Sunday, February 2, 2020

Dick Hyman - Theme to Moonstruck

Continuing the film soundtrack theme suggested by The Queen Of The World, an interesting compositional challenge was for the 1987 film Moonstruck.  It was a surprise critical and box office success, where the romantic comedy story was hung around some serious classical music (to wit: Puccini's opera La Bohème).  The music he had to compose needed to fit in with and enhance this:



This is one of the most famous arias in history.  How do you top that?  Dick Hyman was trained not only classically but in jazz.  He combined classical/old world themes with light jazz throughout the film score which fit in perfectly with the light romantic comedy.  It's actually quite an achievement, and in fact similar to Puccini's master work: you wouldn't listen to most of the opera bits by itself, but they connect the grand arias.  The theme to the film gives you a distinct flavor of the soundtrack:



The Queen Of The World and I love this film.  It's funny and smart and a great way to fill a cold and rainy winter weekend afternoon.  This scene contains dialog frequently heard in the halls of Castle Borepatch:



I love ya awful is a line with real staying power.  At least if you're as lucky as I am.

3 comments:

libertyman said...

Great scene, looks like Cher does a great job.

I always like Steve Allen's line in a skit about how each one was trying to express their love for one another, each one trying to outdo the other. Steve's line " I love you so much it makes me sick."

Borepatch said...

Libertyman, she was outstanding in this. As a matter of fact, she won the Best Actress Oscar.

LSP said...

Nice, and you dragged me away from Motorhead to listen to Puccini. Hmmmm.