Thursday 18 February 2010

The Long Night score released



Screen Archives have just released the 1947 score to The Long Night, which includes music not used in the final film, produced using RKO acetates from the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at the University of Southern California Cinema and Television Library.

Anatole Litvak’s The Long Night was a gritty slice of film noir remake of Marcel Carne’s 1939 masterpiece of poetic realism, Le Jour Se Leve. The Long Night features Henry Fonda in his prime, and a great over-the-top performance by Vincent Price.

In a drab Midwestern industrial town, blue collar war veteran Joe Adams (Fonda), popular with friends and neighbors, inexplicably murders flamboyant magician Maximilian (Price) for unclear reasons. Although hordes of police and snipers surround his tiny one room apartment and escape seems impossible, Joe refuses to surrender. During the siege he reflects about his romantic relationships with two women, wholesome Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes) and hardened showgirl Charlene (Ann Dvorak), both of whom also share a history with Maximilian.

If you haven't had a chance to catch this classic, then do go out and rent/buy the movie and then the score. You won't be disappointed.

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