Hugo MONTENEGRO (1);
David ROSE (2)
Hombre (1); The Undefeated (2)
both scores conducted
by their composers
Film Score Monthly
Vol. 3 Number 6 [Total playing time 73:48 - The Undefeated: 47:33 - Hombre:
21:30 - Mystery Track: Hombre Trailer music: 3:30]
Hugo Montenegro was a multitalented musician-arranger-composer who had an
undistinguished career as a film composer on a small number of less than
notable films, and is most famous for his extremely popular arrangement of
Ennio Morricone's theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
That his film composing career was undistinguished does not mean that he
was a bad composer, far from it. On the evidence here, with the right films
he could have become a major name in the field. Unfortunately for Montenegro
the characters in this 1969 John Wayne western may be The Undefeated, but
they are also forgotten. The movie was one of five Wayne made with the director
Andrew V. McLaglen, the others being McLintock! (1963),
Hellfighters (1968), Chisum (1970) and Cahill: United
States Marshall (1973), none of them among the star's better work. While
it may have not been particularly good, at least The Undefeated was a big
western, full of action and beautifully photographed, giving a composer plenty
of opportunity to make a strong impression. Montenegro responds so well it
can only be regretted that he did not work more in the genre, and while the
score is lacking a certain individuality it is a remarkable piece of work
for a man who had only penned his first film score two years earlier.
As Lukas Kendall notes in the booklet, "The Undefeated is a long,
showy score steeped in tradition yet with a pop gleam in its eye…" That
pop gleam is actually very slight, more of a nod on brief occasion to the
light orchestral arrangements in vogue in the '60s rather than actual pop
song structures or a pop beat. How long the score is I have no idea, because
as Kendall also points out, the original mastertapes have suffered considerable
damage which producer Douglass Fake has had to work around to produce 47-minutes
worth of score representative of the whole. This is perfectly fair, and given
that 47 minutes would have once made a longer than average LP, more than
reasonable. At this length the score does not outstay its welcome, while
again to quote Kendall, it makes "for a balanced and enjoyable program."
While Fake notes that the score, particularly the stirring main theme, falls
within the Copland tradition, it seems more within the post-Magnificent
Seven (1960) Elmer Bernstein tradition. The main theme is very much
in this lineage, just listen to 'Meet Blue Boy', especially at the riff 12-19
seconds into the cue. The piece then develops in the pattern of the more
playful moments of Jerome Moross' The Big County (1958) before going
back into Magnificent Seven country, while throughout the score
it is quite clear this music was written at the same time as Jerry Fielding's
The Wild Bunch and John Williams' The Reivers. Familiar
it may be, but with the mixture of Mexican melodies, folk-pastoral and action
music it is also highly enjoyable. Oddly, the folk elements recall Richard
Rodney Bennett's Far From the Madding Crowd, (1967), a drama as
far from the western as imaginable. The Undefeated is just the sort
of score awaiting rediscovery, and please someone, a spectacular modern
re-recording: the sound, especially on such rousing set-pieces as 'Incident
in Mexico' can get rather strident.
Hombre (1967) was a very different sort of western, a comparatively
small film, an intimate psychological drama which nevertheless had its share
of action and adventure. Directed by Martin Ritt, starring Paul Newman and
scored by David Rose, Hombre was typical of another sort of 60's
film making, the understated melancholy character piece. It was a film which
used music sparingly, but to great effect. The cues in the film itself are
very short, so the decision has been taken here to assemble them into four
longer pieces, which together with a track based on the main theme recorded
for a single that was never issued, total just 21 minutes. This is a gentle,
folk-like score, not dissimilar to Jerry Goldsmith's A Patch of Blue
(1965) in mood and scale. Much of the score is lyrical yet, in using an electric
organ, deliberately achronistic, while the later suspense passages balance
percussion and piano in a way familiar from Goldsmith of the same era. It
works very well in the film, which is after all what it was intended to do,
but on album doesn't particularly hold the interest.
The last track is entitled "Mystery Track: Hombre Trailer", which may seem
like a contradiction, giving the mystery away. However, while it is known
that this selection of cues was intended for the trailer to Hombre,
all that is known otherwise is that, with the exception of some Jerry Goldsmith,
these are 20th Century Fox library cues. Lukas Kendall says, "The identity
of most of the track is unknown to us - experts, please write in - but Jerry
Goldsmith fans will laugh out loud at the concluding bars, a theme we never
expected to hear in stereo from this era." I'm not going to spoil the fun,
and I'm sure someone out there can identify all the mystery music.
As usual for a Film Score Monthly album, the disc is very well presented
with colour film stills and black and white photos of the composers, together
with good booklet notes. The sound is good, but we have become used to much
better and as I mentioned above, I would welcome a re-recording of The
Undefeated simply because this is the sort of music one wants to be
able to turn the volume up for and enjoy for the sheer visceral impact of
those sweeping melodies. I wouldn't say, as the cover does, that these are
classic scores, but for anyone interested in the development of the music
of the western these are both in their very different ways superior examples
of the genre.
Gary S. Dalkin
[This CD is available exclusively from the magazine and website
(www.filmscoremonthly.com) for $19.95 plus shipping: Film Score Monthly,
8503 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA90232. Phone: 310-253-9595; Fax:
310-253-9588; Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com ]
