Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



DESERT FURY
Composed and Conducted by MIKLOS ROZSA
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 329

For the 1947 film Desert Fury, Paramount invested heavily in the music, budgeting nearly $44,000 for the composition and recording of the score. Miklós Rózsa, a recent Academy Award-winner already well established as the go-to composer for film noir, was brought on board. In typical Rózsa fashion from the mid-to-late forties, he used relatively brief, malleable motifs unlike the sort of long-lined, closed-form melodies that would glorify his 1950s historical/epic scores for MGM. This gives the music remarkable fluidity, allowing him to constantly manipulate his material, with a principal theme characterized by crisp dotted rhythms and an agitated, yearning quality in the melodic line.

As with Intrada’s release of The Lost Weekend, selected cues from the original optical music tracks for Desert Fury were transferred to 35mm magnetic film long ago— but only recently discovered and digitized. Two cues were never preserved (the complete, original “Bridle Trail” and “Fritzie’s Designs”). Of what remains, most survived in fairly good condition, although a few cues were too damaged to be transferred to digital. As a result, approximately 10 minutes of what Rózsa recorded for the film is gone forever, but—in compensation—nearly eight minutes of previously unheard alternates comprise the “Extras” section of this disc.

At the center of the plot in Desert Fury is Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), a 19-yearold college dropout who has returned to her Nevada home town. Her mother, Fritzie (Mary Astor), runs the local gambling establishment. When gambler Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) arrives in town, Paula is smitten. But Eddie and Fritzie are ex-lovers and Eddie is suspected of having killed his wife. Fritzie warns her daughter to stay away from him. Deputy Sheriff Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster) has unrequited love for Paula, and although Fritzie offers him money if he will propose to Paula, distracting her from Eddie, he refuses to play along...

Intrada Special Collection Vol. 329
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Considering a couple of comments I've seen, I'm stepping out of the film music past to enthusiastically recommend Miklos Rozsa's absurdly neglected music for the 1947 film "Desert Fury." For several years I was very peripherally involved with film music reconstructionist John Morgan and conductor Bill Stromberg on a terrific series of film music recordings for the Naxos/Marco Polo label. One of them, "Moby Dick," has just been reissued on the budget label Naxos -- and with surprisingly complete liner notes.

Although Bill and John never devoted an entire album to the music of Rozsa in this groundbreaking series, John and I did discuss a "desert album" of Rozsa music, including Rozsa's score for "Five Graves to Cairo." We also discussed a 35-minute suite of Rozsa's music for "Desert Fury," just because the score is so striking, easily among the composer's very best.

The "Desert Fury" score has a ferocious main title and opening sequence; arguably the most ravishingly beautiful love music Rozsa ever wrote; and some exciting chase music to rival any ever written for the cinema. There are other nuggets as well, including two engaging sequences in which Rozsa seems to be lovingly aping Aaron Copland's Western music before giving over to the natural pull of Hungarian folk song. And there's another fun bit where Rozsa employs the banalities of popular song before magically transforming it into a darkly brooding passage of the sort that only he could write. And, well, I just love that artful passage for the scene where Paula (Lizabeth Scott) is "grounded" by her mother and is stewing in her room.

In short, this is Exhibit A among film scores absurdly neglected because the films themselves failed to match the quality of work by their composers. And while I regret that John and Bill didn't get to this score (but then look at all that they did get to in their work for Naxos and then under their own banner at Tribute!), I'm absolutely thrilled to see that the Intrada team and their friends have rescued the archival tracks to Rozsa's remarkable music for this admittedly so-so (but gorgeously photographed) film. I'm very eager to discover what all has survived!

Bill Whitaker

I quite agree with your comments Bill. I sure miss those fantastic Morgan / Stromberg CDs. I still go back often and play them. And your booklet notes are tops! I always hope John & Bill will be able to do a few more including ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN!

DESERT FURY is one great Rozsa score (ALL Rozsa is!), thanks Doug, Roger and the whole Intrada gang. Please try to do more Golden Age Paramount. I hope THE FURIES and FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO still exist.

By the way, perhaps I'm the last to do so but last night I finally caught up with Five Graves To Cairo for the first time. Yep. A new discovery for me. Joe Sikoryak told me to catch it the other day. He said I would love the film. I caught it and right he was. What a terrific movie! I knew very little of the plot beyond what had been written in various Rozsa articles so everything was fresh for me. With little more than a brief suite available, even the score was mostly new, too. Life has few greater pleasures to me than discovering for the first time a great film with great music to match. This was one such pleasure. Thank you, Wilder. Thank you, Rozsa... and thank you, Joe.
--Doug

Roger, can you explain what is meant by "Part of Paramount Picture's ongoing Historical CDs preservation efforts." Do they have a division devoted to developing their soundtracks? Or are they simply making them available to labels who want to rummage thru their archives?

_________________
My Intrada wish list:

The Outfit (Fielding)
The Other Side of the Mountain I (Charles Fox)


and extremely unlikely, but...
Junior Bonner
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Thanks for the nice words, Niall and Douglass. My years working with John Morgan and Bill Stromberg are fondly remembered. As a journalist, I had a terrific time interviewing directors, screenwriters, composers and orchestrators from Hollywood's golden age. Almost all of them are gone now. And considering that I seldom had scores to consult, I learned a lot about orchestration from John while analyzing the film music for the booklets. The man's knowledge is as extensive as his wit is sharp. Great time, including happy memories in Los Angeles and Moscow. Happily, John and Bill continued their important and revelatory work for Tribute after their Naxos series came to an end. Wish they were still at it!