THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF=AND OTHER FILM MUSIC BY BENJAMIN FRANKEL.

HE FOUGHT THE HIDEOUS CURSE OF HIS EVIL BIRTH. BUT HIS RAVISHED VICTIMS WERE PROOF THAT THE CRAVINGS OF HIS BEAST-BLOOD DEMANDED HE KILL…. KILL…KILL!!!!!!

(TAG LINE FOR THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF)

Hammer films from the late 1950,s and the 1960,s certainly made their mark upon the cinema going public all over the world, the music for these Horror classics also hit the right spot with collectors of soundtracks, sadly when the films were at their most popular the music from them was not available. Thanks to recording companies such as GDI many of the original scores have been saved and preserved forever on compact disc, and also labels such as Silva Screen put a lot of time and effort into having many musical excerpts from Hammer scores re-recorded. The latest hammer score to receive the re-recording treatment is THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, this is most certainly a classic horror movie in every sense of the word, released in 1959, it was this movie that marked the starring role debut if a very young almost unknown Oliver Reed, who was to become one of Britain’s most respected actors. Reed was paid the princely sum of £90.00 per week on this movie, at the time he was heard to say that this was a fortune. Directed by Hammers star filmmaker Terence Fisher, the film tells the story of Leon who is born on Christmas day to a mute servant girl, the girl who was raped by a beggar dies giving birth to the child and he is taken in by Don Alfredo, played by the excellent Welsh actor Clifford Evens. After a while Leon begins to realize that he has something of an attraction to the taste of blood, and is afflicted by Lycanthropy which makes him change into a werewolf at the cycle of the full moon. The child’s first victims are animals a goat and a kitten, but he soon progresses to larger victims in the human form. The films scenes of savage violence were a cause for concern to the censors, they cut over 4 minutes from the original version of the movie, John Trevelyan felt obliged to cut the footage, but at the same time wrote to Anthony Hinds at Hammer apologizing for doing so, the full version of the movie was screened in the United States and that unedited version returned to the UK in the early part of 1990, and is thankfully now available on DVD. The musical score was almost as harrowing and violent sounding as the content of the movie,  composed by the London Born composer Benjamin Frankel, this is one of the finest scores written for a Hammer production, and has been on the wish list of many a film music enthusiast to be released in its entirety. The score for THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF is a significant and very important one, as it is the first score for a film that is composed using the twelve notes of the chromatic scale,Frankel based his score for the movie on sections of his Symphony number 1.

The Curse of the Werewolf (Photo credit: jon rubin)

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 thought created a greater atmosphere of urgency and also a sense of sadness and frustration. This 35 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 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 art work and contains some very informative notes by the composers step son Dimitri Kennaway. This is a compact disc that should be in your music collection and  is worth a lot more than it’s meager £5.99p price tag.

 

 

 

THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION VOLUME 2.

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the CD player along comes another terrifying collection of themes from the Hammer House of horror. Yes those nice people at GDI who brought you THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION VOLUME 1, were not content with leaving you with just a taster of the Hammer musical heritage, so they have put together another 25 themes to delight, tantalise and terrorize. If you thought that volume one was awesome, then volume two will most certainly entertain and wow you. In many ways I think that this second volume of music is better than its predecessor, not because the music is of a higher quality or sound quality is better, but because it seems to me to be a more varied selection of music a wider musical palette if you will. James Bernard is represented, but this time by just 6 tracks, but these half a dozen entries do represent some of the composer’s musical triumphs for Hammer, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL, DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, QUATERMASS 2 and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES are all present and showcase Bernard’s evident gift when it came to the scoring of gothic horrors. But the remainder of the collection, is a varied, vibrant and thoroughly entertaining listening experience and like volume 1, this disc’s contents evoke many memories of seeing these wonderful Hammer productions for the first time, Whether that was at the cinema or on many of the late night showings on the BBC.  As I have already said the variety of music on this compilation is stunning and the composers that are represented read like a who’s who of British film music. Harry Robinson, with his lilting and bittersweet theme for DEMONS OF THE MIND,  John McCabe, with his superbly edgy music for FEAR IN THE NIGHT.  Richard Rodney Bennett, with his brief but highly atmospheric opening music for THE WITCHES, Malcolm Williamson, with his beautiful and haunting piano led opening for CRESCENDO, which for me personally evokes musical classics as  THE WARSAW CONCERTO  and THE LEGEND OF THE GLASS MOUNTAIN,  Don Banks, for his thundering and robust music for THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S SHROUD and also his equally driving theme for THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN and his swirling and tormented opening theme for RASPUTIN THE MAD MONK.  Paul Glass, makes an entry with his TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, which is one of the latter Hammer movies and this is reflected in the modern sounding approach that was taken with the score.

 

 

 Gary Hughes, is represented by his rousing theme from THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, which was an interesting and fairly fast paced adventure and contained a musical score that was even more adventurous, filled with numerous references to what is or were perceived to be salty sea dog Pirate music and being more YO Ho Ho, and shiver me timbers than Long John Silvers parrot. It is a shame that Hughes has not more entries on this collection, his soundtrack for THE VIKING QUEEN for example is one that in my opinion should be issued in the form of a full score compact disc or indeed the composer should have a compilation dedicated to his Hammer film music, THE SCARLET BLADE, THE VIKING QUEEN, A CHALLENGE FOR ROBIN HOOD and DEVIL SHIP PIRATES would I know attract soundtrack collectors like flies around a honey pot.  Benjamin Frankel, Humphrey Searle, Mike Vickers, David Whitaker, Carlo Martelli, Edwin Astley, all put in appearances, as do Italian Maestro Mario Nascimbene and American composer John Cacavas, the latter’s modern take on DRACULA being a solid and infectious sounding theme. The composer adding an upbeat almost pop sounding theme to the proceedings to accompany the infamous Count when he was resurrected in 20^th Century England. But that was the beginning of the end for DRACULA as far as Hammers film cycle was concerned, because the idea of having Dracula roaming the streets of a 20^th Century London did not quite gel or impress cinema goers, and quite often the gasps and screams that one associates with Hammer horrors were replaced by sighs and sniggers at the lack-lustre attempts by Hammer to bring them selves in the 1970’s. Plus once the Count was resurrected in the 20^th Century how would you send him back in time, (where is that time lord Dr Who when you need him). Now there’s a project for Hammer THE TIME LORDS OF TRANSYLVANIA !  

 

The music however never suffered and was never wanting in any department, in fact at times it was surprising that Hammer’s production contained such wonderful music because of the budgets that were allotted to the music, but because of accomplished composers and also inventive and clever use of instrumentation these scores are now considered as classics, everyone of them..