Many film composers, old and new, get typecast and end up stuck in a rut from which they never really manage to escape, a rut that in many cases disguises the amount of talent brimming to get out.  Alex North was typecast - but in a completely different way.  Somehow, he managed to get typecast into scoring serious, high-quality adult drama (something Thomas Newman would also manage several decades down the line).  Whether it was well-remembered fare like A Streetcar Named Desire or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or less well-known movies like The Sound and the Fury or All Fall Down, North seemed to find himself almost permanently attached to films that actually had something to say rather than your traditional popcorn fare (though there were notable exceptions, of course).

All Fall Down starred the beautiful Eva Marie Saint and then-newcomer Warren Beatty, and was directed by John Frankenheimer.  It tells of the distruptive influence of a young man over his traditional-minded parents.  North scored several films like this, often using what I've come to term "scource" music - half-score, half-source.  Of course, in the movie it's all used as dramatic underscore, but the jazz style employed by the composer is as much concerned with setting the time and place as it is at emphasising the drama, which North does as brilliantly as ever.  

The jazz is slightly more restrained than usual, with few "all-out-assaults" as could be heard in The Sound and the Fury or The Long, Hot Summer - but it's still very effective and very intelligent in its construction.  There is of course more traditional underscore from time to time, most notably the first half of the thunderous "Trouble / Shut Up" - it may feature a couple of brass outbursts but by and large its thunderousness comes despite a small ensemble, showing off North's gift for orchestration.  It's the best cue on the album, and does indeed go on to become some really hot, loud jazz.

A lot of it is relatively low-key by North's standards, but as ever with the composer he never wastes a bar of music, never just puts it there for the sake of it.  Every note means something.  It lacks the wealth of killer moments to make it stand alongside his finest work, but it's still a more-than-welcome addition to a North fan's collection.

Film Score Monthly's album includes a 15-minute suite from North's score for Martin Ritt's obscure western The Outrage as a bonus.  It's a lovely score, composed in North's inimitable style that he employed in various westerns, showcasing his little-appreciated gift for melody while always including an air of tension and mystery.  For a smallish ensemble emphasising flute, violin, guitar and percussion, it's a really lovely score, in some ways outshining the album's main attraction.

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