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Great Film Music on Marco Polo with William Stromberg & John Morgan

SIR MALCOLM ARNOLD HANS J. SALTER & FRANK SKINNER David Copperfield • The Roots of Heaven Son of Frankenstein • The Wolf Man 8.225167 The Invisible Man Returns 8.223747 ADOLPH DEUTSCH The Ghost of Frankenstein • Son of Dracula The Maltese Falcon • Northern Pursuit Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror The Mask of Dimitrios • High Sierra Black Friday • Man Made Monster 8.225124 George Washington Slept Here 8.225169 MAX STEINER HUGO FRIEDHOFER King Kong 8.223763 The Adventures of Marco Polo • The Lodger The Lost Patrol • Virginia City The Rains of Ranchipur • Seven Cities of Gold The Beast with Five Fingers 8.223870 8.223857 They Died With Their Boots On 8.225079 BERNARD HERRMANN The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 8.225149 Garden of Evil • Prince of Players 8.223841 Son of Kong • The Most Dangerous Game The Snows Of Kilimanjaro • 5 Fingers 8.225166 8.225168 FRANZ WAXMAN BERNARD HERRMANN & ALFRED Mr Skeffington 8.225037 NEWMAN Objective, Burma! 8.225148 The Egyptian 8.225078 ROY WEBB ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD Cat People • Bedlam • I Walked With A Zombie Escape Me Never • Another Dawn 8.223871 The Body Snatcher • The 7th Victim 8.223857 Devotion 8.225038 VICTOR YOUNG ALFRED NEWMAN The Greatest Show On Earth • Bright Leaf The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Uninvited • Gulliver’s Travels 8.223857 Beau Geste • All About Eve 8.223750 ‘Murder & Mayhem – Great Horror Scores PHILIP SAINTON from Hollywood’s Golden Age’: Moby Dick (Complete) 8.225050 MAX STEINER: The Beast With 5 Fingers HANS J. SALTER & PAUL DESSAU VICTOR YOUNG: The Uninvited House of Frankenstein (Complete) 8.223748 HUGO FRIEDHOFER: The Lodger 8.225132

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William Stromberg A native of Oceanside, California, who hails from a and conducting film scores from Hollywood’s Dimitri Tiomkin family of film-makers, William T. Stromberg Golden Age, including several works recorded for 1948 balances his career as a composer of strikingly vivid RCA with the Brandenburg Philharmonic. For RED RIVER film scores with that of a busy conductor in Marco Marco Polo, he has conducted albums of music Score restorations by John Morgan Polo’s Classic Film Score Series. Besides devoted to Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Moscow Symphony Orchestra & Choir conducted by William Stromberg conducting his own scores—including his recent Alfred Newman, Philip Sainton, Adolph Deutsch, music for the thriller Other Voices and the Hans J. Salter, Victor Young and Malcolm Arnold. documentary Trinity and Beyond—Stromberg He has also conducted several much-praised albums 1 Main Title 1:30 ) Cottonwood Justice 0:59 serves as a conductor for other film composers. He devoted to concert works by American composers, 2 Dunson Heads South 4:47 ¡ Dunson Swears Vengeance 1:24 is especially noted for his passion in reconstructing including two albums of music by Ferde Grofé. 3 Red River Camp 1:29 ™ Comanche Arrows 0:40 4 The Red Menace Strikes 1:34 £ In Wait 1:35 5 The Lone Survivor 2:15 ¢ Fight for Life 2:20 6 Birth of Red River D 3:15 ∞ Vigil in the Night 1:01 7 Mexican Burial 0:58 § Foggy Night Surrender 1:54 8 Growth of the Dunson Empire 1:46 ¶ The Spectre Takes Form 0:43 9 Roundup 0:27 • Interlude 0:22 0 Suspense at Dawn 1:07 ª Out of the Past 1:47 ! On to Missouri 1:36 º Memory of Love 1:31 @ The Drive moves North 3:04 ⁄ A Joyous Meeting 1:53 # The Brazos Trail 0:31 ¤ Approach to Abilene 1:50 $ Stampede 2:46 ‹ A Big Day of Abilene 1:40 % The Missing Cowboy 2:36 › The Spectre Closes In 1:02 ^ Latimer Burial 1:01 ﬁ A Message for Matt 2:50 & Thunder on the Trail 0:45 ﬂ The Challenge 3:22 * Red River Ahead 1:26 ‡ The New Brand 2:22 ( Red River Crossing 2:01

Left: Lobby card with Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru 8.225217William Stromberg conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra 30 3 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 4

Conductor’s Preface

Finally, I get to conduct music by Tiomkin, a man brass players had a good time with it, and gave me who composed scores with a particularly unique funny looks from time to time. With this score for sound. I think it is uncanny the way in which a Red River and many others, he took advantage of composer can sound like himself, whatever the his memorable thematic material, reprising the subject matter of a particular project he is working main themes often but always with interesting on. It struck me, as I was conducting this music, variation. All of these traits give Tiomkin’s music that not only do composers, in general, not write that identifying quality. music like this any more, but there also seems to be I became familiar with Tiomkin’s music when I a lack of individual style among film composers was about nine years old. I had a reel-to-reel tape today compared with the golden age composers. with scores from The Alamo and The Guns of Tiomkin’s style was a very bold orchestral Navarone that I pretty much wore out. I think this is sound, using dynamics (loud and soft) with thick when I first felt the desire to re-create a block chords to great advantage. Also, he often performance of a score. I tried writing out part of used soloists from every section in the orchestra, the battle music from The Alamo for our school playing completely different lines, thereby making band, but it proved far too difficult for our group to the music seem almost chaotic at times. For handle. Little did I know that some day I would be instance, he would use a soft solo violin obbligato conducting his music with the Moscow Symphony over the entire tutti orchestra—all playing very Orchestra. That desire never left me, and now that we have recorded Red River, I feel somewhat softly. This creates a very thick and intense sound, fulfilled. However, I’d like to do more of his music. but still seeming almost distant. He is also known for his use of loud flutter-tongue in the brass William Stromberg section, which creates a brash, painful sound. Our December, 2002

There Once Was A Cowboy From Russia … Sounds like the opening of a Saturday night bar Hollywood music. joke, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. There really once was a When I learned that composers John Morgan cowboy who hailed from the land of borsch soup and Bill Stromberg were going to Russian to record and babushka dolls. His name was Dimitri Tiomkin Red River as part of their ongoing Hollywood and he was one of the finest Hollywood composers classics series with the Moscow Symphony of the 1940s and 1950s; the golden age of Orchestra, I was thrilled to be able to tag along and 8.225217 4 29 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 28

