The theme of this week’s “Lost in the Shuffle” post is black. From the Caped Crusader and stop-motion Halloween hijinks to an unwilling assassin, a kidnapper, and the Devil, this week’s post looks at the darker side of film music.
BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT (2008) – Painless/I Can’t
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Batman meets Japanese anime in this popular animated series. Kevin Manthei‘s Middle Eastern-flavored score accompanies the “Working Through Pain” episode. Combining subtle percussion, electronics, and acoustic instruments, this track features flute and recorder. I’ve never seen the shows, but Manthei’s evocative music makes me want to seek them out.
MAD MONSTER PARTY (1967) – “Mad Monster Party”
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Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass are as synonymous with holiday cheer as the Grinch and Charlie Brown. During the 1960′s and early 70′s, Rankin/Bass produced animated and stop-motion television classics like Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. These shows have stood the test of time and if you don’t know what profession Herbie the Elf aspires to or have a clue what the Island of Misfit Toys is, then your holidays could use a fine tuning. Much of the joy of these shows came from the music of Maury Laws. But Rankin/Bass should have stuck to Christmas and left Halloween alone. Their feature film, MAD MONSTER PARTY, is excruciatingly awful. The best part of the film is Laws’ music. It’s a mixture of kitsch, big band jazz, and cheesy Broadway-type songs. Jazz vocalist Ethel Emmis sings the title song. It’s no classic like “Heat Miser/Snow Miser,” but it has a surreal John Barry/James Bond quality that has its own charms.
ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER (1946) – His Honor Passes Out
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You can’t mistake a Dimitri Tiomkin score. Few composers were able to switch musical moods on a dime with the speed that Tiomkin does. His bold orchestrations never let you forget who’s in charge on the podium and his music seldom if ever takes a back seat to anything happening onscreen. But if you don’t analyze him too much, his music can be a lot of fun. In this film Claude Rains plays the Devil who arranges for a deceased gangster (Paul Muni) to return to Earth as a well-respected judge to make up for his previous life. Tiomkin could convey humor in his music with ease. The laughing clarinets and their Woody Woodpecker motif have a cartoon quality that verges on Mickey Mousing.
THE COLLECTOR (1965) – Trapped
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William Wyler directed John Fowles’ bestselling novel about the socially inept bank clerk Terence Stamp who kidnaps art student Samantha Eggar. I’ve never read the book or the film, yet Maurice Jarre‘s music seems oddly out of place and not nearly menacing enough for what I assume the picture needs. The unique woodwind harmonies and oddly dancing figures certainly put this music in Jarre’s camp, but it’s second-tier Jarre.
WANTED (2008) – The Train
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By all rights, this action thriller starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy should have been crap. And yet it wasn’t. Slickly made and highly entertaining, thanks in no small part to its two stars, the film offered wicked humor, cool special effects, and heart-pounding action. Danny Elfman‘s score lets loose with some heart-pounding motifs of his own, monk-like Latin vocals for the all-male chorus, and even a throw back to his Oingo Boingo days with his vocals on “The Little Things.” The thrilling train sequence called for a pulsating undercurrent that rarely stops, the memorable main theme, and some kickass brass and percussion licks. This is not usually my type of score, but Elfman contributes considerably to the fun of this surprisingly good film.
