Scaramouche
(1952/Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B-
Music: B
I am not the biggest fan of the Swashbuckler Cycle, even
at its peak in the days of Classic Hollywood.
Journeyman director George Sidney remade the 1923 silent classic Scaramouche
for MGM in three-strip Technicolor in 1952 and it is often considered one of
the high watermarks of all these films.
I am not as big a fan of the film, but while we wait to look at it at a
later date on DVD or in HD, Film Score Monthly has issued the film on its FSM
CD label in a limited edition release (only 3,000 copies) and it will make fans
happy.
Accompanied by the usually well-detailed booklet about the
film’s history, followed by tons of information on the music. Victor Young was in the twilight of his
career when he was on a roll writing this score, one of the highlights of his
career. In this period, he gave us The
Greatest Show On Earth, The Quiet Man, Shane, Three Coins
In The Fountain, The Country Girl, Strategic Air Command, Around
The World In 80 Days and Johnny Guitar. There were many more and this one ranks among them in popularity,
though it is not as favored by this critic.
Just the same, it is rousing on its own level, and helps
to create the past world in a way that is convincing enough within a Classical
Hollywood production. Eric Wolfgang
Korngold’s influence cannot be discounted, but this kind of film would get one
more boost by the large frame and widescreen formats Hollywood was just about
to role out. This was certainly a farewell
to the full-frame productions that built the town, a change that television was
responsible for bringing on. Even
Technicolor was about to change the way it did dye-transfer, so this is the
last of a line of films indeed.
Nostalgia is another factor for this film’s celebration,
but the score is still a strong one that has been influential on the revival of
such films beginning with the Lucas/Spielberg cycle in the late 1970s. The only sad thing all can agree on is that
the music only survives as a monophonic dup copy, made so the original
stereophonic could be trashed to “make room” for other things and save storage
costs. You can read more about this at www.filmscoremonthly.com and also
find track order, downloadable samples of the score, and hundreds of other
exclusives not available in stores.
- Nicholas Sheffo
