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Sabrina/We're No Angels and John Wayen at Fox

Added on Saturday, December 07, 2013   Posted by Tim Horemans

Sabrina/We're No Angels and John Wayen at Fox

New releases from Kritzerland

Kritzerland has 2 new soundtrack releases. The first one is Frederick Hollander's score to Sabrina and We're No Angels. The second release is John Wayne at Fox: The Westerns, it has 2 CD's for the price of one!

Frederick Hollander may not be a familiar name to many film music fans, but he was a superb composer who wrote some terrific scores over the years. He was also a wonderful songwriter, dating back to his work in German cabaret and films – his most iconic and well-known song being the gorgeous “Falling in Love Again” from Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel.

The 1954 Billy Wilder film Sabrina, was an absolute delight with a brilliant cast. Humphrey Bogart and William Holden played the brothers Larrabee, Linus and David, and the wonderful British character actor John Williams played their chauffeur, Thomas Fairchild, whose daughter is the title character, Sabrina. But it was the magical, winsome and altogether lovable Audrey Hepburn who made the film into pure cinematic magic. She’d become an overnight star the year before with Roman Holiday, and Sabrina was the perfect follow-up, cementing her place as one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood.

Wilder wanted to use popular tunes throughout Sabrina, and Hollander was the perfect choice to do those adaptations, as well as provide a few original themes. The resulting score was a memorable and charming pastiche – in fact, it’s impossible to think of Sabrina without hearing Hollander’s incredible arrangements of such standards as “My Ideal,” “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You,” “Lover,” “Dream Girl,” “Isn’t It Romantic?” and more. No one did this kind of score better than Hollander, and Sabrina is pure unadulterated movie scoring magic.

Two years later, Paramount released a wonderful Christmas comedy called We’re No Angels, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray as the titular angels. Once again, Hollander provides an incredibly appealing score, which has both original and memorable themes along with interpolations such as “Silent Night.”

Frederick Hollander had a really long and fruitful tenure at Paramount, and to fill out this CD, we present surviving cues from several of his film scores for the studio, including The Bride Wore Boots, The Affairs of Susan, The Great McGinty, Remember the Night and Disputed Passage. It is a pleasure to bring an entire album of Hollander music to CD. Though he is perhaps unsung these days, we hope that this potpourri of delightful music will show what an amazing talent he was.

Sabrina/We’re No Angels is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.

Track list

SABRINA
1 Prelude
2 Isn’t It Romantic? (Rodgers–Hart)
3 I Don’t Want to Walk Without You (Styne–Loesser)
4 Medley (I Wished on the Moon/Isn’t It Romantic?/Sabrina) (Rainger–Parker/Rodgers–Hart/Stone)
5 I’m Yours (Green–Harburg)
6 Larrabee Building
7 Dream Girl (Livingston & Evans)/I Don’t Want to Walk Without You (Styne–Loesser)
8 Lover Waltz (Rodgers–Hart)
9 Isn’t It Romantic? (Rodgers–Hart)
10 My Ideal (Chase–Robin–Whiting)/Whispers in the Dark (Hollander–Robin)
11 Bridge to Meeting
12 Sabrina (vocal) (Stone)

WE’RE NO ANGELS
13 Main Title*
14 French Guiana
15 Christmas Eve (inc. “Silent Night”)
16 Three Angels (Hopkins–Sanders, arr. Van Cleave)/Concertina
17 The Snake Hunt Pt. 1
18 Finale* (inc. “Plaisir d’Amour”)

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS
19 Prelude**
20 Cupid the Reindeer (“Jingle Bells”)
21 Mary Lou/Great Work, Albert**/End Title

THE AFFAIRS OF SUSAN
22 Prelude (Hollander)†/Main Title (Simeone)†
23 The Show Closes
24 Love in Bloom (Rainger–Robin)
25 Narrow Escape/Pursuit (Webb)†/Finale†

THE GREAT McGINTY
26 On a Tropic Night (Lara–Washington)
27 Louise (Whiting–Robin)/Just One More Chance (Coslow–Johnston)

REMEMBER THE NIGHT
28 Indiana Patch Work†† (Bradshaw)
29 Arrival in Indiana Home††
30 End of a Perfect Day in Indiana (inc. “End of a Perfect Day”)†
31 Indiana Waltz††

DISPUTED PASSAGE
32 End Title

Music by Frederick Hollander (except as noted)

* Contains “Sentimental Moments” by Frederick Hollander and Ralph Freed
** Contains “Horses, Horses, Horses” by Richard Whiting and Bryon Gay
† Contains “If You Knew Susie” by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer
†† Contains “Back Home Again in Indiana” by J.F. Hanley and Ballard MacDonal