music, the orchestra accompanied the chorus right cow bell. There is one piano, doubling celeste, one be an audience of one during recording sessions that themes of all the greats from Tchaikovsky to to the end of the cue. Since the chorus and orchestra harp and strings. (As usual for scores of this period, took place at Mosfilm the last week of February Rachmaninov and Prokofiev in the pages before were recorded separately and then combined the strings were under-built in relation to the other 2002. them. In other words, they saw it as Russian music, together at a later mix, Tiomkin made the decision instruments, so for this recording we utilized a Listening to this gifted assembly of musicians period. Absolutely amazing. to fade out the orchestra early and have the chorus larger string section to better balance the sound playing Tiomkin’s cues was a truly unforgettable The highlight of the entire week came on the complete the music, a cappella. The acetates have acoustically.) Finally, a full choir, banjo, and experience. Never once did I lose track of the fact third day of recording when a thirty-man Russian the orchestra going until the end and only by way of accordion are used in several sequences. that we were working in the very place where the choir arrived to do the cue “Get Along Little the film’s soundtrack does one realize what Both Bill Stromberg and I felt a certain deja vu young Tiomkin’s career had first blossomed. Day Doggies.” Since none of them spoke English, they Tiomkin did by letting the beauty of Jester while recording this score. We were doing it in after day I listened to sweeping, emotional music would sing the words phonetically. As the choir Hairston’s choral arrangement end the cue. It is a Russia with Russian musicians who immediately that so brilliantly showcased the American west and director began warm-up sessions, I milled about magical moment. recognized the kinship they had with the music of its place in our history. Yet I was in Moscow and with John and Bill, totally mesmerized by what we The Red River orchestra, although large, is not Russian-born Dimitri Tiomkin. To top it off, we these players, for the most part, had no clue as to were witnessing. outlandish by Tiomkin’s standards. Woodwinds were recording at the same studio (MosFilm) that what the cowboy experience was to our culture. After listening to the gorgeous harmony of consists of two flutes, two oboes, three clarinets, Tiomkin conducted his final film project, Once asked by a reporter how it was that a those deep, resonating voices, an ironic thought and one bassoon, doubling their customary Tchaikovsky, in 1971. We felt Tiomkin’s spirit Russian could so perfectly capture the mood and came to me and I went over to John and shared it instrumental partners. Four horns, four trumpets, hovering over us making sure the tempos and feel of the American west, Tiomkin laughed and with him. Long ago, in his Hollywood home, four trombones, and tuba make up the brass section. nuances were on the mark. After all, his music from compared the open American prairie to the Dimitri Tiomkin sat at his piano mentally The percussion is normal orchestra battery for four over fifty years earlier was finally performed in his mountain steppes of his own central homeland. In composing the lyrics for a song to be performed by players, although three sets of timpani are needed homeland. his thickly accented English, he replied, “The a group of rowdy, lusty cowboys. Being a foreigner, for Stampede. Several indigenous percussion steppes are the steppes all over the world.” the native accent of his thoughts never truly left associated with the American West are also used, John Morgan At one point, conductor Bill Stromberg, getting him. Ergo, he must have been imagining the sounds including the whip, horse hoof, train whistle, and January, 2003 set to do a long cue, paused at the podium, baton at exactly as we were actually hearing them some sixty midpoint in the air, looked up at the sound booth years later. John Morgan and said, “Damn it, John, nobody writes like this The Russian cowboy had come home. It had any more. All you have to do is look at the notes and been an incredible odyssey. Thanks John and Bill Widely regarded in film-music circles as a master described by one critic as “an atomic-age Fantasia, its pure Tiomkin. It’s his signature all over the for inviting me along. I wouldn’t have missed it for colorist with a keen insight into orchestration and thanks to its spectacular nuclear explosions and place.” the world. the power of music, Los Angeles-based composer powerhouse music.” In addition, Morgan has won To add a poignant underline to that declaration, John Morgan began his career working alongside acclaim for efforts to rescue, restore and re-record later in the week while interviewing one of the such composers as Alex North and Fred Steiner lost film scores from the past. Recently, Morgan Ron Fortier French horn players, our translator asked the fellow Somersworth, September, 2002 before embarking on his own. Among other composed the score for the acclaimed documentary, if he realized the music they were playing had been projects, he co-composed the richly dramatic score Cinerama Adventure. Ron Fortier is a professional writer. He is currently written by a fellow Russian. The young man for the cult-documentary film Trinity and Beyond, writing electronic pulp stories for the internet and immediately began nodding his head affirmatively. working on a new film script. “Dah, dah,” he said, further adding that the entire Right: Original manuscript sketch page for ‘Dunson Heads South’ orchestra had easily recognized the familiar Russian 8.225217 28 5 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 6

The Red River ‘T’ Dimitri Tiomkin, Hollywood Maestro Red River Music Notes Howard Hawks produced Red River, a saga of of Monument Valley, to the flatlands of Texas and When Bill Stromberg, Jack Smith and I were which enabled him to develop relationships with the cattle drives of old. The star [was] John the Chisholm trail ... throwing around ideas for a Dimitri Tiomkin CD, important directors who worked both independently Wayne, who can move in the grand style among ... And then beyond lies a continent of we felt several prerequisites would have to be met. and under a particular studio umbrella. cowboys and rustlers, a lord of the prairie. So legendary scores for Hollywood Westerns, a First, we wanted to do one of his truly great scores We were extremely fortunate to have had access there I was, musically in the middle of the West topography of myths and legends. for a great film. Secondly, we felt it was necessary to the original orchestrations by Tiomkin’s long- again. A fellow Russian said to me: ‘How can Some are signposts, Garden of Evil (1954), to record a score that hadn’t been previously time associates Lucien Cailliet and Paul Marquardt. you, a Russian from the St. Petersburg Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), Bite the Bullet (1975) recorded to death and one that the original music We also had most of the vocal arrangements by Conservatory, write music for a Western?’ and the television mini-series, Lonesome Dove tracks were not sitting around in good enough Tiomkin’s choral director, Jester Hairston, who first ‘Well,’ I replied in Russian, ‘Did Johann (1989). Then others are huge territories marked condition to be released. Red River met that criteria worked with the composer on Lost Horizon—thus Strauss, when he wrote ‘The Blue Danube,’ with towering mesas and massive in addition to being a rich, exciting, and colorful beginning a twenty year association. Hairston know how to swim? cliffs—Max Steiner Territory, score that varied enough that we had no qualms of formed the first integrated choir used regularly in – Dimitri Tiomkin Alfred Newman Territory. recording every cue composed for it. Additionally, films. He also was an actor, appearing in such films And Dimitri Tiomkin the original score was recorded optically on film, as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Lady Sings the Ever westward, from the banks of the Territory, where the Red which has a limited range, exacerbated by the Blues (1972), Being John Malkovich (1999), to wide American rivers—the Missouri, the River T brand—T relatively low music volume as heard in the film’s name but a few. He died in 2000 at the age of 99. Ohio, the Mississippi and the for Tiomkin— final sound mix. So, we felt, a new digital stereo A great deal of preparatory work went into this Shenandoah—to the expanse of the rules over an recording would present this music in its best light, CD. As is customary with film scores, many Great Plains, to the expansive bringing out the timbre and subtleties that changes are made at the actual recording sessions. sweeping vistas previously were only heard when Tiomkin was These modifications are often purely technical standing in front of the live orchestra conducting where timings need to be adjusted, bars of music cut this music to picture. or added to, or instrumental alternatives, owing to a During the forties, Tiomkin was honing his conflict with dialog or sound effects. For these, we craft. Evidently the composer felt no film was went back to the original version of the orchestrated beneath his talent, and so, dotted among classics score. Other changes are more subtle and such as Meet John Doe, Duel in the Sun, and It’s a problematic. Tiomkin was known to tinker with the Wonderful Life, we find Tiomkin scoring such orchestration on the recording stage to get the exact cinematic gems as China’s Little Devils (1945), effect he was after. Some of these changes are Whistle Stop (1946), and The Dude Goes West amended in the music, most are not. After careful (1948). With these modestly budgeted affairs, the comparison of the film’s soundtrack and surviving composer was able to experiment both musically acetates of the music alone to the full score, I and dramatically without conforming to what was implemented as many of these changes as possible. expected of him for major studio productions. He A good example of this is the last part of Dunson Dimitri Tiomkin at work, c.1930s never had a long-term contract with any studio, Heads South. As Tiomkin originally conceived the 8.225217 6 27 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 26

