Carrie (1976) - Soundtrack

Bruce Kimmel's liner notes for this two disc limited edition release from Kritzerland lavishes an almost hyperbolic level of praise on Pino Donaggio's score for Carrie. In a single sentence Kimmel calls it both "a perfect score" and "a masterpiece of film scoring" with "unforgettable themes that capture every nuance of the film."

The soundtrack album that was released back in 1976 was an abbreviation, of course. 35 minutes of music that, for the most part, was from the second half of the film.

As would be the case with just about every soundtrack album of that era, there were snippets and selections of the score that I loved that were excluded from the album. Not so with this release. It contains every note of the film score, in film order.

The snippets and selections I am glad to have included here? The second part of Track 2 - The Ashtray, Track 5 - Calisthenics, and Track 8 - The Tuxedo Shop.

Body Double (1984) - Soundtrack

Body Double would be the fifth collaboration between writer/director Brian De Palma and composer Pino Donaggio. While the movie itself is something of a delirious and self-indulgent De Palma fever dream of silliness, sleaze, and suspense, Donaggio's score for the film contains two of my all-time favorite pieces by the composer. Emphasis on pieces.

The first, and most recognizable, would be Telescope, of course. "A lilting vocal siren song weaves through this cue," Jeff Bond writes in his liner notes. "De Palma evidently found this music so integral to the film that he tracked it into a number of later sequences that focus on Scully's obsession with Gloria."

Second is a low pulsating synthesizer suspense underlay that, in this release, shines brightest on the track Detective McClane, Please! My reason(s) for loving it are most likely do to it sounding, to me, like something John Carpenter and Alan Howarth might have done at that particular period in time.

Blow Out (1981) - Soundtrack

Jeff Bond, in his liner notes for this Intrada release, states Blow Out had "one of the most devastatingly downbeat and tragic movie endings of the decade," and that is not mere critical hyperbole. It is an observation of a painful and blunt truth. A truth that played no small part in why Blow Out was a commercial and critical disaster in 1981.

I vividly remember sitting slack-jawed and staring heartbroken up at a sobbing John Travolta, fireworks rapturously exploding above him, while Pino Donaggio's solemn music swelled and hammered the inescapable truth and tragic failure home. The soul crushing weight of the film's closing line, "It's a good scream."

Yet I still staggered out of the theater wanting an album of the film's music. But it was not to be, at first.

According to album producer Douglass Fake, in his Tech Talk notes, Donaggio recorded 55-minutes of music for the film. Those recordings were then edited, by Donaggio, down to 48-minutes for a possible soundtrack album presentation. One that did not materialize until Intrada dusted those tapes off and released this compact disc in 2014.

The good news is that Donaggio's 48-minute edit not only survived in pristine condition, but also retained his music for all of the key sequences in the film. Something that make the bad news a tad palatable. The 48-minute edit are the only recordings of the score to have survived the ravages of time and licensor indifference.

The Berlin Affair (1985) - Soundtrack

I have never seen The Berlin Affair, I got this soundtrack simply because the music is by Pino Donaggio.

The liner notes for this limited edition release from Kritzerland describes the score as "Donaggio at the top of his game. With its sinuous, swirling, hypnotic melodies capturing all the underlying complexities of the characters and the story, the music is like a symphonic fever dream in the film, and a wonderful and completely satisfying listening experience away from the film." Again, not having seen the actual film, I can only agree with that last part. This score is a wonderful and satisfying listening experience.

Evidently the sound mix for the music in the film was quite low and, as is the case with a great many scores, the music was often truncated. This release allows the complete recordings, including a great many tracks not included on the LP release that coincided with the film's original release, to be heard and appreciated with clarity.