Premiere 2-CD complete release of magnificent Hugo Friedhofer film score classic! 20th Century Fox presents prestigious 3-hour CinemaScope feature in 1958, draws from novel by Irwin Shaw, with stunning black & White, Academy Award-nominated camerawork by Joseph MacDonald and sturdy direction by Edward Dmytryk. Powerhouse cast leads with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Maximillian Schell, Hope Lange, Barbara Rush.
Hugo Friedhofer also garners well-deserved Academy Award-nomination for his dramatic score. WWII Germany and America provide the massive backdrop, one German and two American soldiers provide the primary conflicts, not so much against each other as within themselves.
Nazi, Jew, reluctant draftee, each with lives that do intertwine. Romance offers both further complications, tender respite amidst their struggles. Friedhofer anchors with one of the great “Main Titles”, replete with thundering multiple snare drums hammering unrelenting fortissimo cadence beneath block triadic harmonies in brass moving stepwise up, then down, then up again in one massive introduction to the epic drama. Dynamic idea makes additional appearances, both large in scale as with previously unreleased “Invasion Montage” and in subtler fashion, as with portions of “North African Episode”. Idea also weighs in throughout “River Crossing”, hovering in muted brass above winding woodwind triplets weaving underneath, within and about. For each separate love story, Friedhofer captures nuances both tender, carnal with separate themes. Standing out is beautiful line for romantic scenes between Montgomery Clift, Hope Lange. It is this haunting and forward-moving melodic turn that Friedhofer,
in fact, ushers his score to a triumphant close with a powerful albeit slightly complex major-seventh chord. Interestingly, Friedhofer composed two dramatically different endings to his score. The film version, also heard on the 1958 Decca soundtrack album, plays first.
Following after slight pause is the never-before-heard alternate version, playing in identical fashion for most of the way before succumbing to a dramatic series of chords in the brass, then climaxing with a fortissimo major chord, this time with a more definitive, rock-solid major key finish. Deserving spotlight in previously unreleased material is “Noah Returns”, for emotional scene set inside Army barracks. Here, composer writes in his finest Americana style with nods to Copland.
Entire score appears in crisp stereo sound. CD 2 presents all of the source music cues prepared by Lionel Newman, also in stereo. Following these is a re-mastered presentation of the original 1958 Decca stereo album. Flipper-style package offers both original Decca album cover art on one side, 1958 film art campaign on the other.
Choose your favorite! Literate notes by Frank K. DeWald plus dramatic graphics by Kay Marshall enhance Friedhofer’s famed score. Edward Powell, Earle Hagen, Arthur Morton orchestrate, Hugo Friedhofer composes, Lionel Newman conducts the 20th Century-Fox Orchestra. Intrada Special Collection 2-CD set available while quantities and interest remain!