Wide Screen Movies Magazine
edited by John Hayes

Issue 10 Highlights : Spring 2006
Extracts from the print version of the magazine

Information on purchasing individual copies and subscriptions to the magazine may be obtained by emailing editor John Hayes

An appreciation of widescreen 35mm and 70mm films, past and present, in magazine format.

To obtain the fully-illustrated print edition of the magazine, contact John at the email address above.

The Return of MONSTROUS MOVIE MUSIC

Way back in issue 3, we ran a feature on Movie Music, in which we detailed a number of record labels that were able to supply rare or out-of-print film soundtrack recordings. One of the most outstanding of these was a small independent label, called Monstrous Movie Music.

Founded by David Schecter and his partner, Kathleen Mayne, this small company have taken on the almost Herculean task of restoring and re-recording the music, which accompanied some of the most memorable science-fiction and horror movies of the 1950s.

This seemingly impossible task – impossible because most of this music was never released commercially, and most of the original tapes were destroyed anyway – has been accomplished by painstaking research and re-scoring from the various composers’ original notes.

The end result of their tireless efforts is a series of CDs, which contain some of the finest music ever written for fantasy films, presented as never before.

All the suites, individual tracks and complete scores, which make up the collection, have been recorded - in vibrant stereophonic sound - using close-miking techniques to better reproduce the dynamic, full orchestral sound of the original scoring sessions, by the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Slovakia (Bratislava), under the direction of Masatoshi Mitsumoto and Kathleen Mayne.

The first three CD collections, Monstrous Movie Music, More Monstrous Movie Music and The Creature From the Black Lagoon (and other jungle pictures), comprise selections from classic movies such as, Tarantula, Gorgo, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Outer Space, The Mole People – and, of course, the complete, never-before-released score from Universal’s famous 3D classic, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and many, many more.

And now, Monstrous Movie Music have finally been able to release their long-awaited fourth and fifth collections, This Island Earth (and other alien invasion films), which comprises the complete score from that film – which has long been the ‘Holy Grail’ of soundtrack collectors, and also includes Ron Goodwin’s score for Day of the Triffids. And, Mighty JoeYoung (and other Ray Harryhausen classics), which also contains selections from Twenty Million Miles to Earth and The Animal World. All with brilliant cover art by Robert Aragon.

WSMM wholeheartedly supports this endeavour. We have listened to these scores, and we can promise you that you will not be disappointed – they are simply superb. Each disc also comes complete with a 40-page booklet, describing in great detail the film and score, with many rare production photographs.

They are available for $18.99 each, from Monstrous Movie Music, P.O.Box 7088, Burbank, CA 91510-7088, USA. Telephone: (800) 788-0892 or (818) 886-8863. Fax: (818) 886-8820.

E-mail: [email protected] or website: https://www.mmmrecordings.com