I had a lovely e-mail when I got home - someone got their Wife/Duck CD today and wrote a group e-mail about it:
....I AM listening to the ideal music for one: "How to Murder Your Wife". In his notes to the CD (2 of 'em!), Kimmel takes the words right out of my mouth: he says this is one of the best film scores of the '60s, and/or ever. I loved this movie when it first came out, and I still love it, even as it's turned into the inevitable time capsule. (Kimmel says this is even more true of "Lord Love a Duck"---I have to take his word for that one; never seen it.) What is ravishing about Hefti's score is actually quite common, and quite rare. It's the sense you get, every once in awhile, that a thing is just perfect, as delivered. Perfect, "out of the box". From the elegant black, white and red titles to the underpinning of Hefti's corruscating chords, we know we're in for something droll, sophisticated, elegant, silly, romantic, beautiful, and just great---definitely a 'genre' movie, the cocktail comedy, but with more than a few subversive twists, and
a lot of truth.
Anybody who doesn't think so is full of it! (That's what I like: a nice, overbearing opinion!)
You can't watch the movie without missing the one-of-a-kind Terry-Thomas, but that expression surely describes Jack Lemmon, too, and Eddie Mayehof, and sure as hell describes the absolutely delicious and incomparable (true, for once) Virna Lisi. This movie really hit paydirt, at least 'fun time' paydirt, if not gigantic box office (and, I don't know about that part.) It's one of the handful of movies I can say I truly love, not because I think so (alone), but mainly because I feel it and think it, both. Listening to this gorgeous, 'big band' score is a wonderful way to remember the film and celebrate one of its best components: that same score.
Most of us are mortal men. Some men however are immortal, at least for a few years after their mortal coil gives out on them. Hefti has made it. This music makes him alive, and what's more, it makes US a little more alive. What more can you say for a guy, than that? THANKS, Neal! Beautiful.