Customer Reviews

All About Eve [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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I've been trying to get the soundtrack to ALL ABOUT EVE for years. I tried ordering it at several music stores and on I-Tunes. Nobody had it. Who knew I could get it on Amazon? This is the original soundtrack and it is excellent. Alfred Newman's score for this movie is as good as the movie itself. The only drawback is that since this is the original soundtrack, it is largely in mono, not stereo. There are a two tracks that were rerecorded in stero, but the rest is mono. There is no other place to get this soundtrack, so if you can accept the sound limitations of mono recording you will be very satisfied with this one. This CD also includes music from LEAVE HER TOO HEAVEN.

Disappointing reproduction of soundtrack - from an LP and not from a new digital master

This is not meant as a slam at Alfred Newman by any means, but I think much of the rave reviews this score has received is based more on the film (and all the baggage associated with it) than with the score itself.

There is no question that Alfred Newman was a master composer, of more genuine talent and creativity than John Williams could muster in his lifetime, and a much better arranger/conductor -with nine Oscars to prove it.

My gripe, however, is that "All About Eve" is one of Newman's weaker scores, completely purpose-build and squarely centered around the central theme, which is repeated endlessly throughout in various guises (no less than six separate times in major cues and quoted in almost all.

This would have been okay if it were a catchy tune -like Tara's Theme, or even Lara's Theme- but in this instance it's a completely out-of-place piece of music which would have served well for the opening sequence of some film about life in the big city, or perhaps a police drama, but try as I may, I could make no connection between the theme and anything presented on the screen.

The music simply "didn't fit" and yet Newman worked it into the very fabric of the score to the point of boredom.

"Leave Her To Heaven," the second half of this double-feature CD, is a much more solidly grounded -yet strangely bland- Newman score.