Around the World in 80 Days Soundtrack
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Around the World in Seventy Minutes
By: Randall LarsonDate: Thursday, February 01, 2007
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
When it premiered in 1956, producer Mike Todd’s flamboyant cinematic incarnation of the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in 80 Days, was the world’s most expensive and elaborate film, directed by the capable Michael Anderson, who’d recently completed The Dam Busters and 1984, and would go on to direct Operation Crossbow, Doc Savage: Man of Bronze, Logan’s Run, Orca, the 1977 TV remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and many more. The picture cost a reported $7 million (rumored to be much more), was filmed in 25 locations around the world (140 location sets, plus numerous Hollywood backlots) and, according to the film’s press kit, contained the most stars ever to appear in one picture (the film was noted for its overindulgent placement of cameo appearances by 1956-era stars throughout its length). Despite its hyperbole, the film is in fact an excellent and colorful entertainment, and a faithful adaptation of the Verne adventure novel (notice that we won’t even discuss the 2004 Steve Coogan/Jackie Chan disaster). Todd’s ambitious production was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won five, including Best Picture and Best Score in recognition of the dynamic and gorgeous orchestral film score composed by Victor Young, one of Hollywood’s finest tunesmiths.
The score was released initially on 12-track LP worldwide in 1956, and on CD in identical format in the USA by MCA in 1990, reissued in Japan in 1992, but has quickly gone out of print in the ensuing dozen-plus years, although the main theme has been a mainstay of easy-listening and historical movie theme compilations since its 1956 release. Late last year, on the 50th Anniversary of the film’s release, Canadian label Hit Parade Records released a greatly expanded edition of the score, containing over 70 minutes of sparkling stereo sound, including almost 30 minutes of previously unavailable music. The Hit Parade Records expanded edition reissue, distributed by Eric Records in the USA, contains almost 30 minutes of previously unreleased music from the original soundtrack. The album, which was produced by Didier C. Deutsch, renowned reissue specialist, includes extensive new liner notes (including track-by-track commentary) and many color photos.
This new release really allows Young’s masterful score to breathe. The original 1956 release and its subsequent reissues contained just 42:30 minutes of music. At nearly double that, the score’s many nuances – and virtually all of its more dramatic, action-oriented music (left off of the original edition in favor of tuneful melodies favored by late-1950 soundtrack listeners) may be much more fully appreciated.
The score’s glorious main theme is a brilliant, airy waltz that reflected the various moods the film would encounter as it traveled around the world, while also providing an overarching single unifying motif that would solidity the film’s diverse settings and environments. This theme is also associated with the daring adventurer, Phileas Fogg (played with superb grace by David Niven), who’s obstinate wager sets the stage for the ambitious journey. A very catchy melody for violins over xylophone is given for Fogg’s valet, Passepartout (“goes anywhere” in French), played by Mexican comedian Cantinflas. The inflated, pompous theme is perfect for the mischievous manservant. These two themes will serve mainly by themselves to centralize the score throughout its length. Despite this brevity of thematic motives, Around the World in 80 Days has lots of music, mostly in the form of set-pieces for various spectacular adventure sequences.
“Sky Symphony” heralded Fogg and Passepartout's journey across the English Channel to France, their first destination. The lilting, string-laden melody is based on the Main Theme, carried through a variety of interpretations appropriate for balloon air flight. “A Landing in Figeuroas” introduced a touch of Spanish-flavored music, as errant winds blow the duo across the Pyrénées into Northern Spain, while “Passepartout Dances” invokes a fully Spanish bouncy folk theme. “Invitation to a Bullfight/Entrance of the Bull March,” in which Passepartout is coaxed into being a matador, dispenses with the valet’s own theme in favor of a comical violin scherzo, erupting, after the entrance of the angry bovine, into the brash, carnival atmosphere of blaring Spanish horns. A more somber tonality is provided in the brief “Arrival in Suez,” while a quotation from “Rule Britannia” reminds us that Fogg is back on British territory in “Bombay Harbor” before the cue wafts into an interlude for strings and brass that suggests the untamed (and hardly British) wildness of this part of the world. “India Countryside,” one of my favorite tracks for many years, is the delightful and panoramic travel music heard by Fogg and his valet as they take a train to the Indian interior; it also becomes a “Hindu Theme,” associated sparingly with the Hindu Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine; hardly Indian but nonetheless enchanting in this, her third feature role), whom Fogg rescues from a sacrificial pyre near Calcutta. “A Princess in Distress” reintroduces the Hindu Theme, performed by authentic Hindu instruments, which slowly builds to a frenetic pace as the sacrificial ceremony progresses – until suddenly interrupted by Passepartout’s theme as he daringly rescues the princess.