range of great film music that includes Duel in the ... Tiomkin has always had the ability to compose Sun (1946), The Big Sky (1952), High Noon (1952), music which pulses and surges, and he has Giant (1956). Night Passage (1957), Gunfight at the attempted whenever possible to be involved with his O.K. Corral (1957) and Rio Bravo (1959). films while they were being made, rather than wait Here on this frontier where longitude and until they were completed before writing his music. latitude intersect, three great scores triangulate as His characteristic of writing powerfully accented cornerstones for assessing any music for Hollywood rhythms in the bass clef is virtually a trademark, Westerns: Max Steiner’s The Searchers (1956), and what is also characteristic of Tiomkin is his Alfred Newman’s How the West was Won (1962), love of being a film celebrity ... if nothing else, it has and arguably the greatest, Dimitri Tiomkin’s Red helped bring attention to the otherwise somewhat River (1948). All other scores for Westerns surely neglected role of being a film composer... follow these three great works in both quality and – Tony Thomas cinematic application. Film Score: The View from the Podium These scores are prime examples of music as Born in the Ukraine in 1894, Dimitri Tiomkin narrative literature. Proceeding from the premise spent much of his boyhood at his mother’s side at that all film music is linked to cinematic narrative, the piano as she taught him the power and art of then all music for films works best as orchestral music. By age thirteen, he had entered the narrative. Stray too far into the abstract and the prestigious St Petersburg Conservatory and studied music becomes an anonymous irrelevance when piano with Felix Blumenfeld. There, Tiomkin came good-humored orchestral exchange that marks the West, comes to an end with a deft reworking of experienced away from its source—or worse, it under the influence of Alexander Glazunov, the beginning of a new way of life for Tom Dunson and “Settle Down.” At the film’s beginning, the chorus becomes a musical lampoon of counterpoint. On the renowned Russian classical composer who taught Matthew Garth—and for Matt and Tess. Dunson sings, Settle down, little doggies, this is home for other hand, a great film music composer can wed the young man counterpoint and harmony. becomes the patriarch he always wanted to be; Matt tonight ... Now, at the film’s end, with Dunson and the abstract to specific orchestral descriptions and As a student, Tiomkin earned money playing and Dunson, the father and son they always were. Matt reconciled and the huge herd in Abilene, cinematic flow—mindful of symbolism and piano for silent films, an after school job that surely Dunson’s authority is interrupted by Matt. “When Tiomkin declares with full chorus and orchestra: narrative—and create a truly rich, rewarding and had an impact on his later years in life as a film are you gonna stop telling people what to do?” exciting listening experience quite apart from the music composer. What better way to understand the Settle down, little doggies, this is home ... for their Dunson leans down to the soil that binds them both film. relationship between film, music and an audience lives ... and draws two curving parallel marks, like the banks An unabashed, self-admitted showman, eager to than by accompanying the silent images on that of a river—the Red River. “When we get home, Jack Smith please audiences, Dimitri Tiomkin became larger-than-life silver screen? It was an experience we’ll add an `M’ to it ... you earned it ...” Tiomkin Jack Smith is a noted film music critic for Films in increasingly adept at this—and in this respect, Red that stayed with him the rest of his life—and gave brings the force of a full orchestra and chorus, Review magazine. A veteran reporter, he has River is his first really great personal score, the first Tiomkin a rare appreciation of that magical marking a bold fusion of myth and legend, of family interviewed numerous Hollywood celebrities. Smith to truly bear his bold stylistic signature as he sublimation of sight, sound and music that can and community, as the heroic tale of the Red River lives with his wife, Jackie, in Southern California became one of most renowned maestros of occur when each facet of the cinematic experience D, one of the great tales of Texas and the American and is a successful commercial photographer. Hollywood’s Golden Age of Motion Picture Music. is melded into one memorable emotion. 8.225217 26 7 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 8

Like so many Russians, he immigrated to Tiomkin’s first great opportunity as a film Mr. Melville, the cattle trader-buyer (Harry Carey, exacted to seal the ritual of deadly climax. Western Europe after the wrenching violence and composer came in 1937, when a short, rapid-fire Sr.) from the Greenwood Trading Company rides up Apparently, nothing on the face of the earth can stop politics of the Russian Revolution. The young cinematic genius named Frank Capra took a chance and welcomes the drovers—and the herd. Dunson, not even Fen’s aching memory. A drover Tiomkin was featured in a variety of playbills, on a Russian composer to score a major epic—the rides up, warning Matt that Dunson is coming. ‹ A Big Day in Abilene. A solo French horn including being a piano soloist with the great Berlin Columbia Pictures production of James Hilton’s Almost as if Tiomkin was scoring a ballet, his music reprises “... the stars at night are big and bright ...” Philharmonic. Traveling on to Paris, the City of popular book, Lost Horizon. It was a creative follows Dunson as he dismounts and wades through that gives way to a chorus and orchestra declaring benchmark for Tiomkin and the beginning of a Lights, he became popular for performing contemp- that “... tonight we’ll be painting the town!” “Oh, a herd of cattle, like a rampant Moses crossing the special association with Capra: Mr. Smith Goes to orary Russian, German and French musical works. Susannah” caps the celebration. And miles away, Red Sea. Cherry Valance pulls his gun and Dunson Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941) and It’s And in that extraordinary creative milieu of art Dunson rides up to the very rails that Matt, the boys shoots him. Blood is drawn. And only then, the a Wonderful Life (1946). (Capra, however, hedged and life, Tiomkin first encountered a lifelong love— and the herd crossed hours before. The sight of the violence—and Fen’s memory—begins to gnaw at his hard-eight throw of the dice on Tiomkin by American jazz—and gave the brilliant première rails at Abilene have failed to assuage Dunson’s Dunson. Dunson crosses over the steel of the hiring Max Steiner to conduct the Lost Horizon European performance of Gershwin’s Concerto in F rage. Tiomkin brings up the full expression of railroad tracks, lines drawn in both absolute and score.) The bet paid off—the music for Lost major to raves from critics and audiences alike. “They’re off to Missouri” that marks Matt’s great symbolic terms that separate him and Matthew Horizon remains one of the greatest scores ever Then Hollywood knocked at his door. Tiomkin achievement and fulfillment of the promise that he (Dunson‘s hired guns stay beyond the tracks). The written for a film. sold several original jazz compositions to Metro made to Dunson. “I’ll get your herd to market ...” meaning is indelible. In crossing those tracks, the Goldwyn Mayer. After playing Carnegie Hall and At the Hollywood première [of Lost Horizon], I met autonomous, primitive way of the Old West will › The Spectre Closes In. Dunson’s threat hangs other prestigious venues—as the Great Depression George Gershwin going into the theater. “They tell become a new frontier, brimming with social change over a discussion by Matt and Mr. Melville. As Matt hit with full force—Tiomkin and his first wife, me, Dimi, you have something special here,” he and an unheard of sense of community. In sheer leaves, Melville lingers with the boys, admonishing Albertina Rasch, set out for Tinseltown, where they said ... During the picture, I sat behind him and wrath, Thomas Dunson confronts his adopted son. them to take care of the herd, adding matter-of- had been invited to produce ballet numbers for soon, he turned and nodded, and gave the Now, man and boy, father and son, generation and factly, “I’ll buy the drinks when it’s over.” Tiomkin films. But ever shrewd, he soon saw an exceptional Broadway-Hollywood sign of excellence—thumb generation, frontier and agrarianism, seem destined accompanies the scene with a straightforward, opportunity in film music, a new art for the new and forefinger making a circle. That I felt, was tops to violent, tragic chaos. beautiful playing of “Settle Down.” Tiomkin—and technology of talking motion pictures. Tiomkin in criticism ... Lost Horizon brought me offers from “Draw! ... you’re soft ... won’t anything make a Mr. Melville—furtively hint at what’s to come. composed a score for an early version of various producers including Sam Goldwyn ... man out of ya?” Dunson snarls. Resurrection (1931) and a charming adaptation of – Dimitri Tiomkin ﬁ A Message for Matt.: Dark tension gives way As bullets are fired by Dunson, one of them Alice in Wonderland (1933). to “Settle Down” as Matt meets Tess in a hotel grazing Matt’s cheek, a knowing half-smile crosses Capra’s influence on Tiomkin was room. She tells him Dunson is camped out of his face. He has remembered Dunson’s advice. Matt Hollywood was still comparatively primitive. One considerable. The director loved American music town—and he is intent on killing him. Her worries has looked into Tom Dunson’s eyes—and he knows, day I looked out my bedroom window and saw a standards and folk songs. It was a powerful way to are calmed by “Settle Down.” for certain, there will be no killing. A no-holds- man running along the street and a policeman connect an idea and an emotion with audiences. barred fist-fight follows with Matt gaining the chasing him and shooting. The fugitive fell and a “Buffalo Girls” marks the main title of It’s a ﬂ The Challenge. Dunson and his men ride up to upper-hand. splotch of red appeared on the pavement. Wonderful Life; American anthems scroll through the sprawling railhead and the herd at Abilene. The Wonderful, I thought—Hollywood realism. Then I Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The unused end conflict is older than Greek tragedy—the violent ‡ The New Brand. Tess fires a borrowed pistol noticed there wasn’t any camera ... titles composed for Meet John Doe are the musical struggle between man and boy, father and son, an and stops the fist-fight, scolding the two men who – Dimitri Tiomkin blueprints for Duel in The Sun (as well as perhaps old way giving way to a new, and blood must be look on sheepishly. Tiomkin delights with a sly, 8.225217 8 25 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 24

