The Hammer Film Music Collection, Vol. 1

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Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0766485262929 Format: Soundtrack Label: Import Manufacturer: Import Publisher: Import Release Date: 2000-12-19 Running Time: 55 Studio: Import
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Editorial Reviews: This album is the first of two lovingly produced anthologies of original soundtrack themes from Hammer Films, this volume spanning The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957), to The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires (1974). Ten of the selections are by Hammer's chief composer, James Bernard. His unforgettably bold "Dra-cu-la" theme appears in various guises, while his music from She is surprisingly tender. Franz Reizenstein's choral The Mummy is wondrously evocative, against which Mario Nascimbene offers a pair of spaghetti-flavoured themes for Hammer's dinosaur adventures. David Whitaker's waltz from Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde shows Hammer diverging from the expected "horror music". Tristram Cary provides a strikingly atonal introduction to Quatermass And The Pit, Harry Robinson paints an authentically central European portrait of Countess Dracula, and Christopher Gunning is characteristically lyrical even when portraying The Hands Of The Ripper. Inevitably the sound quality varies, but all the tracks are so utterly redolent of their particular period in film history that any technical deficiencies are happily overlooked. This is a marvellous collection, the superbly detailed booklet notes providing fascinating background information, making this an outstanding chronicle of the sheer talent and invention involved in The House of Horror. --Gary S. Dalkin
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Contains the 1958 ORIGINAL Dracula Score!! Comment: splendid CD of Hammer's output, notably the best and 100% original re-mastered 'Dracula' opening theme from (1958). I say this because it has been re-recorded in many forms, this however has the bitingly crisp percussion and booming strings 'announcing' the DRA-CU-LA three stage title. Likewise all the others are again superbly re-mastered from the original soundtracks. Bravo! More Reviews