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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Soundtrack > World Of Henry Orient (Limited CD)

The World Of Henry Orient (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)

 

Sound: B     Music: B

 

 

Elmer Bernstein was on a roll when he did the music for the George Roy Hill comedy The World Of Henry Orient in 1964 and Peter Sellers had this, Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita and the first two Pink Panther films under his belt for the year.  In what is an interesting score that grows on you the more you listen, it should be said that this holds true, even when you try to write it off as politically incorrect.

 

As for whether the film is or is not will wait for the DVD review, though this is film that gives Sellers great co-stars like Paula Prentiss, Angela Lansbury, Phyllis Thaxter, Tom Bosley, Al Lewis, and John Fiedler.  Bernstein’s score certainly has the right off-kilter tone, and the touches of what would be thought of as stereotypical Asian-representative signature is not as trivial as it is in the purposely-intended-to-emulate-older-films moment from Peyton Reed’s Down With Love (2003).  Instead, it is part of a greater collage of ideas of musical-off-centeredness.  This is tempered with many styles and some more serious and contrastingly “standard” moments, which are all eventually foiled by the wackier goings-on that the music accompanies in the film narrative.  That makes it enjoyable indeed.

 

The PCM CD 2.0 sound is here in its original stereo from the original session masters and has no major problems throughout.  The always-great booklets included in all Film Score Monthly FSM releases continues in this release, limited to only 3,000 pressing, and in this case explains that this sounds so good as one of the only masters to survive from being destroyed as most United Artists films (despite the fact that they had a record label, mind you) made at the Samuel Goldwyn Stage were thrown out (!!!) in one of the many ownership changes the studio has gone through since 1969.  It proves why retaining original materials are so important, because this master has survived nicely and the joy of listening to this CD will always be a constant reminder of that.

 

The same materials will hopefully be used to restore and preserve the actual film, but in the meantime, all FSM CDs are exclusive to the Film Score Monthly website and can be ordered at www.filmscoremonthly.com along with a few other hundred (so far) such exclusives the magazine has to offer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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