Hawkins On Murder + Winter Kill + Babe
(1975)
(Limited Edition CD TV
Soundtracks)
Sound:
B- Music: B
Television
has become so bad that many insiders continue to scoff at the ability of people
having any interest in the material, until they are embarrassed by the better
TV material having commercial success. The Avengers, Family Guy and Firefly
helped to lead the DVD boom’s TV wave that no one expected, any more than they
expected concerts and Music Video sets to do well. The next step has been TV soundtrack sand
Film Score Monthly’s FSM label has been releasing some interesting and classic
material most had reasoned would never see the light of day. The most eccentric (for lack of a better
word) has been a “triple Feature” (hey, it worked for The CBS Late Movie when showing reruns of The Avengers, Columbo
and Kolchak: The Night Stalker) for
Jerry Goldsmith works starting with the Jimmy Stewart telefilm Hawkins For Murder, the 1973 forerunner
of the wacky TV drama Matlock 13
years prior when it worked.
Sadly,
the pilot did not turn into that elusive TV hit for big screen legend Stewart,
turning into a Columbo-like series
like several ambitious such telefilms should have. Stewart could not handle the schedule and
sadly, only seven more shows were produced (in addition to the interesting TV
version of Shaft and one shot films
filling in the third place). They Call It Murder, a telefilm with
Jim Hutton as Erle Stanley Gardner’s D.A. (reviewed as part of the BFS Great Detective Movies DVD elsewhere on
this site) was another such ambitious attempt that should have worked. The telefilm (later renamed Death & The Maiden for syndication
and NOT to be confused with the remarkable 1994 Roman Polanski film of the same
name) was ambitious and the music here is the kind of great TV music telefilms
were offering at the time.
M-G-M’s
TV unit were not giving up on Andy Griffith that easily and he took the role as
Sheriff Sam McNeill in Winter Kill,
in what is some of the most mature and ambitious work Griffith would ever do
for the medium. While CBS had the
Stewart series, it was ABC who put their money on Griffith.
Far cleverer than Matlock
could ever hope to be, the happy small town ideal Griffith was associated with gave way to
something more sinister and Goldsmith’s score reflects it very
effectively. Warner Bros. now owns the
M-G-M catalog, including their TV holdings, and should seriously consider doing
a boxed set of these programs together, then doing the complete Shaft series in another.
That
leaves the sports drama Babe, a
less-discussed sort-of female Brian’s
Song (not to be confused with the recent remake) and based on a true story
of runner Babe Didrikson Zaharias, as played by Susan Clark. After two thrillers, it is a funny contrast
to hear how well Goldsmith handles a smart drama, with music that also enhances
all the sports that the title character excelled at. Goldsmith is one of the great film and TV
composers ever and this set is just another in a long series of works that adds
to the proof of argument.
Remarkably,
the PCM CD sound is in stereo! That is
rare for TV, but a very welcome plus. IF
Warner does issue any of these on DVD, they really should drop in this
remarkable music. The FSM label, along
with the rest of the record companies who own or license TV material, need to
seriously step up efforts to issue lesser-known but impressive TV music like
this on CD ASAP. This single-disc has
only 3,000 pressings and can be ordered at www.filmscoremonthly.com along with
other TV gems and great feature film music.
If TV is a boom on DVD, why not CD?
- Nicholas Sheffo
