it would be the way that Hollywood deserted Italy after the epic bubble had burst that galvanised Italian directors and producers to re-invent the western.

So, let’s move away from Hercules and his like and go to tales of Greece and Rome, some of which were rich in romance, adventure and epic proportions, and others which contained a leaning towards the mystical the mysterious and the fantasy worlds of Gods and Demons. But in this article, I don’t think I will be assessing the qualities of the movies, but focusing more upon the style and sounds on their soundtracks, employed by composers such as De Masi, Lavagnino, Rustichelli, Savina, Fusco, etc etc.

As I have already said the Peplum is not exactly my favourite genre, but if it were not for the Sword and Sandal adventures of the 1950’s and early 1960’s we would not have the spaghetti western. I am not going to examine every Peplum, doing that I think would send you to sleep, (wake up at the back) but I will pick titles here and there and not even in any order or year of release, (so the ones I like then ok).

L’assedio di Siracusa (The Siege Of Syracuse) was released in 1960, directed by Pietro Francisci, and starring Rossano Brazzi, Tina Louise, Sylva Koscina, Enrico Maria Salerno, Gino Cervi, Alberto Farnese, Luciano Marin, and Alfredo Varelli. The film is set during the Second Punic War between 214 and 212 B.C. and focuses upon the Roman siege of the Greek city of Syracuse. The Romans are preparing for their invasion, but Greek scientist and philosopher Archimedes (Brazzi) invents what looks like an oversized mirrored dish that reflects the sun’s rays and produces a powerful beam of light, that is strong enough to burn the Roman fleet.

The score was the work of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, and it is one of the composers finest works in this particular genre, the music is initially dramatic, but has to it a fragile and romantic sound, which at times becomes lilting and emotive. The composer utilising solo violin throughout the work and an ample helping of strings and far away sounding horns.

These elements combine with woods to create beautiful tone poems that are effective, rich, and supportive to the storyline, but also are wonderfully haunting and mesmerizing away from the images. The score was released onto CD by Digit Movies in 2009 and contained twenty-nine tracks from the soundtrack. Considering the age of the score the recording has excellent sound quality thanks to the remastering, and is presented well with info on the movie and score and numerous stills from the production illustrating the booklet.

Digit movies was a label that embarked on an extensive programme of releasing Italian film scores onto CD and would at times release a score that had never been available before, normally taken from the vaults of vintage labels such as CAM records who were really the first soundtrack specialist label, being established long before Varese, La La Land, Quartet, and Intrada. It seemed at one point that Digit Movies had the monopoly on the Italian film music market, its output putting most other labels into the shadows.

The soundtracks that they released on to CD were from all genres, but it is the Peplum scores that we will focus upon within this article, of course other labels began to issue and re-issue sword and sandal epic scores, and we will also look at these. A score I had many years ago on a CAM LP record was Saul and David, (CAM CMS 30.127) which was released in 1964.

Now, this is one of the movies that I would argue is not a peplum, but a Biblical story, with a mixture of adventure and romance, but many do categorise it as a Sword and Sandal, the music was grand and certainly had epic proportions to it, the prelude being a classically slanted piece performed by brass, percussion, and strings, the composer Teo Usuelli fashioning a beautifully lavish sounding central theme for the movie that was filled with emotion, purveyed a sense of tragedy and created drama but also having shades of melancholy. The soundtrack was later re-issued onto CD as part of the CAM soundtrack encyclopaedia. The release boasted bright and vibrant artwork compared with the original LP cover, which had a red background and a monochrome picture of one of the characters from the film.

Teo Usuelli was born in Italy on December 13^th 1920, he completed his educational studies in Milan. After having received his diploma in Humanities, he attended the Faculty of Pure Mathematics at the State University for four years with good results. He specialized in music, choir, and song in 1944 and graduated in Composition from the Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi of Milan in 1945.

After having fought the Nazi’s as a partisan from 1941 to 1945, after the war he began his musical career as a director of vocal polyphonic groups for various concerts and radio programs of polyphonic music, paying particular attention to the Italians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He moved to Rome in the late forties and was very much in demand and became busy writing music for cinema and television. In the field of folk music, he studied Italian regional groups, and his transcriptions, from the laudi of the 1200s to the songs of the mountain, are now in the repertoire of numerous choirs. Among the most famous are Montagnes Valdotaines and Belle rose du printemps. He has also composed various songs, such as Meravigliose labbra and La canzone del faro, which were successful. He taught “Harmony and Counterpoint” in the conservatories of Piacenza, Bologna and L’Aquila; he retired from teaching in 1986, and then created for RAI 3 TV a series of 6 episodes, entitled Che musica è each of which was dedicated to a major contemporary Italian composer. Uselli acted as Conductor and took part in debates with the public and presenting various music performed by “Spettro sonoro”. During his later career the composer began working on music with computers, programming and composing “digital music”. He collaborated with the C.R.M. (Center for Music Research) of Rome, creating software for the projects “FLY10” and “FLY30”. Among his compositions in this genre are Mooning for soprano and c64, Sinite for Fly10 and soprano, and Nomina for Fly30 and soprano. He collaborated with filmmaker Marco Ferreri as well as many other well-known and respected directors. He died in Rome on April 13^th 2009.