The music highlights a tension which features solo her tragic loss is as real—and searing—as it was an indication of woes to come on It’s a Wonderful intended by Tiomkin gives It’s a Wonderful Life a violin and a charming flirt of a waltz that becomes a fourteen years ago. Tiomkin recalls the death of the Life). Tiomkin learned a lot from Capra and gained special depth of darkness—even horror. But Capra full phrasing of “Settle Down” as the dream of Indian who killed Fen; the brass clashes of knife an extensive working knowledge of America’s didn’t like it. At the last moment, he scrapped major empire and community is passed on. strokes have been transformed into three delicate favorite music and folk songs. But instinctually as portions of the score, dropped in standards and plucks of a harp string. “... like you had knives an artist, Tiomkin knew that there was more to Hollywood left-overs and tossed huge chunks of In the meantime, Dunson had found men and sticking in you,” Dunson recalls, remembering the scoring a film than fitting folk songs into Tiomkin’s music to the cutting-room floor. Nothing ammunition and taken up the chase ... death of his love. “Settle Down” moves the emotion soundstage performance was ever the same again between these two great – The Great Tales of Texas back to Tess who asks to join Dunson in finding ... I was born into a family of concert musicians. film artists. ¶ The Spectre Takes Form. Dunson’s rage Matt. The memory of Fen, seeing Tess, prompts When you have thought in terms of music as long as Despite what he considered the artistic and musically accompanies the pursuing cattle baron Tiomkin to reveal that Dunson will never leave I have, it is easier to write original music than to personal setback of scoring It’s a Wonderful Life, and ten hired guns; a solo violin plays “Settle anyone alone again; and that he cannot—and will bother recalling appropriate bars of music written Tiomkin’s reputation as a composer for films grew. Down” for Tess as Dunson and his gang ride into the not murder Matt—despite Tiomkin’s cunning use of in the past. After all, scenes and even sequences Earlier, Tiomkin earned the opportunity to write wagon train’s camp; the first time Dunson has seen a Dunson’s rage to end the scene. change so swiftly on the screen that very often there music for David O. Selznick’s Duel in the Sun, his wagon train since Fen’s death. lust-in-the-dust super Western. (Selznick actually ... One hundred days, and in Matthew Garth’s heart isn’t time for more than a couple of measures. It is invited Hollywood’s great composers to compete • Interlude. Dunson and his guns are told of the a growing fear that there was no railroad. Could really simpler and more effective to compose than to for scoring the film.) The epic oater was a box office rescue from Indians by Matt and the drovers. The they all have been wrong?... rummage around classical music to find something success, a critical yawn, and Tiomkin’s music a men are invited to stay for supper; Tess takes – The Great Tales of Texas that expresses the idea ... smash hit. The sensuous love theme and Tiomkin’s Dunson to her lean-to. There in shelter, Dunson sees – Dimitri Tiomkin ⁄ A Joyous Meeting. “The Great Tales of Texas” grandiose, new-to-the-ear orchestral narrative broke his mother’s bracelet on Tess’ wrist. Like a ghost, gives way to the freight train push of the herd. A During this formative period, in addition to new ground for film music—and for Tiomkin’s Fen rises up from the dead through Tiomkin’s cowboy complains that the drive will go on for ever working with Capra, Tiomkin scored other films, reputation. Music from the film was released in a music, her theme standing between Dunson and and soon will move up and down Canadian icebergs, none of which matched the quality of Capra’s popular three-record 78 rpm album performed by Tess. which is picked up by a playful clarinet. A sense of movies. That creative association—and close Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, an ª Out of the Past. Murderous tension gives way expectation bursts through with “She’ll be comin’ friendship—would come to an end with It’s a unprecedented event for the times. Selznick then to “Settle Down.” “So he went off and left you?” ’round the mountain when she comes ...” as a great Wonderful Life. Tiomkin adhered to the Capra engaged the mercurial Tiomkin to adapt music by asks Dunson. Tess asks if any woman could love a Iron Horse rolls into view, directly in the path of the formula for film scoring for some of It’s a Debussy and write original music based on those man who’d go off and leave her. “Settle Down” oncoming herd; thousands—and thousands—of Wonderful Life. The main title’s “Buffalo Girls” is themes for the haunting Portrait of Jennie (1949). continues as she adds, “Nothing I could say or do cattle spill out over the hillside and around the romantic and nostalgic and there’s notably a Dimitri Tiomkin was well on the way to poignantly powerful use of “Red River Valley” for could change his mind ...” tracks. The engineer blows his whistle to celebrate becoming one of the best known film composers in the relationship of hero George Bailey and his the drovers’ arrival. Hollywood. º Memory of Love. In the wake of “Settle father. But in the orchestral narratives that framed Down,” Fen’s theme returns in full force. The effect ¤ Approach to Abilene. A banjo joins in this rather dark story of a good man who regrets Tiomkin’s relation to the Hollywood scene was is devastating for a stoic Dunson. Tiomkin reaches celebration as the music becomes a jaunty, missed opportunities and faces scandal and suicide, more than incidental... he was one of those deep inside Dunson with a brilliant summation of swaggering expression of accomplishment. Tiomkin Tiomkin stretched beyond what he would normally expatriates of immense energy, determination and his hopes and dreams. Fen’s theme embraces it all; drops the celebration, punctuated with a chime, as score for a Capra film. The music as originally resilience who actually helped create the 8.225217 24 9 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 10

