Khartoum/Mosquito Squadron (Limited Edition CD Soundtrack)
Sound:
B Picture: B
Basil
Dearden’s Khartoum (1966) was one of the most
blatant attempts to recreate the success of David Lean’s classic Lawrence Of Arabia four years before,
almost as if it were a sort of “flip-side” to the classic. It involved Arabs and Islam in the Middle East, it was a historical epic, it was
shot in 70mm, it had epic battle sequences, and it had big-name stars. Joining Charlton Heston, Lawrence Olivier,
Ralph Richardson, Richard Johnson and Nigel Green. It also had a score by the much less known
composer Frank Cordell.
Cordell
was in the middle of his career when he recorded his music for Khartoum, and this new limited edition
CD from Film Score Monthly’s FSM label (only 3,000 copies have been pressed;
find out more at www.filmscoremonthly.com)
contains Cordell’s album re-recording of the film scorer that follows the exact
arrangements heard in the film and adds the score he made soon after for Boris
Sagal’s Mosquito Squadron
(1969). That was a World War II film
starring David McCallum and Charles Gray.
In the
case of Khartoum, the film had many problems and
the score actually helps keep the film from becoming too stale and bogged down. There are good performances, but the editing
and inability to move the giant 65mm cameras enough backfired. Cordell’s score fills in the staticness of
the visuals and especially works in the battle scenes. Mosquito
Squadron also is a film whose original music master is lost, yet also had a
vinyl record album version planned. In
this case, though, that LP was never released, so this is the extremely belated
debut of that version.
Cordell’s
score is equal to the previous work, and with the liner notes comparing some of
the battle sequences to George Lucas’ 1977 Star
Wars. The Khartoum DVD issued is a 2002 basic recycling of the master form
the old 12” LaserDisc transfer, so that needs updated just on the basis of
needing an anamorphic transfer. The
sound was older Dolby Pro Logic in both cases.
Mosquito Squadron was
released in a basic edition mid-2003 with monophonic sound.
The PCM
CD sound here is Stereo in both cases and easily outperforms both DVD
soundtracks’ representations of the music with no problem. Both have the advantage of their magnetic LP
stereo album masters having survived surprisingly well. This is a nice set of scores from that Epic
Historical War cycle of the 1960s, especially with the fidelity both
offers. It is worth a listen, and if you
own the DVDs, it is a must-have CD.
- Nicholas Sheffo
