In the 1950s, film began to move away from romantic or bombastic orchestral scores and toward a more varied landscape. One of the styles that started making its mark on cinematic soundtracks during this period was jazz.
Tag Archives: United States
Les Baxter: Music Out of the Moon
A pioneering work of “space age pop,” Music out of the Moon was a collaboration between arranger Les Baxter, composer Harry Revel, and theremin player Samuel Hoffman.
He Saw the Sea
Langston Hughes’ autobiography, The Big Sea, deserves to be counted among the great works of travel literature. Also, there is Jocko the monkey.
Crash-Landing Into the Nightmare Future
World Without End is an action-packed, low-budget blend of HG Wells’ The Time Machine and Planet of the Apes, which it predates by many a year. That’s time travel for ya.
I, The Jury
When people imitate hardboiled fiction, they’re imitating Mickey Spillane. Every sentence is boiling over with hate and disgust. Every thought is of violence.
Kim
Kim is the sort of hardboiled detective story that the pulp paperback industry could produce in its sleep, peppered with enough fist-fights, shoot-outs, and sex to keep the slim volume well-packed.
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi
Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi is the first in a series of Indiana Jones novels, published after the movies and relaying the adventures of Indy as a young man during the 1920s.
It’s Called Gettin’ Down
On the Cultural Gutter, Gil Gerard wakes up in the future and teaches its inhabitants how to get down in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
War of the Welles
In October of 1938, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. Amid this air of paranoia, Orson Welles stepped behind the microphone for another broadcast of a radio drama, CBS’ The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
Forever and a Death
Donald E. Westlake, best known for his “Parker” series of thrillers, was hired to write a James Bond movie. In the end, the script was not used, but Westlake reworked the story into an original novel.
Exotica Noir: Technicolor Paradise
For every Martin Denny , there were dozens of other, independent musicians plying their trade in exotica, with strange, stunning, and spooky results. It is these musicians that Technicolor Paradise celebrates.
Bullitt
These days, Bullitt‘s reputation is built almost entirely on the exhilarating eleven-minute car chase. Even people who have never seen the movie have seen or heard about that scene.
