The work that established the infant art of dramatic scoring, Max Steiner's King Kong (1933) marked the first time that music played an important role in sustaining atmosphere, storytelling, and characterisation. The film is a variation on the beauty versus beast theme, as a 50-foot ape found on an island is unwisely transported to New York with predictably chaotic results. Fay Wray stars ...
This novel venture into film music from Julia Migenes-Johnson, an artist who thrives on challenge, is pleasantly entertaining. Her singing is restrained, lovely, and successfully indulgent, while proving she's a first-class song stylist without a hint of opera-itis. While most of the orchestrations are thick and luscious, they never overpower her. But she is most pleasing in the intimate "Manha De ...