Hello!

In the last CineSavant Column we posted a link to a stereophonic recording of the James Bond Theme, without knowing exactly where it came from. As expected, CineSavant readers did know, and wrote in.

Michael McQuarrie reveals that the link to the cue came from an album called  John Barry Themependium Volume 1 (Spies and Other Secret Agents). Michael adds that it’s the first of a series of 4 CDs. Although they claim ‘Original Recordings’ a few clearly don’t sound like it.

Correspondent Richard MacDonald offers more welcome information:

Hi CineSavant — the stereo version of the James Bond theme that you posted a link for appeared on The Best of James Bond 30th Anniversary Limited Edition (1992) – disc 2, track 1. Yes it is credited to The John Barry Orchestra. The liner notes say it was released as a single in October of 1962 in the UK (Columbia DB 4898) and on April 15, 1963 in the US (United Artists 581).   Best, Richard MacDonald

Then we heard from advisor Bill Shaffer, who reached into his archive of exhibitor’s film material:

Hi Glenn, I can confirm that the ‘James Bond theme in Stereo’ you linked to is indeed the work of the John Barry Seven. It’s the same one I found in 1963 as a 45 rpm mono record in my dad’s Press Kit for Dr. No.  ←
He brought it home from a pre-screening in Kansas City and he was very excited about the film’s prospects as the first of a series. United Artists’ promotional team must have done a great job selling it.

The Press Kit was in a plain blue folder with inside pockets and a label on the front that just read “DOCTOR NO.”  Inside were publicity stories very much like the ones in the pressbook, but these were all typed out in multiple pages. There were 4 or 5 b/w stills, a copy of the Signet paperback book and the 45-single of the theme. There were also a set of ad slicks with women posing and saying lines like “James Bond 007 has my number…” They were models, not the actresses in the film. I never saw any of these ads used to promote the film later.

I also snagged a copy of a vinyl record full of radio spots for that film.  →  It was too big for the Press Kit; I think all of the spots on the disc are in the Media Promo section of the Bond Blu-ray for Dr. No. I’m sure I found the radio album in Dad’s office. Don’t know what happened to the 45, but I no longer have it. The Press Kit folder in these photos is not the original.  ↓  I put it together from what I remembered.   — Best from Kansas!   (snowed in here at 4 degrees!)

Does that mean that those black-cover James Bond Signet paperbacks were already out in ’62, before the first Bond film?  Someday Bill is really going to open up his archive … it’s going to be impressive.

Second-up — Gary Teetzel forwards a link to an article at Toho Kingdom, interviewing Jeffrey Angles, the author-editor of the new book that CineSavant reviewed late in November,  The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.

The book translates the original Japanese story for the Toho film  Mothra, which was initially published in a magazine. Its three parts were written by three well-known authors. Angles explains that his new book was launched after the success of his translations of the original novelizations for Godzilla ’54 and its sequel Godzilla Raids Again.

Angles goes into a lot of detail … including comments on how the final film’s storyline diverged from that of the 3-part magazine serial.

And finally, also from Gary Teetzel is another good link. It’s for something safe and sane, good for children, and beneficial to society. This week, anything along those lines is welcome.

It’s a half hour public service video for kids, but one with an unique pedigree. Gary explains:

Glenn . . . So am I the only one who didn’t know that  Reanimator’s  Stuart Gordon directed a children’s safety video?

It stars Andrea Martin and Meshach Taylor, and is hosted by none other than Count Floyd, complete with coffin. Greg Cannom worked on the makeup and plays the alien seen at the end. — Gary

It’s from 1988, sponsored by a maker of cough syrup. It was produced in cooperation with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Gary called it ‘Stuart Gordon meets SCTV.’  We never tire of Joe Flaherty; Andrea Martin’s marvelous pre-teen girl impression reminds us of Gilda Radner.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Here’s something so simple even I can appreciate it. Resourceful web-scrounger Michael McQuarrie uncovered this interesting recording of the James Bond Theme — in full stereophonic sound.

Michael doesn’t think it’s the original, but he believes that it must be a John Barry recording … all elements are a match.

That was something that seemed cheap back in the day — when subsequent Bond pictures returned to the original theme, we often heard the exact same monaural cue.

Over at the interesting web page  Scifist, writer Janne Wass has been reviewing science fiction movies for several years now, going chronologically. He’s just about up to 1960 now. That’s a year or two before the late Bill Warren imposed a cut-off date for his own encyclopedic overview of the genre.

Mr. Wass usually reviews individual movies; we’re knocked out by his coverage of truly obscure or hidden pictures from Europe and the Third World.

This thorough article covers a full slate of 1950s monster and spaceship titles we never heard of, all put on film down Manila way. Several appear to be totally lost. It was all news to me. Who knew that the 1950s spawned a full feature about a giant gecko?  Among the genuine films reviewed is a Godzilla rip-off, replacing Raymond Burr with Philipino talent.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Good news came in last Saturday for  The Warner Archive Collection, and today we have joyful disc tidings from the folks at The Criterion Collection. The April 2026 sale sheet lists a new 4K box with 3 pictures by John Singleton — Boyz in the Hood,  Poetic Justice,  Baby Boy, and an Eclipse Blu-ray collection for Kinuyo Tanaka — Love Letter,  The Moon Has Risen,  Forever a Woman,  The Wandering Princess,  Girls of the Night, and  Love Under the Crucifix.