Around about the same time as I purchased Saul and David on LP I was lucky enough to add Maciste l´eroe piu Grande del Mondo to my collection, again on a CAM LP. With similar cover design to that of Saul and David, it had the monochrome picture of two characters from the film in a chariot, on a dark red background with Greek hieroglyphics in gold. In the UK the movie was entitled Goliath and the sins of Babylon, the score by Francesco De Masi has been re-issued onto CD by CAM in recent years, but I still prefer sometimes to put the LP on the turntable and let it play, pops and crackles included.

De Masi penned a vibrant, heroic, and romantic sounding work, which was dominated by sweeping strings, booming percussion, and urgent brass, with a lilting and emotive love theme performed by solo violin which was charming and haunting.

The composer also provided the film with a memorable march composition that at times sounded more like a pirate movie score, but still effecting and supportive.

When released in the United States it was distributed by American International who straight away decided to have the movie re-scored by Les Baxter, even though De Masi’s music was excellent. De Masi scored numerous Peplums, and wrote the music for several Historical dramas, Suleiman the Conqueror from 1961 coming to mind instantly.

In 1964 the composer scored Maciste nelle miniere del re Salomone (Maciste in the mines of King Solomon) which starred Reg Park in the role of a strongman, this is where I think I get confused, so many strong men all played by different leading actors, all calling themselves Maciste, Hercules, or Goliath. De Masi’s score is magnificent, filled with epic sounds and proud anthem like theme’s, but also tinged with a hint of mystery and drama.

The score or sections of it were released on a CD from digitmovies, also this is available on digital platforms.

The album also includes tracks from Kerim Son of the Shiek (1962) which starred Gordon Scott, and La Rivolta della Gladiatrici (The Arena) which was released in 1974.

De Masi was also responsible for Maciste, il gladiatore più forte del mondo-aka- Colossus of the Arena (1962). Which had Mark Forest in the lead role and was directed by Michele Lupo. Again the composer putting his own unique musical stamp upon the proceedings with highly dramatic and tense musical moments which mingle with strident martial sounding pieces and affecting love themes. Ok, enough of these strongmen before I begin to feel inadequate, and onto other Peplums,

such as I Sette Gladiatori-Gladiators 7, which was basically an attempt to cash in on the Magnificent seven movies that were doing well at the box office, the American west being exchanged for Greece and Rome, and apart from a seven in the title that’s where any similarities cease. I always thought that this was rather an odd movie, but hey who I am I to argue with the people who write this stuff. Framed for the escape of five gladiators from the arena, the son of one of Sparta’s leading citizens is sentenced to the arena as a gladiator himself and forced to fight for his life in the Roman Colosseum. Years later he manages to escape and return to Sparta, only to find out the truth about his father’s death, which was ruled as a suicide, but in fact, was a murder. He also finds out that the woman he loves is about to marry the evil king who has usurped the throne. He sets out to enlist the help of six of his fellow gladiators and with them return to Sparta to save his woman and place the rightful king on the throne.

Music was by Marcello Giombini, who is probably best known for his bouncy theme to the Lee Van Cleef western Sabata (1969).

I thought now might be a good time to mention a movie that is said to be the first Italian Peplum, and no it does not have Hercules, Goliath or any other strongman in the title or cast. Instead, it has seven rather small heroes. I Sette Nani alla Riscossa or The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue was released in 1951.

Directed by Paola William Tamburella, it starred Rossana Podesta, Roberto Risso and Georges Marchal. The plot is a simple one, having been warned in dreams that Snow White is in danger, the Seven Dwarfs set out to rescue the princess from the evil Prince of Darkness. Well, is it a peplum, it’s on the list, but it is put into the category of a comedy, adventure, fantasy. So again, more confusion.

Music was by Alessandro Cicognini, who was a composer who favoured small ensembles rather than large orchestras. This Italian film and classical composer, trained at the Milan Conservatory of Music. And from 1946, was frequently associated with the films of Vittorio de Sica. Cicognini retired from film composition in 1965 to pursue a career in teaching. The movie Un’avventura Romantica (2016), directed and co-written by Davide Cavuti, is loosely based on Alessandro Cicognini’s life. In the movie, Cicognini is portrayed by Edoardo Siravo. Born on January 15, 1906 in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a composer and writer, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), he died on November 9, 1995 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

The Seven Dwarfs to the Rescue is legendary in certain circles and is looked upon as a not very good children’s movie that was produced in Italy. It is a sequel to Snow White as in the fairy tale that we all know and love and played out in the Disney animated, happy ever after film from 1937. It takes place after the Dwarves first encounter with the Princess, and they have returned to their home in the forest, and she has married her Prince charming, however just when you thought it was safe to eat apples again along comes war, intrigue and political problems which the prince has to take care of. But the Prince is betrayed so the Dwarves set off to help him and Snow White. Their adventures on their way to rescue the Royal couple, do become a little drawn out and tiring, but finally they help the prince and princess and save the day (Yay). So why it is referred to as a Peplum I do not know unless it is referring to the tunics that some of the cast wear?

But as I have already stated the Peplum contained many odd storylines, and it was a genre that on many occasions crossed over into other types of film, including tales of vampires, monsters, and mythical creatures. So maybe this is where confusion reigns, as to what is a peplum, a sword and sandal, a historical drama, an adventure, a sword, and fantasy, etc etc etc. Sword and Sorcery I always thought referred to the likes of movies such as Conan, The Beastmaster, Hundra, Red Sonja, Kull the Conqueror, The Sword and the Sorcerer and Willow.