JOHN WAYNE AT FOX: THE WESTERNS

THE COMANCHEROS, NORTH TO ALASKA, THE UNDEFEATED

Composed by Elmer Bernstein, Lionel Newman, Hugo Montenegro

John Wayne at Fox – not a lot of films, but some extraordinarily entertaining ones.
The Comancheros (1961), based on the 1952 novel by Paul I. Wellman, was directed by Michael Curtiz, the great director who’d done any number of classics, including some of the most beloved films of all time – Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Angels With Dirty Faces, The Sea Hawk, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, White Christmas, to name just a handful. Starring were Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff and Bruce Cabot. It’s a wonderful film with colorful performances, gorgeous photography, and a rousing musical score by Elmer Bernstein. At the time, Bernstein had just written what would become one of the most iconic western scores ever, The Magnificent Seven. The Comancheros was his follow up western score, and it, like the film it graces, is colorful, bigger than life, and filled with action and adventure. You know what you’re in for as soon as the first chords of the main title music begin, one of Bernstein’s all-time classic themes. But the score is rife with melody and invention and Bernstein’s music is as iconic and big as the Duke himself.

A year earlier, the John Wayne Fox western was North to Alaska, a big, sprawling comedy western starring the Duke, Stewart Granger, enticing Capucine, Ernie Kovacs and teen heartthrob Fabian. The score, credited solely to Lionel Newman, but containing music by several others, fits the film like a glove. It’s got a tuneful title song by Mike Phillips, a nice song for Fabian called “If You Knew” and some fun original orchestral cues by Newman.

Next we jump to the third of the Fox Wayne westerns, the 1969 film The Undefeated, starring Wayne and Rock Hudson, along with Roman Gabriel, Lee Meriwether, Bruce Cabot, Ben Johnson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, Richard Mulligan, John Agar and Dub Taylor. Hugo Montenegro’s music for The Undefeated is big as all outdoors, with strong themes and a real sense of storytelling. As with many Western scores, there’s a lot of Copland “Americana” as well as a stirring main theme, some great dramatic scoring, some Mexican-flavored cues and even a hoedown

Both The Comancheros and The Undefeated were previously released on CD by FSM, and North to Alaska was released on CD by Intrada – all are out of print – in the case of The Comancheros, for many years. But we’re pleased to bring them all together in one great 2-CD set – they’ve all been newly remastered for this release.

John Wayne at Fox – The Westerns is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.

Track list

CD 1

The Comancheros
1. Prologue (Elmer Bernstein)
2. Main Title (Elmer Bernstein)
3. Riverboat Capture (Elmer Bernstein)
4. Regrets (Elmer Bernstein)
5. The Wide Open (Elmer Bernstein)
6. Eulogy (Elmer Bernstein)
7. McBain (Elmer Bernstein)
8. Digging Again (Elmer Bernstein)
9. Nostalgia (Elmer Bernstein)
10. Attack (Elmer Bernstein)
11. Words (Elmer Bernstein)
12. The Sign (Elmer Bernstein)
13. Comancheros (Elmer Bernstein)
14. Hanging Around (Elmer Bernstein)
15. Keep Your Distance (Elmer Bernstein)
16. Campfire Dance (Elmer Bernstein)
17. Tobe’s Death (Elmer Bernstein)
18. Leaving (Elmer Bernstein)
19. Texas Rangersµ (Elmer Bernstein)
20. Finale and End Title (Elmer Bernstein)
21. The Comancheros (unused title song) performed by Claude King (Elmer Bernstein)
22. You Walked Away (unused song) performed by Claude King (Elmer Bernstein)
23. Main Title (mono mix) (Elmer Bernstein)

North To Alaska
24. North to Alaska (Mike Phillips) performed by Johnny Horton (Lionel Newman)
25. Go North (Lionel Newman)
26. Angel’s Theme (Lionel Newman)
27. Scenic View (Lionel Newman)
28. Nuit d’Amour (Night of Love) (Lionel Newman)
29. Baked Alaska (Lionel Newman)
30. Love in the Air (Lionel Newman)
31. Northern Lights (Lionel Newman)
32. If You Knew (Russell Faith/Robert P. Maroucci/Peter D’Angelis) performed by Fabian (Lionel Newman)
33. End Title (including “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”) by Theo. A. Matz and Joe Hayden) (Lionel Newman)

CD2

The Undefeated
1. The Undefeated (Hugo Montenegro)
2. Southern Charm (Hugo Montenegro)
3. Burning the Plantation (Hugo Montenegro)
4. Meet Blue Boy (Hugo Montenegro)
5. Foggy River (Hugo Montenegro)
6. River Crossing (Hugo Montenegro)
7. Let’s Go! (Hugo Montenegro)
8. Happy Hour (Hoedown) (Hugo Montenegro)
9. Do You Mind? (Hugo Montenegro)
10. All But Jamison (Hugo Montenegro)
11. Bandits (Hugo Montenegro)
12. The Horses (Hugo Montenegro)
13. Suppertime (Hugo Montenegro)
14. New Campsite (Hugo Montenegro)
15. Incident in Mexico (Hugo Montenegro)
16. Mission Accomplished (Hugo Montenegro)
17. End Title (Hugo Montenegro)

 



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