Hollywood myth ... those like Tiomkin who blazed a Wayne together in one powerful film music % Missing Cowboy. An elegy for a dead cowboy with the endless flow of cattle. trail in Hollywood were actually winning the West experience. “Settle Down” became “My Rifle, My with “Bury me not on the lone prairie ...” becomes a ( Red River Crossing. Tiomkin marks the all over again. This is surely why Tiomkin’s Pony and Me,” Rio Bravo’s main title, and went on tender sense of comradeship as a drover offers to majesty of Dunson’s dreams and ambitions—and Western music has such a dynamism and to be a hit recording by one of the film’s stars, Dean stay the night with the body to keep scavengers hopes—as the herd, an endless flow like the river commitment, for in it he is surely reliving a part of Martin. away. For the first time, Tiomkin reveals a rumble itself, crosses the mighty Red. his own experience ... When John Wayne poured his heart and that will depict Dunson’s rage and anger. Dunson – Christopher Palmer personal fortune into filming The Alamo (1960), he blames himself for the needless death of Dan ) Cottonwood Justice. Dunson intends to hang Dimitri Tiomkin: A Portrait looked to Dimitri Tiomkin for music. For Wayne, Latimer (Harry Carey, Jr), who dies leaving a wife men for deserting the drive; Matt steps in and stops the composer created one of the greatest—and most and new baby. Dunson will never be the same again. him with gunplay. The relationship between Dunson And then there was Red River, Tiomkin’s first admired—scores of all-time. Everything that Dunson orders full pay for the dead drover and and Matt is torn apart. great personal score, a score that fully delineates his Tiomkin knew—and loved—about America is thinks of Dan‘s widow. ¡ Dunson Swears Vengeance. Matthew pledges matchless style and approach to composing music reflected in this epic score. The music brims with ^ Latimer Burial. Young Latimer is buried to get the herd to the railhead; Dunson is unmoved. for films. Echoes of folk songs are used here and Tiomkin “folk songs”: “Here’s to the Ladies,” against a spectacular backdrop of a mountain “Every time you turn around, expect to see me; there in Red River but only rarely to deftly bridge “Tennessee Babe,” the haunting “Green Leaves of darkened by passing clouds. “Bury me not ...” is a ‘cause one time you’ll turn around and I’ll be there Tiomkin’s truly original orchestral narrative. As he Summer,” and the gallant “Ballad of the Alamo.” sad refrain lost to Dunson’s anger at a drover who ... I’m gonna kill ya’, Matt ...” matured as an artist and composer, the technique Shouldering the songs and the roaring on-screen started the stampede . Dunson is out to lash the was dropped completely. But Tiomkin kept a keen action is a brilliant, full-blooded orchestral tone ™ Comanche Arrows. Tiomkin brandishes full drover with a whip; the drover draws on Dunson; ear and appreciation for the structure of those old poem which eloquently portrays one of the most orchestral frenzy as hostiles attack an encircled Matt wounds him rather than allowing Dunson to songs as evidenced by High Noon, which was built valiant moments in American history. wagon train. Matt and his drovers ride hard to the kill the man. around an original Tiomkin “folk song.” Gunfight at But Tiomkin was much more than a composer rescue through the frenzied attack to help defenders, the OK Corral, Friendly Persuasion and Tension at of music for Westerns; he wrote superb scores for Forty days and the dust turned to rain. Short rations where Matt pulls an arrow from the shoulder of the Table Rock (1956) continued that Tiomkin hallmark virtually every sort of Hollywood film. For the next with Dunson driving both cattle and men. There was beautiful Tess Millay (Joanne Dru). approach to Westerns. It became, in fact, a sort of twenty years, Tiomkin’s name would stand as a no turning back despite the loss of the other grub £ In Wait. Tense strings and brass refrain trademark of the Tiomkin sound. Contemporary keystone to the success of some of Hollywood’s wagon ... Dunson’s rage. film music composer Basil Poledouris, who wrote greatest films by its greatest directors—notably – The Great Tales of Texas the score for Lonesome Dove, once mused that the Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, William ¢ Fight for Life. Groot and Cherry tell Tess the & Thunder on the Trail. Pounding storms mark best approach to writing a Western score was to Wellman, George Stevens and Stanley Kramer. story of the Red River D—and the breach between the way along the Chisholm Trail. Rations are short create themes that sounded like folk tunes but were Among Tiomkin’s masterful scores are Shadow Dunson and Matt. and water is low. Men are angry and so is Dunson. actually original compositions. Tiomkin developed of a Doubt (1942), D.O.A. (1950), Cyrano De “We’ll drink rainwater if we hafta,” growls ∞ Vigil in the Night. A drover rides nighthawk, that technique and made it uniquely his own Bergerac (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), The Dunson. watching the herd; the eerie music frames the fear throughout his great Western scores. Well (1951), I Confess (1953), Dial M for Murder that Dunson is out there ... somewhere. For his last score for Howard Hawks, Rio Bravo (1954), The High and the Mighty (1954), His * Red River Ahead. a magnificent exposition (1959), again starring John Wayne, Tiomkin Majesty O’Keefe (1954), Land of the Pharaohs marking a return to the great Red River— § Foggy Night Surrender. A cascade of melody revisited his score from Red River, tying the two (1955), Friendly Persuasion 1956), Rhapsody of reverential, muscular, with a sense of memory and introduces Tiomkin’s musical commentary on a films and the works of that great director and Steel (1959), Last Train from Gun Hill (1959), The sacrifice. Opening fanfares as the Red River merges classic example of Hawks’ romantic relationships. 8.225217 10 23 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 22

land, as far as you can see…” As the Red River D 0 Suspense at Dawn. An earth-shaker of a scene Tiomkin conducting, c.1940s brand marks Dunson’s bull and Matthew’s cow, the as tense strings and deep horns accompany Tom first “We’re off to Missouri …” is heard as Dunson Dunson’s lonely predawn ride to the perimeter of begins to think years ahead to the great trail drive the great herd and his band of drovers. that will change him and the West for ever. Dunson Unprecedented in a Hawks film, the camera—with tells Matt that he will add his name to the brand Dunson looking around at the 9,000 head of cattle— when he earns it. pans a full 180-degrees taking in man and beast, 7 Mexican Burial. A dramatic flourish for a dream and empire all in one shot that ends with the pistolero who rides up to defend a Mexican don’s cattle baron turning his entire life’s work over to his claim to the land. Then “Bury me not on the lone surrogate son. prairie ...” as Dunson buries the brave pistolero. ! On to Missouri. “Take ’em to Missouri, Matt!” “They’re off to Missouri” refrains Dunson’s Drovers yell; the herd moves, and music and film ambitions as the branding iron points up the grave- become a surging freight train, heading out toward site. fate and fortune. “They’re off to Missouri” is taken “How’d you know when he was gonna draw?” up in full orchestral force and chorus. Matt asks Dunson. “There they are, Matt. Fourteen years of hard “By watching his eyes; remember that!” work. And they say we can’t make the drive,” “I will ...” Dunson says. 8 Growth of the Dunson Empire. A rousing “They could be wrong” narrative of fourteen years of hard work and “They better be ...” sacrifice as the ranch is built—and grows, only to @ The Drive Moves North. Tiomkin herds the face financial ruin in the wake of the Civil War. cattle onward, sweeping along in epic style. Revealed is the adult Matthew (Montgomery Clift) wearing Dunson’s mother’s bracelet, a sign of # The Brazos Trail.: Excitement and hard work family and love. as the drovers move the great drive north. 9 Roundup. Exuberant and stirring, featuring a $ Stampede. Rolling thunder of orchestral solo accordion, the roundup will make—or break dissonance and disarray as themes try to gain control the ranch. Cherry Valance (John Ireland), a gunman of 9,000 head of cattle spooked by an accident at the Sundowners (1960), The Guns of Navarone (1961), close, Dimitri Tiomkin was the highest paid for a neighboring rancher, joins the drive. chuck wagon—a drover out to satisfy a sweet tooth and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). composer—and surely one of the best known. “You know, there are only two things more that ends in a calamity of pots and pans. Sections of Tiomkin earned Oscars for High Noon, The During the latter part of his life and career, he beautiful than a good gun; a Swiss watch or a the orchestra fight one another and are brought High and The Mighty and The Old Man and the Sea, lived in London in comfortable retirement with his woman from anywhere ... Ever had a good Swiss under control by a stunning calm of “They’re off to with nominations for twenty other scores. As the wife, Olivia. Dimitri Tiomkin died in 1979. watch?” Cherry asks Matt. Missouri..” 1950s and the Golden Age of Hollywood came to a 8.225217 22 11 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 12

