ELEPHANT WALK • BOTANY BAY • STALAG 17 FRANZ WAXMAN AT PARAMOUNT Franz Waxman at Paramount . One great including his splendid dramatic action cue for of 472 performances. In 1953, it was brought composer, one great studio, and an aston - the film’s climactic “Elephant Stampede.” to the screen by Paramount Pictures and di - ishing batch of scores. If Waxman had writ - While it’s a shame that the entire score rector Billy Wilder. Wilder also wrote the ten only Sunset Blvd. and A Place in the Sun hasn’t survived, the cues presented here – screenplay (with Edwin Blum) and altered for Paramount he would have been assured in beautiful-sounding stereo – are an excel - certain aspects of the play significantly. The his place in the pantheon of great film com - lent representation of Waxman’s contribution film starred William Holden, who won an posers. But he wrote many other fantastic to the film. Oscar for his performance. Lembeck and scores for the studio as well, including Sorry, Strauss repeated their roles from the stage Wrong Number, Alias Nick Beal, Rope of SAVAGE version (Strauss received a supporting actor Sand, The Furies, Dark City, Come Back, Lit - AS THE GREAT CONTINENT nomination). Also appearing were Richard tle Sheba, Rear Window, Career, and the THEY INVADED! Erdman, Don Taylor, Peter Graves, Sig three scores we’re offering on this world pre - Ruman and Gil Stratton. But the most auda - miere CD release: Elephant Walk, Botany Next up is the 1953 Paramount film Botany cious casting in the film is Wilder’s stroke of Bay, and Stalag 17 . The films are as different Bay , starring Alan Ladd, James Mason, Pa - genius: film director Otto Preminger as the as can be, but Franz Waxman brings his mu - tricia Medina, Cedric Hardwicke, and Murray German prison camp’s commandant. For sical genius to each. For all three scores we Matheson. The screenplay was by Jonathan Preminger, Wilder wrote some of his most present all of the surviving musical cues. Latimer (The Glass Key, The Big Clock, Night classic lines (“All right, gentlemen, we are all Has a Thousand Eyes) from the novel by friends again. And with Christmas coming ONE MAN CLAIMED THE LAND. Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, on I have a special treat for you. I’ll have you who, of course, had written the hugely suc - all deloused for the holidays.” “Nobody has TWO MEN CLAIMED THE WOMAN cessful Mutiny on the Bounty . In the direc - ever escaped from Stalag 17. Not alive, any - WHO LIVED THERE. tor’s chair was the great John Farrow (father way.” “Curtains would do wonders for this bar - We begin our triple bill with Elephant Walk , of Mia), who’d already made such terrific racks. You will not get them.”). a Paramount picture from 1954, which films as The Big Clock, Blaze of Noon, Alias starred Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Finch and Nick Beal, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, His Stalag 17 is one of the great prisoner-of-war Dana Andrews. Adapted by John Lee Mahin Kind of Woman and, the same year as films, right up there with The Great Escape from the novel by Robert Standish (a pseu - Botany Bay, Hondo . and The Bridge on the River Kwai, both of donym for English novelist Digby George which came later. There are a great many Gerahty), and directed by William Dieterle, The plot is classic Nordhoff and Hall mate - laugh-out-loud Wilderesque moments in the Elephant Walk is the story of a wealthy colo - rial: in 1787 a group of prisoners from New - film, as well as a good deal of suspense. The nial tea planter named John Wiley (Peter gate jail are shipped to Botany Bay, New main plot point is as simple as can be: There Finch), who, when visiting England, woos South Wales, to found a new penal colony. is a Nazi spy in Barracks Four and no one and weds a beautiful English woman named We learn that one of the prisoners, Hugh Tal - knows who it is, although everyone suspects Rose (Elizabeth Taylor, looking as lovely as lant (Alan Ladd), an American medical stu - it is the cynical Sefton (William Holden). It’s she ever did). He takes her home to his plan - dent, was wrongly imprisoned. Along the a brilliantly written and directed film (Wilder tation in Ceylon, but melodrama is just way, Tallant clashes with the ship’s nasty and received an Oscar nomination for direction), around the corner. Problems include Ruth sadistic captain (James Mason) and begins with beautiful black-and-white photography feeling isolated as the only white woman in to plot a full-scale mutiny. by Ernest Laszlo (D.O.A, Apache, Vera Cruz, the area, and her growing attraction to plan - Kiss Me, Deadly, Inherit the Wind, Judgment tation manager Dick Carver (Dana Andrews) Once again, Waxman’s “Prelude and Fore - at Nuremburg, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad – not to mention those pesky titular ele - word” sets the tone of the film and its tale. World, Star!, Airport) , and taut editing, once phants who do not like the plantation be - From there Waxman provides a textbook on again by George Tomasini. The film was a cause it blocks their migrating path. film scoring, with adventure and drama on huge hit with both audiences and critics and the high seas, with heroes and villains, with became an instant classic. The film was beautifully put together, with drama and suspense – all with the classic gorgeous photography by Loyal Griggs Waxman sound. Happily, the majority of the For the film, Franz Waxman came up with a (Shane, White Christmas, The Ten Com - score cues have survived for Botany Bay – brief but perfect score, utilizing “When mandments) , the usual great costumes of close to forty minutes of music, all in crisp, Johnny Comes Marching Home” as its basis. Edith Head, and editing by George Tomasini, clear mono sound. Otherwise, it’s percussion and brief bits of who, that same year, began a long and fruit - scoring that work wonderfully well in the film. ful collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. Ele - “THERE ARE TWO PEOPLE Again, Waxman’s innate approach to mate - phant Walk received mixed reviews, but IN THIS BARRACKS rial and his knowing when music is neces - everyone agreed about the beautiful Griggs WHO KNOW I DIDN’T DO IT. sary and when it isn’t is what made him one photography and the outstanding score by ME AND THE GUY of the greatest film composers in the history Franz Waxman. THAT DID DO IT.” of movies. The main title, with its propulsive drums and treatment of “When Johnny Right from the first chords of the “Prelude,” Stalag 17 , the last of our Waxman triple bill, Comes Marching Home,” is the perfect start its lush theme transporting us immediately began life as a stage play written by Donald to the film. We present the surviving tracks into the world of the film, we know we are in Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. It opened on in mono, as they were recorded. the safe and brilliant hands of a composer at May 8, 1951, at the 48th Street Theater, di - the top of his game. What follows demon - rected by Jose Ferrer, and featured among — Bruce Kimmel strates Waxman’s usual adeptness at cap - its large cast John Ericson, Harvey Lembeck turing mood, incident and characters, and Robert Strauss. It had a very healthy run.