Movie Music Musings – Horrifying John Williams

Ask film music fans about horror film scores and you’ll hear a few composer names pop up almost immediately. Bernard Herrmann and his work with Hitchcock will leap to mind. Jerry Goldsmith crafted some amazing work for The Omen and Poltergeist. Christopher Young is the current master of horror music from the creepy music for The Grudge and the bombastic thrills of Drag Me to Hell. Even Hans Zimmer has taken on the genre with some really intense music for the Hollywood version of The Ring.

But one name you don’t hear too often related to horror scores is the maestro himself, John Williams. This has more to do with the type of films that Williams gets attached to and isn’t a commentary on his skills. Williams has provided some excellent scores to thrillers and individual cues in the Harry Potter films and Jurassic Park have some excellent moments of tension and fear. But these days, Williams works primarily in dramas and fantasies.

You have to journey back in his career, right when it was really taking off, to hear some of his most interesting horror music. The 1970s were fruitful time for a more experimental side to Williams work. He hadn’t been locked quite into the full Golden Age mode he achieved with Star Wars and Superman. But you can hear hints of those scores in some of this work. Instead, this is a Williams fresh from The Towering Inferno and the Poseidon Adventure.

1975 kicked it off with one of the most famous monster movies of the decade: Jaws. The movie isn’t wall-to-wall horror, in fact Williams provides the film with a wonderful nautical heroic theme for Chief Brody and his band. But everyone remembers the shark motif, something so simple and primal that it actually builds on images and makes them even more impressive. This motif gets quite a workout in the film, sneaking in and out of the music and building to terrifying levels. This rerecording for the Boston Pops conducted by Williams himself is a treat. Love how the audience chuckles as soon as they recognize it.

In 1977 Williams worked on Close Encounters of a Third Kind. Again his music played a big role in the finale of the film, with his communication theme become instantly memorable. But in the first half of the film, Williams scored the movie like it is a horror film. One of the most terrifying scenes in the movie, is the abduction of young Barry. Williams pulls out all the stops raising the tension to amazingly horrifying levels and making a wonderfully discordant and disturbing track. For real fun, play this back to back with Jerry Goldsmith’s Twisted Abduction track from Poltergeist for a nasty one-two punch.

The next year saw Williams score a sequel to Jaws but more interesting is his work on the Brian Depalma thriller The Fury. Williams creates a lovely main theme that starts off so quietly and then build and builds in power as it carries along. The end credits version is really something else. What is great about this whole score is that Williams takes lots of inspiration from Bernard Herrmann, almost giving The Fury a Hitchcockian feel when it comes the music. For my money this is easily one of Williams best scores of the decade. And yeah this decade includes some of his most impressive work.

In 1979 Williams got to write music for one of the most famous of all horror icons: Dracula. With Frank Langella as the bloodsucker and Lawrence Olivier as Van Helsing, well this was something else. The score has a gothic romantic sweep to it, but remains pure John Williams. In fact, you can hear ideas in this score that would be fleshed out further in The Empire Strikes Back during the Cloud City sequences. Sadly this score has never gotten a good release. The archival sound quality is pretty bad. Film score fans are hoping for some good quality recordings to be found, or to have a full rerecording supervised by the Maestro at some point in the future. That said, it is clear that Williams has the chops to craft excellent horror scores, you just have to know where to look.

Shivers (1975)

Introduction:

David Cronenberg is one of those directors that really seems to polarize viewers His early work can be especially disturbing to folks, especially something like Videodrome. But I really do like what I’ve seen from him. He’s one of those directors who plays with particular themes, has a specific style and tone. So I was interested in seeing his first feature length film and get an idea of how it all started.

Summary:

The film begins with an advertisement a grand new block of luxury apartments with everything a tenant needs right inside the building. Since these apartments are on an island, it is an added convenience for the residents to never have to travel to the mainland for anything. There is even a clinic on hand to help with any issues you may have. Dr. Roger St. Luc (Paul Hampton) is running into a few problems today. He’s seen several patients with strange growths in their abdomens.

But when his mentor Dr. Hobbes (Fred Doederlein) is found dead over the mutilated corpse of a young woman he becomes really disturbed. Some digging reveals that Hobbes and his colleague Linsky (Joe Silver) were working with parasites as an alternative to organ transplant. Hobbes decided to experiment on human… and it all went downhill from there. St. Luc becomes convinced that the parasites are multiplying in the apartments and warping the minds of the residents. Does he have any hope of stopping the infection, or will he fall prey to it? Horror favorite Barbara Steele is on hands to add to the Shivers.