Howard Hawks and Red River (Colleen Gray) Theme.” Pervasive, delicate and 5 The Lone Survivor. An eerie narrative for a affecting, it humanizes Dunson’s vision but is boy (Mickey Kuhn) leading a cow out of the wilds, Hawks consciously shoots most of his scenes at the singularly stamped by a keenly identifiable point of undercut by a menace of hostile Indians. Dunson the sole survivor of the massacre. Dazed, he details eye level of a standing onlooker. Consequently, even view and a definite way of seeing life and living. leaves Fen with a bracelet from his mother and his the killings. Dunson slaps him back to reality and his spectacles are endowed with a human intimacy The great French director, François Truffaut, said love to the safety of the wagon train, a decision that the boy draws a gun; Dunson takes it away from him which the director will not disturb with pretentious... that Hawks was the most intelligent director who will haunt him for ever. Striking out on his own, and a bond ensues as Dunson gives it back. Trust shots. Hawks will work within a frame as much as ever stood behind a camera. The transformation Dunson goes South; Tiomkin brings in a male and kinship are born of time and place between possible, cutting only when a long take or an from Hollywood professional to cinematic artist chorus for “Fen’s Theme,” which is sadly a Matthew Garth and Tom Dunson; Tiomkin elaborate track might distract his audience from the was celebrated by such renowned American critics memorial. expresses Dunson’s staunch Protestant beliefs that issues in the foreground of the action. This is good, as Andrew Sarris and Manny Farber, in addition to 3 Red River Camp. “Old Man River ...” is used recall the plight of Job, “…We brought nothing into clean, direct, functional cinema, perhaps the most the legendary gang at Cahiers du Cinéma—André by Tiomkin as Dunson and his pal Groot first see the this world, and it’s certain we carry nothing out. The distinctly American cinema of all ... Bazin, Truffaut, Jean Luc-Godard and Claude mighty Red River, the gateway to Texas. Ominous Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be – Andrew Sarris Chabrol. In a general way, the very essence of rumblings as smoke declares a horrifying attack on the name of the Lord. Amen…” The Lord has taken Howard Hawks wanted to make a Western. Artistic modern cinema can be traced back to Hawks’ no- the wagon train where death to all is certain. Fen —and now, God has given Dunson a son, and personality clashes had prevented him from nonsense, straight-on approach to film, in Matthew Garth. Dunson eyes Groot, “He’ll do…” directorial style and in oblique dialog. It worked in 4 The Red Menace Strikes. The first of several finishing Viva Villa! (1934) and The Outlaw (1941). 6 Birth of the Red River D. Dunson, Groot and And making a Western appealed to him and his anti- every genre—drama, action-adventure, Westerns. great orchestral furies that Tiomkin unleashes that Matt begin the trek and Tiomkin accompanies them authoritative outlook. Stoic, silent, with a hint of And Hawks virtually invented screwball comedies, begins with the shrill point of a burning arrow; with a fanfare that’s brushed aside by impatient sullenness, Hawks stood over six feet tall and was a cinematic form that is as entertaining today as it Dunson and Groot battle the marauders; Dunson is brass for Dunson’s ambitious push onwards. “The fence-rail thin. Some called him the silver fox. One was in the 1930s. unstoppable. In the middle of the Red River, he kills Great Tales of Texas” moves on and a full orchestral of the best screenwriters that Hollywood has ever Hawks’ dominant personality pervades every the last of the attackers with three strikes of a Bowie rendition of “Settle Down” marks limitless horizons; known, Ben Hecht, called him both a friend and frame of his films and the memorable men—and the knife. Tiomkin marks these knife strokes with a “... a mysterious, drawling fashion plate, purring women—who worked for him in front of the chilling clash of brass (and later will recall the attack Tiomkin ups the register for a feeling of with melodrama.” He was drinking buddies with the cameras are reflections of who Hawks was as a with three plucks of a harp’s string). Dunson grasps consecration and majesty. two greatest authors of the twentieth century, man—and an artist. Who was Howard Hawks? His the dying man’s wrist and sees the bracelet that he And that was the meeting of a boy with a cow and a Hemingway and Faulkner. As a producer and persona is vividly there in Humphrey Bogart, Cary gave to Fen. Tiomkin offers a sad remembrance. man with a bull and the beginning of a great herd. In director, Hawks was the consummate professional: Grant—and, of course, John Wayne. The Dunson has killed her murderer and the dead man’s search for land, they traveled South through Texas, blood mixes red with the river that marks the he was good at what he did. A self-described story- performances of these three men in a Hawks film across ... promising land, but weighed it and ... beginning of Dunson’s Texas. The blood and water teller, his films consistently made money at the box are markedly different from their work in other found it wanting. So they went on through the films, demonstrating a special masculine tension allow Dunson a vengeance that sublimates his tragic office, a lot of money. Critics praised him as well. panhandle, ever southward... past the Pecos... and practicality—and in each Hawks film, the actor loss, a symbolic baptism to help wash away his That gave him an incredible autonomy shared by nearing the Rio Grande... seems to hold up a mirror to Hawks‘ own inconsolable grief. Like most men, Dunson will deal few directors, notably his old friend and peer, John – The Great Tales of Texas Ford. individuality and cast the image back on his own with grief by acting and doing. He is wedded to But if Ford made screen art that endured as performance. In every movement and inflection, Fen’s memory—and his dream of empire. By The music literally takes a breath of expectation as movies, Hawks made movies that became art, there’s a little bit of Howard Hawks. 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Among the annals of the great state of Texas may be ineffaceable, easy sense of professionalism, If you crossed Howard Hawks, you were out. found the story of the first drive on the famous friendship and loyalty that marks any Hawks hero. Permanently. (In the early 1960s, Tiomkin did just Chisholm Trail. A story of one of the great cattle Says Lauren Bacall: “Howard was a great story that. When Hawks hired Tiomkin to score Hatari!, herds of the world, of a man and a boy—Thomas teller; you could sit and listen to him for ever ... He the only thing he asked of the composer was: No Dunson and Matthew Garth, the story of the Red took me to lunch and told me about his directing strings. Typically, Tiomkin came in with a score River D ... experiences with various actresses. It was always that included, yes, strings. Hawks got angry, – The Great Tales of Texas what he said to them or Howard Hughes, to Jack Tiomkin was fired, and Henry Mancini went on to Warner—he always came out on top, he always score Hatari!; Hawks never worked with Tiomkin 1 Main Title. Two distant French horns fanfare won. He was mesmerizing and I believed every again. Hatari! was a smash hit, one of Paramount’s the main titles as the male chorus of “Settle Down” story he told ...” biggest money makers and the sound track LP references “... the sun is sinking in the West.” The pushed its way to the top of the charts. Ironically, I never liked the sort of women who sat around effect is theatrical with Tiomkin using the horns as a Mancini’s score included strings). drinking tea in the parlor; the women in my films sunset metaphor, followed by full fanfare, orchestra Like several directors—George Stevens, are the sort of women I like, women who can hold and chorus to bring us into the vivid milieu of the William Wyler and Frank Capra—and other stars at their own with anybody ... Old West and the legend of the Red River D, for the time, Hawks formed his own production – Howard Hawks Dunson. “The Great Tales of Texas” narrative cue company and began looking for a story set in the musically links sequences in the film. Referenced is During the 1940s, the heart of Hollywood’s Old West. The story of the King Ranch, founded by a refrain from a popular period song, “Deep in the Golden Age, you could well find anyone who was a riverboat captain who came to Texas and stayed to Heart of Texas”: “... the stars at night are big and anybody over at Hawks’ house for weekend cut- make an empire, appealed to him. But bright...” throat croquet, where a lawn-game became a deadly disagreements with the ranch derailed the project. In the year 1851, Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) serious exercise in skill and upmanship, a perfect “They wanted me to do some PR story...” he accompanied by a friend,Groot Nadine (Walter metaphor for Hawksian humor and life. Or you once recalled. Brennan), left St. Louis and joined a wagon train could see Hawks, Vic Fleming, Clark Gable, Then Hawks came across a five-part serial in headed for California. Three weeks on the trail William Wellman and other Hollywood superstars the The Saturday Evening Post, a magazine where found them near the border of Texas. The land to the roaring over canyon roads astride motorcycles. you could find not only Norman Rockwell, but South looked good... Indeed, if you were part of Hollywood then and writers like Borden Chase, A. B. Guthrie, Jr—who – The Great Tales of Texas you were really good at what you did, you might would later co-write the script for Shane (1953) and well be lucky enough to work for Howard Hawks. pen novels like The Way West (1967)—and James 2 Dunson Heads South. “Banjo on my knee...” is And if he liked you, you became a part of the group Warner Bellah, who would craft the saber-edged featured to highlight the immigrant wagon train and who worked with him often. There were, of course, stories that became John Ford’s legendary Cavalry a cross-fade of orchestra brings in a theme that prerequisites to entering that inner circle: Trilogy, Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow represents Dunson’s ideals and vision of life and You had to be good at what you did; Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950). The hard- empire that becomes his sweatheart’s “Fen’s You had to be fun to be around; drinking Borden Chase and Hawks were acquain- And most importantly, you had to know who tances—both loved horses and Chase was hired by Left: John Wayne and Colleen Gray was boss. Hawks for $1,200 a week to write Red River. 8.225217 20 13 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 14

