FSM: Captain Nemo (Morley) und The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (Grusin)

[Gast Stefan Jania]

Wie schon länger bekannt. Von Captain Nemo gibt es diesmal nur 1500 Exemplare.

Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)

Limited Edition of 1,500 Copies.

Composed by: Angela Morley

FSM resurrects a delightful fantasy scoreand offers a tribute to the great composer Angela Morley (1924-2009)with the premiere CD of Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969), a Jules Verne-inspired family adventure produced at M-G-Ms British studios, starring Robert Ryan, Chuck Connors, Nanette Newman and Luciana Paluzzi.

Angela Morley (a/k/a Walter Wally Stott, as billed on the film) was a remarkable English composer, arranger and musician with a long history in the U.K. record and film industries and, more recently, U.S. television such as Dallas, Hotel, Falcon Crest. She received Oscar nominations for her adaptation work on The Little Prince (1974) and The Slipper and the Rose (1976); wrote the admired score to Watership Down (1978); and contributed to the orchestrations of some of John Williamss best-known scores such as Star Wars, Superman and The Empire Strikes Back.

Morleys charming symphonic score to Captain Nemo and the Underwater City highlights the films fanciful underwater seascapes with a mixture of classical and modernist approaches. The main theme is a buoyant waltz (evoking the Victorian era) and the atmosphere generally light, though it darkens and pulses for the films adventure and suspense (such as scenes involving the undersea Mobula monster). Like many B sci-fi/fantasy films, this production may have fell into relatively obscurity, but its score captivated youngsters who caught it on television and searched in vain for a soundtrack albumuntil now.

FSM presents the complete score to Captain Nemo (recorded in England) newly mastered from the original ½ three-track stereo tapes. Liner notes are by Jeff Bond and Alexander Kaplan.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Limited Edition of 3,000 Copies.

Composed by: Dave Grusin

One of the finest dramatic scores of the 1960sand an important early work of Dave Grusingets a deluxe CD treatment from Film Score Monthly: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), for the acclaimed adaptation of Carson McCullerss popular Southern novel starring Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter stars Arkin as John Singer, a deaf-mute who moves to a small town while trying to become the legal guardian of a fellow deaf-mute (played by Chuck McCann) who has been institutionalized. There he touches the lives of a group of disparate people, including a sensitive teenage girl (Locke) whose family has money problems; a proud black physician (Percy Rodrigues) at odds with his daughter (Cicely Tyson); and a self-pitying, troublemaking drunk (Stacy Keach Jr.). Like many dramas during the turbulent 60sespecially those set in the Souththe film explores themes of alienation and racism as its outsider characters struggle to communicate with each other and find their place in society.

Dave Grusin had mostly television credits when he scored The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and the project was a feature-film breakthrough that produced one of his signature scoresGrusin is renowned for his works for contemporary adult dramas that blend orchestral, pop and keyboard elements and this was more or less the first. Faced with a lead character who did not speak in verbal dialogue, and a story rich in emotion, Grusin wrote a beautifully restrained yet melodic score that delicately evokes the films unstated emotions. The main theme is a gentle harpsichord melody for Arkins deaf-mute, with a bridge expressing the great melancholy within the character, while secondary themes apply to the supporting cast.

While films today tend to have their source music (car radios, stereo systems, etc.) licensed from existing works, in the 1960s it was common for the films composer to custom-generate these pieces. This was the case on The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter as Grusin worked with country-western, rock and blues vocalists to generate the appropriate tracks, many of which were featured on the films soundtrack LP.

FSMs expanded CD of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is broken into three sections, all of them newly remixed and remastered from the ½" three- and four-track stereo masters: first is the 1968 Warner Bros. LP program, interspersing source music and underscore cues; then a 31:09 program of just the films dramatic score, some of which is repeated from the LP tracks but placed here in chronological order; and an additional four tracks of source music. Liner notes are by Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall, including new comments by the composer.

[ronin1975]

als Kind fand ich den Film immerhin toll... und damals ne Frau als Komponist? Na musste ja gleich nen Pseudonym nehmen...

Main Titles sind toll! das ich mal sowas zu nem Silver Age Score sagen würde!

[BigMacGyver]

und damals ne Frau als Komponist?

Angela Morley hatte sich 72 einer geschlechtsumwandlung unterzogen (mann -> frau). Als sie nemo komponierte war sie also noch männlich, zumindest offiziell.

[Leto]

Wow, darauf warte ich schon seit ca. 20 Jahren. OK, "Captain Nemo" ist ein trashiger B-Kiddie-Film aber als alter Jules Verne Fan habe ich den schon als Kind geliebt (obwohl er bestenfalls von Vernes "inspiriert" ist). Aber die Musik war klasse. So herrlich altmodisch-schwelgerisch und warmherzig (eben für einen Kiddie-Film) und nicht zu komplex. Auf einer Compilation (The Film and TV Music of Angela Morley) befindet sich eine Suite mit einigen Motiven von "Captain Nemo".

Bin schon sehr gespannt auf die Soundqualität.

[Darkdream]

Da der Score hier von Morley jetzt erscheint (habe ich mir übrigens bei SAE bestellt) meint ihr die Chancen stehen gut das Watership Down nochmal aufgelegt wird? Würde gerne mal das Original hören aber bei den Preisen hisse ich lieber die weiße Flagge

[Ludwig]

CAPTAIN NEMO ist ein wunderschöner, vielseitiger Score, dem ich nur jedem wärmstens empfehlen kann. Traumhaft schön und unglaublich vielfältig. Ganz große Klasse!

[Leto]

CAPTAIN NEMO ist ein wunderschöner, vielseitiger Score, dem ich nur jedem wärmstens empfehlen kann. Traumhaft schön und unglaublich vielfältig. Ganz große Klasse!

WIE SCHÖN, das den auch noch andere Fans zu schätzen wissen

gruss

[Brushguy]

Nabend!

Ja, tolle Sache! Den werd ich mir auf jeden Fall auch besorgen. Klasse, ein Klassiker meiner Kindheit. Genauso wie die Zeitmaschine. *freu*

Gruß

Dirk