Crossed Swords (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B Music:
B-
I like Maurice Jarre, but even a composer as great as he
has limits and working with the underrated Richard Fleischer picking up for
Richard Lester can bring him to that edge.
Lester is currently getting flack years later for taking over the Superman
franchise now that the new film is being made and picking up where original
director Richard Donner left off. Even
more repetitious was that Lester did even more work for Alexander & Ilya
Salkind in doing no less three films in a series of Musketeer
films. The first two are reviewed
elsewhere on this site, while Fleischer was still in good form when he took on
the 1978 spin-off Crossed Swords (aka The Prince & The Pauper),
as Lester was otherwise occupied.
We’ll review the film at a later date, but the score is
more about the whimsy of humor than anything else and is just not one of
Jarre’s better works, though it still has more character than much of what we
are hearing today. Whether it works
better within the film as some mixed scores like this sometimes do is another
story, but at least the FSM label of Film Score Monthly has given the music its
deluxe treatment, down to the information/illustration loaded booklet included. You can go to www.filmscoremonthly.com for
soundclip downloads and ordering information.
The PCM 2.0 16Bit/44.1kHz sound is from the only
licensable source, a ¼” stereo tape. It
is nice, clean and clear for its age, and all 40 minutes are the first time
this has been available on CD. You can
hear the soundclips and judge for yourself.
- Nicholas Sheffo
