How To Marry A Millionaire (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound:
B Music: B
Taking a
page from M-G-M’s music playbook, Fox watched as their rival studio built an
incredible library of music and developed the early Musicals, then had an
amazing library of extensive materials for which to expand the genre. Besides often copying their films, especially
the work of Vincente Minnelli, they went after building a music archive of
their own. Alfred Newman was their
legendary in-house composer and conductor, so it is no surprise that it was he
who rounded up the diverse music for their huge CinemaScope release, How To Marry A Millionaire.
As well
documented in the great booklet typical of all the Film Score Monthly FSM CD
soundtrack releases, Newman entered his last great phase at the studio (1953 –
59) and Cyril Mockridge and Edward B. Powell to literally rearrange the wild
library of songs linked to the idea and image of New York City to fit the film before them. It was a big success that helped set standards
for the early CinemaScope comedies that went into the 1960s with Doris Day
& Rock Hudson, and was recently revisited by Fox with their underrated Down With Love
in 2003.
I will
stop short of going on as not to spoil the great information in the booklet,
but hearing this music isolated from the entire film gave me a new appreciation
and understanding of just how wildly the music men had succeeded in making an
enjoyable film and how that translated into a huge hit. This was a make or break film for CinemaScope
and it went over well. So much so that
it even makes up for some of the film’s dead spaces.
Of
course, the music and its layers and complexity are more layered here,
beginning with covers of so many already established instrumentals. Also, they knew the audience would be paying
especially close attention and there was so much more frame to fill visually,
that it was going to need musical accompaniment beyond just filling multiple
stereo tracks.
The PCM
CD 2.0 Stereo sound is even fuller than the 4.0 Dolby Digital mix from the DVD
version, though it cannot approximate the widescreen range and feel of the
sound as the DVD does. In both cases,
both discs were taken from the original 6-track magnetic stereo elements,
though the actual feature film only offered 4.0 sound from the 35mm CinemaScope
release prints. With that, it is odd Fox
did not turn to this fine source to cover sound flaws or even expand the
original film sound to a 5.1 mix. If so,
they could have offered the film in DTS, but they did not and this CD is the
best representation of the music available.
The final track (27) featuring the New York theme is an isolated instrumental of particular
interest in this context.
The DVD
is still in print, but this CD has far less copies produced; only 3,000
pressings, many of which Monroe fans alone have already
obtained. Of course, Monroe does not even sing in the film,
but those are serious fans. This CD
offers much more. For more information,
go to www.filmscoremonthly.com and
see about ordering this and other great soundtracks exclusives while supplies
last.
- Nicholas Sheffo