We zero in on the classic collector titles: four 4K Ultra HD remasterings, with something for everyone.

Ernst Lubitsch’s  Trouble in Paradise with Herbert Marshall, Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins, given a commentary by Scott Eyman and a video essay by David Cairns;

Charles Vidor’s  Gilda with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford and George Macready, given an interview with Eddie Muller;

Terry Jones’  Monty Python’s Life of Brian with audio commentaries featuring Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin;

And John Boorman’s  Point Blank with Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Carroll O’Connor and Keenan Wynn, given an audio commentary with Boorman and Steven Soderbergh, plus Lee Marvin on the Dick Cavett Show.

They’re all favorites we haven’t seen in a long time, so the anticipation is already settling in.

Up next and forwarded by advisor Gary Teetzel is a peculiar radio show from a YouTube channel called ‘Theater of the Mind – Old Time Radio.’

It so happen that today we are reviewing today one of the many movie adaptation- rethinks of Richard Connell’s timeless short story  The Most Dangerous Game. This radio show from 1947 is a straight presentation of the original. But Gary’s note (1.16.26) tells that he found it had a special appeal:

Glenn … I listened to another old Escape radio show the other day, this one an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game. The cast is what makes it noteworthy: announcer Paul Frees is the big game hunter Rainsford and Hans Conreid is cast as the evil murderer Count Zaroff. Since it just happens to star two very distinctive voice actors from Jay Ward’s Dudley Do-Right cartoons, I naturally ‘saw’ the TV cartoon characters in the roles. Now I really want a Jay Ward version of the story, with Zaroff portrayed by Snidely Whiplash!  — Gary

Now try and listen to the radio show without imagining Snidely as Zaroff!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Well, the Warner Archive Collection has a terrific February coming up for classic collectors. The titles need no introduction, as they land on many lists of entertaining favorites.

Mogambo is the remake of Red Dust with Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. It ought to be a beauty in digitally re-integrated 3-strip Technicolor, maybe even the 16mm images of gorillas in the wild.

Stranger on the Third Floor is the highly stylized psycho thriller often tagged as the first real film noir. Peter Lorre is effective in a small part, but the show is carried by the fine direction of Boris Ingster, and the very expressionistic nightmare imagery. When we were kids, we thought of it as a horror picture.

and

Tarzan and His Mate is the second Johnny Weissmuller thriller and the wildest Tarzan picture of them all. In all its pre-Code splendor, it’s filled with risqué costumes, weird politcally incorrect attitudes, and some of the most sadistic, over-the-top violence in Hollywood history.

Plus more Hanna-Barbera completist cartoons: Loopy De Loop. Personally speaking, I checked out of kiddie cartoons about the time of ‘Tennessee Tuxedo.’

And a nice link from Michael McQuarrie …

… a bit of DC Comics fun from the days before everything Super required a ‘dark’ interpretation. In 1966 Robert Benton and David Newman wrote the book for a big Broadway musical based on Superman; I remember a big photo spread on it in Look or Life.

This 1975 TV adaptation stars David Wilson, Leley Ann Warren, Kenneth Mars, Loretta Swit, David Wayne, Malachi Throne, Al Molinaro and Harvey Lembeck … YouTube poster Vinnie Rattolle has uploaded an entire produced-for-TV broadcast.

It’s from a not-so-great video recording, but it’s all there …

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Today’s links were found by the inquisitive Gary Teetzel, who points us to a worthy cause, film music-wise …

… a  The Night of the Hunter  Kickstarter Campaign to produce a new recording of the film’s Walter Schumann music score. The Kickstarter post is from Roger Feigelson, who includes some notes about the progress of the project (a lot seems to be done already) and what contributors can expect.

The Night of the Hunter of course has one of the best mystery-horror music scores ever — several cues chill the bones, especially the eerie vocals and the theme songs. I remember music producer-collector Bruce Kimmel being obsessed with the music — he got the rare original soundtrack album as a child.

The video provided at the Kickstarter page shows the actual session for the title cue, said to have been performed at the tail of a session for a different recording. The choir is a really good match!

And Gary Teetzel has a Radio Discovery for us … to avoid confusion, I’ll let him describe it in his own words :

“While driving to work today I was listening to the ‘audition show’ — essentially the pilot — of the 1947 adventure/suspense radio show “Escape”.  The drama stars Berry Kroeger, a busy radio actor of the time who didn’t become a regular in movies until the next year. Kroeger plays an English ventriloquist who seems to be going mad. He imagines that his dummy ‘Toby’ has a life of its own. He becomes jealous when Toby seems to want to leave him, to work with a more famous American ventriloquist. The ventriloquist’s derangement increases sharply, until finally ….. “

“Is all this sounding familiar?  I thought so, too, but figured there were dozens of ‘crazy ventriloquist’ stories out there.  Escape usually adapted short stories, so maybe it was just a coincidence. I was surprised, then, when the announcer at the end said that the name of the episode was Dead of Night, and thanked Universal Pictures for letting them adapt it. Universal distributed the Ealing Studios movie of  Dead of Night in 1945, so yes, it was an official adaptation. One more surprise: The voice of Toby the dummy?  Art Carney!     — Gary

You can listen to the episode here:

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson