As you all know, in this blog I have included rare soundtracks that are not released yet, so it is great when the official soundtracks arrive: there are two world-premiere releases from composers Henry Mancini and Frank DeVol.

- The Man Who Loved Women – Music by Henry Mancini
One might think that all of the soundtracks from a famous composer such as Mancini has already been released. Sadly, that’s not true. There are some that are still waiting for their CD release and some, like this one, that are being released in any format. This soundtrack is released by Varese Sarabarande for their CD Club for June 30, so pre-orders are being accepted. They included the full soundtrack plus a couple of bonus tracks. Check for the full info at Varese’s site.

- Emperor of the North / Caprice – Music by Frank DeVol
More surprisingly, DeVol has a release by Intrada with these two soundtracks that have never been released in any format before. As they say, Caprice is not complete. They included the surviving tracks from master tapes. The main title was very catchy and spy-like. It looks like it is not included, so listen to it, taken from the movie. More information at Intrada’s site.

Thank you very much Varese and Intrada for these great limited-edition releases. I have ordered both, of course, as any Mancini, DeVol, or just general soundtrack fan would do!

Regards
Fernando

This Howard Hawk’s movie was not a big success like his previous movie, Hatari! also with Mancini music. The reviews were not enthusiastic but is not a bad movie, it is a very enjoyable comedy and some call this Prentiss best acting. Hudson is charming as ever so if you have time to watch it, do it!

As for the music, you can’t miss with a Mancini score, but this soundtrack only had the title song released officially, the rest of the score is very good, take a listen!
continue reading "Man’s Favorite Sport"

This first movie of Tom and Jerry’s adventures was not well-received but the fans when you see Tom and Jerry talking and to each other! But if you forget is a Tom and Jerry movie, then is a good family film with songs at all.

The fault is not of course, of Mancini’s music, which was released in an official CD soundtrack. Here you will find the complete score, with more music. Please buy the CD and use this score just for more music.
continue reading "Tom and Jerry – The Movie"

Today we celebrate what have been another birthday celebration for Henry Mancini. As a way to remember him, this month is dedicated to his music, and as a second soundtrack of the month, we’ll embark in the mistery ways of Inspector Clouseau with “A Shot in the Dark.”

Chasing after the Pink Panther diamond was not the only job for Inspector Clouseau. That’s right. He was looking for other murderers in “A Shot in the Dark”. But fans of the Pink Panther movies, embrace this movie as one of their own because Clouseau has all the same familiar good attitude towards crime. That is, to solve the crime looking for the most unlikely clue.
continue reading "A Shot in the Dark"

This wonderful comedy starred by Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Natalie Woods had great music too! The official soundtrack is very good but, it left out many short themes, like the Leslie and Dr. Fate fanfares. As the movie, Mancini scored it following the classic silent movie, and the effect is hilarious.
continue reading "The Great Race"

Following the idea of a month devoted to one composer, this month we look at some of the works of the great Henry Mancini, or as their friend called him, Hank. Henry Mancini died 14 years ago, but the fans like to celebrate his birthday, so this April 16 is another opportunity to do it remembering his music.

Mancini scored at Universal for at least 100 pictures (some partial scores). Later on, the golden opportunity will arrive with a meeting with Blake Edwards. He was starting a new TV series and since it was not a big production, that brought Mancini the freedom to create a score with no strings attached and the result was the innovative score for “Peter Gunn”. This would be start of a major collaborative effort with Edwards, which will count the Pink Panther series of movies, 10, and many others. Hank’s touch would not be reflected only on films, but also with arrangements of compositions of his own and from other composers. His arrangement of “Love Story”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Z” were so well received that some still believed that he was the composer!

Check this month for Mancini’s rare soundtracks.
continue reading "Henry Mancini"

In this month of festivities, I want to wish you all Merry Christmas!
And touched by this happy feeling, I am sharing the full score for “Santa Claus – The Movie” with music composed and conducted by Henry Mancini. There is an official LP release of this 2 hour movie from 1985 but there is so much music that a complete release is well overdue.

The bad news is that the dialog and sound effects cannot be removed or reduced, so take it as it is. You can choose the pieces you like and delete the rest.

Since there is a complete release, this one is just for comparison efforts.
I will leave the link here, but when it does expire, I won’t reload it again.
continue reading "Santa Claus The Movie"

Condorman was a movie produced by Walt Disney starred by Michael Crawford, Barbara Carrera and Oliver Reed. The music was composed by Henry Mancini and strangely enough, none of the cues have appeared in any form. Not even in a compilation recording.

Ripped from a video, the dialog was reduced as much as I could. There are many cues that are relatively “clean” and even those with dialog and sfx are worth checking.
continue reading "Condorman"

Taking the idea from the famous novel by H. G. Wells, this TV version from 1975 was starred by David McCallum (Illya Kuriyakin of The Man from Uncle) with story written by Harve Bennett and script by Steven Bochco. It was not succesful and lasted only 13 episodes. Let’s go to the music, which is what interested to most to us; the pilot was composed by Richard Clemens but the theme for the following episodes was written by the great Henry Mancini.
continue reading "The Invisible Man"