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Artwork copyright (c) 1952 Turner
Entertainment Co.; review copyright (c)
2004 James Southall
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ON DANGEROUS GROUND Magnificent
showcase for Herrmann's orchestral might A review by JAMES SOUTHALL The detective thriller On Dangerous Ground
was natural territory for Bernard Herrmann, able to see the dark side in
everything (one can imagine the thrusting trombone ostinatos which may have run
through Dumbo had he got his hands on it). It concerns a big city
detective sent out into the country to find a young girl's killer, full of the
kind of psychological tension for which Herrmann was so renowned. Director
Nicholas Ray was still a few years away from Rebel Without a Cause, but
the picture was reasonably successful. It was almost like a homecoming for
the composer, since it was made about ten years after Citizen Kane, by
the same producer (John Houseman) at the same studio (RKO Radio Pictures). The score's most celebrated feature is its
incredibly aggressive hunt music, heard most famously in the magnificent
"The Death Hunt", one of Herrmann's most impressive
achievements. The orchestra, featuring no fewer than eight horns,
positively erupts with violence for a truly memorable sequence. The same
music is also heard elsewhere, notably in the "Prelude". But
there is a lot more to the score than that, including some truly gorgeous music
for solo viola d'amore, especially in "Blindness", which introduces a
particularly beautiful theme. The high-register strings in
"Faith" sound like they could come from one of Alfred Newman's
spiritual scores and see Herrmann exhibiting a wonderfully melodic, emotional
side - a side with which he is not frequently associated. There is also
the occasional moment of film noir suspense music, though even there Herrmann
maintains a fairly strong melodic base. The action music is dynamically
thrilling; the emotional music stunningly beautiful. What more could
anybody want from a film score? Christopher Husted's liner notes are
magnificent, among the finest I have read. His detailed analysis of the
film and music and stories of how Herrmann came to be hired are fascinating, and
extracts from Herrmann's own letters (and those of his friends) nothing short of
hilarious, particularly his letter to the film's producer saying that it
suffered from a weak script and he would try his best to rescue the movie, and
his insistence that if the music in the hunt sequence was obscured by the noise
of barking dogs then he would withdraw his entire score. Sadly,
"magnificent" is not a word that could be used to describe the
sound. Both the album cover and booklet are covered in warnings about it,
and these warnings should be heeded. This is not a CD for
audiophiles. There is considerable surface noise heard during many of the
tracks. I'm pleased that the album's producers chose not to use some sort
of noise reduction technology to get rid of it, since that would have removed so
much of the detail from Herrmann's magnificent orchestrations, but it's
impossible to miss. Having said that, the music is impressive enough that
it would take a great deal more than tape hiss to diminish its impact.
This is one of Herrmann's finest scores, and is simply unmissable. Tracks
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