John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound:
B Music: B-
In
another comic soundtrack when John Williams was still that jazzy, groovy
composer Johnny Williams, he scored a wacky comedy for the usually non-comic
director J. Lee Thompson. John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965)
was a light comedy in its time, but a story about an Arab football team (you
read that right) playing that of the legendary Notre Dame and how a couple of
Americans help the Arabs beat the famed college!
That mere
concept seems at least a light-year away, but this was future Exorcist writer William Peter Blatty’s
high concept and 20th Century-Fox decided to fill up the film with a
strong cast that included Shirley MacLaine, Peter Ustinov as the lead Arab
behind the team, Jim Backus, Scott Brady, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Harry Morgan,
Telly Savalas, Richard Deacon, Jackie Coogan, Teri Garr and Richard Crenna in
the title role. We’ll wait for Fox to
put out the DVD to cover it, but the combination of that cast, director, writer
and how politically incorrect that film is should be something to see.
As for
this CD, it is the first time this music has ever been released as a soundtrack
and William’s fans should be thrilled, because except for some minor distortion
here and there from the often repetitious score. Like Elmer Bernstein’s score for the Peter
Seller’s comedy World Of Henry Orient
(reviewed elsewhere on this site), this makes sense that it would work in a
comedy that is keeping a certain series of jokes and situations going, but not
necessarily as well on its own. There
are also some bonus and alternate tracks here.
In the
case of the title song, MacLaine sang it for the film, which is here, but an
alternate version was cut in two versions (opening and end titles) by recording
artist Jaye P. Morgan, who went on to greater Pop culture fame as the first
lady of the infamous TV game show The
Gong Show before a dispute between her and creator/host Chuck Barris over
her flashing her breasts had him get rid of her. The show’s loss of her killed the show.
This is
about on par with the Williams score for Guide
For The Married Man (another FSM CD score reviewed elsewhere on this site
as well), though I liked the theme song to that film a bit better. Those and many other great CD soundtracks are
available from the Film Score Monthly soundtrack label at www.filmscoremonthly.com where they
can be ordered exclusively. Order soon,
though, as all of their soundtracks are limited to only 3,000 pressings.
- Nicholas Sheffo
