Soundtrack: The Raven

I collect soundtracks - of movies that I've seen and liked, or at the very least of movies that I'd've liked to have seen. This separates me from the majority of soundtrack collectors, I think. They seem to collect music just because they like a certain composer -- they have no interest in seeing the film from which the movie came!

My collection is not large, indeed it's extremely small.

One reason it's small is because most of my soundtracks were vinyl records that I purchased in the 70s and 80s, and in the process of many moves these were lost. I used to have the original Star Wars soundtracks, for example, and Star Trek, etc. etc. etc.

I've only recently started adding to that lost collection, and re-acquiring that old collection via CD - purchasing them from Ebay and Amazon's used music service. (I do feel guilty about that. If I were the producer of a new CD or record, and found that my sales were being cut into by Amazon offering used CDs on the same page, I'd be pretty torqued. But as a collector of many, many things, whose discretionary funds do not really include funds for music CDs, I have to go with used copies.)

Anyway, today I received The Raven/An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe - both composed by Les Baxter, from Kritzerland. They are a small label who have done about 100 soundtracks... the vast majority of their stuff is not science fiction related and is of no interest to me.

I shall start this series of articles on soundtracks with the three from Kritzerland that I have, then list the 3 sf-related ones that they've done that I don't want, but offer up as knowledge to other potential SF soundtrack collector) before moving on to my other soundtracks.

Well, The Raven isn't science fiction , but rather fantasy, but it, and An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe, did star Vincent Price, and I'm a fan of Price's. Indeed, I'd like to assemble soundtracks from all his movies - but he made so many and I doubt if more than a handful are available... well, that would make it easy to assemble a collection, anyway!

According to the Kritzerland folks, they could find only one of the two original reels that the music for this movie was on, which is why they fleshed out the CD with music from An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe.

On its own, I don't know that I'd care for this music, but because I've seen both movies (and indeed, have them on DVD), when I hear a certain track I can call to mind the action in the movie that goes with it, and it's that conjunction of memory and music that makes this fun to listen to.

(Vincent Price plays Erasmus Craven, a sorcerer who lives in a castle with his daughter. He is meek and mild - drinks milk and spends his time studying and mourning his dead wife, Lenore. He is visited by a raven who can talk - Peter Lorre. Craven learns that sorcerer Dr. Bedlo (Lorre) was turned into a raven by his arch nemesis - Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff). Bedlo also tells him that he saw his wife, Lenore, in Scarabus' castle! So he and Bedlo, and his daughter and Bedlo's son (played by a young Jack Nicholson) set off for the castle to defeat Scarabus. But all is not as it appears.)

This CD is sold out at Kritzerland (they only made 1000 copies) but is available at other soundtrack websites as Intrada.com

The liner notes, as usual for a Kritzerland release, are disappointing for those who want to be educated about the music, and don't need to be told anything about the film! (The more so since the guy who does these things is very knowledgeable about music. But he prefers to hoard that knowledge, I guess.) For those who are "casual" fans of the movie, the liner notes are of interest to expand their knowledge of it.

It's like trying to take down a bomber with a peashooter

But it's all we got.

Just tuned in to the last 15 minutes of the current Twilight Zone episode at the Sci Fi Channel. As usual, for a holiday, they'showing marathons, and also as usual, it's the Twilight Zone.

Unlike usually, or unusually I suppose I should say, the TV guide on my TV (I"ve got satellite) is no help. It tells me that I"m watching Twilight Zone, but doesn't give the title. Most annoying.

Anyway, a police officer and a woman are being terrorized by something out in the dark. All kinds of stilted dialog - you know right away Rod Serling wrote this episode. At the end, the woman runs...and of course she falls. Anytime in a 1950s tv series - heck, probably even up to the 80s, anytime a woman runs she will inevitably fall so that the man can arrive and protect her from whatever it is she's runnng from (or allow her to be captured so the man can rescue her).

Then, we see this giant spaceman, 40 stories taller than they are. Just standing there, not making any threatening moves.

The cop says all he's got is a gun, and that trying to take down the alien with it is "like trying to take down a bomber with a peashooter, but it's all we've got."

And so he starts shooting with this "peashooter" - at an alien that's doing nothing more than standing still, making no threatening moves, but fortunately it's not an alien but a balloon, and so it crumples.

Then they find a teeny tiny flying saucer, and fortunatley the two aliens inside speak English as they beg to be able to return home, as the Earth people aren't frightened.

To put it bluntly, not one of TZ's better episodes.

Anyway, starred Mark Richman, an actor with a recognizable face, but I couldn't place the name to it until the end. Took me slightly less time with Hazel Court, although she did look a bit more aged than in The Raven (Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson) which is the onl thing I've ever seen her in.

Most of the Twilight Zone episodes are a lot of fun. Several of 'em have "morals" or "messages" that could be well-considered today, but I must say that Rod Serling's dialog does run a little stilted and/or ...grandileloquent isn't the word I'm looking for but the proper word is escaping me for some reason...pompous? It takes great actors to be able to say those lines with a straight face, or convincingly.

Just c hecked the IMDB, and found that this episode, filmed in the 5th season, 1964, was the last episode of Twilight Zone to be filmed. The last episode to be aired was The Bewitchin Pool.