Following up from my review of This Island
Earth / The Day of the Triffids in Cinema Retro # 11, I’d like to also
highlight some other CD releases from excellent Monstrous Movie Music label.
The Blob (and other creepy sounds) 1958
(MMM1955) marks the world premiere release of Ralph Carmichael’s classic
soundtrack. The film is rightly regarded today as a piece of great sci-fi
hokum, and is particularly memorable for starring the very young ‘Steven’ McQueen.
The music stands up amazingly well, considering the tight budget aligned to the
picture was mostly devoured by the cost of color
cinematography. Carmichael certainly squeezed
every ounce of life from his relatively modest 27 piece orchestra and the resulting score remains a
real testament to the composer's talent. To capitalize on the film's intended teenage audience, producer Jack H. Harris insisted upon a pop theme song to
open the film. What emerged was the campy, if somewhat memorable, The Blob (written, believe it or not, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David!), recorded by ‘The
Five Blobs’. They were, in
truth, a simple gathering of session musicians lead by vocalist Bernie Nee. Nevertheless,
the song worked and helped contribute to the film’s general success, but not entirely
without negative consequences. The cheesy song negated some of the more effective technical aspects of the movie and put it firmly in the "guilty pleasure" category for all time. Fortunately, Carmichael’s
unused original main title ‘Violence’ is also included on the disc. With the inclusion of some Blob bonus material, the entire score for the
main feature runs for some 37 minutes and is undoubtedly a thoroughly enjoyable
listen. There is, of course, so much more to this CD than first meets the eye. With
almost 40 mins more devoted to such horror and B movie classics as The
Green Slime, Terror from the year 5000 and The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, there’s
certainly enough here to keep the most ardent of horror fan satisfied.
Incorporating works of such legendary composers as Roger Roger, Angelo
Francesco Lavagnino and Mario Nascimbene this is a must-have for any Blob-ophiles and other sci-fi and horror fans.
CLICK HERE TO REVISIT CINEMA RETRO'S COVERAGE OF THE 2007 ANNUAL BLOBFEST!
The Intruder
You’d be forgiven if the early William
Shatner / Roger Corman collaboration The Intruder (1961) (MMM1956) had passed you
by unnoticed. It’s a film that is rarely seen these days, perhaps due to its politically incorrect theme centering on racism. Nevertheless, Shatner’s performance as the bigot Adam Cramer is regarded today as one of his finest. An unusual and
somewhat rare ‘serious’ film from Corman, it received critical acclaim upon its
release only to be handled like a disease when it came to the film’s distribution.
It’s a great shame in many ways, as this probably contributed to Corman giving
up on the idea of serious storytelling and returning to the relatively safe
surroundings of the his highly profitable exploitation movies.
Thus, it's a real treat be able to enjoy Herman Stein's score to the film. Best known for his scores for Universal horror films such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Incredible
Shrinking Man, It Came from Outer Space, The Land Unknown, Revenge of the
Creature and Tarantula, his work outside of the genre has until now been sadly
overlooked. Stein’s score opens dramatically alongside the introduction of the
film’s central character - a cue that immediately suggests a sense of menace. Yet Stein’s score
is as rich as it is diverse, and the composer makes clever use of woodwind to
illustrate Cramer’s disturbed state of mind. Stein utilizes
strings and a weary clarinet to draw on the tension between Cramer and
his subsequent relationships. The result is a refreshingly unpredicatable element to the score that evokes comparisons to Bernard Hermann's chilling work on Psycho and Cape Fear.
Cramer’s introduction is particularly chilling, and while it lacks the intensity of a Hermannn score, it succeeds on its own merits. (I confess to conjuring up images of Robert Mitchum's Max Cady from Cape Fear as this track played.) Bonus material on this well-produced
disc includes the composer’s complete score for Career for Two (1951) and an
additional selection of unused main titles and underscores. Considering Stein’s almost exclusive association with horror and sci fi scores, Monstrous Movie Music deserves credit for releasing this forgotten gem that amply showcases the composer's diverse talents.- Darren Allison
CLICK HERE TO HEAR AUDIO TRACK SAMPLES AND ORDER FROM MONSTROUS MOVIE MUSIC'S SITE