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Artwork copyright (c) 1993 Warner Bros.; review copyright (c) 2004 James Southall
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DENNIS THE MENACE Rambunctious
comedy score A review by JAMES SOUTHALL Dennis the Menace is pretty much a one-off in Jerry
Goldsmith's filmography, a children's comedy from producer John Hughes based on
the popular cartoon (which was based on the popular comic strip). No doubt
everyone was hoping to recreate the success of Home Alone from the same
producer, but as ever Goldsmith ended up getting shafted and, once again,
playing bridesmaid to John Williams. (It's interesting to speculate just
how different the world of film music might be today if the pair's luck had gone
the other way round, if Goldsmith had got it all instead of Williams - but
that's probably for another time and place.) Goldsmith's comedy scores are a mixed bag. There are his
ones for Joe Dante, but those movies are mostly wickedly funny and probably more
fun for adults than children (though the latter can of course enjoy them too),
resulting in scores that keep their tongues firmly in cheek. Otherwise, he
has rarely tackled comedy, and here he breaks the golden rule set by Elmer
Bernstein and John Landis on Animal House that comedy music shouldn't
attempt to be funny. It follows every twist and turn of the action
on-screen and so can be a little schizophrenic, but the composer manages to keep
it impressively musical and it never seems quite so disjointed as most scores
for this type of film are. The album opens with a great main theme, the most boistrous to
come from the composer since The Secret of NIMH a decade earlier.
Featuring prominently are tuba and harmonica (as they do through the whole
score) and Goldsmith injects real energy and vitality. (It's strangely
similar to the composer's classic theme for The Great Train Robbery, a
classic - just imagine if Joe Dante made a remake of it, well this is probably
how the theme would sound!) Most of the score drives by at a cracking
pace, though there are a few moments for calm, such as the beautiful, tender
piano solo in "The Shaggy Dog Story". There's some entertaining
action music, like "The Heist", which is great fun, again moving along
very quickly, with real energy; and also the particularly impressive
"Beans". Things end on a great note with the fun "Toasted
Marshmallow". This sort of thing probably isn't Goldsmith's strongpoint, but
he pulls Dennis the Menace off with some aplomb. It's a lot more
coherent than most kids' comedy scores are, has a great main theme (it's worth
it just for that) and is a lot of fun. Of course, it is hardly a
substantial work of Goldsmith's career, but it is a nice example of his lighter
side. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here! Tracks
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