Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

I like the cozy bar scene at around 50 minutes into the movie. The elevator
collapse scene towards the end of the movie keeps you suspended (in suspense)! The
whole film itself is pretty cozy and entertaining. And the rare film score by Keating is
very pleasant.
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-Fighter Squadron (1948) *** [music ***]
http://www.wbshop.com/Fighter-
Squadron/1000179953,default,pd.html?cgid=ZARCHIVEALL
This is macho male-only (for all intents and purposes) WWII action movie. The
story itself is ok, sometimes silly with the comic sub-plots, with nice stars (Robert Stack,
Edmond O’Brien) but the real special feature is the energetic music by Max Steiner. He
pulled all stops in this one. Still my favorite Warner Bros. war movie that Max scored is
Darby’s Rangers because it had a far greater range of material, lot more melodies, and it
wasn’t quite so noisy as this movie with all the machine guns constantly rattling away!
This gets really annoying after awhile and mars the enjoyment of this film.
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-Two on a Guillotine (1964) ** [music ***]
http://www.wbshop.com/Two-on-a-
Guillotine/1000180078,default,pd.html?cgid=ZARCHIVEALL
This is not a good movie, just okay. The director, William Conrad, had the gall to
state that Max Steiner’s music ruined the picture! He particularly disliked the “Rabbit”
music. Guess who is remembered more for his contributions—Conrad or Steiner? While
the score is lower-drawer material, it demonstrates a vitality that the movie itself could
not scare up! I researched part of the written score at USC/Warner Bros Archives. The
cue sheets for Reel 1 shows:
1. Magic Act. Visual Instr. 1:02
2. Sobre Las Olas Rosas (arr. Steiner) Visual Instr. 1:38
3.They’re Either Too Young or Too old (Frank Loesser-Arthur Schwartz) bkg
instr. 2:30
4 a) You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby (Harry Warren-Johnny Mercer) :25
4b) The Blade (Steiner) 1:00
4 c) Title :02
5. Melinda 1:15
6. Melinda :05
If I have time, I’ll delineate some of the cues here, otherwise I’ll wait some other
time. I cannot give the score a full rundown treatment because I did not have time to
research the complete score.
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-Dragnet 1967 (1967) **** [music *** 1/2]
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