Few stories have been told as often on the screen as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; and few of those screen tellings are as peculiar (and unsuccessful) as 1985's The Bride, directed by Franc Roddam.  It was an attempt to lure trendy youngsters to the cinema, and to that end starred Sting and Jennifer Beals, with naff 1980s hair-dos.  Despite this attempt to catch the younger audience, Roddam turned to Maurice Jarre for the music, one of the few composers around at the time who would have been able to really capture the spirit of Franz Waxman's score for the very first Frankenstein adaptation in 1935.

Jarre's lush, romantic music is one of the real gems of his career.  His big theme, presented in the opening track, combines ondes martenot and full orchestra.  Heard a few times through the score, it's a memorable and highly-attractive piece.  "Frankenstein" is a surprising, comic piece that seems a little out of place, thought the film was made in such a way that for the most part the music was limited to short bridges between scenes, meaning that the producers of the album essentially picked the twelve longest pieces (some of which didn't make the final cut of the movie).

The score was released on the Varese CD Club in July 2002, and promptly sold out - the decision to press only 1,000 copies does seem a little odd.  But if you can find it, you're unlikely to be disappointed.  Packaging from the CD Club is as you may expect (though the liner notes, by Paul Tonks, are shorter than usual, informative though they are); sound quality is crisp and ideal.  This is a big, highly-impressive score that Jarre fans - and fans of golden age-style film music in general - are bound to love.  Highly recommended.

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