A deep male chorus suggests the Buddhist religious aspects of “Royal Barge of Siam,” as the trio escapes to Thailand, while “Yokohama (Temple of Dawn)” reprises the main theme softly for lilting violins as Passepartout finds himself lost in the Japanese City. “Transcontinental Railway” welcomes the group to the United States, introducing a new Western melody rich in America and representative of American technological development as it chugs along rhythmically with the railroad journey across the continent. The motif continues in “A Weak Bridge,” which signifies the danger of a failing railroad bridge which finally collapses just after the train crosses it. “Sioux Attack” is the score’s finest track and one of Young’s best action cues – a spectacular, thunderous 8:14 track full of pounding drums, blaring horns, and flailing violins, built above the stereotypical pounding native American drums familiar from Westerns of the period, Young develops a series of punctuated phrases and rhythms that drive the Indian attack against the train. “Prairie Sail Car” is a lyrical and cyclonically-performed string motif as Fogg attaches a sail to flatbed railcar, which allows the trio to “sail” eastward on the train tracks, allowing them to continue their journey toward New York (a phrase of “Rule Britannia” is interjected – as it was in “A Weak Bridge” – to humorously suggest the nature of Fogg’s ingenuity). And, finally, “Land Ho” merges a thickly undulating “sea symphony” (again, with hints of “Rule Britannia” inserted at pivotal moments of heroism) to reflect Fogg’s crossing of the Atlantic in a purchased sailing vessel. Young’s “End Credits” suite paints a concluding musical portrait of each of the film’s themes and motifs for the film’s closing credits (delightfully animated by Saul Bass) – including several seemingly abrupt changes that are meant to accompany each of the film’s many all-star cameo credits.
In addition, we are also provided for the first time with Young’s Intermission Music (the film’s original Cinerama roadshow release was shown in two parts, broken by an intermission) and Exit Music. This has been a favorite score of mine for decades – and I am delighted to find it reprised in such expansive format. As one of the last golden-age scores of the 1950s, and one of the decade’s most dynamic and melodious adventure scores, Victor Young’s music for Around the World in 80 Days is a masterpiece of cinema composition unequaled in many ways, and an essential component of any serious collection of movie music.
PREVIEW: GHOST RIDER
Ghost Rider Soundtrack © Varese
Young explains. “What is unique is that unlike Superman, Spider-Man or Batman, who are Super Heroes that do their work in the city, here we're talking about a character that rides around on a motorcycle. So the location had to be worked in to the score, and it had to have Gothic in it because it's just a very dark storyline.” Young used drums, choir, a “gigantic orchestra” and electric guitars played by two members of Nine Inch Nails. In the end, the score ended up more industrial than Western, though acoustic guitars do give a flavor of the latter. “It's an exciting score,” he says. “It was unlike anything I've done.”
Young's distinctive and imaginative approaches to several unusual projects have made him a highly sought-after commodity on films with unusual subject matter. He wrote an ingenious score incorporating breathing effects for the offbeat film The Vagrant; provided a darkly dramatic score to the Christian Slater/Kevin Bacon prison drama Murder in the First; and tuned in perfectly to the offbeat sensibility of the Bill Murray comedy The Man Who Knew Too Little. His long list of works include the scores for Hellraiser and its first sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II; Norman Jewison's Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington; plus such hits as Runaway Jury, The Shipping News, The Core, The Grudge, and The Grudge 2.
One of the most skilled of a new generation of film composers who are able to move effortlessly between hardcore melodrama and off-the-wall satire and comedy, Young next turns his attention to Lucky You, a drama with Robert Duvall and Drew Barrymore that marks the second time Young has worked with director Curtis Hanson following their previous collaboration on Wonder Boys. The film opens March 16.
Later in 2007, Young returns to the world of the Super Hero as he scores the much-anticipated Spider-Man 3, once again starring Tobey Maquire and Kristen Dunst.
