Farewell My Lovely/Monkey Shines – An Experiment In Fear
(Limited Edition CD
Soundtrack)
Farewell My Lovely Sound: B Music: B+ Monkey
Shine Sound: B+ Music: B+
David Shire never gets the credit he deserves as one of
the best composers for film, but now, two more of his great scores have made
their CD debut as stand-alone soundtracks.
After Retrograde Records premiered his Taking of Pelham One Two Three
soundtrack back in 1996 (see my review elsewhere on this site), the FSM label
of Film Score Monthly is offering a great set of Farewell My Lovely
(1975, released once on vinyl LP) and Monkey Shines (1988, issued here
for the first time).
For starters, both films are exceptional entries into the
kinds of filmmaking they represent. In
the case of Farewell My Lovely, this is a highlight of the 1970s
Neo-Noirs that included Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973) and
Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974).
It is an extremely well scored film from director Dick Richards and
starring one of the most important survivors of the Noir era, Robert
Mitchum. That is a vital point all the
others lacked, and this film knew what to do with. This was one of his last great leading roles, followed by its
sequel and the underrated 1984 film The Ambassador. While the other films were the ultimate and
most brilliant reflections and deconstructions of Noir and exposes of even more
darkness and corruption, this film reflects the era directly as much as
referentially.
With that opportunity, Shire goes all out to evoke the
period, in a tour-de-force showing worthy of Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting Chinatown
score, and just as vital when all is said and done. As a matter of fact, it does the most of the
music from the three films (John Williams did one of his finest-ever scores for
the Altman film) to evoke the era in the thickest musical terms, so much so
that critics thought the film overdid it.
Shire is one of the reasons, but that was the point. The density in both sound, visuals, and with
the ever heavy presence of Mitchum becomes as inescapable as the past does for
those doomed in such films, yet there is still an ironic distance the film
offers that will be covered when we cover the DVD reissue, whenever that is
announced.
Monkey Shines is one of George A. Romero’s most
underrated successes. Made just after
his third zombie film, the underestimated Day of the Dead (1985), Romero
made his only feature film for the sadly defunct Orion Pictures, a smart
thriller about a medical student (Jason Beghe). He is having a good life, when he has an accident during a
morning jog that leaves him a quadriplegic.
He has to make all the adjustments, then his best friend (John Pankow)
throws in a twist, a trained monkey named Ella to help him. Unfortunately, this starts to bring the
animal out of everyone.
His mother becomes overbearing, his new nurse becomes
threatened and jealous, his girlfriend becomes exposed as a phony, and his
surgeon may have ulterior motives in wanting to keep him in the chair. The corruption gets worse, and he sees
himself getting angrier too, which gets even further twisted when it seems his
wishes of death on others start to come true.
What has his best friend done to this monkey? How could everyone seem one way, when they were worse than he
ever expected? Well, it’s not that
simple, and neither is the smart score by Shire.
Partly at the behest of Romero, Shire manipulates the
expectations of melodrama and films about personal tragedy musically. This makes it a fun soundtrack, which also
has a great sense of suspense and power to help the audience get more into the
film and suspend their disbelief that one little creature could be at some of
the root of the evil in the story.
Again, it’s not as simple as it sounds, but to say any more would ruin
the surprises more than this critic may already have.
The PCM CD sound is solid, offering the music in
stereo. Farewell My Lovely comes
form its original 16-track masters and a two-track LP master in a few spots,
while Monkey Shines comes from even newer master score materials
intended for the Dolby Spectral Recording release of the film. That SR system is an advanced analog system
that even has some qualities their current Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1 system seems
to lack. As compared to the poor mono
on the out-of-print Pioneer DVD of Farewell My Lovely, and weak Dolby
Surround from the out-of-print basic M-G-M DVD of Monkey Shines, this CD
easily surpasses both. Even the PCM CD
Pro Logic Dolby Surround tracks on the old LaserDisc Orion issued many years
ago of Monkey Shines lacks some of the articulation heard here.
This CD, however, is only limited to 3,000 copies, but is
the most collectible piece on either film since their theatrical releases, so
if you want one, you can go to www.filmscoremonthly.com
because this is an exclusive and can only be obtained there. Add the fine booklet enclosed with the CD
and it’s a real winner!
- Nicholas Sheffo
