As promised, here is the haineshisway.com head's up announcement of our two new releases. I'm suspecting these will go fairly fast, so that's why I'm giving a little extra time - don't wait too long, though. You know the routine - each CD is 19.98 plus 3.75 shipping (if ordering both, the 3.75 covers both CDs). Pay directly via paypal.com using our paypal address, which is kritzerland at adelphia dot net. Be sure to put the CD titles in the invoice.
Kritzerland is proud to present two great new limited editions – one world premiere double-bill soundtrack and one original cast album:
FEAR STRIKES OUT/THE TIN STAR
Music Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein
and
GONE WITH THE WIND Original London Cast Album
Music and Lyrics by Harold Rome
Fear Strikes Out (1957) was the true story of baseball’s Jim Piersall, who suffered from and overcame a complete nervous breakdown caused by the extreme and relentless pressure his never-satisfied father put on him to be the best of the best – from the time he was a young boy right up through his entering the major leagues. Beautifully directed by Robert Mulligan (his first film), with brilliant performances by Anthony Perkins as Piersall and Karl Malden as his father, the film is devastating, powerfully emotional, compassionate, and very moving.
The choice of Elmer Bernstein to score the film was serendipitous – Bernstein’s and Mulligan’s artistic temperaments were perfectly in synch and Bernstein would go on to score many films for him, including The Rat Race, To Kill A Mockingbird, Love With The Proper Stranger, and Bloodbrothers. Bernstein’s score for Fear Strikes Out really captures the film’s myriad moods – from the elation of Piersall’s baseball triumphs, to the dark road leading to his mental breakdown on the baseball field (an incredible scene), to his rehabilitation, and, as always with Bernstein, he really understands how to make music coalesce with images and illuminate character and story – his music is timeless, perfect, and, all these decades later, still incredibly fresh.
The Tin Star (also 1957) was in a different world altogether – a western, also starring Anthony Perkins, this time alongside the great Henry Fonda. The director was Anthony Mann, who’d already made a string of classic westerns, including Winchester 73, The Naked Spur, Bend of the River, The Man From Laramie (all starring James Stewart), among others. The film is a character-driven drama about a former sheriff-now-bounty hunter named Morgan Hickman (Fonda) – when the sheriff of a town is killed, the green, inexperienced Perkins is appointed as a temporary replacement, a job he would like to make permanent. He asks Hickman to teach him the ropes. In so doing, Hickman is reminded why he once wore the tin star and in the process rediscovers the person he was.
Mann and Bernstein had worked together once before, on Mann’s war film, Men In War, for which Bernstein turned out a great score. Bernstein had done only one western prior to The Tin Star (Drango), but he would soon go on to become one of the most beloved composers of westerns in film history, with his classic scores for The Magnificent Seven, The Comancheros, The Hallelujah Trail, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Scalphunters, True Grit, Big Jake, The Shootist, and others. His “sound” is instantly recognizable, even in this early stage of his Western game. The score has all the things one has come to expect from a Bernstein western score – colorful Americana, great themes, all perfectly matched to the film. He was as good as it gets. The CD was mastered from the original tapes stored in the Paramount vaults. Over seventy-seven minutes of prime Golden Age Bernstein.
This release is limited to 1500 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.
CD will ship the third week of March – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit
www.kritzerland.com.
GONE WITH THE WIND
A musical of Gone With The Wind? Sounds crazy, no? But in the occasionally crazy world of musical theater, that’s exactly what happened. Premiering in London (after a production in Tokyo), Gone With The Wind had a book by Horton Foote (the playwright, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of To Kill A Mockingbird) and music and lyrics by the great Harold Rome.
That London production, starring June Ritchie as Scarlett O’Hara and Harve Presnell as Rhett Butler, opened in 1972 at the Drury Lane Theater. Reviews were, in some cases, surprisingly good, and the show ran a year. The Evening Standard raved, “Choreography and music are brilliantly blended in a storytelling exercise that never stops for breath. There are no artificially set numbers to halt the momentum of the tale and every precise dance number propels the action forward.” “What a musical! Singing Scarlett is here to stay,” said the Daily Express.
Thankfully, EMI made a cast album of the show, preserving the delightful and tuneful Harold Rome score. This CD was mastered from the original album masters housed at EMI in the UK.
This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.
CD will ship the third week of March – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit
www.kritzerland.com.