Good Points:

• Creates a disturbing concept and runs with it.
• Has some excellent moments of dread and unease
• Takes straight aim at the free love concept

Bad Points:

• Never quite feels as claustrophobic as it wants to be
• A few moments are more funny than scary
• Feels a bit exploitative and trashy at times

Overall:

Cronenberg’s main concept and themes are ready and raring to go in this film. The concepts of parasites spreading among the population of the apartment building, is creepy enough. But to have them spread like some venereal disease and increase the libido of the host makes it even more disturbing. There’s plenty of gross out moments in the film. But there are a few limitations because of the budget. The setting doesn’t feel as closed off as it could, and sometimes the parasite attacks looks silly. But overall there is enough here to get under your skin and see that Cronenberg was a talent to be watched, even in a movie as exploitative as this one.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 4

Sound: 3

Acting: 3

Script: 3

Music: 2

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 3

Total:  3

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

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The Devil Within Her (1975)

Introduction:

This is one of those movies with a bunch of different names. It’s also known as Sharon’s Baby, I Don’t Want to be Born, It Lives Within Her, or simply Evil Baby. That’s right folks, it came out in the middle of the horror movie craze that encompassed evil children and possessions by the devil. Is this a wonderful hunk of cheesy good fun, or one of those movies that slogs its way to the finish. All I can say is that the plot contains an evil dwarf and a man beheaded by a shovel-wielding infant.

Summary:

You’d think that Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) would be skipping through London with her husband Gino (Ralph Bates) now that they have a healthy baby boy in their lives. But alas, Donald Pleasence is in the movie, so you know things are going to get sinister. Turns out that back when Lucy used to be a stripper, she spurned the advances of a little person named Hercules (George Claydon). The frustrated man cursed her, saying that her first born would be evil! And wouldn’t you know it, the curse comes true with the baby growing abnormally fast and scratching everyone in sight. Has Lucy gone mad? Can her friend Mandy (played by a badly dubbed Caroline Munro) help with her awesome ‘70s fashion sense? Or will the helpful Sister Albana (Eileen Atkins) be able to use holy powers to purge the infant of Satan’s wicked ways?

Good Points:

• Takes the premise of the evil baby and just runs with it
• The whole cast is committed to making an entertaining film
• Moments of pure cheese make this a hilarious viewing experience 

Bad Points:

• Uh, yeah… the main antagonist is a possessed baby
• Actual horror or terror is no where to be found
• The 1970s fashions, hair and decorating will be the scariest thing for some viewers.

Overall:

No, this isn’t a good movie, but it is a really fun one. I love that the baby looks like he’s too busy drooling on himself to kill anyone. The music is so dated and mod that it hurts. Then there’s the scenes where the dwarf appears wrapped in a blanket and grinning in the playpen. Hilarious stuff! And once you try to imagine what a baby welding a shovel would look like the whole thing makes for fun viewing on bad movie night.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 3

Sound: 3

Acting: 3

Script: 2

Music: 2

Direction: 3

Entertainment: 4

Total:  3

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.   

Mitchell (1975) – MST3K Review

Summary:

Mitchell (Joe Don Baker) is a cop who does what it takes to get the bad guys. This involves talking to J. Arthur Cummings (Martin Balsam) and Walter Deaney (John Saxon). It also involves sleeping with a hooker named Greta (Linda Evans). But mostly it involves him sitting in a car smoking, and being generally unpleasant.

First he’s out to nail Deaney for the murder of an unarmed robber. The only problem is that the FBI is working on a case involving Deaney and Mitchell might screw it up. Then he’s after Cummings for stealing heroin during a hijacking in Mexico. Cummings denies any involvement and even has his butler/body guard Benton (Merlin Olsen) kick Mitchell’s ass to get the point across. But nothing doing! Mitchell is going to take down the bad guys, have a theme song that repeats his name about a hundred times and get the crap beat out of him in multiple scenes before the movie is over, or his name isn’t Mitchell. Mitchell!

Movie Review:

So the 1970s were filled with hard nosed, tough talking cops who didn’t play by the rules but got results. You know, like Dirty Harry. Well, here we have Mitchell who takes the stereotype to extremes. He’s extremely tough talking, extremely grumpy, extremely into sleeping with prostitutes and yet he has a strong sense of what is right. Yes, it’s wrong that Deaney gets away with murder, but its OK for Mitchell to shoot a suspect in the leg as he’s trying to escape.

It’s easy to see what the movie is going for, but between the edited version we see here and the extreme unpleasantness of Baker’s take on the character – who the hell is this supposed to appeal to? When we first see Mitchell he’s asleep in the back of a cop car, as if he was just picked up for something. Instead he’s being driven to the murder scene. So the beat cops were his personal drivers? Later when we see Mitchell at the police station, everyone is grumpy with him and he’s grumpy right back. Even the villains notice this. Cummings says, “Not many people like you. Why is that?” Um, maybe because he’s an ass?

Then there’s the whole crux of the movie which entails Mitchell sitting around, talking with the villains, talking with the cops, sleeping with Greta and moping around the house. Finally the action kicks in with the last 15 or so minutes of the film, with Mitchell taking down drug dealers, flying around in a helicopter and ending in a battle royale with Benton. There is a really odd car chase thrown in around the mid point of the movie, and its not filmed badly (there were also a couple other fight scenes in the film that are not in this edit). But this is still one slow flick.

Baker’s acting is hard to judge. He’s really good at being unlikable, so I think he’s doing a good job. But his tough, no nonsense persona lacks any kind of appeal that I know the actor is capable of. Its too easy to blame Baker, but the real blame should fall on the script and the director. Balsam and Saxon are well versed with this kind of thing and do the villainous act pretty well. Saxon’s Deaney is a slick bastard whose sadistic streak is evident from the beginning. Cummings is your typical craggy gangster type. He’s been around long enough to know when things are going sour, but you get the sense that he’s a survivor. His plan to use Mitchell to destroy his competition is pretty clever. Olson isn’t bad as the brutish thug, not many lines really. Evans looks pretty enough to be a high-class prostitute. But her true test is the oh-so-disturbing love scene she shares with Mitchell – shudder.

This is one of those movies where the real ‘70s nature of it is both a help and a hindrance. For some dated clothing, dialogue and oh so Rockford Files style music, you can’t go wrong. But it’s got that dreary brown feel to it. The lead character is a jerk we are supposed to understand and identify with. And nearly all the characters are annoying or idiotic in some way. For me, this could have been a typical low budget cop film with a heavy ‘70s vibe. But the character of Mitchell turns it into something truly worthy of the MST3K treatment.

Episode Review:  

For MST3K fans, this is a huge episode, because it represents the transition from one host to another. Series creator Joel Hodgson was leaving the show, and head writer Mike Nelson was taking over as host. For some viewers this was the beginning of the end, and many see this as Joel’s last hurrah. But there are some of us who love both hosts, and see this as a new direction for the show. What is more important is that this episode falls in the middle of one of the best seasons of the series, and represents one of the pinnacles of the writing team. For the riffing, this is a classic episode.

Some have said that during season five, Joel was already looking to leave the show, and so Mike was handed the reigns for the writing almost exclusively. They usually point to Mitchell as the example. This is some aggressive riffing here, really laying into the character of Mitchell as well as Joe Don Baker himself. Yes, its really damn funny, but its also pretty mean. Some folks feel that Joel would not have lead the writing team in this direction, but I don’t know about that. Nelson had been the head writer for a while, and the entire team contributes to the overall show. Besides, the character of Mitchell is just asking for it. The fact that the riffing starts attacking Baker is a bit questionable, but I still find the whole thing damn funny. (According to myth, Joe Don Baker himself didn’t and mentioned in an interview that if he ever met any of the MST3K crew he’d deck them). And I think Mike and bots were even nastier in their treatment of Baker in Final Justice in Season 10. 

But the laughs start right off with the opening titles. The super-‘70s guitar riff kicks in and Tom quips, “Any movie with waka-joe-waka in it is fine by me!” As the name Mitchell is slowly revealed in the title sequence, Joel and the bots try to figure out what it says. “Mittens? An action hero named Mittens?” “Mitchell? Oh, the Martha Mitchell story.”

After that the riffing is fast and furious. The entire opening scene featuring Deaney on the way home with a business partner and a couple prostitutes and ending up in the death of a burglar is hilarious. The thief has a passing resemblance to Johnny Mathis, which Joel and the bots use to great advantage, bursting into song several times. As Deaney peeks in the thief, Tom says, “All right, Johnny Mathis. Get my gun!”

Then Mitchell shows up asleep in the cop car and Joel comments, “Our hero ladies and gentleman.” It’s really downhill from there, with the character being called everything from “a big slob” to an “Incompetent loser” both of which apply. Tom gets a good song in about Mitchell during a short chase scene. It matches the 70s rock music perfectly, “Mitchell. Heart pounding. Mitchell. Veins clogging. Mitchell!”

And not to be outdone, the film itself features a song all about Mitchell sung by Hoyt Axton. It’s performed during the love scene between our beefy hero and Linda Evans. Joel and the bots are traumatized, especially when the camera pans over the writhing sheets to a bottle of baby oil on the table. The lyrics croon “My, my, my, my Mitchell”. By the boys sing “My, my, my, my GOD!!!!!” and scream.

There is a lot of talking in this movie, and they do a fairly good job with riffing on these more inactive moments. The pace flags a little, but the finale scene is hilarious, from the moment when Mitchell goes undercover as a driver (and berates an old lady) to the final battle ripped right from the Bogart classic Key Largo. Tom helps out with a music riff, as the score sounds like something from an industrial short. Olsen’s final battle provides a helping of Hee Haw jokes and florist comments. And Balsam utters the immortal words, “Oh you’re smart enough Mitchell”, which becomes an instant catchphrase. The movie stumbles to its conclusion with a lame attempt at humor and Joel asks, “He’s only got a few more minutes to become likable, think he can do it?” Sorry Joel, Mitchell even fails at that.

The episode starts with Joel showing off his toothpick sculpture of Monticello. The bots decide they must destroy it. Joel shows off a Daktari Stool as his invention, but the Mad Scientists are being audited and don’t have time for inventions. They’ve got a temp, named Mike, helping them catalogue everything. At the first break, Joel leads the bots on an Outward Bound expedition. Meanwhile Gypsy overhears of a plot between the Mads. They are going to kill Mike after the experiment, but Gypsy thinks they’re talking about Joel.  A classic scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey is referenced. At the next break Gypsy wracks her brains to come up with a way to get Joel off the Satellite to safety. This is one of the most annoying skits in existence with Gypsy shrieking at maximum volume - a shame because some of the jokes are funny. The next segment features the temp Mike coming to Gypsy’s aid and gives her control of a hidden escape pod (in a box of Ham-dingers). When the movie ends, Joel is shot back to earth in the pod, the bots PANIC, and the Mad Scientists plot to shoot Mike up in Joel’s place. Quoth Dr. Forrester, “I think you’ll be working for us, for a long, long time.”

Mitchell falls into the top ten for me. There are lots of good laughs to be found throughout and the host segments are push along the premise in a fun way (if you can ignore Gypsy’s shrieking in the second segment). 


All in all this one easily earns five rousing choruses of “My, my, my, my Mitchell!” Let’s start!

This episode is available on an individual DVD. But the Rhino version may be out of print at this time.

Blood Waters of Dr. Z (1975) - MST3K Review

Summary:

Dr. Kurt Leopold (Marshall Grauer) is grouchy because his peers think he's crazy. So he turns himself into a fishman (Wade Popwell) so he can prove them wrong. Um... OK. Guided by a huge planning wheel he begins to terrorize a small town in Florida. Sheriff Krantz (Paul Galloway) brings in some outside help from Rex (Gerald Cruse) a marine biologist, and INPIT Agents Martha (Sanna Ringhaver) and Walker (Dave Dickerson). But can these four mismatched heroes do anything to cleanse the "Blood Waters of Dr. Z"?

Movie Review:

This is a 70's version of a 50's style monster movie. You got your typical mad scientist who feels wronged that his peers call him crazy. So he continues his "crazy" experiments to prove them wrong - which of course only cements the fact that the guy is nuts. MST3K has featured a few movies with these plots such as "Mad Monster", "Bride of the Monster" or "The Unearthly".

The familiar plot makes things pretty easy to script. You've even got the scenes where the heroes use their own science to track and find the monster, even whipping out the old standby Geiger Counter to detect the radiation that the monster throws off.

What make's this movie bad beyond your typical monster movie issues (bad monster suit, overacting, silly pseudo-science) is the lack of tension or thrills or anything to generate "horror" in the audience. Director Don Barton falls into a trap that many movies from the 70's do - pacing and mood.

Editing and basic structure are the main problems with pacing here. The movie opens with a ridiculously performed voice over while we are shown footage of ocean animals (provided by the helpful folks at Marineland in Florida). The long languid shots of the ocean animals does nothing help the pace. We then cut to Dr. Leopold staring out at the ocean and watch as he wanders into an abandoned beachside complex. Over all this a folk song plays. Yeah you read that right. Could this movie start out any slower and more boring? Actually it could, check out "The Incredible Petrified World".