With mythological or Greek historical adventures being set out in films such as Jason and the Argonauts, 300 Spartans, Helen of Troy, Clash of the Titans, and more recently Troy and 300. Then there are movies like The Long Ships, The Vikings, and Prince Valiant. Maybe we should invent a genre to place all these movies in and call it Mythoadventurepeplumswords?

At least they would all be in one collective, and I would not have this headache. So, shall we go back to Roman tales? (yes, please lets). But, wait what about The Fall of the Roman Empire? (what about it?) is this not a Peplum?

Ok, lets go back to movies made in Italy by Italian filmmakers with Romans in them shall we. (ok touchy). Back to 1961, and to a movie directed by Sergio Corbucci, in which the sons of God Marte and Rea Silvia are dropped to the river Arno. They are breast-fed by a she-wolf and grow into Rómulo (Steve Reeves) and Remo (Gordon Scott). The siblings set out to establish the city of Roma and fight against the tyranny of dictator king Amulio who is the ruler from Alba-Longa.

The brothers then come to a parting of the ways as they lead their people toward the founding of a new city. Duel of the Titans, or Romulo e Remo, is a tale before the city of Rome is built, so where better to begin. The score was by Piero Piccioni and the music he penned was released on CAM records on LP and then later onto CD.

A year later in 1962, Steve Reeves was back, as The Avenger or playing the lead in La leggenda di Enea, Reeves reprises his role as Aeneas, whom he previously played in the superb historical drama The Trojan Horse original title La Guerra di Troia which was released in 1961. Having survived the destruction of his city, the Trojan noble and a band of survivors have made their way to Italy, where they hope to create a new life for themselves.

But the region is already populated by various tribes, ruled by warlords, and Aeneas’s longing for peace cannot be accomplished without recourse to battle and bloodshed. The two movies were in my opinion serious attempts to make historical films, and the first did succeed, the second however was shall we say had a storyline that was elaborated upon for effect and to add more action scenarios to the plot.

Music for both of the movies was by Giovanni Fusco, who provided them with suitably epic sounding works, the wo scores were released onto CD in 2009 as a two-disc set by Digit Movies.

Actor Gordon Scott made his debut in the sword & sandal genre in 1961, Goliath and the Vampires, (see we are back onto Goliath etc again) is a fast-paced and action-packed affair, that is sometimes said to be co-directed by Sergio Corbucci (who also co-wrote it with Duccio Tessari), although this is something that is often questioned, with the main direction on the film being credited to Giacomo Gentilomo. The film contains some effective set pieces, which involve different worlds and creatures, and for a movie made in the early 1960’s it was at times quite gory. With some elements of the storyline still being utilised through to the mid 1980’s in other tales that came into the Peplum genre.

I think that a Peplum certainly becomes more interesting when they contain horror and fantasy elements within the storyline, for example as in Mario Bava’s already mentioned, Hercules in the Haunted World’ or Goliath and the Dragon (which was Hercules, but I won’t start that debate again). Goliath and the Vampires, had the tag line See the Virgin Harem of the Vampire God, which was obviously applied when it was released in the States. Maciste’s village, (hang on where did he come from, it said Goliath on the poster)? Anyway, the central characters village is attacked by pirates. The women, including his fiancee Guja, are carried off to Salmanak, where the lair of the blood drinking Kobrak is located. So, Goliath, Hercules, or Maciste, (take your pick) vows to rescue them.

The effective score was by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino.

A movie that is oft referred to as a Peplum is Atlas, but is it a true entry into the genre, as it was directed by Roger Corman, and scored by Ronald Stein. It was rare that the composer stepped into the Epic genre, and I think I am correct when I say that Atlas was in fact the only time he worked on this type of movie. Stein is probably better known for his work scoring Sci-Fi or even horror movies. The music for Atlas is a grand, sweeping, and brassy affair, with the composer creating a rich thematic tapestry that is coloured with a varying assortment of compositions that are cleverly orchestrated and arranged.

This is a work that can be likened more to the glory days of Hollywood as in Quo Vadis and probably more akin to the style of Rozsa, Newman and their like rather than the sound and styles created by composers such as, De Masi, Trovajoli, Lavagnino, and others who worked on the plethora of sword and sandal mini epics that were abundantly released via the Cinecitta studios during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Ronald Stein, fashioned placid and romantic sounding nuances that compliment and act as a respite from the more action led cues, with fanfares a plenty this is probably one of the best ‘Peplum’ or non-Peplum soundtracks (whichever way you look at it) that I have heard. To say that it is an imposing and entertaining work would be an understatement.

Feared by Every Man, Loved by Every Woman, Behold the Mightiest Man Who Ever Lived.

So, forget Goliath, dismiss Hercules, and all the other strong men thus far mentioned, and enter another Adonis with super human strength. Released in 1961 Atlas, was looked upon initially as another addition to the ever-growing examples of the Italian made peplum movie, but looking closer one can see that this is although essentially a peplum, or at least having all the ingredients and look of this genre, is in fact something a little different. Filmed in Greece amongst the ruins of that ancient civilisation, it was directed by the King of the B movie Roger Corman.

