Erich Wolfgang Korngold won the Oscar for this score in 1938 - the very first composer to receive the Academy Award. Before that, the Oscar went to the head of the Studio's music department. A child prodigy in Vienna be was a professor at the Vienna State Academy when the Nazis began their rise to power. Invited to Hollywood, he became one of their standout composers, writing the score for some of Errol Flynn's great swashbuckling epics (this one and Captain Blood).
Back at State U the Fencing Club did a fundraising movie series of swashbuckling films. They were all packed, and everyone had a great time. Check them out on NetFlix or Prime (or you can probably score a DVD on the cheap) - they're still great fun. And the music is top shelf.
If a movie stars Errol Flynn and has an Erich Korngold score, I'll be sitting 12th row center waiting for the overture to start...
ReplyDeleteThe best Robin Hood music for the best Robin Hood movie.
ReplyDeleteLove it when Robin tosses the dead deer carcass onto the feast table. Which Errol Flynn actually did, tossing a deer carcass.
I still hum the theme music.
And... Olivia de Havelland is smoking hot in that silver silk dress with the 'Y' belt. Fully covered and more sexy than most unclothed women.
If Errol Flynn is in a movie with an Erich Korngold score, I'll be sitting twelfth row center, waiting for the overture to begin.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest soundtracks to come out of Hollywood, and that's saying a lot. Of COURSE it won the Oscar!
ReplyDeleteHollywood in the mid-late 1930s and early-mid 1940s was in its "golden age". Far too many great movies to mention, with far too many great soundtracks to mention, by far too many composers who created far too many movie themes that are still "quoted" by today's "composers".
By the late 1960's, Hollywood was beginning a shift toward political narratives meant to "reveal the problems in society". Movies stopped being escapist entertainment and became "important" (using their own term for movies that were boring rather than enjoyed).
Today, Hollywood isn't even a faint echo of its greatness. There are very rare exceptions, but those are mostly "indie" productions where the story line, dialogue, and acting aren't "in your face". Marvel movies are live-action cartoons. CGI, interminable car chases (you know which movies I mean), too many gratuitous sex scenes, no clear defining line between "the good guys" and "the bad guys", and lectures about how evil we are as a society -- these aren't why we went to "the movies".
I watch TCM. There's usually something good playing.
Don't forget the real star -- Golden Cloud! Maid Marion's horse made his debut in this film and later went on to immortality as Roy Rogers' Trigger!!
ReplyDeleteI actually prefer the soundtrack to the 'The Sea Hawk'. :(
ReplyDeleteWith Flynn...and of course, soundtrack by Erich, once again.
ReplyDeleteWhich proves the point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV58pS_YIPA
And after listening to this again in the symphony version, someone tell young Johnny Williams he owes Korngold's estate a nickel royalty for his Star Wars and Raiders derivatives.