CineSavant Column
Hello!
Correspondent and advisor Gary Teetzel has found something good. Posting on YouTube just a few days ago, ‘Soundtrack Fred’ gives us about fifteen minutes of original cues from an RKO recording session for All That Money Can Buy aka The Devil and Daniel Webster. It sounds like the original source is a transcription disc.
The bonus content is a few seconds of composer Bernard Herrman giving instructions to the orchestra, at the beginning and the end of the recording. His voice always surprises — he doesn’t sound like a stereotyped refined musical genius. He apparently hears extranous noise in his headphones:
“Don’t touch anything, don’t rattle any half-dollars, anything else …”
It’s a good listen for Herrmann’s Oscar-winning music, one of his very best film scores.
And here’s another call-out for fans of Euro-westerns. Genuine expert Tom Betts started decades ago with a printed newsletter, and for quite a while now he’s been running a website blog dedicated to his area of expertise.
The blog may not be for casual Italo and European western fans, but it can’t be beat for enthusiasts that want to know every last detail about the films, particularly the hundreds of actors that played in them.
Tom Betts’ Westerns… All’Italiana page is the place to go for genre loyalists. In addition to Tom’s writing are some essential links … including his & Jay Jennings’ YouTube Spaghetti Westerns Podcast.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson