SOUNDTRACKS
Soundtracks are a lot more than movie music...

...or so I'm ready to argue as a 30 year devotee of this sorely under appreciated genre.  So, in an effort to do my part, each week
I'll be making recommendations of soundtracks current and vintage, make a fuss over long awaited soundtrack scores finally getting
a well deserved release, and in general, make some noise about this often overlooked category.  Beyond my long experience as a
listener and as a pianist and songwriter, both of which I've put to use in writing a quarterly soundtrack column for the
Chicago
Tribune, I can only offer my recommendations.  You'll discern my taste soon enough and upfront I'd like to make it clear that I'll
focus most heavily on SCORE soundtracks.  In the end, all criticism is subjective but if I can point a listener toward a little heard
soundtrack or strongly advise you to either ORDER IMMEDIATELY or SKIP ALTOGETHER, all the better.
I just got my copy of George Duning's fabu-lush (and I don't use that adjective lightly, you
know!) score for
Bell, Book and Candle in the mail from Film Score Monthly.  The score's
been out for awhile but I thought, since I'm deep into a bunch of
classic DVDs, I'd check out
a classic score as well.  Boy, what a pleasure this has been!

I've long been a fan of the "mysterioso" 1958 comedy of witches in Manhattan at
Christmastime (based on John Van Druten's hit play) with stars Jimmy Stewart and Kim
Novak (who reunited so memorably later that year in
Vertigo).  Novak is truly "bewitching" as
the beautiful Gillian Holroyd, the depressed witch that's bored with the tricks of her trade who
just wants to fall in love for real.  To spite her old college roommate, the snobbish Merle
(Janice Paige), she puts a love spell on Merle's straight laced intended, Shep (Stewart) who
just happens to be her upstairs neighbor and promptly falls for him for real -- or does she?  
The plot thickens when Gillian also summons an "expert" on witchcraft (played by Ernie
Kovacs) via a Christmas present of summoning goo from her madcap brother, the bongo
playing, jazz mad imp Nicky (Jack Lemmon).  Adding to the fun are Gil's mischievous Aunt
Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and a gaggle of other witches and warlocks who hang out at the
Zodiac Club reveling in the performances of the resident jazz musicians and a visiting male
French singer from the "Paris chapter" of Witches, Inc.  Hermione Ginggold, hilarious as
another witch is on hand to offer perfectly timed wisecracks.  The entire thing is shot through
with tons of gay subtext (there's lots of that "normal" versus "freaks" talk) and is encased in
the artificiality of its production.

Composer of the film's score George Duning had by 1958 written music for dozens of
Columbia Studios' well known pictures (where he was under contract).  
The Jolson Story, The
Eddy Duchin Story
, Johnny O'Clock, From Here to Eternity, and Picnic (another of my favorites)
were all abetted by Duning's shimmering music.  In each, the self-effacing composer served
the material well and he does so again with
Bell, Book and Candle which may be his crowning
achievement.

Duning, who had a jazz background, gets the chance of a lifetime with his score for
Bell, Book
and Candle -- and the finished result perfectly combines the big budget Hollywood orchestra
sound which he expertly supplies with the subtle, dueling trumpet, jazz tinged cues played
by excellent sidemen (they include a young John Williams on piano).  Rather than
competing with each other, the tracks offset one another and add a great deal of vitality to
the film (and the disc).  This is a true classic soundtrack delight, copiously presented here in
typical FSM fashion (complete with one of those encyclopedic booklets that I instantly
devour) for the first time on CD.

I particularly love Duning's mysterious main theme (introduced along with holiday and
comedic elements in the Main Title) and repeated with variations throughout the score.  "The
Spell/Shep Hooked," a drawn out version of this theme in which Gil hums the theme to hook
Shep is also beautifully realized.  Duning's variation on a standard, "Stormy Weather Polka"
beautifully showcases the jazz trio while the final cue, "Only Human and End Title"
incorporates Duning's use of electronics to augment the visual tricks conjured up onscreen by
the witches (it's like a precursor to the "tinka tinka tee" nose twitch of Samantha from
"Bewitched").

FMS's disc also gives us another Duning score -- for the animated Mr. Magoo feature
1001
Arabian Nights
that is a nice bonus (and features Jim Backus as Magoo giving us a brief vocal
on "Magoo's Blues").  This score also offers a Mancini-like choir singing the movie's romantic
title song, "You Are My Dream."  Other cues, as expected, have a cartoonish or Mideastern
pastiche feel.  Keep it up
FSM!  These are limited editions and when they're gone, they're
GONE -- so order NOW!


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Next Recommendation:  TBA
Top: The cover for FSM's dual
Bell, Book and Candle and 1001
Arabian Nights
soundtrack -- a
detailed, lavish edition -- in
true FSM fashion.  Below,
composer
George Duning in
later years.