Hot Spell/ ow many women star in their first went on to do amazing scores for films like Shirley MacLaine as Irene, and Robert movie at age fifty-four – and win an Viva Zapata!, The Rose Tattoo, I’ll Cry To - Morse reprising his stage role as Barnaby. HOscar for doing so? Well, that’s what morrow, The Bad Seed, The Rainmaker and The screenplay was by the great John happened to when she made The Long, Hot Summer . Subsequent to Hot Michael Hayes (Rear Window, The Man her film debut for Paramount, reprising her Spell , he continued to write unique and bril - Who Knew Too Much) and the film was di - Tony Award-winning role in ’s liant scores for films like The Wonderful rected by Joseph Anthony, who, the year Come Back, Little Sheba . Booth had al - Country, Spartacus (his magnum opus), before, had brought the play The Rainmaker ready had a hugely successful theatre ca - The Misfits, Cleopatra, The Children’s Hour, to the screen for Paramount. Of course, it reer and stage work is what she preferred, All Fall Down, Cheyenne Autumn, The would be just a few years later when The making only a total of five films before going Agony and the Ecstasy, Who’s Afraid of Vir - Matchmaker would undergo yet another on to become a TV star in the hit series ginia Woolf, The Shoes of the Fisherman , transformation, this time being turned into Hazel . She made her final two films in 1958 the TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man – a big, splashy hit Broadway musical, Hello, and both of them are represented on this right into the 1980s with Carny, Prizzi’s Dolly! world premiere CD release. Honor and The Dead . And he’s one of the few film composers who have had the good The film of The Matchmaker is a wonderful, Hot Spell , based on a novel by Lonnie Cole - fortune to write a huge pop hit – “Unchained charming comedy, with expert perform - man, had a powerhouse cast; in addition to Melody” – one of the most enduring pop ances by the entire cast. Helping the fun im - Booth, the film starred , classics ever written. Nominated for fifteen measurably is the score by Adolph Deutsch, Shirley MacLaine, Earl Holliman and Eileen , North never won, but was which captures the homespun Americana Heckart. The story concerns a loving and given an honorary Oscar in 1986. beautifully. His music includes quotes from devoted housewife, Alma Duval (Booth), traditional music of the era (“Buffalo Gals”), who clings to the past when things were North’s Hot Spell score is all yearning, delu - but is also filled with his own wonderful, simpler and better and who tries to cling to sion and heartbreak. His music is truly the melodic themes. Deutsch wittily under - her philandering husband (Quinn). She also spine of the film and illuminates the drama scores the monologues of various charac - tries to cling to her three grown, not-so-lov - and the characters – their hopes, their ters delivered straight to the camera, or ing children (MacLaine, Holliman, and Clint dreams, their heartaches. Thanks to North budding love, and Dolly’s machinations to Kimbrough), but it’s all a fantasy. Alma and the actors (as well as the excellent writ - bring everyone together in blissful happi - would like nothing more than to escape into ing and directing), what could have easily ness – including her own. the past, to get out of the city and its swel - devolved into a melodramatic potboiler be - tering heat and back to her happier times, comes a compelling character-driven Deutsch was a really unsung film composer, 20 years ago. Her husband eventually takes drama. especially considering the large number of a powder with another woman and it ends huge hit films he worked on. Although his tragically. But Alma learns that you can’t go Shirley Booth’s other star turn that year was name is not that well known today, he wrote home again and finally accepts that life the polar opposite of Hot Spell: the delightful some absolutely stellar scores during his must go on. film adaptation of ’s popular long career, including the music for such all- stage success, The Matchmaker. The time classics as They Drive by Night, High The film’s screenplay by James Poe is Matchmaker has a rather unusual and col - Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, The Mask of clearly in Tennessee Williams and William orful lineage. It began life as a one-act play Dimitrios, Father of the Bride, Tea and Sym - Inge territory. Booth has a field day with her written in 1835 by John Oxenford, entitled pathy, Some Like it Hot and The Apartment . role – delusional, flighty, and eternally opti - A Day Well Spent. In 1842, the one-act was He also worked on quite a few classic mu - mistic in the face of the drama around her. turned into a full-length play called Einen sicals, including Seven Brides for Seven She’d already made two films with Hot Jux will er sich machen by Austrian play - Brothers, Annie Get Your Gun, The Band Spell’s director, – Come Back, wright Johann Nestroy. Flash forward to Wagon, Show Boat, Oklahoma! and Funny Little Sheba and About Miss Leslie . Quinn 1938 – when playwright Thornton Wilder Face . During his long career, he took home is powerful in his role as someone who adapted the Austrian play into The Mer - three Academy Awards (Annie Get Your doesn’t want to be clung to and whose mid- chant of Yonkers , which was a 39-perfor - Gun, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and life crisis results in tragedy for everyone. mance dud on Broadway. In 1954, director Oklahoma!) . Deutsch retired from film in MacLaine was wonderfully fresh and unique Tyrone Guthrie became interested in doing 1961 and passed away in 1980 at the ripe at this point in her career – there wasn’t the play, and Wilder rewrote it exten sively, old age of 83. anyone else quite like her working in movies retitling it The Matchmaker .The most signif - – and Holliman and Heckart both shine. icant change he made was taking a second - So, two great Golden Age scores – one ary character named steamy and tragic, one charming and de - The score for Hot Spell was by the brilliant and making her the lead. That version lightful – by two great composers: Alex Alex North. By that point in his career, North opened on Broadway in 1955 and ran for North and Adolph Deutsch. had been composing for films 486 performances. since 1951, when he came out swinging — Bruce Kimmel with three incredible scores – The 13th Let - Three years later, Paramount brought it to ter, A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of the screen, starring Booth as Dolly Gal - a Salesman (he received Oscar nomina - lagher Levi, as Horace Van - tions for both Streetcar and Salesman) . He dergelder, as Cornelius,