Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to a touch of Henry Mancini’s score for the Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil. There was an official soundtrack released on Challenge Records, but the weird thing about that is that it was comprised mostly of the source music by Mancini. The great main title music and the wonderful, atmospheric suspense cues were missing. It was very disappointing. Somewhere in the mid-1970s, I was hunting around a used record store and came upon a Mancini album I’d never seen or heard of, and I had ‘em all. This had a weird cover and was called The Wild Side of Henry Mancini. It was on Challenge records and the album itself said “Promo” on the label. And in tiny print on the cover, it also said “music from the motion picture soundtrack for Touch of Evil.” Say what? What was that about? So, I got it home and played it and it was indeed all the score cues that were missing from the official soundtrack. I soon found out that it was something of a Holy Grail – that only a few copies had gotten out and it was actually never released, shelved probably because the sales of the official album were so bad. Later, I found a reel-to-reel tape, some weird tape that had The Wild Side music on it but called something else. Unfortunately, that tape was 3 3/4 and had awful quality. When Varese Sarabande issued the original official Touch of Evil soundtrack, they used my tape to include the extra music, but boy did it sound lousy. They’d have been much better off doing a transfer of my LP, but that wasn’t done so much back then. There have since been a couple of CD releases where the quality of The Wild Side cues has been improved, undoubtedly taken from one of the rare LPs. When I sold my vinyl, I think I got about 500 bucks for that one. I thought I’d never see another copy ever, and yet, a few years later I found one. And sold it for a lot. And then, just a couple of years ago, I was rifling through the LP easy listening section at some used record store and lo and behold there was a minty fresh copy of The Wild Side of Henry Mancini. It was six bucks or something, so I snapped it up. The quality is superb, even on my cheap record player. When I do one on the higher end player I’ll be getting at some point, it will be even better. And then, maybe, just maybe, we’ll issue it in its best sound, and I’ll find something fun to pair it with. The music is fantastic.
Prior to that, I did manage to watch a motion picture entitled Single White Female. I’d seen it when it came out and liked it fine, mostly due to the performances of Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the story was interesting, and the direction was very good. Only the ending fell short – too abrupt, bad narration tacked on for Miss Fonda (there’s no other narration in the film), and some silly violence that may have worked in the novel but is just silly visually. Seeing it again thirty years on, I still enjoyed all of it save for the final ten or fifteen minutes.
Yesterday was okay. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, and just jumped into the screenplay adjustments. After a couple of hours of that, I went to Taco Bell and got food, brought it home, and ate it all up. Then it was back to the screenplay for the rest of the day. I got everything done save for a small thing at the end, which I’ll probably do today.
Then I did a few other things, then watched the movie. And now, I’m writing these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll finish the last of the screenplay adjustments I have left, then I’ll mosey on over to the mail place and see what’s there, I’ll get something light but fun to eat, then come back here and finish casting the Kritzerland show so I can choose songs. Then I’ll keep putting out asks for cameos in the web series – we’re doing very well on that front. Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, hopefully the rest of the Indiegogo funds will arrive soon, and then I’ll do whatever else needs doing, mostly starting to figure out our shooting schedule in New York, New York. I’m really looking forward to some fun Joe Allen adventures.
Quick, let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or The Swim for today is the birthday of our beloved Vixmom. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our beloved Vixmom. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR BELOVED VIXMOM!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, finish the last of my screenplay adjustments, hopefully pick up stuff from the mail place, eat, cast, choose songs, put out more cameo asks, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite film scores of Mr. Henry Mancini? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have found and listened to another rare copy of The Wild Side of Henry Mancini.