Chase’s story, “The Chisholm Trail,” offered a co-star Jane Russell and building her a special bra; framework for Hawks’ vision of the Old West—a the quirky millionaire then decided that he could raw-hide patriarch and empire builder, a romantic best direct her and everyone else and dismissed young hero and a heroine with a heart of gold and a Hawks from the film which, except for its notoriety, tarnished past. Chase could build a plot, but he would go on to become a notable box office bust. needed help with dialog. Hawks would apply his But Hughes owned Buetel’s contract—and distinctive style of having everyone saying wouldn’t release him for Red River. something at once without directly saying anything Leland Hayward, who knew Hawks’ wife Slim, but, in the process, revealing everything an suggested a new kid, Montgomery Clift, who was a audience needed to know about what was hit on Broadway. Clift actually had balked at the happening on the screen. idea of coming to what he called “Vomit Town.” As Hawks originally wanted Gary Cooper, rodeo the starting date of filming for Red River champ Casey Tibbs and Cary Grant for the leads in approached, Hayward sent a script to Clift, who was Red River. Cooper declined—the role of Tom somewhat amused at the prospect of a film with Dunson was too dark; the role of Cherry Valance John Wayne—but immediately saw possibilities in was too small a role for Grant. Casey Tibbs seemed the role of Matthew Garth and working with to lack the screen presence and acting skills for the Howard Hawks. Clift came to Hollywood. Slim role of Matthew Garth. arranged to have Hayward bring the young Hollywood agent Charles Feldman pitched his unknown actor to lunch at the Hawks’ house. There, client John Wayne to Hawks. Wayne had made an Hayward slyly brokered a lunch into a sweetheart impressive hero for John Ford in Stagecoach (1939) deal for Clift—almost as much money as Wayne and in leads for top-drawer Westerns like Tall in the was getting for his role. Hawks signed his new Saddle (1944). Ford liked Wayne and the actor had discovery and told him to learn to ride. Montgomery learned a lot from Ford. The price was right— Clift went to Arizona to learn the fine art of $50,000 for the role, and for every week over wrangling and range riding. schedule, $10,000; then 10 percent of the film’s A tough, energetic young actor, John Ireland profits with a guarantee of $75,000. But Wayne was cast as gunman Cherry Valance. After starts hesitated; he seemed to balk at the idea of playing and stops with a number of actresses, two an older man. Hollywood beauties were cast for the female leads “You’re gonna be one pretty soon, Duke, get in Red River. For Tom Dunson’s long wife-to-be, used to it ...” drawled Hawks. Fen, Colleen Gray, and Joanne Dru would play the For the role of Matthew Garth, Hawks wanted smoldering Tess Millay, Matthew Garth‘s love. Jack Buetel, the star of The Outlaw, the film that Support players would include a roster of the Hawks began with screenwriter pal Jules Furthman best faces in Hollywood. Oscar winner Walter Above: Director Howard Hawks between John Wayne and Montgomery Clift going over the for Howard Hughes. Hughes became obsessed with Brennan would characteristically threaten to steal big fight scene for the film’s finale 8.225217 14 19 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 18

director/producer. It would be years before Red shadow passes over the mountain. I said, ‘I’ve done River would turn a profit. one that’s almost as good as you’...,” Hawks later In post production, Tiomkin went to work on recalled. the score. One of the difficulties in scripting Red He now understood Ford’s affection for making River was in providing characters with reasons for Westerns—it was a great excuse to get away from what they did without tedious exposition. Hawks Hollywood and the suits, camp out with your tried building the script with indirect references to friends and create an exciting film. motivations but scrapped most of the lines. Tiomkin What next? His imagination ever restless, for used music to make it all work and illuminate ever seeking a good story, Hawks came across a character and drama. The great composer saw book by that Saturday Evening Post alumnus, where he could help the film build emotion—and A. B. Guthrie, Jr. It was a heroic story about two bring characters and story together. friends who risked all to join a group of adventurous If I ever see another cow, it will be too soon... men making a seemingly impossible trek by – Dimitri Tiomkin keelboat up the wide Missouri River, a trek that carried them all through the great Indian nations of Had Tiomkin not scored another Western after Red the American frontier. River it would still stand as almost an apotheosis of Hawks liked the idea; he began thinking about the genre in the grand manner of the Old Hollywood who would play the leads in the film. Among those West, epitomizing the “idyllic sublime,” with its considered, a young Robert Mitchum. And the romance of cowboy songs (both original and other? Well, someone had told him about a new kid quoted) sung by a soaring soulful chorus, and with on Broadway, someone named Marlon Brando far less of a Russian accent than Tiomkin’s own (eventually, Dewey Martin and Kirk Douglas would speaking voice. be cast as the two friends.). – William Rosar And music? The Journal of Film Music There were no doubts. Hawks would turn again The box office and critical success of his first to someone who was good at what he did, someone Western pleased Hawks. The entire project had he liked—Dimitri Tiomkin—to compose a been a personal triumph, if not a financial one. breathtaking hush of an epic score, one of his “I called Ford and told him about the scene greatest, for ... where Duke reads over the dead cowboy and that The Big Sky ...

