The Flim-Flam Man/A Girl Named Sooner

(Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)

 

Sound: B/B-     Music: B

 

 

One of the more intriguing “double feature” CD soundtracks Film Score Monthly magazine’s FSM label issued early on is form Jerry Goldsmith, twice visiting music in and around the Country genre with The Flim-Flam Man and A Girl Named Sooner.  The Southern flavor always feels authentic, never runs into the satire later such scores from lesser composers and sillier films would produce (especially in the 1970s), propels the narrative, and both still retain their separate sound and feel.

 

Only a composer of Goldsmith’s high caliber could pull that off, but this is again about doing music for narrative films.  I am no fan of The Flim-Flam Man, but between Goldsmith and director Irwin Kershner, take it seriously enough as an ambitious work that has a following that at least makes sense.  A Girl Named Sooner is a telefilm when the term “TV movie” still had substance and pride connected to it.  It is one of those films that sounds familiar, but it is too long to remember if and when I screened it.  The score makes me curious.

 

The PCM CD sound for both presentations makes sense, as The Flim-Flam Man is in stereo as would be in demand for CinemaScope productions of the time, while A Girl Named Sooner was recorded in mono as TV was far from stereo in the 1970s.  Remarkably, it sounds incredibly good considering the low-fidelity standards TV demanded, but this is why keeping original master materials is so important.  The magnetic master makes for an excellent argument for this.

 

Being an early FSM label CD, the booklet is not as detailed as later booklets in the series, but it is still well written for what is here.  Only 3,000 copies were pressed and neither are out on DVD yet, so you may want to go to www.filmscoremonthly.com and consider if it is among the many such exclusives the label offers.  They are adding more titles each month.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo