Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

Season episode (#23) of The Loretta Young Show titled “New York Story.” I was
interested in this particular episode because Paul Picerni was in that one (remember him
in The Wax Museum?). Well, this Thinking Out Loud device was used many, many
times! In “The Clara Schumann Story” episode (#27) that season, Young actually Talks
Out Loud to herself—not thinking out loud!
The flight engineer, Louie, is just as gabby as the one in The High & the Mighty,
so it seems obvious to me that the writers/producer intentionally designed it with this
reference in mind. The skipping to various passengers and their unique personal
situations also is lifted from that earlier film. Being privy to their shallow thoughts is the
new wrinkle in the formula! Still, overall, I was still entertained enough by the movie,
and it is always a treat to see the beautiful Anne Francis!
I love the Main Title melody by Leonard Rosenman, although the overall titles
music is oddly-constructed (like the movie itself, as mentioned earlier!). The opening
intro brass music is really out-of-place, and awkwardly transitions to the gorgeous
melody. Most composers (especially a pro like Max Steiner) tend to align the main
thematic music with the Main Title show card but that does not happen here when you
see “The Crowded Sky.” I think Rosenmann should’ve started the eight-note melody with
the show card early on, just really focused on it. Despite this incongruity, I still liked the
Main Title. And I also liked various other musical sequences. For instance, when the
woman thinks to herself just after Keenan Wynn makes a comment to her about how he is
a writer of television shows and is writing a sex-change operation of one of his
characters, the music here is rather Herrmannesque with the consistently two-note motif.
Go to dvd 00:33:29 thru 00:33:55. Come to think about it, upon rechecking, there is a
prior instance of this music located 00:24:42 when she was also thinking to herself. She
reminds me a bit of an older Fay Wray of this general period, or even Ava Gardner. By
the way, I never did have this score pulled for me at Warner Bros. Archives, although I
was tempted.
-The Ten Commandments (1956) **** [music ****]
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Commandments-Special-
Collectors/dp/B00015HX90/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1292992076&sr=1-3
[Start review Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 5 :24 pm]: Tomorrow is Easter Sunday
so this weekend is the traditional period for watching Cecil DeMille’s grandiose three
hour and forty minute biblical epic. In fact ABC television network is showing the
picture tonight starting at seven. While the storyline and acting tends to be rather overthe-top
(hello, DeMille!), I find the film fascinating to watch—especially the gorgeous
Technicolor print. There are many, many of what I called “freeze-frame” shots in this
picture—picturesque scenes worthy of attention. The first one is the very start of the
movie (dvd 00:04:04) of the Paramount logo mountain painted by Arnold Friberg. This
mountain clothed in luxurious red suggests the holy mountain later seen in the movie
where Moses communes with God. Another beautiful shot lasting half a minute or so
starts on the dvd at 00:08:59. Here’s another red-saturated scene of the slaves moving a
huge, heavy Egyptian monument. More freeze frames later.
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