FILM MUSIC NEWS
Thanks to the overwhelming success of the brutal horror thrillers Saw and Saw II, this new and sanguinary kind of modern horror movie has gone mainstream. The massive impact of these films can partly be traced back to a combination of aggressive metal sounds, impelling industrial rhythms and experimental orchestra sounds. Atmosphere meets brute force, sable spheres are again and again sabotaged by cold-blooded brutality – truly a cinematic rollercoaster of emotions. Responsible for this grand oeuvre of sounds is no person other than the former Nine Inch Nails musician Charlie Clouser - the great master who is synonymous with music that really gets under your skin. There will be an exclusive online Saw III Soundtrack Chat on Sunday, February 4th, 2007 at 10:00 am PST with Charlie Clouser. Charlie will answer questions concerning Saw III and also regarding other projects. This chat is completely FREE OF CHARGE and you do NOT have to submit any personal data. Just surf over to: http://www.trisol.de/SAW3/
Saw III soundtrack © 
Composer John Frizzell is scoring producer Joel Silver’s upcoming supernatural thriller, The Reaping, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Hilary Swank. Frizzell has previously worked with Silver on such films as 13 Ghosts, Ghost Ship, and Cradle 2 The Grave. Warner Brothers Pictures is set to release the film March 30. In the film, Hilary Swank plays a former Christian missionary who lost her faith after her family was tragically killed, and has since become a world renowned expert in disproving religious phenomena. But when she investigates a small Louisiana town that is suffering from what appear to be the Biblical plagues, she realizes that science cannot explain what is happening and she must regain her faith to combat the dark forces threatening the community. Frizzell has written scores for a variety of genres and has proven his musical talent, creativity and versatility. For The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio, starring Julianne Moore, Frizzell recruited Newgrass band Nickel Creek to play on his Americana score. John Frizzell's other credits range from comedies such as Beavis and Butthead Do America and the cult classic, Office Space, to the dark comedy Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and the sci-fi drama Alien Resurrection. For his most recent release, Primeval, Frizzell spent weeks submerged in the world of African music, listening to over 20 hours of traditional recordings and mining vintage Smithsonian film footage in order to gain a holistic understanding of the art form. www.johnfrizzell.com
Plan R Soundtracks has released Bear McCreary’s soundtrack to the horror film Rest Stop. McCreary, best known this far for his excellent music for the revived Battlestar Galactica, has used a unique assembly of electric banjos, distorted fiddles, and malicious gospel lyrics to convey the twisted events shown on the screen, crafting a kind of horror Western score.
Guy Farley, the British composer who made an impression on the soundtrack community with his score for Modigliani and received enthusiastic reviews for his Land of the Blind score (issued as an online soundtrack album by MovieScore Media), will score The Broken, a new film directed by Sean Ellis, for whom Farley worked on the acclaimed photo model drama Cashback. The Broken, a French-British co-production currently being shot in England, is a thriller starring Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, and Ulrich Thomsen. Farley also has scores for The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, Knife Edge, Dot.com, and The Flock coming up. – via filmmusicradio.com
Intrada will issue the world premiere CD release for The Hindenburg, David Shire’s exciting soundtrack to Robert Wise disaster-conspiracy thriller about a possible Hindenburg sabotaging, starring George C. Scott and Anne Bancroft. David Shire anchors the film with a luxurious floating soliloquy for trumpet with strings, woodwinds, French horn in tow. Intrada’s CD, a Special Collection release limited to 3000 copies, is a straightforward reissue of the 1975 MCA LP (which included almost all of Shire's original music), digitally re-mastered at Universal using the original stereo album masters. www.intrada.com
Speaking of David Shire, Varese Sarabande will issue Shire’s latest score, 2007’s Zodiac, on March 13th. Based on the actual case files of one of the most intriguing unsolved crimes in the nation’s history, the film is a thriller from David Fincher, director of Se7en, Fight Club and Panic Room. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. David Shire’s darkly mysterious and beautiful score bringing back memories of crime thrillers of the 70s and Shire’s best, most probing work. Specially recorded for this CD is a piano theme Mr. Shire composed for the film but was not used as part of the final score. www.varesesarabande.com
The latest releases from Film Score Monthly include a reissue of the 1971 Jerry Goldsmith score to The Last Run (previously available on CD only via a 2000 release by the now-defunct Chapter III label), coupled with a pair of previously unreleased TV scores, Goldsmith’s Crosscurrent (aka The Cable Car Murders; Goldsmith's unorthodox score – performed entirely by rhythm section – is quite brief, but a jewel in its tense, angular “mod” action style. In a rare example of the composer repeating himself, it features what would soon become Goldsmith's main title theme to Escape From the Planet of the Apes) and Dave Grusin’s first feature-length assignment, The Scorpio Letters (Grusin provided jazzy, moody music often resembling his work for The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. The score features Grusin's gift for melody and subtlety, foreshadowing his great “noir” scores of the 1970s).
www.filmscoremonthly.com
Recommended Soundtrack sources:
www.arksquare.com/index_main
www.intermezzomedia.com/ (Italy)
www.moviemusic.com
