The CounterfeitTraitor

939 was, for many people, the best year working with both the Germans and the Allies. Zenda, Wuthering Heights – and the list could for movies ever. For me it was 1962. The He is blackmailed into working for the Allies as go on for another few pages. His first film for 1films that came out that year were trend - a spy – this he reluctantly agrees to because Paramount was the 1961 comedy The Pleasure setting, astonishing – and there were so many the Allies (represented by the caustic Griffith) of His Company . He only wrote two scores in of them that have since become classics that it have him in a bind. He is to supply information 1962, but they were both masterpieces and is truly mind-boggling. Here’s a sampling of on German oil refineries, and part of the ruse is very different – How The West Was Won and 1962’s output: To Kill A Mockingbird, Lawrence that he will appear on a blacklist of the Allies. To The Counterfeit Traitor . of Arabia, The Manchurian Candidate, The Mir - keep up the ruse, he alienates his wife (who acle Worker, Birdman of Alcatraz, Cape Fear, leaves him) and his Jewish friends. He is to The score for The Counterfeit Traitor is classic David and Lisa, Days of Wine and Roses, Ex - work with another agent, the beautiful Marianna Newman all the way, with its propulsive main periment in Terror, Dr. No (which would begin (Lilli Palmer) – in time, they eventually develop title, his various suspense and dramatic cues, the astonishing James Bond series), Gypsy, a more intimate relationship. The film is filled and one of his most memorable love themes The Music Man, Hatari!, How The West Was with memorable scenes – an endlessly suspi - ever – the theme for Marianna. That gorgeous Won, Lolita, Lonely Are The Brave, The Longest cious Nazi youth who would turn in anyone to theme weaves itself in and out of many cues in Day, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Man keep his uniform; Ericson’s public humiliation of the score. It first presents itself as background Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ride the High Coun - his closest Jewish friend, and the gut-wrench - music, then becomes more prominent in each try, Taras Bulba, Sweet Bird ofYouth, Two for the ing sequence when Erickson is forced to watch successive cue in which it occurs. It can be sim - Seesaw, Orson Welles’ The Trial, Two Weeks in from a prison cell while the Gestapo kill Mari - ple and beautiful and evocative of the growing Another Town, Whatever Happened to Baby anna, his tortured screams to her are unheard relationship between Holden and Palmer, or it Jane, The Wonderful World of the Brothers through the prison window glass. It is one of the can be courageous as Palmer tries to instill her Grimm, Mutiny on the Bounty , and that’s just most powerful scenes from any espionage sense of right and wrong in Holden, or heart - the tip of the iceberg and doesn’t include many thriller, and it’s one of the great moments of breaking and tragic when dealing with her de - classic foreign films of that year (Sundays and Holden’s great career. mise and Holden’s memories of her. For those Cybele, L’Eclisse, Sanjuro) , and one of the who’ve never seen the film, Newman’s score biggest cult films ever, Carnival of Souls . These But the film simply got lost in that year’s in - will be a revelation – one of the great scores of films had scores by the likes of Elmer Bern - credible shuffle, as did many other great films – the 1960s and of Newman’s career. stein, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, Al - only later would some of them be rediscovered fred Newman, Henry Mancini, Laurence and achieve classic status – and The Counter - Seen today, The Counterfeit Traitor , with its Rosenthal, Maurice Jarre, Jerry Goldsmith, feit Traitor is indeed a classic. The film received themes of loyalty, betrayal, honor, courage, and André Previn, David Raksin and on and on. no Academy Award nominations, which was a love has lost none of its power – it remains a shame, especially given the heartfelt and stel - taut and riveting film and one that is continually One of the most forgotten and best films of that lar work by Holden and Palmer. The Paramount being rediscovered by new generations. And it year was Perlberg-Seaton’s production of the production values were top-notch in every de - is a treat to finally bring Newman’s great score Paramount picture The Counterfeit Traitor . The partment, most especially in the costumes of to CD for the first time. film was a sobering, gripping, exciting, touch - Edith Head and the photography of Jean Bour - ing espionage thriller and at the top of its class, goin, the great French cameraman who’d pho - This CD was mastered from the original three- as espionage thrillers go. Starring William tographed Welles’ Mr. Arkadin , Tati’s Mon Oncle , track Paramount master tapes housed in the Holden and Lilli Palmer, along with a host of as well as Black Orpheus and his other 1962 Paramount vaults. While ninety percent of the wonderful overseas character actors (including film, The Longest Day . And, of course, it didn’t cues were in excellent condition, less than a Academy Award-winner Hugh Griffith), and hurt that The Counterfeit Traitor was blessed handful had very minor damage, and we felt some great location photography, The Coun - with a brilliant score by one of the greatest film that it was historically important to include terfeit Traitor was written and directed by composers who ever lived – Alfred Newman. them, even so. George Seaton (from the novel by Alexander Klein – based on a true story). Seaton had, by Newman, born in 1901, had spent most of his — Bruce Kimmel that time, turned in many terrific films, including film music career at Twentieth-Century Fox, Miracle on 34th Street, The Country Girl, and where he wrote many amazing scores, includ - Teacher’s Pet , among others, and would go on ing such classics as The Mark of Zorro, The to direct the huge hit, Airport . Keys of the Kingdom, The Song of Bernadette, Leave Her to Heaven, Captain from Castile, All The Counterfeit Traitor recounts the true story of About Eve, The Robe, A Man Called Peter, The Eric Erickson (Holden), an American-born citi - Diary of Anne Frank and hundreds of others, as zen living in neutral Sweden during World War well as his films for other studios – Gunga Din, II, who is neutral enough to be profiting from Foreign Correspon-dent, The Prisoner of