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Reviews (4)
29 Jul, 2019
An abbreviated version of Goldsmith's musical score, but entertaining and affordable. Don't miss it.
“The Great Train Robbery” or “The (FIRST) Great Train Robbery” as it was known in the UK, is classic Jerry Goldsmith. With his name in many acclaimed films and an Oscar on his shelf for “The Omen”.
Having been on the Launchpad in 1978 for “Capricorn One” and gearing up for more fateful space voyages in 1979 for “Alien” and “Star Trek”, Goldsmith comes back down to Earth for “Robbery” and trades a spacesuit for plaid trousers, top hat, walking stick and frock coat and ambles around London in a time of Charles Dickens. This is well-mannered music for the most part, but when it has to dash, it does so with force and flourish.
A rarer pressing includes two discs, but this single disc version from 2004 includes more cues than the original 1970s album.
“Robbery” is set in England in 1855 and the quickest way to travel or transport objects is by rail. In the East, the Crimean War rages and the local criminal element drools at the idea of getting their hands on a London to Folkestone gold bar shipment. No easy thing! Impossibly heavy safes, numerous locks and a formidable railway guard in the luggage van are just a few of the obstacles to overcome. All without arousing suspicion.
Never mind the confusing album cover which depicts American dollars bills mingling with the steam and smoke (did someone try to market this movie as a Western?) Despite all the years, this incongruous image remains on just about every release. Not to fear, even the chugging train motif has a distinct British quality to it.
The disc begins much the original vinyl pressing with “Main Title” which bursts to life at a brisk tempo playing the theme of the main character, Edward Pierce. After a minute of this tune is established, we cut to the all-important luggage van where a desperate struggle takes place. The tempo remains the same, but now is charged with violence with screaming strings as the railway guard tussles with a robber who is then thrown from the speeding train and down an embankment to his demise and the brass section punctuates his tumble. Contemplative low and slow music accompanies Pierce in his carriage as he reconsiders his plans.
No, this isn’t THE robbery, but solid proof that one man working alone won’t succeed.
From this short cue, the overall tone of the album is set in place.
Pierce isn’t dissuaded though, and intends to go after the Crimean gold with the scientific approach. Brute force will NOT do--stealing the gold will have to be done with more cunning and cleverness. Four crucial keys to open the safe in the luggage van have to be found and copied without the knowledge of the men who keep them.
All this crafty tip-toeing and eavesdropping is well scored by Goldsmith. His orchestrator, Arthur Morton is in step with the time period and there is no synthesizer to take us out of the era. The sound quality is terrific. “Robbery” has moments of boisterous action, but the film is a narrative of tension and nonchalance in the face of scrutiny. There are 16 tracks in all, and most play out chronologically, unlike the vinyl version. The first seven cues are generally light-hearted and edge into comedic to describe the antics of Pierce and his sneaky ring of criminals.
Goldsmith musically paints the scene of polite English society with cultured strings, woodwinds and touches of harpsichord.
Pierce is outwardly suave, and his oft-repeated theme is casual and elegant. Cue 5, “Rotten Row”, is Pierce’s theme reimagined as a waltz as he flirts in public with a Plain Jane to finagle more information for the crime. Especially notable is Cue 7, “Kiddie Kaper” which accompanies a foot chase and an incursion into an off-limits railway office for a quick peek at its layout. A touch of wooden ratchet, tuba and xylophone join in the fast rhythm.
With eight, the tone changes to gloom, tension and outright dread. A recruited prison escapee threatens to spoil the entire endeavor just when there’s a fighting chance. Now the would-be gold thieves have to contend with more difficulties. But Pierce is nothing if not imaginative—his crew will have to step up their game.
At thirteen and onward, we are engaged in the crime—more of a daring burglary than a robbery—aboard the speeding train. Cue 14, “The Gold Arrives” features a four-note chug to keep pace with the locomotive and Pierce’s seeming success with the scheme.
An overlooked detail spoils the adventuresome tone in Cue 15, “Torn Coat”. The Bobbies swarm Pierce at the station because of a wardrobe malfunction. He is in shackles, but not for too long and “End Title” means the anti-heroes escape and the album comes to a rollicking conclusion. Seldom has Jerry Goldsmith utilized a faster and more lively theme or made the Victorian age so much fun.
Elsewise, the album features detailed liner notes and photos of the cast and crew.
19 Jul, 2019
Classic Star Wars trilogy model kit--builds up to a display-worthy size.
