Cimarron
(1960, FSM Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound:
B Music: B
PLEASE
NOTE: This CD is sadly out of print, but Warner Archive
has issued Cimarron (1960) in a restored Blu-ray edition and
you can read more about it at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15687/Cimarron+(1960/MGM/Warner+Archive+Blu-ray)/Fi
And
you can read about the original Cimarron (1931) on Blu-ray
from Warner Archive at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16320/Cimarron+(1931/RKO*)/Cisco+Kid:+Western+Movi
That
RKO is still one of the only Westerns to ever win the Best Picture
Academy Award. When M-G-M was trying to find huge productions to
compete with television, they decided to remake the film. At first,
it was conceived as one of the ultra-rare MGM Camera 65/Ultra
Panavision 70 productions with the Cinerama ultra-wide process with a
whopping 2.76 X 1 aspect ration. However, it eventually became a
normal Panavision scope 2.35 X 1 production, though the production
was dubbed CinemaScope as if it had used those older and by then out
of date lenses. That was good, because it did not do well at the box
office.
As
if the original held up so well, this still broke the rule that
classics should not be remade before Warner Bros. issued
either film on DVD or Blu-ray, the FSM CD soundtrack label of Film
Score Monthly Magazine has issued a fine limited edition of the music
score by the great Franz Waxman. This is the premiere of the music
as a soundtrack 44 years after the film's release and in some ways,
the first time the music has been properly heard at all. As
explained in yet another great booklet included within the CD case,
the multi-track magnetic stereo sound the film was released in
degraded the music and often buried it under bombastic sound effects,
something we are used to all the time in most of the bad films out
today. Old Hollywood had more respect for the customer then on that
level.
For
the 22 tracks here, including the final 'outtakes suite' track, are
from the original three-track soundmaster the music was recorded on.
Until this CD was released, this was practically a lost score, but
FSM and their love of film music is astonishing and we have this fine
music that might have saved the film somewhat if audiences could have
only heard it!
Granted,
fine music can only go so far in saving a lost cause, but Warner
Bros. needs to use these tracks to do a necessary 5.1 remix that
would flesh out Waxman's work again and allow audiences for the first
time ever to really be able to appreciate what Waxman was trying to
do for the film. The PCM 2.0 16/44.1 CD Stereo is fine and since the
magnetic master survived as well as it did, it also happens not to
have been played too much, so it sounds good.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
