Hank's career as an Easy Listening/Jazz artist hid the fact he was a great dramatic composer and often some of his best music for films was left off the soundtrack albums which highlighted source cues instead.My favorite Mancini score is The White Dawn.
I love a lot of the scores he wrote for Universal films of the 50s, the highlight being his third of This Island Earth.
Other great dramatic scores include Lifeforce, The Molly McGuires, The Glass Menagerie, The Night Visitor, Wait Until Dark, and The Hawaiians (which sounds more Japanese than Hawaiian).
On the light side comes Peter Gunn, which has a great theme but also other great crime jazz cues. Also the crime jazz great Touch of Evil.
Other light gems are Breakfast at Tiffany's, Two for the Road, Man's Favorite Sport, Hatari!, and Charade, all of which have great cues left off their soundtrack albums. All you can get of the delightful Man's Favorite Sport score is an alternate version of the title song on the Mancini Dear Heart LP leaving all the cues to languish in obscurity.
Then in a class by itself is The Pink Panther.
Other good ones include The Great Waldo Pepper, Sunflower, A Shot in the Dark, and Victor/Victoria.
I don't own nor have heard Santa Claus-The Movie which seems to be an oversight on my part given what was said about it.
I'm looking forward to the release of Silver Streak so I can re-acquaint myself with that score which I don't remember well.
There are still others I'm not pointing out, some of which have already been mentioned.
[Message edited by Lou Goldberg on 04-08-2002]