I think and this is just my own opinion, that maybe Corman had seen the success of the Italian made Sword and Sandal epics and decided that he could maybe produce something that resembled these, thus generating at least some of the box office attraction that they had amongst audiences worldwide. The film maker seizing the opportunity to imitate and attempt to do it better than the Italians or at least put a different slant upon things, in a very similar way that the Italians would do a few years later when they took the American western and transformed it into something fresh and vibrant, in the form of the Spaghetti western. Corman even played the part of a Greek soldier in the picture but was not credited, as did the screen writer on the movie Charles B. Griffith.

The film featured Michael Forest in the title role of Atlas, Forest was a busy actor, he is probably better known for his work behind the microphone as opposed to in front of the camera, providing English voice overs for a variety of Italian and European movies, but he also played small parts in numerous films that were successful at the box office during the 1960’s. Corman’s choice of location was always thought to be rather odd, with most of the action taking place amongst the ruins of Athens which for a movie that was supposedly set in a period when the ruins would have been buildings. In fact, Corman and Griffiths cleverly wrote into the script references to the ruins, with characters remarking that they had been at war so long that the ancient temples and cities had been destroyed. This may not have been a film that was Oscar material in any way, shape, or form, but it was a movie that was entertaining, which I suppose is the whole point of making movies and the action on screen was aided greatly by Ronald Stein’s sweeping and robust soundtrack.

Ok let’s go back to more mainstream Peplums shall we, enough of these rippling muscles and heroic type characters, (As I am feeling even more inadequate). When I say more mainstream, were any of the films in this genre mainstream? Colossus of Rhodes for example, which starred Rory Calhoun, as a Greek military hero named Darios, who travels to visit his uncle in Rhodes in the year 280 BC. Rhodes has just finished constructing an enormous colossus of Apollo to guard its harbour and is planning an alliance with Phoenicia which would be hostile to Greece.

Darios flirts with the beautiful Diala (Lea Massari) daughter of the statue’s mastermind, while becoming involved with a group of rebels headed by Peliocles (Georges Marchel). These rebels seek to overthrow the tyrannical King Serse (Roberto Camardiel) as does Serse’s evil second-in-command, Thar (Conrado San Martin). The rebels’ revolt seems to fail, with Peliocles and his men being captured and forced to provide amusement in the local arena, but an earthquake eventually upsets, not only the Colossus in the harbour, but the balance of power in Rhodes as well.

Directed by Sergio Leone, the film had a musical score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, who Leone would initially turn to and ask to write the music for A Fistful of Dollars, but finally working with Ennio Morricone.

Rome against Rome is another example of the Peplum which was re-titled War of the Zombies by AIP for American and UK distribution. So, more confusion, the film in its original form ran for just over 110 minutes, but the edited version for American and British audiences was cut down to 90 minutes, and had the worst dubbing I can recall, because of the editing and the terrible dubbing the storyline was lost altogether and it became a confusing and pathetic piece of cinema.

The music was by Roberto Nicolosi, who again provided a score that mixed symphonic colours with a flourish here and there of electronic scoring, that added a more mysterious air to the proceedings. It was not the best of the Peplum genre, and many have said it was probably one of the last films in the genre to be made.

Released in 1964 at the same time that the Italian western had firmly taken hold of audience’s attention, so the Peplum, epic, or sword and sandal adventure lost its appeal almost overnight. And non-Italian audiences deserted the toga clad heroes of Rome and Athens for the anti-heroes of the wild west as created by Leone, Corbucci and Sollima. This has been a brief look at the Peplum, and maybe it’s a subject I may return to at a later date, but for now let’s put the swords away and ditch the sandals.

ARTICLES, CINEMA., Reviews

SOUNDTRACK SUPPLEMENT EIGHTY NINE.

October 31, 2023 jonman492000 Leave a comment

Well, it’s upon us, the one night of the year that we all dread. A night when we fear the slightest shadow, the manic laughter outside in the street, and half heard whispers outside the window, the sound of leaves being crunched as we await that ominous knock on the door. “No don’t open it”, but too late, as you seem somehow forced into turning the key and opening the entrance to your home, and then comes a blood curdling cry that is oh so familiar, “TRICK OR TREAT”, yes it’s those ankle biters from over the road demanding more candy with menaces. I have always wanted to say TRICK and throw a bucket of water over them, but that is a bit mean, isn’t it? There was the year that I offered them fruit instead of candy, which shall we say led to a horrific response. I think it took three days to clean up the flour and the eggs.

But I digress, welcome to the latest soundtrack supplement, which is a little different this time because 1, it’s not filled with horror scores (although there are a handful), and 2, I have included a little section celebrating fifty years since certain movies were in the cinemas.

But let us start in the time honoured all Hallows eve traditional fashion with a score from a new horror picture. Bloodthirst, which is a movie set in a post-apocalyptic world run by vampires, and is a place where only the strong survive. John Shepard played by Costas Mandylor is one of the strong ones, as he is a courageous Vampire Hunter. He sets out to track down and eliminate the master vampire (Robert Lasardo) before, he himself falls prey to the vampire horde and is turned into one of the undead. The music for this enjoyable Vampire/ contemporary western is by composer Scott Glasgow, who has written a robust and interesting score.

