A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

An early film from Sydney Pollack, The Scalphunters was a comic western starring Burt Lancaster, Shelley Winters, Telly Savalas and Ossie Davis, delving into thinly-veiled racial allegories which seem dated almost to the point of absurdity today, but which were genuinely considered risky at the time.  Lancaster was highly-popular at the time, which ensured the film did pretty well at the box office despite lukewarm reviews.  Pollack has frequently attracted fine composers to work on his films, and he did as well as was possible for a filmmaker making a western in 1966 by enlisting the services of Elmer Bernstein, whose work on westerns was already legendary.

A score for a western by Elmer Bernstein is as close to a sure-fire winner as you could find, though even by 1966 he was probably getting a little tired of them, and I don't think it would be too cruel to say that it shows - to an extent - in his music for The Scalphunters.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it just doesn't have that special something that makes the composer's real classics of the genre - The Magnificent Seven, The Comancheros, etc - so wonderful.  For one thing, it doesn't have nearly so memorable a theme; the comic sensibilities of the film are reflected in Bernstein's main theme.  It's rambunctious and lively as would be expected, but doesn't stick in the memory like some of the composer's others.  Its finest presentation comes in the delightful "Joe Bass and the Scalphunters".

When the slapstick is left to one side, Bernstein's scoring of the more dramatic sections of the film are probably more successful.  "Howie's Death" and "Forced March" are both excellent cues, though in truth even in some of the dramatic passages interest can flag momentarily as the same motivic strands get repeated just once or twice too often.  The music never falls to being less than enjoyable, it just doesn't stand up against Bernstein's more famous entries in the genre.  This release - from the Varese Sarabande CD Club, a limited edition of 2,000 copies released in November 2005 - marks the first time the score has been available on CD, and replicates the United Arists re-recording from the 1960s with a reduced orchestra conducted by Bernstein.  Two songs based on the composer's themes are included as a bonus, though are of more historical interest than anything else.  There's no additional score.  Of course, any western score by Elmer Bernstein is worth hearing, though this one wouldn't come particularly close to the top of the list.

Tracks

1. Prologue (3:09)
2. Square Dance for Loco Horses (2:06)
3. Booze (1:44)
4. Howie's Death (3:01)
5. Chase Joe Bass (4:39)
6. Joe Bass and the Scalphunters (2:09)
7. Forced March (1:39)
8. Horseplay (1:39)
9. Here We Go (1:48)
10. More Tricks (1:51)
11. Fast Talkin' Man (3:27)
12. Moving On (1:19)
13. Talking Blues (2:28)
14. I've Been to St Louis (2:27)