Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde

This film looks like it could easily be an extremely entertaining comedy farce, but no doubt those Hollywood types completely screwed it up and it was less funny than Panorama. However, they at least employed someone with an ounce of talent to write the score even if he did rather get swayed into pilfering a few licks from the temp track (or so it sounds). Perhaps the most obvious section is the main theme which is introduced about halfway through the opening suite and in it's most danse macabre setting with solo fiddle does sound a huge amount like Dance of the Witches from Witches of Eastwick by a certain Mr Williams. In fact, there are a few other notable sections and some of the more over the top cod horror music sounds like Williams' melodramatic sections from that original film. Off to Work features a piano motive which does sound a great deal like the Tennis Game from Witches as well... ah well. Mark McKenzie has worked as an orchestrator for Danny Elfman and it certainly shows as quite a few of the more wacko idea from Beetlejuice show up every so often. I guess if you're not John Williams then you can't defy your director and just have to write what you're told and get ribbed by people like me for doing so, still you make trowel loads of money doing it, so it can't be that bad. Anyway, since all these precedents were pretty good scores in their own right, what McKenzie makes out of the material is certainly extremely entertaining and there's never a dull moment. His use of the main theme in about a million different variations is certainly quite inspired, it ranges from danse macabre to more of a jig to epic with brass fanfares over the top. Even Mr Williams didn't get that many variations of his Dance of the Witches.

I suppose this review looks like I'm just dumping on Mark McKenzie and I apologise for that since I really enjoy this score a great deal, indeed it's a lot more fun and interesting than many comedy scores are. Each track is an entertaining vignette that is not high art, but totally enjoyable on its own terms. Old Movie Music uses grinding organ chords just like in those hammy horror films from decades ago as the title suggests, no doubt part of an entire scene intended to spoof the genre. Charades features an extremely jolly violin passage, kind of a hoedown I suppose and Taking Back My Chromosomes sounds like a toy version spoof of Williams' march from 1941 complete with peeping picollo opening. Although Mark McKenzie's main jb keeps him busy as an orchestrator for many of Hollywood's top composers, if he got the chance to write a few more of his own scores, I'm sure he'd do very well at it, especially if he gets past aping some of the composers he has worked with since he has enough style and imagination to do everything himself. If it was totally original, I'd give it 4 stars since you can't fault it on the enjoyment front, but being critical and in a vain attempt to discourage plagurism, I'll stick to 3. It would be nice if a compilation of suites from McKenzie scores was released since quite a number of his scores have several minute overtures which would make for great concert pieces.