8mm Forum: Recycled film themes.

This is topic Recycled film themes. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Robert Crewdson (Member # 3790) on July 24, 2013, 08:58 AM:

Last night I was watching a DVD (Sorry), 'A Yank in the R.A.F (1941), with Tyrone Power, and the theme music seemed familiar; it was H. Walford Davies 'March Past', and was used in the 1952 film 'Angels one Five' (1952), with Jack Hawkins. I wondered how many other films members had come across with the same theme tune. Others I have come across are 'In the Wake of the Bounty'(1933), and 'Captain Kidd' (1945), they both use Mendelssohn's Fingals Cave: and 'Dodge City' (1939), and 'San Antonio (1945), they both use the same theme composed by Max Steiner. I think Gary Cooper's 'Distant Drums' used the same theme as another western, but I don't recall which one.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 24, 2013, 11:40 AM:

"Have A Good Funeral, Sartana Will Pay" is the same as "Fighting
Fists of Shanghai Joe", composed by Bruno Nicolai.

Posted by Ernie Zahn (Member # 274) on July 24, 2013, 03:15 PM:

The theme for the three person showdown at the end of "For a Few Dollars More" is updated in the theme for the three person draw at the end of "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"

Both of course by Morricone.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 24, 2013, 08:15 PM:

"Clint The Stranger" uses the scores from "The Hellbenders" &
"Companeros", "Death Rides A Horse" re uses parts of "A Fistful
of Dollars", although Tarantino has forged a very successful
career of using music fron the Italian Western. The Chinese Film
Industry went through a phase of doing this with their Kung Fu
epics, a habit that since died out.

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on July 25, 2013, 03:10 PM:

Two examples of "recycled film music" spring to my mind:

First, the Universal sci-fi and monster pictures of the 1950s all seem to use and reuse the same (or doggone similar) musical themes. It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, This Island Earth, et cetera, all have very, very similar scores.

Second, remember the controversy a few years ago when Best Picture winner The Artist recycled some of Bernard Herrmann's music from Vertigo?

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 25, 2013, 04:17 PM:

That post David, has triggered another line, remember "Night of the Living Dead" & "The Hideous Sun Demon", they use Library
scores that have turned up in other films, such as westerns with
Randolph Scott.

Posted by Thomas Murin, Jr. (Member # 1745) on July 25, 2013, 04:27 PM:

Roger Corman infamously re-used James Horner's score for Battle Beyond The Stars in scores of sci-fi movies and trailers.

John Williams took the "villans march" from Superman and re-worked it into the Ewoks theme in Return Of The Jedi.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 25, 2013, 04:39 PM:

The early B/w films of Ray Harryhausen, used the scores of
Mischa Bakaleinikoff, which I understand was the only music
available to suit this type of film (library).Used in many horror/sci/fi
Films at that time.

[ July 25, 2013, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: Hugh Thompson Scott ]

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 25, 2013, 07:22 PM:

There was one of the Chinese kung fu jobs that used the Pink
Floyd "Astronomy Domine" theme which was a bridge too far.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on July 26, 2013, 11:25 AM:

To add to David's post, Universal also used the main theme from Creature From the Black Lagoon in the English version of King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Doug

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