Customer Reviews

Call Me Madam Soundtrack

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The so-called "original cast recording" of CALL ME MADAM is not satisfying because, due to contract problems, RCA Victor was forced to substitute Dinah Shore for Ethel Merman and it is not an ideal replacement. Decca's studio album with Ethel Merman singing 12 songs from the score lacks theatricality.

Fortunately the movie version retained Merman, surrounded her with a great set of performers (Donald O'Connor, George Sanders) and retained most of the score from the stage show. Even the changes are mostly improvements: The lugubrious "Once Upon a Time Today" is replaced by the lively "What Chance Have I with Love?" giving O'Connor his requesite eccentric dance routine. We lose "Washington Square Dance" (heard in the film as an instrumental background to a Washington party scene) and the showstopping "They Lke Ike" (Eisenhower's election in the fall of 1951 made the song unusable, and besides it had nothing to do with the plot) but the film gains from the redistribution of songs. It takes some of the emphasis off Ethel Merman, though she remains ver much the star. Her second act opener "Something to Dance About" is shifted to O'Connor and Vera Ellen and sets up an entertaining dance sequence. George Sanders is perfectly cast as the foriegn minister Merman falls for and here has a chance to display his warm baritone.

The orignal release of this album was on a 10-inch Lp (the standard format for most movie soundtracks in the early 1950s) and Decca ensured that all of the songs were included. Not all of the dance music would fit, but a good amount of it is heard nonetheless. Best of all this little album has the theatricality missing from the two stage cast albums, and consequently was the preferred version of the score. The problem was that the 10-inch format went out of vogue by the mid 1950s and this version of CALL ME MADAM vanished from the catalogues. It was briefly reissued on one side of a 12-inch Lp in 1981, but aside from two tracks on Rhino's Cd IRVING BERLN IN HOLLYWOOD, it has not been available on CD until now. (Part of the problem is that Decca no longer owns the rights to these tracks, since they are owned by 20th Century Fox. At one time a few years back there were rumous of a new complete and expanded soundtrack album to be released on CD but as of this writing that has not happened. It may yet - the movie was finally released on DVD in 2004.)

This CD comes from Hallmark in England and appears to have been issued through the legal loophole that places recordings in England that are more than 50 years old in the public domain. The CD was not remastered from the original tapes but appears to have been taken from a poor tape of the original LP. There are numerous drop-outs and phase problems: The sound refuses to stay centred in pure mono. There is also a loss of the crisp highs and the detailed bottom end that characterized Decca's original album. The CD is also short, containing just the 28 minutes of music on the original album with no extras. The short playing time I could accept, but the sound quality is so poor that this CD isn't even a mixed blessing. Best to wait until Rhino (or some other label) brings out a new and expanded MADAM.

Yet another budget CD from Britain, using well-worn Public Domain materials. This film soundtrack from CALL ME MADAM is barely listenable, despite the fact that it features Ethel Merman in fine form as the "hostess with the mostess on the ball" herself, Sally Adams.

The 1953 film version of CALL ME MADAM - produced by Twentieth Century-Fox - allowed Ethel Merman the chance to lay down her definitive performance as Sally Adams (a role that had won her great acclaim on the Broadway stage). In his first and only movie musical, George Sanders played her love interest. Hollywood hoofers Donald O'Connor and Vera-Ellen (dubbed by Carole Richards) provided the cute romantic subplot.

O'Connor and Vera-Ellen enjoyed a rare on-screen chemistry and would have been paired again the following year in WHITE CHRISTMAS, but illness forced Danny Kaye to replace him at the last minute.

Ethel Merman's brash vocal style was best suited to the zippy music of Irving Berlin, and the CALL ME MADAM score was especially-tailored to her special vocal brand. "The Hostess with the Mostess on the Ball" is a fantastic opener, and things get better with "Can You Use Any Money Today?", "Marrying for Love", and "It's a Lovely Day Today". Merman doing pensive or romantic ballads was always an uneasy combination, but "The Best Thing for You" is actually the one number I adore most in this score.

This soundtrack album has been poorly-transferred to compact disc for the budget Hallmark UK label. But having this soundtrack on disc at all is a blessing.

[Hallmark 750252]

Having been discouraged by the other two reviews, I decided not to waste money on this cd, since the sound quality is cited as abysmal. But as time went by, I realized that poor audio quality is better than NO audio quality, so I bought it. I'm glad to report that the sound quality is MUCH BETTER than I would have thought. Granted, it suffers from significant hiss and phasing problems but, all things considered, I am very glad to have it. Alfred Newman's orchestral arrangements still come through with sufficient clarity and detail that one can appreciate their brilliance, and the meager 28-minute length still gives us all of the best stuff. It's great to hear George Sanders' suprisingly fine singing in "Marrying for Love" (his intonation is flawless and he uses his voice with considerable nuance and color), and the delightful "It's a Lovely Day Today" track includes the source music orchestral track that's playing on the phonograph in the record-shop scene, along with all of the vocals.

If you think you've heard bad audio quailty in a film soundtrack cd transfer, try Irving Berlin's "This is the Army" cd on the Hollywood Soundstage label--it is truly awful. The quality on this "Call Me Madam" soundtrack is state-of-the-art by comparison.

Still, let's hope Rhino will do it right in the not-too-distant future and give us a complete, restored "Call Me Madam" to help preserve this wonderful score.

I have always loved Hollywood musicals, and this one is no exception.
The performances are unequaled and it is always wonderful to see/hear Donald
O'Connor and a rare pleasure to see both Ethel Merman and Vera-Ellen.
I completely recommend this soundtrack to anyone who loves these musicals as much as I do.
Robin Russell

I love CALL ME MADAM. This is, IMO, the best recording of the score. You have Ethel Merman with a standout cast and they all work and perform well together. There were two cast albums of the original show; the "Original Cast Album" with Dinah Shore singing Merman's parts, and another (on Decca, and the better selling) with Merman and a different studio cast. I've not heard the Original Cast recording. I do have Merman's recording on Decca and it's fantastic. This album is from the soundtrack of the 1953 film from 20th Century-Fox. The soundtrack is my preferred recording of the score - but not this rendition of it. The transfer suffers from constant hiss and other noise; sound drifts in and out of the left and right channels (even though this is supposed to be a mono recording?), and if you listen closely in some passages you can hear the sound bleed through from the previous groove of the LP from which this was obviously mastered. Several years ago I made my own soundtrack CD by playing the DVD through my computer and recording directly off that; the result was vastly superior to what we have here. Unfortunately I misplaced my CD! I'm sure the Dinah Shore "Original Cast" recording is worth at least one listen. But it would be a sin to not hear the Merman version too. I would stick with the Decca album for now; it seems to be out of print now, but can still be had used for $10-15 at the time of this writing. You can also download it here at Amazon. If you want the movie version, best to just pop the DVD in and fast forward to the songs. If that still won't suit you and you must have the soundtrack album, Amazon has it for download for half the price of ordering the CD. And let me tell you, it isn't worth a penny more! At least until Rhino or someone comes along who can do it right!