Le Serpent
Expanded-Reissue

In collaboration with Warner Chappell, Music Box Records is pleased to present on CD the expanded reissue of the original motion picture soundtrack of Henri Verneuil's Le Serpent (also known as Night Flight from Moscow, 1973) composed by Ennio Morricone and conducted by Bruno Nicolai.

Based on Pierre Nord’s book Le Treizième Suicidé (The Thirteenth Who Committed Suicide, 1969), this Cold War spy movie tells the story of Russian Colonel Vlassov (Yul Brynner), a high ranking KGB official who defects to the West while in France and delivers the Western Intelligence services with information on possible traitors in high places of the Western Security apparatus. Also starring Henry Fonda, Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret, Michel Bouquet and Virna Lisi.

This music perfectly transcribes the cold and emotionless world of the secret services. With Le Serpent, Ennio Morricone gave French cinema one of his most original scores, a mix of radical atonality and exacerbated romanticism.

Supervised and mastered by Claudio Fuiano, this present edition features the same content as the latest CD issued by GDM in 2009. Some slight sound defects from the original master tapes have been reduced and restored, and two previously unreleased tracks have been added to this new album. The CD comes with an 8-page booklet with liner notes by Sylvain Pfeffer, discussing the film and the score.