...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.