Published in FSM Online March 2010 This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first Academy Awards in Music. While the Best Song category has remained essentially unchanged since its inception (except for those continually bizarre behind-the-scenes nomination rules), the Best Scoring category has been subjected to numerous permutations and title changes over the years [...]

Forget CITIZEN KANE. My vote for the greatest American film is CASABLANCA. There’s no denying KANE’s importance in film history and there are other films I love more than CASABLANCA. But CASABLANCA is the perfect blend of script, direction, and stars. And just look at these stars! Humphrey Bogart as nightclub owner Rick, Ingrid Bergman as his [...]

From Patty Duke to Dustin Hoffman, Oscar appreciates actors who take on the challenge of playing disabled characters. But few have done so with such poignancy and effortless ease as Jane Wyman in her Oscar-winning role as the deaf mute Belinda in JOHNNY BELINDA (1948). Belinda lives in a small fishing village on the island of Cape [...]

You think your life sucks? Coke bottle glasses, out-of-date hairstyle and outfit, and oh those sensible shoes. Poor Charlotte Vale: unattractive, overweight, and a spinster on the verge of a nervous breakdown from the emotional and verbal abuse suffered under Mummy’s tyrannical thumb. Her blossoming at the hands of her psychiatrist and in the arms [...]

Depending on who you ask, the CLICK TRACK was invented in the 1930′s by the “Father of Film Music” Max Steiner, or Carl Stalling or Scott Bradley to accompany their memorable animation scores. However, it is usually credited to Steiner. As George Burt explains in his book, The Art of Film Music, in the early days [...]

Mark Swed’s Los Angeles Times review of the opening concert of the Pacific Symphony’s American Composers Festival made for some angry comments left by film score fans. However, I found his opening remarks particularly vivid: Hollywood’s “Golden Age” was, of course, black and white.  What gave the pre-World War II talkies their “color” was their [...]