The Flim-Flam Man/A Girl Named Sooner
(Limited Edition CD
Soundtrack)
Sound:
B/B- Music: B
One of
the more intriguing “double feature” CD soundtracks Film Score Monthly
magazine’s FSM label issued early on is form Jerry Goldsmith, twice visiting
music in and around the Country genre with The
Flim-Flam Man and A Girl Named
Sooner. The Southern flavor always
feels authentic, never runs into the satire later such scores from lesser
composers and sillier films would produce (especially in the 1970s), propels
the narrative, and both still retain their separate sound and feel.
Only a
composer of Goldsmith’s high caliber could pull that off, but this is again
about doing music for narrative films. I
am no fan of The Flim-Flam Man, but
between Goldsmith and director Irwin Kershner, take it seriously enough as an
ambitious work that has a following that at least makes sense. A Girl
Named Sooner is a telefilm when the term “TV movie” still had substance and
pride connected to it. It is one of
those films that sounds familiar, but it is too long to remember if and when I
screened it. The score makes me curious.
The PCM
CD sound for both presentations makes sense, as The Flim-Flam Man is in stereo as would be in demand for
CinemaScope productions of the time, while A
Girl Named Sooner was recorded in mono as TV was far from stereo in the
1970s. Remarkably, it sounds incredibly
good considering the low-fidelity standards TV demanded, but this is why
keeping original master materials is so important. The magnetic master makes for an excellent
argument for this.
Being an
early FSM label CD, the booklet is not as detailed as later booklets in the
series, but it is still well written for what is here. Only 3,000 copies were pressed and neither
are out on DVD yet, so you may want to go to www.filmscoremonthly.com and
consider if it is among the many such exclusives the label offers. They are adding more titles each month.
- Nicholas Sheffo