When Leopold finally turns into the fishman, things get slightly more interesting. Oh and he's never referred to as "Dr. Z". Turns out that this movie has gone through a ton of name changes. It was originally called "ZAAT", based off the formula Leopold uses to create the fishman. Other names include "Dr. Z.", Legend of the Zaat Monster", "Hydra" and "Attack of the Swamp Creatures". As I mentioned the fishman suit looks ridiculous. It has fur on it. Poor Wade Popwell stumbles and trips quite a bit in it. While it looks nothing like a fish, it does seem to work underwater. The Gillman from "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" could take this guy out with one webbed hand tied behind his back.

The pacing continues along its slow and meandering way. There are attacks, but the build up is handled in a very clumsy manner. The hunt for the creature is dull. The finale cuts from a guy reading, to fishman carrying a girl through a swamp, to another guy stumbling in a swamp and back through - several times in a row. Wow. Even the 50's monster movies would at least have one scene where the tension worked. But in this movie, not a single scene is scary.

The other issue is the overriding dreary dourness of the film. There is a mood that permeates many 70's films, one that drains the fun right out of them. The film stock is grainy and dark. The lighting leans toward orange and brown. The acting is bored or flat. The climax of these film ends with nearly every character dying or left in some form of despair. This film fits all those criteria, draining even the funnier moments of life.

There are some bright spots. The voiceover continues through the film and it's always good for a laugh. I love Leopolds enormous planning wheel. It's like a Franklin Covey planner for a mad man, with pictures of those who wronged him, and key points (such as finding a mate) relegated to sections of this huge pie chart. The devices that he uses to make fish people is pretty silly looking, and makes obnoxious sounds. You also get some cute girls in bikinis and wandering around in their underwear so that's a plus for male viewers. The music is horribly used, blaring when something of no consequence is occurring. When it is electronic, it drives the viewer insane with it's droning and groaning. Someone take the Moog away from the composer! There is also an attempt to make our default hero, Walker, use a silly amphibious vehicle. It looks like something a toddler would be pedaling around on their front lawn. Handled correctly this chunk of 70's malaise is perfect for Mike and the bots.

Episode Review:

But I know we're in trouble when the host segments outshine the riffing. Things start off with Crow taking up chewing tobacco. He hasn't got the spitting part down yet. Before the film starts Pearl experiments by withholding love from Mike and the bots. Crow turns out to be very susceptible to love deprivation. At the first break, Crow hides in the rafters to provide overblown voiceover for Mike. It's as scary as it was in the movie - so, not at all. In the next break, Mike and bots try some fishing. This sketch is a nice throwback to some of the Frank inspired Comedy Central host segments. For the final break, the bots are convinced that nudity helps any scene in any movie. Mike disagrees. To prove the point Bobo and Observer perform a scene from "Glengarry Glen Ross" in the buff. This proves nothing, other than Bill is willing to do a lot for a laugh. After the movie ends the bots come up with other carrying cases you can use to transport items (its based off a nonsensical sequence in the finale). Pearl has turned Bobo into a mar-monkey. Wow!

I know I sound like a broken record, but energy is often a key point to making an episode go from good to great. But in cases where the movies are very slow and dreary, energy in the riffing is a necessity. The movie itself can be too painful, and without a team alive with energy it will actually make the episode fail. That's exactly what happens here.

With a show so dense with jokes and comments, some of them have to hit, just by law of averages. But when the laughs come infrequently you know you're in trouble. I was surprised how limp and lifeless the riffing is in this one. The movie provides the goods but Mike and the bots don't really go after the movie in the way they did in previous and future episodes. The Sic-if Channel years are known for harsher and more aggressive jokes than the Comedy Central years. Now I love many shows from the Comedy Central years. But I've noticed that for a movie like this, you need aggressive jokes that attack the film.

Mike and the bots seem relaxed in this episode and for the most part the jokes they do make just don't click. Things pick up a bit near the end, when the fishman is heading back toward his lair. The little buggy that Walker drives is good for some lines, and the Sherriff’s final battle is good. But really it’s too little too late. I wonder if the crew thought that the movie was so bad that the laughs would come by themselves (and it's easily possible), or if the impending cancellation of the show affected the riffing. Either way, the dreary movie overwhelms everyone, including this viewer.

For me, the 70's films can be difficult, but very funny episodes. "The Incredible Melting Man" from season 7, "Parts: The Clonus Horror" from Season 8 and "The Touch of Satan" from season 9 are all good episodes. Even Joel's swan song, "Mitchell" from season five is classic stuff. But in this case Mike and the bots can't pull it off, and we have one of the weakest episodes of the entire series. My advice, skip this one and if you're in the mood for a fishy monster flick, check out season 8 offerings "Revenge of the Creature" or "Horror at Party Beach".

I give it one planning wheel out of five.

This episode is available on the Mystery Science Theater Collection Volume XVII.