Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 10:20 am

One purchase I did take advantage (because it only happens once a year) is theWarner Bros Archive half-off sale on Thanksgiving weekend. I purchased ten dvds for$100, including Darby’s Rangers, A Majority of One, Iron Mistress, Saratoga Trunk, IcePalace, Lightning Strikes Twice, The Main I Love, Confessions of A Nazi Spy, MissionTO Moscow, and I Was A Communist for the FBI. Unfortunately two of the dvds weredefective, especially Darby’s Rangers (virtually unplayable with constant frame freezesand digitalization fragments) and, not so bad (at least I can play it on my computer), IcePalace. I need to return them for replacement.Iron Mistress is not a very good movie but I enjoyed various sections of the musicscore of Max Steiner. Some of you may have already noticed from my list above that allof those films have a Max Steiner score. The opening music (after the Main Title) of TheIron Mistress is very exciting, and worth the price of the dvd. It starts at about 00:01:20. Iparticularly loved the brief dynamic section (00:02:14) of music that repeats itself severaltimes as the boys fight but raised consecutively a half tone or whole tone every two bars.It occurs immediately after a black man (a slave??) beats on another, bigger, man sayingthat’s he’s excited, and the other guy says, “Well, control yourself!” The music reallysticks in your head.Of course I will purchase dvd at unlikely places if the price is really right. Forexample, at Big Lots they have dvd for sale at $3 a pop, sometimes 4 @ $10. Right nowin the background I am listening and semi-watching to 36 Hours starring James Garner,Rod Taylor, and Eve Marie Saint. The music is by Dimitri Tiomkin (composed aboutfour years after his excellent Guns of Navarone). My wife is watching it now before wego out to Sprouts and other stores (usual Sunday shopping!). Very pianistic, mercurialscore. Also at Big Lots I bought All Mine To Give starring Cameron Mitchell and GlynisJohns. The music of course is by Max Steiner. Great price for $3.**************As I indicated in one or two of my Talking Herrmann posts below, I did moreHerrmann research of hitherto “unknown” scores composed by him. Jim Doherty ofChicago, a top Herrmann expert, aided me and helped me with important information andresources. Now: We all already knew that Herrmann composed at least once for the CBSradio series, Hallmark Playhouse, an episode titled “Rest & Be Thankful” (April 5,1951). I had already obtained the written score from the University of Wyoming(American Heritage Center) years ago. What if he composed more episodes? Well,researching new ground a bit, it turns out that Herrmann composed at three moreHallmark Playhouse shows:Hallmark Playhouse 510426 122 Two Years Before The Mast April 26, 1951. CBSHallmark Playhouse 510503 123 A Breath Of Air May 3, 1951. CBSHallmark Playhouse 510510 124 A Man's Mother May 10, 1951. CBSThose numbers involve location designations in the Lyn Murray Papers (Call #02928) at the AHC in the U. of Wyoming. The actual physical manuscripts are in Box 46of the Lyn Murray Collection. Another possible (in part) Herrmann score is the “Joy9