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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

One of the strangest films in legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith's filmography, Link is also one of the strangest and, for that matter, least well-known scores of his career.  The film, starring Elisabeth Shue and Terence Stamp (what a combination!) is about a couple who live in a house with a butler, called Link, who is... an orangutan.  Well.  When Stamp decides he wants to kill Link, not surprisingly the latter is none-too-impressed and goes out of control.  Mayhem ensues.  

Goldsmith approached the film as some kind of circus adventure (as detailed by director Richard Franklin's almost laughably sincere liner notes) and went for an eclectic approach which presages, of all things, Gremlins 2.  It's got the same synth noises, the same drum machines and the same kind of infectious themes that the composer wrote for Joe Dante's equally-silly, but at least deliberately so, movie.  Those drum machines are virtually ever-present here, propelling everything along; I'm sure they will prove a stumbling block to many listeners.  Goldsmith used them a few times during the 1980s but never so much as here.  The various synthesised bells and whistles (which, at the start of the opening title piece, attempt to recreate the sounds you might here in an ape enclosure in a zoo) are another potential stumbling block.  I think it's important to get past these, though, and just discover Goldsmith having the kind of fun with a score that he had so rarely around the time, apart from the aforementioned collaboration with Dante.  Quite how all this fits in with what's meant to be a horror movie, though, I'm not quite sure.

There are three real themes, a zany "creeping around" one for Link himself, a kind of twisted action motif which isn't actually that far from the classic Gremlins theme, and a slightly more tender theme presumably for Shue's character.  The first two are present in virtually every track and are sent through variation after variation by Goldsmith, to surprisingly good effect.  To be honest there is little point describing individual tracks because they all pretty much serve up the same kind of frenzied mayhem which will, depending on your mood, lead you to come out in a broad smile or alternatively reach for your stereo's remote in double-quick time.  As I said earlier, it doesn't seem like it would go down too well in a horror film, even one as apparently-silly as this one, but on the album it is certainly appealing and great fun.  Unfortunately, this is probably the rarest Jerry Goldsmith CD there is, in the league of his other effort for the same director, Psycho 2, which makes tracking down a copy particularly difficult!

Tracks

1. Main Link (1:34)
2. Welcome Link (3:03)
3. Helpful Link (4:55)
4. Bravo Link (4:37)
5. Swinging Link (6:19)
6. Missing Link (4:43)
7. Peeping Link (3:01)
8. Mighty Link (2:39)
9. Angry Link (2:05)
10. Flaming Link (3:19)
11. End Link (3:00)