The Undefeated/Hombre (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B-
Music: B for both
The passing of The Western as an active genre could not be
stopped no matter what. One of the most
interesting things about the Film Score Monthly FSM label CD soundtrack double
feature of The Undefeated (1969) and Hombre (1967) is that both
had composers that usually did not work on feature films and are less-known
names, yet still of interesting note.
Hugo Montenegro, best known as a kind of one hit wonder
for his big hit cover version of Ennio Morricone’s The Good, The Bad &
The Ugly theme back in 1968, but had action experience scoring the Rebel
episode of the original Mission: Impossible and the Frank Sinatra/Tony
Rome sequel Lady In Cement (1968), so having him do a Western score made
total sense. The Andrew V.
McLagen-directed Panavision tale is somewhat of a camp classic for a few
reasons, all of which have to do with the great Rock Hudson being cast opposite
John Wayne. Saving that for a future
review of the film itself, but with the influence of Morricone in so far as
taking some risks were concerned, yet not duplicating him. Montenegro deconstructed the idea the
traditional while avoiding being hip by “Mickey Mousing” motifs associated with
Morricone so he would not be written off as a cloner of Morricone’s work. As the terrific booklet notes, whistles and
snaps are among the motifs cut, so the challenge was to find another way to do
a new kind of score for such a film.
The DVD-Videos of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and Once
Upon A Time In The West are reviewed elsewhere on this site.
It is a shorter score, but still not as short as that of
David Rose’s for Hombre. One of
the fine black and white collaborations between star Paul Newman,
cinematographer James Wong Howe and director Martin Ritt, the film was more
quiet and self-reflective about The West.
That this was adapted form an Elmore Leonard novel is all the more
interesting. It was also more explicit
a Western than the trio’s 1963 classic Hud (the film also reviewed
elsewhere on this site), but it does continue the more existential themes of
that previous work and that is why this is so short and less typical than the
usual Western score.
Oddly, Rose is known for the sexy classic The Stripper
and not surprisingly worked on the original black and white Red Skelton Show
(in a box set reviewed elsewhere on this site), so he had an idea of how humor
and ironic distance could work. His
score for The Underworld Story (1950) around the same time as that series
showed he had some teeth for dark material, but he was more typically known for
music lighter than The Stripper, like the TV themes of Bonanza
(one version), Sea Hunt and even lighter fare as network TV declined in
the late 1970s. Here, he both composes
and conducts what is one of his best works.
Together, this makes quite a “double feature” and offers
great comparison opportunities both between the two films and against all such
scores for the genre, and both make their debut on this CD. The former has some warping and distortion
problems, while the latter is mostly monophonic, but the PCM 2.0 CD-type sound
is not bad otherwise and the DVDs will not have more than Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo at best anyhow, so there is richness here that neither film is likely to
have in those formats. With that said,
those interested should go to www.filmscoremonthly.com
and read more about the track order, download some samples of each and get it
while it lasts. Only 3,000 pressings
were manufactured.
- Nicholas Sheffo
