Congo (1995) - Soundtrack

Despite my having purchased the mass market paperback edition of Michael Crichton's Congo, when it first hit the shelves of our local Waldenbooks, way back in the fall of 1981, I would not read the novel until the mid-90s. Well after having devoured both Jurassic Park and, I think, Sphere. So it goes.

Congo was a fun read and this long-gestating film adaptation, on paper, looked to be just my thing. Director/producer Frank Marshall, who had produced Jurassic Park, was coming off of both Arachnophobia, which I had seen on the big screen and loved, and Alive, which I had seen on home video and enjoyed. The script was penned by John Patrick Shanley, an Academy Award winning writer. Creature creator extraordinaire Stan Winston was tasked with creating both Amy and the albino gorillas. The score was composed by one of my all time favorite composers, Jerry Goldsmith.

Oh, and Bruce Campbell also had a small role in the film. How could this movie miss?

Well, if the lackluster to scathing reviews are to be believed, Congo missed by a country mile. Oops. So I passed on seeing it on the big screen and, because of the non-ending distractions of life, never got around to seeing more than a few clips from the film. What little I saw gave me the feeling that I was not missing out on all that much. Could be wrong, though. Might still give the movie Congo a shot. Maybe. I have no idea.

But I did nab this expanded release of Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film and am very grateful for having done so.

The liner notes penned by Jeff Bond detail Goldsmith's long history of collaborating with Crichton. Goldsmith scored Crichton's first film as a director, a 1972 TV-movie titled Pursuit, as well as two popular theatrical releases from 1978, Coma and The Great Train Robbery. Bond also notes how Goldsmith's score for Congo reflects the composer's conscious decision to work with directors new to him, to better invigorate his creative process and output.

Goldsmith was brought onboard when James Newton Howard was forced off the project by a scheduling conflict. South African composer and performer Lebo M, who had done some preliminary work with Howard, stayed onboard to work with Goldsmith and the result is a bright opening theme. One that Bond describes as being "counterintuitive" to a quasi-monster movie about mutant gorillas.

"...the choice reflect[s] Goldsmith's desire to avoid the obvious," Bond opines. "[To] find the lyrical element of a genre film."

While there is ample warmth surrounding the character of Amy, the intelligent ape that both anchors and bridges the adventure yarn's fantastical elements, Goldsmith does not skimp on the action-adventure sonic fireworks.

The end result is an entertaining listening experience that makes me think I should sit down and watch the damn movie.

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant (1971) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - April 28, 1971

The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant was the first of two films about noggin grafting released in the early 70s. The second would be 1972's The Thing with Two Heads, which I still have not seen. But I have seen The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, several times.

For whatever reason, most likely the cast including a young Bruce Dern as well as radio and voice actor icon Casey Kasem, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant seemed a syndication station broadcast workhorse. I know it aired a few times on KTVU's Saturday afternoon Chiller Diller and late night Creature Features programs, as well as KBHK's Saturday afternoon Monstrous Movie. Making it one of the "those" movies I remember as always being on one station or the other with some degree of regularity.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #23

Datalog: Approx. 0:1400 Hours, Day 2

A huge fireball tore through the passageways when one of the prisoners dropped a flare onto the flammable Quinitricety. The Alien rose up in front of us from out of the flames, its huge shape distorted by the heat. Fire didn't seem to harm this one. Eric was right, it looked just like Satan.

The Guardian (1990) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - April 27, 1990

As entertaining a raconteur as the late William Friedkin was, The Guardian reveals his amusing hurling of verbal brickbats at John Boorman's Exorcist II The Heretic were being thrown from the porch of a fragile glass house.

Because The Guardian stinks. It is a movie that serves as a great of example of "just because I suspend my disbelief does not mean you can insult my intelligence." I walked out of an opening day matinee screening mad as hell at this movie. I hated it.

When it came out on home video I think I gave it a second chance. At least I have a fuzzy memory of giving it second chance. Or maybe I just want to see the scene where the tree kills a trio of miscreants.

No matter, though. It still stunk and was just as insulting to the intelligence as when I sat through it at the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco, on April 27, 1990.

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #58

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

The H. R. Giger infused 'Tequila Worm' scene is one of the technical highlights of Poltergeist II The Other Side.
 

Carrie by Stephen King / The Swarm by Arthur Herzog - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - April 24, 1975

Finding this ad for the source material for two seminal movies of my youth was a pleasant, even chuckle inducing, delight.

While I do not remember seeing either of these particular editions on bookstore shelves, or nestled in drugstore spinner racks, I do remember picking up one for The Swarm in a used bookstore in Berkeley, way, way back in the day.

The two editions I remember, and actually read, were the movie tie-ins. 

In 1976 I was equal parts fascinated and frightened by the black and white stills in the center of the Carrie tie-in. My interest was fueled somewhat by John Travolta being in it. Because he was one of the beloved Sweat Hogs in the popular sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

While I did read Carrie, two or three times, it might not have been until 1979, or maybe even 1980. It was long after I had seen the film's broadcast debut on network television. Which was the first time that I saw it.

The Swarm, which I was obsessed with in the first half of 1978, was my "birthday movie" for that year. Like a great many books at that time, I struggled to get through it. It would not be until 1980 or 81 that I would actually manage to read the entire book, from start to finish.

While not a great book, The Swarm could have made for a pretty good movie. If the person making said movie had understood the kind of movie they were making. Which had not been the case with Irwin Allen. So it goes.

Alien 3 (1992) - Trading Card #22

Datalog: Approx. 0:1400 Hours, Day 2

We were all armed with flares, hoping to flush the Alien out into the open. One of the prisoners was high up in the vertical air duct before he realized the Alien was up there too. That's when he dropped the flare and the passageways exploded into flames. 

Fear No Evil (1981) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - April 23, 1981

Last year, on April 24, I posted the opening day ad, also clipped from the Oakland Tribune, for Frank LaLoggia's debut feature Fear No Evil. In that post I shared a clip from Creature Features that featured LaLoggia doing a promotional interview for the film.

Having done that, I thought it might be cool to track down one of the TV spots I remember seeing on television. I know that it featured Andrew (Stefan Arngrim), a birthday cake, and Andrew's father screaming "My son is the devil!"

This appears to be the one.

I feel the need to qualify this with the phrase "appears to be" as April 1981, at time of writing, is a whopping 45 years in my past. While the ad does feature what I remember, watching it did not trigger the dopamine hit response of, "Ah, that's the one! That's it!"

But it has been 45 years, man. That means a whole lot of memories smashing, mixing, or blending together. I think that it lodged in my memory at all is something of pop culture win.
 

Fright Flicks - Trading Card #57

Aliens (1986)

 

Ghost Story by Peter Straub - San Francisco Examiner - April 22, 1979

San Francisco Examiner - April 22, 1979

Peter Straub's fourth published novel, and third involving a supernatural threat, was the one that put him on the popular culture map. I would not read the book, from start to finish, until 1981, or thereabouts. When it was a paperback bestseller for Pocket Books.

I don't think it has ever been out of print.