Gae NP The Incredible Shrinking man suite

P.S. This movie is definately on my list of DVDs whenever it is released! I hope its soon.

Gae

Here is an overview of the film's classic score. The score was composed by Hans Salter, Irving Gertz, and a few cues were added by Herman Stein. Somebody at Universal wanted to use a "song" in the film, probably expecting they'd have a big hit (which they probably tried to get a publishing share on or else they did it for some other financial reason -- it certainly wasn't an artistic one). The song chosen was "The Girl In A Lonely Room," written by Foster Carling and Earl E. Lawrence.

This totally inappropriate music was then deftly turned into something usable by Gertz, Salter, and Stein whenever they were forced to use it. I say "forced" because there's no way they would have used the piece if left to their own high musical standards. The melody just didn't fit the subject matter.

Universal-International's unfair practice of the day regarding when a "song" (as opposed to a film cue) was used was that only the songwriter(s) would get cue sheet credit (and accompanying performance royalties through ASCAP or BMI). So, if Mr. Gertz turned a 5-second snippet of the song's melody into a 1:38 creative piece that only barely quoted from the song, all credit (and royalties) went to Mr. Carling and Mr. Lawrence, who probably never even saw the picture except to tell their friends "Hey! That's my song in that there picture!" The song is used in the film's Main Title, and yes, that Dick Jacobs' version is shockingly strident and sounds NOTHING like it does in the picture, but what do you expect from a Dick Jacobs' recording?

There are also some other cues in the film credited to Earl E. Lawrence alone, but again, he did not work on the picture -- it was Stein, Gertz, or Salter who wrote but did
not get credited for them.

As far as who wrote what, Irving Gertz wrote the fabulous opening cues having to do with Scott Carey out on the boat ("Mist-i-fied" and others). He also composed the breathtaking spider music you rightly noted was so briliant. Irving scored many of the lengthy scenes in the basement in the second half of the film when Scott Carey is learning to cope with his now-gigantic environment. It was one of his all-time favorite assignments because there was so little dialogue and sound effects during many of the sequences -- the music supplied much of the drama. If you like Gertz's contributions to this score, check out our suite of his music from THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE on our "Creature From The Black Lagoon (and other jungle pictures)" CD. Other Gertz music can be found on our IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE suite.

Hans Salter composed the music on the CD you mentioned having, and in fact that music came from Salter's own 1/4" tape reel (dubbed off acetates), which is why it only contains his own cues. Accidentally edited onto the end of the tape and therefore preserved on Tony Thomas's album and then Intrada's CD was the last cue of the suite, which is in reality the "End Title" Salter wrote for THIS ISLAND EARTH.

Hans Salter wrote the opening fanfare "Main Title Intro. #3" (I'm still trying to figure out what happened to #1 and #2). He scored the battle with the cat as well as some other lengthy and not-lengthy sequences throughout the film.

Herman Stein did not write much for this picture as far as cues he was credited for. But his "moments" were very dramatic ones. He scored the sequence where Scott Carey has to leap across the chasm with only a sticky paint stick to help him, and he scored the classic existential ending where Scott, having survived the spider and continuing to shrink, ponders his place in the Universe. Although he got credited for a mere 1:18 of this cue, with Carling and Lawrence being credited with the rest, it's Stein's baby all the way, orchestrated to near-religious standards by Stein and orchestrator David Tamkin. Tamkin probably worked on the orchestrations for the majority of the cues if not all of them, but I'd have to confirm this before anyone quotes it!

Stein did NOT want that annoying female voice in the end, but it was probably dictated by some near-deaf producer or Universal executive. Should we ever record this film's music, and we hope to, I will probably do it the way Herman originally wrote it as well as with the female droning in the background.

Rumor has it that Herman composed about five different endings for the picture, but the producer kept expressing his dissatisfacation and kept asking him to do something different. From what I heard (and not from Herman), every version he wrote was more brilliant than the previous, but when you're auditioning for a man with no musical knowledge or taste, what are you gonna do? The version used in the picture, with so many quotes from "The Girl In A Lonely Room," probably made it into the film because of the producer's insistence. As excellent as it is, I'd love to have heard the other versions, but I think Mr. Stein threw them out probably so he'd never have to be reminded of the experience.

Most of the rest of the film's cues are credited to the songwriters, but I can hear Gertz, Stein, and Salter in the background working on them.

THERE IS NO FRED KARLIN INVOLVEMENT IN THIS PICTURE! He was just a little baby at the time, or at least wasn't working for Universal Studios.

