FSM veröffentlicht Rubinsteins Whose Life is it Anyway? und Mancinis The Thief Who Came To Dinner

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WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? -- SCREEN ARCHIVES ENTERTAINMENT

The collaboration between director John Badham and composer Arthur B. Rubinstein has yielded such excellent scores as Blue Thunder (1983), WarGames (1983), Stakeout (1987) and The Hard Way (1991). FSM proudly presents their first feature collaboration, Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), in which Rubinstein makes expertand affectinguse of Baroque styles to elevate Badham's superior adaptation of the stage play by Brian Clark.

Whose Life Is It Anyway? stars Richard Dreyfuss as a dynamic artist, Ken Harrison, who is paralyzed in an auto accident. Feeling his life is over without the ability to pursue his art, he goes to court for the right to die. John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti and Janet Eilber costar in this acclaimed film adaptation.

Despite the stagebound originsand potentially downbeat subject matterRubinstein wrote a lively symphonic score bristling with energy. Because the film is about life, I knew the score must reflect that, Rubinstein says in the CD liner notes. The music starts upbeat and it ends upbeat. In my own sort of strange dissecting of what the film was about, it was clear to me that it was about the life force, and Kens life force was sculpting. The intellectual side of my pea brain led me to Baroque musicBach. Bach is, for me, the essence of structure, architecture, sculpture. His music is the embodiment of the life force.

The concept decided upon, Rubinstein crafted a unique sound palette (eliminating flutes, clarinets and violins) and wrote in a variety of classical formspassacaglia, gavotte, bourée and many others. But his adherence to these styles never gets in way of the musics essential feeling or its sensitive support of the movies expertly crafted drama. The film was Rubinsteins first major feature (he had scored television and smaller films beforehand) and it is easy to see how he would become so successful in the fieldthe score is not only terrific in and of itself as music, but is carefully designed (theatrically, emotionally, intellectually) to support a thoughtfully intimate story.

This premiere release of the complete score to Whose Life Is It Anyway? is presented in excellent stereo sound, with liner notes by Jeff Bond and Alexander Kaplan incorporating new comments by Rubinstein, who has graciously assisted with the production.

THE THIEF WHO CAME TO DINNER -- SCREEN ARCHIVES ENTERTAINMENT

Few of Henry Mancinis classic 1960s and 70s scores are available in their original soundtrack recordings, as the composer typically re-recorded his scores for RCA Victor (concentrating on source cues and pop arrangements of themes). An exception was The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973), released by Warner Bros. Records in its original film performance, and presented by FSM on CD in complete form.

The Thief Who Came to Dinner was a light comedy/suspense/caper filmexactly the sort of project that Mancini often scored for Blake Edwards. Mancinis friend Bud Yorkin directed and produced Thief from a screenplay by Walter Hill (adapting a novel by Terrence Lore Smith). The film stars Ryan ONeal as a charming, self-made cat burglar who takes to robbing wealthy Houston mansions almost for the fun of it; along the way, he falls in love with a beautiful socialite (Jacqueline Bisset) and outsmarts a well-intentioned insurance investigator (Warren Oates).

Mancinis delightful, groove-driven score updates the composers classic light suspense/comedy sound from the 1960s (The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Arabesque) for the mod era of the early 70s, with electric keyboards and Fender bass adding a pulsating, modern component and cool moods to his flawless big brand brass and suspenseful strings. It has often been said that Mancini packed more melody into his bass lines than the typical composer did in an entire score; The Thief Who Came to Dinner is a perfect case in point, hooking the listener from the opening conga riff and maintaining interest as a masterful and enjoyable romp. In addition to the dynamic heist music (which grows out of the main theme) the score features a soothing love theme for Bissets character, catchy source cues and dynamic one-off Mancini score creations like the boogie-woogie Tail Gate.

This premiere CD of The Thief Who Came to Dinner features the Warner Bros. Records program followed by the rest of the scorepreviously unreleased score and source cues. Two early demos of the main themes are included as well. The entire recording has been newly mixed from the original 2 16-track masters engineered by Dan Wallin on the Warner Bros. scoring stage (then known as the Burbank Studios scoring stage). The album is designed so that the tracks can be programmed in film sequence if so desired. New liner notes are by Scott Bettencourt and Lukas Kendall, giving FSMs customary detailed information as to the production and the recording.