Preminger and Music
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Otto Preminger
upsidedownjenny — 19 years ago(September 13, 2006 06:50 PM)
I'm just getting into Otto Preminger and have seen a trend of using musicians and their music in his movies. Duke Ellington is in 'Anatomy of a Murder' and his music is used. The Zombies are in 'Bunny Lake Is Missing' and their music is used. I have not seen 'The Man with The Golden Arm', but I know it stars Sinatra, but I do not think his music is used.
Any thoughts on Preminger and his use of musicians and their music? Was this pressure from the studios? Was he into music (including Duke Ellington and the Zombies)?
Any insight would be appreciated. -
GrigoryGirl — 17 years ago(September 05, 2008 11:35 PM)
I don't think it was any conscious decision to "use" musicians. I think it's a coincidence.
In Otto's films, music is used quite sparingly. Most films use music as a blatant way of telling viewers how to feel. Preminger's films don't do that. I admire that about his work. He's a great, complex filmmaker. -
Pythe — 17 years ago(December 12, 2008 09:34 PM)
You know, Preminger used to hire the composers for his films when the script was being written and have them show up on set so that they would become a part of the film, rather than just scoring it after it had been put together already like composers do on most productions.
He also gave many journalists and gossip columnists cameos in his later films so they'd be inclined to talk about the film favorably later on. But that's another matter.Finally I can stop suffering and write that symphony!
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ScopeWatcher — 10 years ago(October 20, 2015 09:56 AM)
This is an old thread; but since there's something I can add, I'll do it (even if no one opens this thread for a few
more
years).
You know, Preminger used to hire the composers for his films when the script was being written and have them show up on set so that they would become a part of the film, rather than just scoring it after it had been put together already like composers do on most productions.
He also gave many journalists and gossip columnists cameos in his later films so they'd be inclined to talk about the film favorably later on. But that's another matter.
Preminger hired my favorite film composer, Jerry Goldsmith, to score IN HARM'S WAY and following the Preminger pattern identified by the previous poster, Herr Otto flew the composer out to hang around the Hawaiian locations for many weeks before he'd be able to start writing the final score. (He also gave Goldsmith the first cameo appearance of b68his career, as the silent bandleader at the naval officers' party in the opening sequence of IN HARM'S WAY.)
As a film-music buff, though, two odd things eventually occurred to me about Preminger. After he became an independent producer/director, I don't think he ever hired the same composer twice; and regardless of which studio released a Preminger picture, its soundtrack album was always issued by the RCA label. (Except for ANATOMY OF A MURDER, because of composer Duke Ellington's contract with Columbia Records.)
I solved the latter detail after learning that Preminger's brother, Ingo, was a honcho at RCA. But after considering the director's brutal treatment of such actors as Linda Darnell, Dorothy Dandridge, Brock Peters, and Tom Tryon as well as the musicians Goldsmith AND, apparently, Ernest Gold of EXODUS, in post-production perhaps no composer
wanted
to work for Preminger twice!
Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get
.