THERE IS NO HENRY MANCINI INVOLVEMENT IN THIS PICTURE! Hank wrote music for other Universal sci-fi films of the period, but not this one. If you own the Dick Jacobs album or CD, DON'T READ THE LINER NOTES! You will get the wrong idea about who scored these classic sci-fi films from Universal and Universal-International. And don't read Monstrous Movie Music's voluminous liner notes either. They're (mostly) accurate, but you'll develop severe eye-strain from the tiny fonts!

"David: A good example of what I spoke about earlier, i.e., wherever you see 'The Girl In A Lonely Room,' by Foster Carling & Earl E. Lawrence (both unknown to me), it means that any portion of that cue based on that melody, however remotely, is considered a composition of Carling-Lawrence and not the actual composer--who remains nameless (and, when I'm that composer, hairless as well). Fair enough, because both Carling-Lawrence and the wretch who actually wrote their cues are both composers--just as Earl Scheib and Picasso are both painters. Only in America."

Hans Salter wrote the opening fanfare "Main Title Intro. #3" (I'm still trying to figure out what happened to #1 and #2).

This part being, as you say, the dramatic Intro music before the Main Title starts? I'm still a bit confused about the "Main Title" itself in connection with the original song. If the Main Title is an adaptation by Salter of "The Girl in a Lonely Room" then he turned this song into a poignant and haunting theme which I personally love and think fits the film very well. It has a poignant and haunting quality which captures Carey's predicament perfectly in emotional terms. I cant compare it to the original song as I dont know it but it would be nice to hear it, if it exists, for comparison. Search engine at the ready!!

He scored the battle with the cat as well as some other lengthy and not-lengthy sequences throughout the film.

Along with the "Spider" music, this is another great piece, amongst many, when Carey is escaping from the cat and pushing the door against it. There's a great punchy brass motif that comes in during the struggle and then a few seconds later we hear the descending music as a draught blows the door open and Carey falls into the cellar. The special effects here, for the time, are just awesome and still look good by todays standards. I cant wait to see the film again now after talking about it, but I've promised myself to wait until the DVD release as my tape is almost worn down. Lets hope we dont have to wait too long!!

Gae

"MAIN TITLE Intro. #3" is the short orchestral fanfare that plays under the Universal-International logo in the beginning, and is by Salter.

"MAIN TITLE - The Girl in a Lonely Room" follows immediately thereafter, serving as the real Main Title of the film. I'm not saying the "Main Title" doesn't work at all, but I would rather have had the main thematic material coming from Stein, Gertz, Salter, Lava, Roemheld, or Mancini. Composers usually don't like having songs "forced" on them. It doesn't mean they won't do a good job with it, but that's not what composers like to do the most. The woman's voice is so bizarre and doesn't seem to have to do with anything, and that barroom piano motif that repeats over and over is just annoying and not very creative. I don't know who orchestrated this piece -- perhaps Universal had a band arranger do it. Certainly Stein didn't, as he was arranging for Basie when he was 17 and would have done something much more creative than what's in the film. It doesn't sound like Gertz or Salter either. Mancini would have done something far more memorable as well.

Compare the orchestation of this piece to the cue that begins immediately after the Main Title as we fade in on the sea (Irving Gertz's "Mist-i-fied"). The jazz sounds are all gone until we cut to the long shot of the boat, which again reprises a snippet of "The Girl in a Lonely Room." Why is there jazz in this score? Scott Carey isn't addicted to heroin and he doesn't play in a combo. This should have used "tradiional" horror motives of the day, and you can hear some brilliant ones by Gertz as Carey sees the mist coming toward him (another cue with the same name "Mist-i-fied"). This music is much more evocative to me than anything in the Main Title. Even when Gertz scores the following scene at home with the milkman, it's plain-old neutral "we're at home in suburbia" music -- there's no jazz at all, and there shouldn't be. The rest of the home scene, when Scott discovers he's getting smaller, continues Gertz's effective "mystery/suspense/horror" motives.

Of course, all of the above is just my opinion. But if I compare SHRINKING MAN's score with other scores like U-I's THE MOLE PEOPLE or THE DEADLY MANTIS, scored from new material written specifically for the films (Salter, Roemheld, and Stein in the former; Gertz and Lava in the latter), there's no comparison to me. Had either of these teams or any of U-I's other combinations scored THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, I think it would have been an even greater filmic experience, and it's already pretty spectacular the way it is now.

All the info on Incredible Shrinking Man was very interesting and I also like that score a lot. I noticed snippets of music from earlier films in there too.

One thing real interesting is all the different cues and themes that Mancini supposedly wrote for a western that was used in Tarantula and all the various recordings of different music for this we have heard. I really like all that on the MMM CD and on the older CD too. That cue entitled "bringing down the house"is awesome.

>>I haven't got ANY of those MMM releases! What kind of fan am I?