The composer referencing the sound and style of Ennio Morricone and Elliot Goldenthal throughout. When I say referencing, I do not mean copying, no. What he very cleverly does is write an original work and then orchestrate it in such a way we are reminded of the works of both the Maestro’s.

The score is filled with a wide variation of instrumentation, that includes, baritone electric guitar, ocarinas, bass harmonica, guitars, and whistler, which are bolstered by viola de gamba, Vielle, harpsichord, organ, children’s voices, and more seasoned choral sounds and a haunting solo soprano that sends a tingle up one’s spine as it purveys a sinister and chilling air.

The colours and textures within the score are striking, and the work has an attractive but at the same time uneasy persona.

There is a dark and virulent ambience that weaves its way in and out of various cues, an urgency, and a malevolent atmosphere, which is created using sinewy and foreboding strings that are enhanced by brass, and percussive elements. It is a brooding and at times sombre sounding affair, but then there are moments that are more upbeat and fun. The soundtrack is available now on digital platforms.

Howlin Wolf records is a label that specialises in releases of scores from horror movies, and they already have an impressive catalogue of titles. The labels latest release is from a new horror/slasher movie entitled He Never Left, which has a wonderfully edgy and atmospheric musical score by composer Randin Graves.

This is a work that seems to be a constant simmering pan of music and sounds, the composer creating an apprehensive and unsettling mood right from the start. There is a four note motif which we hear throughout the score, that is woven into the work at various points, it is something that I think holds the soundtrack together as in it links the music from each section of the score.

This is a soundtrack that takes its cue from the great 1980 horror scores as realized by the likes of John Carpenter, Harry Manfredini, Alan Howarth, Jay Chattaway and to a degree Charles Bernstein, when they scored films such as Halloween, Friday the 13^th, Silver Bullet and Nightmare on Elm Street. The music for He Never Left, is atonal in places in the true tradition of horror movies, but it also has melodies and themes which break through from time to time, each style within the score complimenting the other.

There is a real sense of menace and a harrowing and malignant mood purveyed by the music, which adds so much depth and atmosphere to a movie that is already a heartstopper.

Available now from Howlin Wolf records, click here for details if you dare—Howlin’ Wolf Records – He Never Left page (howlinwolfrecords.com) The score is also available on the likes of Spotify, check it out.

Dragons Domain records will release The Ernest Gold Collection volume 2, on November 13^th. The CD which is available for pre order now, includes music from the Western Tom Horn and the historical television mini-series Lincoln, also known as Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, the film, aired in March 1988, and was shown in two parts on the NBC network. The movie focused on Abraham Lincoln’s first days in office, contending with generals who refused to fight in the Civil War and politicians who schemed to push him out of office.

After the death of his son, and a war more vicious and bloodier than anyone could have imagined, Lincoln would live long enough to see his dreams realized before being assassinated. Directed by Lamont Johnson, it starred Sam Waterston as Lincoln, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd Lincoln and a cast that included Richard Mulligan, Steven Culp, Ruby Dee, Jerome Dempsey, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jon DeVries, Robin Gammell, James Gammon, Thomas Gibson, Cleavon Little, John Houseman and Glenn Faigen as John Wilkes Booth. Gold’s score is built around a singular theme, with the soundtrack brimming with period songs, African-American spirituals, Christian hymns, and historic musical references using an encyclopaedic stable of Civil War-era instruments including banjo, fiddle, jaw harp, spoons, fife, tenor drum, tack piano, saxophone, acoustic guitar, and brass. Lincoln would be Gold’s last major scoring assignment before his death.

Released in 1980, Tom Horn introduces the audience to the legendary American frontier scout, cowboy, soldier, gun-for-hire, and tracker who assisted in capturing the infamous Apache raider Geronimo. Directed by William Wiard, written by Thomas McGuane and Bud Shrake, the movie starred Steve McQueen as Horn, along with Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook, Roy Jenson, Geoffrey Lewiis, Bobby Bass and Mickey Jones, the movie focuses upon the final twelve months of Horn’s controversial life, in which his violent vigilante lifestyle finally catches up with him. Horn embarks on a one-man crusade to kill or otherwise expel anyone rustling cattle owned by his employers. His violent methods force the local townsfolk to revolt against him. And to restore their tarnished image in the community, the cattle ranchers who hired Horn begin plotting to get rid of him. Gold’s bold orchestral garnish evokes the styles and sounds of Hollywood in the 1940’s and 1950’s when composers such as Steiner, Newman and Salter were busy scoring western films. It contains a rough, raw, and rugged persona that perfectly underlines the ways of the wild west. The score opens with the composer’s central theme for Horn, which is somewhat subdued but still powerful. The work also includes a beautiful love theme for the relationship that blossoms between Horn and Glendolene Kimmel (Evans). Tom Horn is a neglected and overlooked movie and Gold’s impressive score remains an under-appreciated gem in the composer’s storied filmography.

As you know I am a big fan of European film music, especially French and Italian soundtracks, and it was a recent French score that caught my attention this week on digital platforms. Complètement cramé (English title Well Done) stars John Malkovich as a widowed British businessman who by mistake takes a job as a butler of a manor house in France to keep memories of his late French wife.

