Sanley Donen was not pleased with the original musical theme for "Two For the Road." He talked it over with Mancini and tried to guide him emotionally with what he wanted and...the rest is history! The music is so very achingly beautiful and I believe it to be Mancini's best.
to JoelA and all who love the great motion picture music of the past PLEASE DO go to youtube.com and type in John Wilson Orchestra to see and hear what all the raving is about. Watch the musician's faces as well as his rapor with them as he conducts. It's a total universe unto it's self. You...
I have seen all the John Wilson Orchestra's yearly BBC PROMS concerts after purchasing the MGM DVD:
2010 Tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein
2011 Tribute to Hollywood
2012 Tribute to Broadway
2013 Hollywood Rhapsody (completely dedicated to the orchestra with the exception of 12 Hollywood...
Many of the orchestras from MGM, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox had the greatest musicians available including many who escaped persecution in Europe. Not only did these immense talents find new employment in Hollywood but welcomed the lucrative financial gains from the studios.
For those...
Thanks JoelA,
....and, while I'm at it(!)...the major studio orchestras of the day all were comprised of a symphony orchestra and a jazz band so that all manor of musical styles could be incorporated in musicals as well as dramas. The orchestras of the day also had the greatest musicians in...
...I think that I may have stymied those of you who wanted to have your input regarding "Bells Are Ringing" and I'm sorry for the rantings of a 75 year old!...getting back to this film, what I remember most of Andre Previn and that orchestra (not to forget the MGM studio chorus) is the number...
I know that I'm side tracking this discussion away from "Bells Are Ringing" but, just for a moment, in the 60s I was in David Raksin's USC Film Composition class for two years and I adored the man. He was not only a great musical talent but a brilliant, albeit sometimes verbal abrasive...
I would have loved to be in on the recording sessions of that great orchestra...if nothing else, to hear and watch Johnny Green conducting his score for "Raintree County." Of course, I'm only singling out one of hundreds of other remarkable recording sessions.
One of the major reasons why the orchestral arrangements were so staggering beautiful and luxurious was because the orchestraters knew each musicians capabilities and arranged the scores and the accompanying arrangements for singers/dancers for them to perform/record at their highest...
The MGM Studio Orchestra (which Johnny Green renamed, The MGM Symphony Orchestra) was considered at one point in it's history as one of the great orchestras in the US.
It would be nice to have two WB suprises for the holidays: "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "Brigadoon." And, while I'm at it, bring on all those MGM 3-strip Technicolor musicals to blu-ray (even if the ratios are 4:3). They are too wonderful to loose to just plain DVD versions.
...I can't believe, and have never understood, how (in the number "Baby You Knock Me Out") Cyd Charisse was swung from the gym floor, over the boxing ropes and on to the mat!! Yes, the male dancer must have had the strength of a Hercules, but Cyd's strength is just mind blowing! She always...
...if I remember it correctly (it's been, what, over fifty years ago)...Ruth Etting wanted Jane Powell to play
her because of their similar vocal abillities...of course, it would have been a completely different film...
Im sure that on most people's lists are "Brigadoon" and "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers." I can't believe that WB is not working on these two MGM
wonderful films but I can believe that there is much to do, especially with "Seven Brides" that requires a lot of time and money to restore them to...
SPOILER
"Road House" musical ending is the song "Again" ( as in ...this couldn't happen, again) and it occurs just after (spoiler) Ida shoots Windmark...it's a wonderful musical and climatic ending to this film. I'm not sure that the credit goes to Alfred Newman, but, in any case, it is...
...so, where is the negative and is it just sitting on a shelf decaying?...what use is it to the
studio, if it has it, before they decide to get rid of it?...
I believe that the interest in "Raintree County" is it's title allure first, the fact that it was one of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's last great efforts to succeed with a Camera 75 road show film (even though
it wasn't shown in MGM Camera 65), the actual look of the fimed images, the beautiful...
...I've probably entered this pipe dream somewhere else, but...
4K " Raintree County" completely restored with overture, and entre'act music
....and while I'm at it start producing blu-rays as well as their 4K counterpart...!
...I still would have loved Jane Powell in the film. She was a match with Edmond Purdom (sp) in Athena
and would have also been a match in "The Student Prince."
"Holiday in Mexico"
"Luxury Liner"
"Athena"
"Small Town Girl" ('53)
"Rich, Young and Pretty"
"A Date with Judy"
...yes...Jane Powell...and, possibly get the multi track
musical recordings included...(that is, if they existed
at all...)
...and, "Royal Wedding"
...and, while we're at...
...and one bit of info....this is the only chance that you will hear the actual ending of the first half by Johnny Green instead of the incipient hog wash that is present in the cut film...and the Entre'Acte is also included to the concluding part of the film.
Folks, you have the opportunity to own one tangible piece of "Raintree" and that is it's remarkable score.
Even if the film fades into the blue...the CD is a reality. Follow the notes for each part of the CD which will remind you of that particular scene. I can just imagine the MGM Symphony...