Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

liked the Main Title but to me it was accidentally flawed, in certain terms. I wish there
was not that Universal International logo at the very start of the movie that Stein felt
obligated to write dramatic music for. I think it was way out of character for the eerie and
beautiful and subdued Main Title melody (played by the Novachord). And when the
“This Island Earth” show card appears, I guess Stein felt obligated to inject a brassy
section very briefly that sticks out like a sore thumb. Too abrupt, too out-of-place with
the musical character of the Main Title’s intended star-field ethereal music. I would’ve
simply not write music for that opening Universal International, wait until it passed, and
then go into the Metaluna theme softly as you enjoy the Technicolor star field scene. That
tutti harsh brass at the titles show card should’ve also been deleted, and instead just keep
on going with the lovely star-field/Metaluna theme (maybe increase to mf or something
and/or have a subtle dynamic build of the instruments somewhat with the passing entry of
that show card). But Herman Stein made his poor or ineffective artistic judgment calls at
those two spots, and so we now have to live with it. Otherwise, except for those two
spots, I really like his music for the Main Title.
A good judgment call on the reader is to buy the Monstrous Movie Music album
(produced admirably by David Schecter and his wife, Kathleen Mayne) of This Island
Earth (and other alien invasion films) [MMM-1954]. To order, go to your personal
Interocitor and type:
http://www.mmmrecordings.com/TIE/tie.html
I really like the large 40-page, labor-of-love booklet. It provides an excellent
detailed presentation of the movie and its score, including many reproductions of the
Conductor score (a big plus!). You can’t go wrong with this cd investment, especially if
you are a serious fan of the movie and/or its music. You’ll learn a lot.
-Caged (1949) ** [music **]
http://www.amazon.com/Caged-Eleanor-
Parker/dp/B000OHZJG4/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293331593&sr=1-1
Bleak imprisonment movie. Few prison movies are very popular! The music is ok
but not anything I had a desire to research.
-Pollyanna (1960) *** 1/2 [music ***]
http://www.amazon.com/Pollyanna-Vault-Disney-Collection-
Hayley/dp/B00005RRGB/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293408442&sr=1-1
This is a delightful sun-shiny Disney film with a wonderful cast and a nice score.
Being true to the spirit of this movie, I will say nothing bad about any of it! While I did
not give it a masterpiece rating, I’ll just pretend that I did!
-The Omen (1976) *** [music ***]
http://www.amazon.com/Omen-Gregory-
Peck/dp/B00004TS0G/ref=sr_1_8?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293408645&sr=1-8
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