His life takes a turn as he navigates the eccentric behaviour of the lady of the manor and the household staff. Directed by Gilles Legardinier, the film contains a charming and wonderfully thematic score by composer Erwann Chandon, it is possibly one of the most delicate and fragile sounding scores I have listened to in a while, the composer utilising the string section to the maximum, creating luscious sounding tone poems that beguile and entertain, these are haunting and ingratiating, supporting the movie beautifully, but also standing on their own as music to be listened to away from any storyline or images.

https://www.facebook.com/erwann.chandon/videos/182408578253780

At times the central theme being performed on piano, giving it an even more intimate and affecting air. The simplicity of the score is I think its main attraction, the composer providing the movie with a variation of styles that encompass the storyline, these including comedic, romantic, and melancholy.

It is a superbly effective work, and the composer has fashioned music that I know many will adore. Available now on digital platforms via Plaza Mayor, please go listen it is a score that you will just want to keep listening to.

In the French movie Second Tour which is a comedy, Mademoiselle Pove is asked to follow the presidential campaign which is in progress. The front-runner is a fifty-year-old heir from powerful French family. Troubled by this candidate, Pove embarks on an investigation that is as surprising as it is jubilant.

That is the basic outline for the movie, which is directed by Albert Dupontel, the music is the work of Christophe Julien, and is a delightful soundtrack, the composer utilising to great effect piano, strings, and choir for the majority of the movie, but also including performances on what I think could be a recorder, cymbalom, with a scattering of brass and percussion at times making an appearance.

The composer creating attractive and pleasing melodies. The score does however have cues that are slightly darker as in Droit Dans La Yeux, which begins in strident mood, strings, percussion, and low brass creating an urgent sounding piece. This is yet another score that I recommend you take a listen to, available on digital platforms.

In the 2022 TV movie L’Attaque Des Déchets, two of the films charactersRoxanne and Philippe are so obsessed with their relationship that they often forget about the world around them. In the midst of an argument, they decide to separate, but when a strange phenomenon occurs: garbage from all over the world comes to life and starts to attack people. Arnold, their lifelong friend, is convinced that it’s all their fault for breaking up. He decides that they must reconcile, and everything will return to normal.

Roxanne and Philippe will try anything to resolve their quarrels, save their relationship and save the world. Easier said than done, when suddenly a soft drink can, becomes a relentless killer.

Weird, well, yes, I think so but also quite funny and entertaining. The outstanding score for the TV movie by composer Stephane W. Lopez, has at last been made available on digital platforms, and it is most certainly a case of the music being better than the film it was written for, at least that’s from a soundtrack collector’s point of view.

This is a grand work, with sweeping themes, and Williams-esque compositions, filled with melodies, brimming with fantastic symphonic sounds, and having to it epic and dare I say it Star Wars like musical proportions, with a bit of Harry Potter and Close Encounters thrown in for good measure, I love it. Go listen it is just brilliant.

Shall we go back to horror, well it is Halloween, so here goes, I tell you what I will do a Horror/Comedy, that will lighten things up a bit. Shaky Shivers, is a film apparently that you will either love or hate, a bit like a well-known yeast extract spread I suppose. Anyway, the movie is more of a comedy than a full-on horror, but the horror elements are present, even if they do become increasingly sillier as the storyline develops. Two young women find themselves at an abandoned camp in the middle of the woods with a book of magical spells.

They are surrounded by classic monsters in this comedic send up of ’80s horror films, and that is basically it, I think the tagline for the movie says it all A Night of Werewolves, Zombies, and Ice Cream. The score is by Timo Chen, who provides the movie with a jaunty, dramatic and at times highly comedic sounding score that is realised via varying instrumentation, that includes percussion, strings, electric guitar and has to it a pop orientated style in places.

Of course, being a horror there are darker interludes which are effective, it’s a score that is certainly different, but also it is one that grabs one’s attention, because of its unusual style. It’s something that I think you should not take too seriously. Available on digital platforms via Plaza Mayor. One to check out.

A mixed-race master of the sword lives a life in disguise while seeking revenge in Edo-period Japan. This is the plot for a new animated Netflix series entitled Blue Eye Samurai, which has a truly impressive and beautiful sounding score by Amie Doherty, the story unfolds over eight episodes, with the music greatly aiding the show.

The score is dramatic, romantic, reflective, and so emotive, the composer fashioning effective and affecting compositions that will be returned to many times after the initial listen. Jerry Goldsmith always excelled when writing oriental styled music.

I am pleased to say so does Amie Doherty, her themes are heartbreakingly melodic and filled with a proud and anthem like core, on which she builds a superb soundtrack. Available on digital platforms, highly recommended.

Another Netflix series that is causing a stir is Bodies, its an unusual storyline and quite a complex one, so don’t take your eyes off the screen. It focuses upon a murder in Whitechapel. Four different detectives are trying to solve the same murder in different time periods: 1890s overachiever Edmond Hillinghead, dashing 1940s adventurer Karl Whiteman, female 2020s Detective Sergeant Shahara Hasan and Maplewood, an amnesiac from post-apocalyptic 2050, who brings a haunting perspective.

Music for the series is by Jon Opstad, the scores for the eight-episode series are amazingly supportive of the action and the storylines as they develop and crossover.

The composer creating edgy and at the same time tuneful compositions, that weave in and out of the narrative underlining and punctuating as they go. Its an accomplished work, and one that really gets into the storylines, beautiful at times and harrowing on other occasions, just great film/TV music. Take a listen on digital platforms.

Other soundtrack releases. A quick look-star ratings.

Three Little Birds. TV Soundtrack. Benjamin Kwasi Burrel. *** On Digital Platforms.

Planet Earth lll. Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, Sara Barone, Russell Emanuel & Bastille’s Dan Smith. Silva Screen. *****

Loki Season 2. Episodes 1 to 3. Natalie Holt. **** On Digital Platforms.

Phantom Songs/Asalto al Castillo (2CD) Alberto Iglesias. **** Quartet records.

Tre Fratelli. Piero Piccioni. *** Quartet records.

Lo Scopone Scientifico. Piero Piccioni. *** Quartet records.

La Ternura. Fernando Velázquez. **** Quartet records.

Raiders of Atlantis. Maurizio and Guido De Angelis. *** Beat Records.

HAPPY 50^TH.

A Look at a handful of movies that were in Cinema’s half a century ago in 1973.

Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford starred in The Way We Were, which was a romantic movie that became one of the highest-grossing productions of 1973. The actors play Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner, two very different people who meet in college and, years later, reunite to embark on a passionate romance. But as so often happens, their love for each other begins to dwindle and their differences in political views and way of thinking starts to throw obstacles in the way of their relationship.

The production, which was helmed by filmmaker Sydney Pollack is based on Arthur Laurents’ novel which was published in 1972. The Way We Were won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which was penned by Marvin Hamlisch who also wrote the score for the movie.

Amarcord, a comedy-drama partly inspired by real events that won, among other accolades, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Directed by Federico Fellini it is a Franco-Italian film, that focuses on a young man named Titta and some of his friends and family as they live in the village of Borgo San Giuliano during the Fascist regime of the 1930s.

The main character is based on Luigi Titta Benzi, one of the director’s childhood friends, portrayed in the film by Bruno Zanin. Joining Zanin in the cast are Pupella Maggio, Magali Noël and Armando Brancia. It had an emotive and haunting score by Italian Maestro Nino Rota and was released onto CD as part of the CAM soundtrack encyclopaedia series during the 1990’s.

Papillon, was a drama directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (Planet of the Apes), inspired by the memoirs of writer and convict Henri Charrière. The movie which starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, focuses upon McQueen’s character Papillon, who is a man who has been sentenced to life imprisonment in French Guiana for a crime he did not commit. After teaming up with another convict with the same fate, played by Hoffman the pair set out on a mission to escape the place by any means possible.

The movie became a box-office hit and was highly praised by critics and loved by audiences. The production earned several awards, music was by Jerry Goldsmith, who worked with the director on several occasions. Charrière’s, harrowing and courageous story made its way back to cinema screens in 2017 with Michael Noer directing and Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek in the lead roles, but this version failed to ignite interest from cinema goers.

Bruce Lee was, one of the most popular and influential figures that were involved with martial arts. The actor was also a major contributor to the popularity of martial arts films back in the 1970s. He featured in numerous movies that were produced in China, and via these being shown in cinemas in the U.S.A and Europe/UK, he was offered the role in Enter the Dragon. Which ironically would be his last major role before his untimely death in the July of 1973.

Directed by Robert Clouse, Lee plays a martial arts expert who becomes involved in a competition to find the crime lord responsible for his sister’s death. Supporting Lee in the production were American actors John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri, and Chinese actor Shih Kien. The pulsating and fast paced musical score was the work of Lalo Schifrin, who had also worked on The Exorcist in the same year, but his score was rejected by the director of that movie. The score for Enter the Dragon, featured shouts and screams that we associate with martial arts and had to it a jazz influenced oriental musical flavour.

The Wicker Man hit British screens fifty years ago. This British film by Robin Hardy rose to become a folk/rural horror classic. Inspired by David Pinner’s novel Ritual, the movie featured the likes of Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, and Diane Cilento, the focus of the storyline follows a policeman (Woodward) who lands on a Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, but as he progresses with his work he uncovers some shady secrets that the locals are hiding and appear to be determined to thwart his investigation. It is often referred to as a cult movie, but I am not sure as cult movies are often examples of film that are not that good, this I would say that is certainly not the case, with the Wicker Man being more of an iconic horror.

I like the movie and could watch again and again, but the score by Paul Giovanni has never been one of my favourites. They did attempt to re-create or re-imagine it with Nicholas Cage in lead role, but that like so many of his movies did not work.

Staying with horror or the supernatural at least and to Don’t Look Now a thriller directed by Nicolas Roeg, the films storyline was based upon a short story by Daphne du Maurier from her book Not After Midnight, and Other Stories. The film stars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as Laura and John, a married couple who relocate to Venice while grieving for their daughter Christine, who has drowned in an accident. Their life takes a turn for the worse after meeting two sisters who claim to be in contact with their deceased daughter, who seems to be trying to warn them of great danger. At the time of its release, the film was warmly received, but caused considerable controversy for featuring an explicit sex scene.

Over the years, Don’t Look Now gained a respected reputation to the point where it is now considered an essential piece of cinema. The atmospheric score was by Italian composer Pino Donaggio, who began his career as a singer and songwriter in his native Italy, his music for Don’t Look Now was much revered by many, and he was hailed as possibly a new Bernard Herrmann. Which led to the composer working on Carrie in 1976, and a string of other movies during this period, such as The Howling, Piranha, Tourist Trap and Home Movies. The composer refused to move to Hollywood and consequently missed out on scoring films such as Gremlins.

Also back in 1973,the movie Serpico earned Al Pacino the first of several Golden Globes for Best Actor. Directed by Sidney Lumet Serpico is inspired by Peter Maas’ book of the same name and recounts the life story of Frank Serpico, a New York City cop who fought for many years against corruption within the armed forces, going so far as to publicly denounce them, thereby putting himself in danger.

Al Pacino was joined in the movie by John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire and Tony Roberts. Music was by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.

Another film which hit the cinemas in 1973 was Shaft in Africa, probably not the best of the three movies in the series, but nonetheless I thought I would include it because of the death of its star Richard Roundtree this week (October 24^th). The music was by Johnny Pate, and its probably true to say that the score was far more entertaining than the movie itself. The soundtrack was released on ABC records at the same time that the film was in cinema’s, and it contained a score that was funky, groovy and rhythmic, the soundtrack also boasted an infectious and vibrant title song Are You Man Enough which was performed by the legendary Motown group The Four Tops, with Pate,s score being an energetic and well-structured work with powerful themes and imaginative arrangements, that are dramatic and jazz influenced, having a strong funky sounding foundation that is laced with an almost big band or swing sound. The opening cue sets the scene wonderfully for the remainder of Pate’s score, as it is punchy, brassy, percussive and up-tempo.

You Cant Even Walk in the Park, paves the way for an entertaining and polished work. With highlight cues being the slow and sultry sounding Aleme Finds Shaft, the upbeat but sophisticated and contagious Shaft in Africa (Addis) and the slow but compelling El Jardia, plus three versions of the title song, the longest of these being the cut that was issued as a single.

Also in 1973, MGM embarked on a small screen version of the Shaft stories with a series of seven ninety minute shows produced from the latter part of 1973 through to the early part of 1974. Richard Roundtree reprised his on-screen role as John Shaft and the series included guest appearances by notable actors such as Tony Curtis, Robert Culp and George Maharis. The music for the series was also the work of Johnny Pate, who heavily utilized the original Isaac Hayes Shaft theme and from time to time would work the theme into the fabric of his own scores and introduce various arrangements of it, to underline the action.

Richard Roundtree-1942-2023.

Richard Roundtree shot to fame as the ultra-hip, flamboyantly-dressed — not to mention charismatic– private eye John Shaft. The film Shaft (1971) spawned a genre, two sequels and a series. It made Roundtree a household name, and, for a while he became one of the hottest box-office stars in Hollywood. As New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby once wrote, “Shaft is the sort of man who can drink five fingers of scotch without gagging or his eyes watering. He moves through Whitey’s world with perfect ease and aplomb, but never loses his independence, or his awareness of where his life is really at.”

Fame and success did not come at once for the actor. The son of Kathryn (a nurse and/or maid), and John Roundtree (employed variously as a garbage collector and caterer), Richard was born in New Rochelle, New York. During high school, he excelled at football and duly won an athletic scholarship at Southern Illinois University. However, he dropped out in 1963 and worked a succession of different jobs, including as janitor and salesman. He became a fashion model after being signed by Eunice Johnson of Ebony Magazine, later posing as an advertising model for a brand of hair grease and for Salem cigarettes. Deciding to give acting a go, Roundtree returned to New York to take drama lessons. In 1967, he joined the acclaimed Negro Ensemble Company, working alongside people like Robert Hooks, Rosalind Cash and Moses Gunn. He was soon cast in several off-Broadway productions and had a first headlining role as boxing legend Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope. In 1971,

Roundtree, then a virtual unknown in show biz, ignited the screen as the macho sleuth Shaft. Slickly directed by Gordon Parks and filmed on location in Harlem, Greenwich Village and Times Square, the picture was a tangible box-office hit, which satisfied both black and white audiences alike and likely saved a struggling MGM from impending bankruptcy. Shaft can also be said to have spawned the blaxploitation action genre of the 70s. Roundtree went on to star in two less successful sequels Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973) and aTV series. He reprised his character for a 2000 motion picture which starred Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft’s nephew.

After the success of Shaft, Roundtree portrayed a few other robust characters: a Union army deserter teaming up with a crippled Indian to escape a sadistic bounty hunter in Charley-One-Eye (1973), a professional jewel thief in Diamonds (1975), a treasure hunter in Day of the Assassin (1979) and a Zimbabwean guerrilla in Game for Vultures (1979). By the mid-80s, however, the actor found himself increasingly relegated to the supporting cast as conventional establishment figures such as police or army officers.

Television afforded him several good roles, notably in the Emmy Award-winning miniseries Roots (1977) and as former slave-turned gunslinger Isaiah “Ice” McAdams in Outlaws (1986). He subsequently had recurring roles in the cast of the soap Generations (1989) (as a doctor), the drama Being Mary Jane (2013) (as the titular talk show host’s dad) and (as a grandfather) in the sitcom Family Reunion (2019). Roundtree’s accolades have included an MTV Lifetime Achievement Award for Shaft in 1994, a Peabody Award in 2002 and a Black Theatre Alliance Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.

Although diagnosed with male breast cancer in 1993 and having undergone both chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, Roundtree bravely carried on in his chosen profession and continued to act on screen right up to his death from pancreatic cancer on October 24^TH 2023, at the age of 81.

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