The Comancheros

Elmer Bernstein has been famous for many genres during his half-century career: jazz soundtracks (The Man with the Golden Arm), epics (The Ten Commandments), comedies (Animal House, Ghostbusters) and dramas (The Age of Innocence). But he is perhaps most beloved for his rousing western scores, and particularly his thrilling efforts for the films of John Wayne.

Elmer Bernstein has been famous for many genres during his half-century career: jazz soundtracks (The Man with the Golden Arm), epics (The Ten Commandments), comedies (Animal House, Ghostbusters) and dramas (The Age of Innocence). But he is perhaps most beloved for his rousing western scores, and particularly his thrilling efforts for the films of John Wayne.

The Comancheros (1961) is the first collaboration of the legendary actor and composer—and also the last film of director Michael Curtiz. It starred the Duke as a Texas Ranger going after a gang supplying contraband to Comanches, with Stuart Whitman and Lee Marvin in supporting roles.

Bernstein scored The Comancheros the year after his classic score for The Magnificent Seven, and the work could be thought of as 'The Magnificent Eight.' It features a bold, heroic main theme—the archetypal, upbeat statement of the Hollywood western. The rest of the score surges with Bernstein's indelible rhythms and lyrical touch, from quiet moments of reflection to cascading Indian attacks.

Bernstein himself re-recorded excerpts of The Comancheros on a Varèse Sarabande album, The Films of John Wayne, Vol. 1. This new CD features the COMPLETE original soundtrack—never before released—as recorded for the film at 20th Century Fox. The recording is complete, in chronological order, and in superb stereophonic sound—with bonus tracks of unused songs from the film and a mono mix of the Main Title.

About the Composer

Elmer Bernstein (1922–2004) had a Hollywood career that lasted over a half a century; invented and reinvented himself as a composer across several genres (jazz, epics, westerns, comedies and adult dramas); and scored more than a few Hollywood classics—The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Escape and Airplane! to name but five. FSM has released a dozen of his scores and counting, but the most popular may be Heavy Metal (1981)—don't be fooled by the title, it's Elmer's 'Star Wars.' In addition to his prolific work as a composer, Bernstein was a tireless champion of film music as an art form, serving on the boards of several professional organizations and in the 1970s recording his own LP series of classic Hollywood scores, Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection, released by FSM as a 12-CD box set. IMDB

More info at: FilmScore Monthly