Featuring 68 parts, some of which are optional—namely the clear part stand—Luke Skywalker’s Snowspeeder, when completed, makes a display-worthy addition to a model collection or looks fine all on its own.
Old cartons don’t declare the scale, but a reputable source quotes the Snowspeeder as 1:22, which is slightly larger than most automobile kits. The difficulty rating is also missing, but the recommended age for the kit is age 10 and up. I would give it a 2 at the very least. It includes decals, needs glue and includes small, fragile parts. Being such a good size, it is easily painted, but the instructions I kept from my build are of no help.
Cast in white or off-white styrene, the Rebel attack vehicle which debuted in 1980’s, “The Empire Strikes Back”, is a sleek, wedge-shaped, two-seat fighter with long barrels affixed to either side—engines in the back, heavy blaster cannons in front in a fanciful chain of geometric shapes.
The clear canopy allows a decent view of the interior which can be detailed or left as is.
Box designs may vary, but this kit was first produced by MPC in 1980 to coincide with the release of the film and overall is a better build than the series MPC presented for the first Star Wars film. AMT/Ertl may have their name on more recent reissues, but this is from the same old molds.
It shows signs of the “20%” rule, which means it isn’t a faithful reproduction of the studio model. Steps were taken to avoid copying the real deal too closely, but this practice was normal for kits of that era. There are panel designs on the hull which aren’t there in the film version and many things on later kits such as Fine Molds and Bandai are omitted. The blaster muzzles for instance are not bored out and the same is true of the rear-facing thrusters.
Two pairs of air-brakes and a hinged canopy frame can lift and drop, providing some display variables. A small blaster on the aft section can swivel, but don’t look for a cable attachment on the harpoon gun.
The bad news: The two pilot figures are AWFUL—disproportionate and apelike in appearance. Decals are sparse and the box art suggests some application of color here and there. There are much better kits of the Snowspeeder out there, but this is among the larger and easier versions and might have some appeal for those eager to customize a model with potential. Get this one at a bargain if possible.
02 Jul, 2019
Great nostagia, Disney fun and old style orchestrations from the best.
Composer George Bruns knew his stuff when it came to scoring animated features—even ones with a wildly-shifting and inconsistent tone as Disney’s Robin Hood. Hearing it without seeing the 1973 film will be a strange outing in Medieval pomp with dashes of Country and Western. After the great Oliver Wallace, Bruns was Disney’s go-to composer. If Jungle Book and Sword in the Stone struck viewers and listeners as jazzy, Bruns lets go of former restraints in action scenes and breaks out modern instrumentation in Middle Ages England in an effort to stay hip—maybe at the expense of atmosphere.
When the electric guitar and bass, complete with wah-wah pedal kick in, we are in a place only Disney could engineer and get away with it to the degree they could.
This would be Bruns’ last, and subsequent outings such as “Rescuers” and “Fox and the Hound” were scored by composers less adept with the old-fashioned approach to scoring a Disney feature and the results were thin and formed no strong memories.
Adept with the trombone himself, Bruns knows what a brass section can do and puts it to comic and dramatic effect. His theme for Prince John ranks as one of the best marches in film, but it seldom gets play on Disney music collections, in theme parks or anywhere else for some strange reason—With assistance from woodwinds and sawing strings, it was one of the music cues I waited many decades to have on a compact disc and it doesn’t disappoint. The theme turns up repeatedly in the selection of cues and differs slightly enough each time not to sound identical and dull.
Points to Bruns and the recording team for knowing where to position the microphones—getting some proper acoustics works wonders with film music.
Many of his sentimental cues sound indistinguishable from cues he used in “Sword in the Stone”, “Jungle Book” and “Aristocats”. Traces of those earlier scores will jog the memory of a dedicated Disney fan and prove distracting. The recordings are clean and clear and were a terrific find. Too much classic Disney music is never heard on its own.
Disc 2 in the set is largely a waste, except for the initial track, a piano ragtime version of Whistle Stop. In the planning stages for the 1973 release, trumpeter and singer Louis Prima came up with many numbers in his style, getting into the groove of “King Louie”, the way out ape he had played in Jungle Book. Things changed during the planning phases and when Prima was not given a role in the film, he grew angry and sold his contributions back to the studio, giving us the bulk of the second disc. We get to hear demos of the songs that made it into the movie and an odd bit of singing from Peter Ustinov.