Lili (1953/Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound: B-
Music: B
People just love Lili, the 1953 MGM production that
is enough of a Musical to qualify as one, though it is also a film that takes
place in the “real” world and plays like a fantasy world. The Charles Walters-directed classic stars
Leslie Caron as the title character, an orphan who does the romantic thing of
tying herself up with a carnival. That
makes for a nicer alternative to the circus, saving Miss Caron from doing the
high wire.
I have always had mixed feelings about the film, something
we will look at another time, but the one thing about it that is inarguable is
the Bronislau Kaper score and how beloved the song Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo
remains. You can find seven variations
of that and much more in the new CD version of the soundtrack, much of which
contains material never released before from Film Score Monthly.com’s FSM
soundtrack music label. On its own, the
music more than holds up, showing off once again Kaper’s underappreciated
talents. Only a vinyl EP of the music
had ever been issued before, but outside of the various home video releases of
the film itself, the music has never been issued in total as it has here. That makes this a highly desired collector’s
item.
The PCM 2.0 16Bit/44.1kHz sound is either stereo or
stereo-like throughout. The majority of
the tracks were stereophonic, but once again, MGM threw out the stereo masters
and kept monophonic backups. FSM has
tried to make those tracks as close to stereo as possible, while the actual
stereo tracks that survived (like from the vinyl issue of some of the music)
shows how nice the stereo actually was for the time, even with any clean up the
team did here. This also includes
another very thorough and informative booklet with fine illustrations and
text. This CD is limited to only 3,000
copies however, so be sure to go to www.filmscoremonthly.com
to hear samples of this and many others of their exclusive releases among other
goodies they offer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
