Diane
(Limited Edition CD Soundtrack set with bonus score material)
Sound:
B Music: B Bonus Sound: B- Bonus Music: B-
I have
heard many of Miklos Rozsa’s exotic scores lately, but his music for Lana
Turner’s final M-G-M film Diane
(1956) tends to lift an already interesting film up and is one of the best of
such scores. Turner is the Royal home
wrecking title character who gets caught up in a power
struggle in which France & Italy have set up marriage to keep
peace. She becomes the mistress of Henri
(Roger Moore) after knowing him for quite a while and especially when he
becomes King Henri II.
The
double CD set offers the original score on CD 1, then a very lengthy section of
alternate scoring for the film on CD 2 that runs over 42 minutes! That would usually be the end of it, but
there is near 16 minuets of cues for the film, so there is plenty of music to
hear and learn from. Reading through the tracks in the ever
informative booklet like the ones that always appear in FSM soundtracks from
Film Score Monthly Magazine, shows that Rozsa had a great range of set pieces
to cover. I guess action followed Roger
Moore everywhere he went.
The
second CD also is part of a new thing FSM is doing, filling space on second CDs
with tracks they could not fit on original releases by putting the on other
titles. Plymouth Adventure (1952) continues the FSM CD with
some EP/LP tracks and alternates. You
can read the review for that title at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review.php?id=1036&filter=P
Moonfleet (1955) has a few alternate cues
and is my favorite of the three overall.
You can read the review for that title at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review.php?id=1035&filter=M
The PCM
2.0 sound is best on Diane and not
quite as good on the four Plymouth
Adventure and three Moonfleet
tracks that could not fit on their original FSM releases. Most of Diane
is stereo, while the other films and limited, select Diane tracks are monophonic.
Completists who bought Plymouth
Adventure and Moonfleet may not be happy to have to buy this set, but Diane is worth having as much as those
scores and the price is not higher on this double set. Find out more information and ordering
information about all of them at www.filmscoremonthly.com
now. Only 3,000 copies of each have been
produced.
- Nicholas Sheffo
