A Man Called Peter   (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)

 

Sound: B-     Music: B-

 

 

One of Fox’s earliest CinemaScope films was 1955’s A Man Called Peter, which was based on a true story of a Scotsman who landed up chaplain of the U.S. Senate.  The film ideologically takes a true story, and in true melodramatic fashion, gets all the mileage it can in a sort of cross between what they were doing with their Biblical epics and Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).  With that in mind, they have Alfred Newman, who did so many of those Biblical scores at Fox, so the biggest artistic question was how Newman was going to not make this sound like one of those epics.

 

The answer is meticulously holding back, then adding classical, spiritual, and ethnic music into the mix.  Unfortunately, this diversity still has the feel of run-on and muddiness, which has nothing to do with the sound quality of the CD.  Newman does a solid-sounding, professional job, but it just does not add up.

 

There is some “wow” and distortion throughout, which has happened on several FSM/Fox scores, but this is not as bad as it could have been.  This is in stereo, to go with the selling points of color film and CinemaScope, so at least it did not only survive in mono.  Fans will be happy enough with it too.

 

Whatever the successes or failures of the film or music, A Man Called Peter was still a step forward into the then-new world of widescreen filmmaking, which may be one of the reasons Newman went for so many music types.  This makes it an historical curio, but is recommended for fans only.  Available in a limited pressing of 3,000 copies, it can be ordered at www.filmscoremonthly.com while supplies last.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo