We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
(Visited 1,785 times)
We figured it was time to have a place to talk about Steve’s latest video subjects that do not have an UMR page.
When I was watching films like Stalag 17 and Sayonara I was aged between 12 and 16 was interested in only Golden Holden and Ole Mumbles and couldn’t have cared less who composed the music, so I have had to do some quick research on Franz.
His filmography on Wikipedia tells me that he was involved as a composer for 18 of the films that I have seen, dating mostly from 1940 and in fact I grew up with 1950s movies of Franz such as Peyton Place, Demetrius and the Gladiators and Rear Window [for me Hitch’s best movie apart from maybe Psycho]. IMDB ranks Franz 12th among the greatest movie composers of all time so your selection of him to profile has obviously been a wise one, as was your choice of Max Steiner whom IMDB ranks 4th among the Great film composers. John Williams is 1st on the list.
IMDB updates its lists all the time and it is ironic that [as Sayonara fronts your Waxman video] alongside IMDB’s composers’ list is the Greatest Actors /Actresses of All Time. Here is the top 15 as of 2016.
1/Marlon Brando
2/Meryl Streep [Ranking maybe influenced by modern hype]
3/Spencer Tracy [Ouch!]
4/Katharine Hepburn
5/Tom Hanks
6/Jane Fonda
7/Henry Fonda
8/Bette Davis
9/Jack Nicholson [Yes!]
10/Robert DeNiro
11/Daniel Day Lewis
12/ Jennifer Jones [1st time I’ve seen her so high]
13/Audrey Hepburn
14/Gregory Peck [Horray!]
15/Sir Anthony Hopkins [This pleases me too!]
Added Steve’s Max Steiner Video To The Page. Our Thoughts Shared on his Channel.
“Hmmm…not the most famous music composer I know. Seen #39 Night and Day…huge hit, bad movie #37 Battle Cry….one of my dad’s favorites. #36 The Fountainhead…an ok drama. #31 The FBI Story….movie is uneven…the documentary style to be blamed? #30 Charge of Errol Brigade…fun movie #29 City For Conquest…Cagney’s acting in this one is rough #28 Of Human Bondage…the movie that made Bette a star #27 Dodge City…one of Flynn’s better westerns #26 Died With Boots On…Flynn shines as Custard #25 Since You Went Away…another massive hit. #24 Emile Zoa…Muni deserved his Oscar for this one #20 Dark Victory….soap opera masterpiece #21 The Informer….an ok movie….even with John Ford as director #19 Johnny Belinda..Oscar win for Wyman #18 Jezebel…Oscar win for Davis #17 Gay Divorcee…one of my favorite Fred and Ginger movies #16 Watch on the Rhine..Oscar win for Lukas #15 Arsenic and Old Lace…fun Grant screwball comedy #14 The Letter..one of my favorite Davis movies #13 Sgt. York…Oscar win for Cooper #12 Caine Mutiny….great performances in this one #11 Mildred Pierce..Oscar win for Joan #10 Now Voyager…cult classic #9 Key Largo…Oscar win for Trevor #8 White Heat…my favorite Cagney movie #7 Angels With Dirty Faces…great gangster movie #6 King King…ah…now I understand how he got a video…lol. #5 The Big Sleep…one of Bogie’s best movies #4 The Searchers…one of the greatest westerns of all-time #3 Treasure of Sierre Madre…Oscar win for Huston #2 Gone With Wind…Oscar wins for McDonald and Leigh…#1 Casablanca…..all time great movie….sweet Top two. So that is 31 seen…including Top 21….no idea I had seen so many of his movies. Voted up and shared. Good video.”
Hi Bruce, thanks for the epic post, mini-reviews, share and vote, it is most appreciated. You’ve seen more Max Steiner films than I have, my tally 21, Flora 35. I actually bought the soundtrack LP to Steiner’s King Kong way back in the 1970s. Big fan of the movie.
Added Steve’s Franz Waxman Video To The Page. Our thoughts on his page.
“I know many of his movies, yet the name Franz Waxman…has remained pretty much unknown to me. Maybe I should pay more attention to the credits. Overall I have seen 24 of these movies. 22 of the top 30. I really struggle with the bottom 10. Favorites would include #4 The Philadephia Story, #5 Mister Roberts and #21 Run Silent, Run Deep. His Top 10 is filled with all time classics….Rebecca, Sunset Blvd and The Bride of Frankenstein….just to name a few. Voted up and shared. Good pick.”
Hi Bruce, our tally’s tie at 24, Flora has seen 32 of the 40 listed here. Waxman has 165 movie credits listed at IMDB, it wasn’t easy sifting thru all that. His themes for Bride of Frankenstein turned up in various serials of the 30s and 40s. Thanks again for the vote, share and comment, always appreciated.
From the late 1920s until the mid-1960s Max Steiner’s film output was massively prolific. I never saw many of his 1930s ones but looking at his complete career filmography on Wikipedia I calculate that overall I have seen 48 of those that he composed for from 1940 until 1965, though the 1940 releases I caught up with via television re-runs. IMDB credits Max with 9 acting awards and 31 nominations. I have rated your video 98%.
Best POSTERS 40-21 FL=Foreign Language (1) Garden of Allah (2) Night & Day (3) FL Passage to Marseilles (4) Flame & Arrow (5) FBI Story (6) FL Charge of Light Brigade (7) 2 for Dodge City (8) FL Died with Boots On (9) A Star is Born and (10) The Informer [“A man who couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag is Victor McLaglan” – Bogie]
MY FAVE POSTERS 1-20 (1) Johnny Belinda (2) Jezebel (3) Sgt York (4) FL Caine Mutiny (5) FL Key Largo (6) FL Angels wit Dirty Faces (7) The Searchers (8) 2nd one for Treasure Sierra Madre (9) 3rd one for Gone with the Wind (10) FL White Heat and (11) FL Casablanca.
STILLS ENTIRE VIDEO I think I liked almost all of them and certainly much admired these (1) Fountainhead (2) Burt & Ginny (3) Dodge City (4) Died with Boots On (5) Arsenic & Old Lace (6) Caine Mutiny (7) behind scenes Now Voyager (8) Kong! (9) Big Sleep (10) Searchers (11) Treasure of Sierra Madre (12) “Frankly my dear I don’t give a d***!” and (13) ”Play It Again Sam!” – 2 stills.
Par excellence – welcome back!
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, and info, much appreciated.
Glad you liked the posters, stills and lobby cards.
Well I was getting a bit bored with actors and actresses (cue gasps, a yelp and a fainting in the back row), so I thought I’d give film composers a go.
It’s just a shame I can’t use film music for the videos because of copyright problems – so I have to scour the youtube audio library for suitable background noise.
Max Steiner was one of the first big Hollywood composers, his music for King Kong (1933) was a landmark of film scoring, it was all new wall to wall music, there was no use of classical music or songs, the score was an integral part of the film and made it more exciting.
Steiner’s most famous score was for Gone With the Wind but he lost out to Herbert Stothart for The Wizard of Oz at the Oscars that year. The biggest upset though was Clark Gable losing to Robert Donat that year.
16 films scored 10 out of 10 in Max Steiner’s top 40, 10 films scored 9 out of 10.
This was more of a selection of high scoring or notable Max Steiner films than a real countdown, he worked on more than 200 films so I just wanted to be sure most of his best known films were on the list. I’m sure there are favorites that fell thru the net. I’ve already spotted a few with regret.
I could produce an alternative top 40 video for Steiner, with less famous films and it might be more fascinating poster-wise. 🙂
Another great Hollywood composer coming up later today.
HI STEVE Thanks for the feedback. I didn’t know Max had composed for as many as 200 movies – wow! As this is your first in a series on composers please bear in mind that composing music for movies was among the many other things at which HIRSCH was a failure, at least in relative terms.
Those others included rock singing [he was no Little Richard] night club entertaining [not Sammy Davis Jr was our Joel] and film critic [the great names that immediately come to mind there are the likes of David Shipman and Bosley Crowther].
The Master did for example win Oscars in the Best Music/Song category for Towering Inferno and Poseidon Adventure. However, he had to share those awards with fellow composer Al Kasher who I gather contributed around 99% of the input. The Master’s role was apparently confined to giving Kasha feedback by humming and/or singing along with what Al was composing. [May I therefore suggest a video on AL KASHER’s career?]
As a matter of interest, the all-time composers OVERALL who have most influenced me are the operatic and classical/art song Giants such as Bizet [Carmen] Mozart [Don Giovanni] Verdi [Rigoletto] Rachmaninoff [To the Children and How Fair This Spot] your your own England’s wonderful Edward Elgar [Is She not Passing Fair?and The Dream of Gerontius] and Puccini [La Boheme].
My fave composers for MOVIES are Erich Wolfgang Korngold [The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf and Kings Row] and Dimitri Tiomkin [Guns of Navarone, High Noon and Gunfight at OK Corral [1957] but I certainly look forward to your subsequent composer videos whoever the subjects may be.
Just added Steve’s latest video on Senta Berger to the page. Out thoughts on the video and her career.
“Hmmm…..not even sure if I have ever seen her name before. Real curious if I have seen any of her movies. So let’s see. Ok….I have seen 2 of the 22….but both are in the Top 5. #4 The Quiller Memorandum and #1 Cross of Iron. I just recently saw Quiller….but it has been years since seeing Cross of Iron. I think I have only heard of about half of the movies. It is possible I saw The Ambushers….seems I saw bits and pieces of the Matt Helms movies growing up…just not sure which ones I watched. I have always wanted to see #8 The Glory Guys….as it is one of James Caan’s first movies. Nice video….educational and interesting. Vote up and shared.”
Thanks Bruce, appreciate the comment, vote and share. Your tally 2, Flora and I have seen 7. I’d like to see The Glory Guys, and The Victors too, interesting cast.