Music Webmaster Len Mullenger
	FILM MUSIC RECORDINGS REVIEWS

		The Stone Killer Michael Winner's reputation was built on gritty violence taken to the point where the boundaries of acceptability were tested. Whatever mainstream 'acclaim' he may have basked in his films enjoyed some commercial success. Budd's music for The Stone Killer is very varied. Breaking-strain tense with spare textures are provided by a full orchestra. There is a sprinkling of big band music and some commercial rock as in track 4 . Track 8 is like a slowed down Tales of the Unexpected.. There are a few real explosions of violence. Often the big band sound is alternated with chamber textures and a strong accent of French sixties film music bordering on Claude Lelouch. Copland's Appalachian Spring rubs shoulders with Sondheim/Gemigniani exuberance. Starsky and Hutch one moment; swanky hotel cocktail bar piano the next. Track 6's sleepy jazz trio has a glitter-whispering piano part. The tracks use enigmatic master tape titles simply because they cannot now be easily related to the film episodes. The sound quality is excellent - an aural tribute to the remastering team. Speaking of whom Paul Fishman also wrote the lively music note and 'our own' Paul Tonks produced the engagingly literate plot notes. Pity the track times are not given on the back of the CD case. Total playing time is also not declared. Reviewer Rob Barnett The Wild Geese With a theme that is a crossover between the themes for The Magnificent Seven and The A Team, oompah Teutonic with a touch of Holst's brass band this score has a buxom dynamism and a swagger stick element recalling Ron Goodwin's dramaturgy. This is offset with Joan Armatrading's dreamy though not desperately memorable song Flight of the Wild Geese. This song is, however, better than the wince-making Parade Ground [10] and Left Right [16] which includes a truly hideous song sung with murderous conviction by the voices of the Irish Guards. Remember the men of the New Philharmonia chorus in Frankel's OST LP of Battle of the Bulge sounding uncannily similar to the way we would imagine the massed choirs of Hitler's Leibstandarte Division might have sounded? The romance is represented by an silvery high-speed theme on the strings (track 11 and elsewhere). The same theme has overtones of the Biblical epic approach of Miklós Rózsa as well as a smidgin of John Barry in his most swooping swooning James Bond mode (You Only Live Twice). The same line is also to be found in Budd's arrangements of the Nocturne from Borodin's String Quartet No. 2. When the two join together in track 15 Budd pulls off a superb emotional coup and does it with great taste. I wish the track and idea had been allowed to bloom over a longer duration. The insert notes, which are briefer than those for The Stone Killer, are in another single sheet folded three times. This has the advantage of including a large format original film poster. The disadvantage is the short shelf life of such a format: prone to tearing and other wear. I must not forget that every disc in this series is designed to look like an old style film spool - a great touch by ….. whoever's decision that was. Decent notes by Geoff Leonard and Pete Walker and … hey! …. we even have the orchestra identified. The repro of the cover of the original LP is also useful.  As usual the total timing and individual track duration is not included on the leaflet or anywhere else. Anyone enjoying scores for war films of 633 Squadron, Battle of Britain and A Bridge Too Far needs to hear this worthy and often stingingly apt piece of Glam-militaria. Reviewer Rob Barnett The Marseille Contract This score was never issued on LP (although there was a French 7 inch issue) and has been produced (Paul Fishman claims 'genetically modified') and remixed from the original soundtrack tapes. The territory is familiar enough: murder and mayhem; drugs and dazzling seventies chromium in French locales. The plot no longer matters. The actors are worth mentioning as a cross-reference and memory-jogger: Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason. The music strides along at speed mixing in some high tensile William Schuman effects. Film music exclusivists who wonder what on earth I am going on about should try to hear Schuman's Violin concerto and his third symphony. Track 2's music is bell-like but plagued with 1970s trendy. Tabla sounds stalk the listener in track 3 and a funky Shaft haunts track 4. Track 8 has a definitely French 'spin': half sad half seductive and redolent of an early morning loneliness. In the final 'house mix' track disco beat meets sophisticated Galllic jazz. The insert notes by Paul Fishman and Paul Tonks are golden. They leave me with very little to say (but somehow I always manage to say it). The notes are about the same length as those for the same company's disc of the Budd Wild Geese: a fragile single sheet folded three times with a large format original film poster on one side. Technical aspects are fine with some excellent work having been done on the original tapes and tape hiss barely detectable - in fact I couldn't hear any. The design is consistent: a CD looking like an old style film spool and Budd's signature in facsimile on the winningly distressed-silvery disc. Roy Budd is pictured in the notes leaning nonchalantly against his G registered (1968!) Lotus.. Reviewer Rob Barnett Flight of the Doves Flight of the Doves (1971) was a family film about two children who take flight from their cruel stepfather. Their journey takes them from Liverpool to Ireland where they seek the protection of their Granny O'Flaherty (Dorothy McGuire). In fact they are inheritors of a large fortune and they are pursued by their wicked uncle (Ron Moody) who in all sorts of disguises and ruses to prevent the children reaching their goal and claiming their inheritance. The music is genial and includes a number of songs and material based on traditional Irish music ('Fiddler at the Fair' being prominent). The strongest and most memorable of the songs is: 'Little Boy, Little Girl' (written with producer and lyricist Jack Fishman). It is this melody which forms the backbone of Budd's gentle score. His piano-led instrumental version is played over the main titles and it captures, very well, the charm, atmosphere and location of the film. Elsewhere Budd's versatility is evident in music with such diverse influences as Tchaikovsky and Henry Mancini; and the comic-dramatic music of the silent film era is recreated to underscore the thwarted villainies of the Moody character.   The popular singer, Dana, who had leapt to fame winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with 'All Kinds of Everything', sings 'Little Boy, Little Girl.' Reviewer Ian Lace Kidnapped Kidnapped (1971) starring Michael Caine, Trevor Howard and Jack Hawkins was the fourth attempt at filming Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure story. In this case, however, story lines from the author's sequel Catriona were included in the screenplay. Again Budd demonstrates his gift for writing a memorable main theme, often in song form. For Kidnapped he wrote two principal themes that appear in varying guises throughout the film. As he caught the atmosphere of Ireland in Flight of the Doves, so he now evokes the true essence of Scotland by drawing on the country's authentic traditional instrumentation and musical forms. We have pipe and drums prominent in military music, for instance Again, disparate influences are clear from the romance of Henry Mancini to the more astringent music of Bernard Herrmann in the string writing of 'Fugitive from the Redcoats'  Mary Hopkin, a popular vocalist of the time, sings the ballad 'For All My Days' the music for which is prominent in the film for the romance between David Balfour (Lawrence Douglas) and Catriona (Vivien Heilbron); and as a plaintive lament for the lost cause of the heroic rebel Alan Breck (Caine). Reviewer Ian Lace	The Stone Killer The Wild Geese The Marseille Contract Flight of the Doves Kidnapped
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