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any scene that he was in; Paul Fix and Noah Beery Red River loomed as a blockbuster Western, filmed The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and Citizen from Montgomery Clift. Jr. came on board; Chief Yowlatchie, a 55-year old perhaps the first super Western following the end of Kane (1941). Toland had finished up The Best Years For the climactic fight scene between Dunson Yakima Indian would sign on; Frank Worden, one World War II. Hawks sensed that audiences wanted of Our Lives (1946) for William Wyler, but Sam and Matthew, Clift encountered a big problem: he of John Ford’s stock company, was on hand as a what a Western offered after the horrors of the Goldwyn refused Hawks’ request, fearing that Red didn’t know how to fight. Wayne was amused, the wry, off-the-wall cowboy, a role that presages his war—a sense of straightforward morality where River would run past schedule and Toland would be director wasn’t. Hawks later said that he “...wore an brilliant performance as Ol’ Mose in The Searchers; myths and legends give reason to life and liberty. unavailable for The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Hawks arm out showing the kid how to throw a punch.” Harry Carey, Sr. would turn in a performance that The plot of Red River was a tour de force: an hired Russell Harlan, a rugged looking cameraman John Wayne turned in a breathtaking demonstrated his stature as a Western superstar of odyssey of an immigrant’s trek West to build an who had spent ten long years filming a roster of B- performance for Hawks. It would be the bedrock of yesteryear; Harry Carey Jr. would be memorable as empire of dreams, hopes, riches—and most Westerns. Harlan would give Red River a sense of future performances, notably that of Ethan Edwards a doomed young cowboy who sets off a sense of importantly, a family. It was an epic marked by epic sweep and pictorial beauty rare in a Hawks in John Ford’s great masterpiece, The Searchers. rage in Tom Dunson. Red River would be the only tragedy and highlighted by what intrigued Hawks film. It would be the start of a creative association From the way John Wayne walked, to the way he film that the father and son would appear in most: Strong men and friends, all professionals, that would last over seven films and nearly twenty looked at other actors, to the broad shouldered angst together. banded together to accomplish a seemingly years. of a strong man out of step with his times and his impossible task. In Red River, that task would be the world, he would become the great cinematic icon For the score of Red River, Aaron Copland’s Take care of my boy Duke and get a great picture ... first great cattle drive up the fabled Chisholm Trail, that he was destined to be—and is still today—that name came up during pre-production discussions. – John Ford Copland had written memorable music for such named for a man who blazed a way all through the lonely, heroic figure, riding for ever between the films as Of Mice and Men (1939) and a brilliant Indian nations. Months of filming began in Elgin, Arizona, winds of an endless horizon bordered by American score for Sam Wood’s version of Thornton Wilder’s Howard Hawks had his Western. Now all he some forty miles from the Mexican border. Rains empire and agrarian ideals. Our Town (1940). But Hawks preferred someone had to do was to get it on film. delayed the shooting schedule. Script woes brought And if you look hard enough at John Wayne’s Borden Chase out on location where he drank a lot rugged face, you’ll see traces of two men: John Ford else. The lanky director had an uncanny ear for film Red River brought an example of the unexpected and angered Hawks, who brought in Charles Schnee and Howard Hawks. And perhaps of the two, it is scores. And Hawks had enjoyed working with mishaps that can bedevil the motion picture to help things out. Hawks took out a yellow legal the Red River D that tips the balance of Wayne’s Dimitri Tiomkin in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), business. In the filming of the Texas cattle drive, pad and went to work on dialog himself. enduring image toward Hawks influence. a knockout box-office success that starred Cary hundreds of cows died from hoof and mouth disease As the days stretched on, tension broke out Grant and Jean Arthur in a tense story about pilots contracted from some Mexican cattle, and the I didn’t know the big sonuvabitch could act ... among the cast. Wayne was irritated with Clift and and air mail flights in South America. Hawks liked ranchers from whom the herds had been rented had – John Ford Clift with Wayne. And worse—the cattle refused to Tiomkin; he knew that Tiomkin was good at what he to be reimbursed. Howard Hawks was a champion do what anybody told them to do—more than 9,000 Shooting ran long, bills piled up, and loans were did—composing exciting, colorful music, the sort of bow-and-arrow fisherman, magnificent at shooting head, a herd that stretched almost a mile long and a taken out. The weather, the rewrites and Hawks’ score that a great Western needed. Tiomkin liked an arrow into a fish in water, but not so good at half-mile wide. deliberate, insistent pace threw the production over Hawks as well and delighted at the possibilities of swinging a lasso... scoring a true horse opera and for what was shaping budget to almost $3 million.. An extra month of – Dimitri Tiomkin Just try and tell those ... damned cows what the hell up to be a classic Hollywood movie. filming compounded the costs.The mammoth to do! The little Russian composer, who talked fast in Hawks ordered color tests for Red River but stampede sequence, filmed by associate director – Howard Hawks broken English and was a walking burst of preferred a more realistic look in black and white. Arthur Rosson, took thirteen days to shoot; seven imagination on and off the soundstage, was back in To bring the film to the screen, Hawks sought out But Hawks liked what he was getting on film, men were hurt and animals suffered as well. In the the saddle. Gregg Toland, the great cinematographer who and he liked the performance that he was getting end Hawks would get $125,000 for his role as 8.225217 16 17 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 16

Above: John Wayne and Montgomery Clift on the prairie 8.225217 18 15 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 14

Conductor’s Preface

Left: Lobby card with Montgomery Clift and Joanne Dru 8.225217William Stromberg conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra 30 3 8.225217 225217bk Red River 31/3/03 9:21 pm Page 2

Great Film Music on Marco Polo with William Stromberg & John Morgan

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Special Acknowledgment ... Olivia Tiomkin Douglas James Douglas Jovanka Ciares (EMI Music Publishing) Ned Comstock Steve Hanson (USC Cinema-Television Library) Claire (Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee) James V. D’Arc (Brigham Young University’s Film Music Archives) Eric Stonerook (Stonerook Music) Stacey Behlmer (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) Patrick Russ Rudy Behlmer Ray Faiola Jackie Smith Bob Fredricks MARCO POLO TIOMKIN: Red River 8.225217 JM RB KA AA PB KH Timings Time 64:10 Playing 8.225217 The ChallengeThe New Brand 3:22 2:22 Cottonwood JusticeCottonwood VengeanceDunson Swears ArrowsComanche 1:24 In WaitFight for Life 0:59 in the NightVigil Foggy Night SurrenderForm Takes The Spectre 0:40 0:22 Interlude Out of the Past 1:54 Memory of Love 0:43 1:01 A Joyous Meeting 2:20 to AbileneApproach 1:35 A Big Day of Abilene Closes InThe Spectre A Message for Matt 1:47 1:31 1:50 1:53 1:40 1:02 2:50 ﬂ ‡ ) ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • ª º ⁄ ¤ ‹ › ﬁ (1894-1979) Film Score,Film 1948 RoundupSuspense at DawnOn to MissouriThe Drive moves NorthThe Brazos TrailStampede The Missing Cowboy 1:07 3:04 Latimer Burial Thunder on the Trail 1:36 Red River Ahead 0:27 Red River Crossing 2:36 0:31 0:45 2:46 1:01 1:26 2:01 Main Title Main Title SouthDunson Heads CampRed River StrikesThe Red Menace SurvivorThe Lone Birth of Red River D 4:47 Mexican Burial 1:34 of the Dunson Empire Growth 1:46 1:29 1:30 2:15 3:15 0:58 Recorded at Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, Russia Moscow, Recorded at Mosfilm Studio, in February–March, 2002 Recording Engineers & Editors:Vitaly Ivanov Shakhnazarian, Edvard Producer: International Betta Notes: Smith Jack Booklet Design: Ron Hoares Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri RIVER RED John Morgan by Restoration Score Choir • William & Stromberg Symphony Orchestra Moscow 9 0 ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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MARCO POLO MARCO TIOMKIN: TIOMKIN: Red River Red 8.225217