Customer Reviews

Thing From Another World & Take the High C

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The original Howard Hawks 1951 movie The Thing came to television some time in the late 1950's when I then saw it as a child. Oh, the horror of thinking back to that first viewing, realizing that electric blanket was melting the block of ice. Now, finally, the music that accompanied this terrifying movie, a score written by Dimitri Tiomkin, is available as a CD remastered from the only remaining acetate recording (from the composer's personal collection) preserved at the Cinema-Television Library of the University of Southern California.

The soundtrack is only some 28 minutes long, but runs in proper sequence to the movie. A brief history of the making of The Thing from Another World accompanied the CD and included so many interesting little details, that I played a tape I have of this movie acquired a decade or more ago to pick them out for myself--and I watched the movie before finally playing the new CD. The dramatic theme cords, the wandering wind instruments and subtle electronic component even to this day bring back the fear and dismay I remember as a child under the influence of masterful movie making. Certainly a choice for the music library at McMurdo Station.

It is interesting to note that Tiomkin's 1954 score to the movie The High and the Mighty, with its glorious theme accompanying the story of an airliner filled with many-storied passengers on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco, also revisits the score from The Thing. I recently bought the digitally enhanced DVD of The High and the Mighty, a beautifully colored version which was fun to see after so long a spell absent from once common TV showings long ago.

Although everything about The High and the Mighty seemed especially familiar, I sat up in my chair when the first hints of problems to come with the plane announced themselves--accompanied by strange, dark cords and wandering wind passages, evoking fear and trepidation. As John Wayne looks out over his starboard engines after an odd tremor and the crew later searches the dark tail section with flash lights amid aluminum struts and control pulleys, the alarming and disquieting music first developed for the Thing now evokes some ill-defined, impending menace haunting the old DC-4.

A second, much longer Tiomkin score recording to the movie Take the High Ground is included--interesting period piece. The CD case mentions "This pressing is limited to 3000 copies"--probably accounts for the somewhat high price of the recording.

Watching this film I've always been impressed with the quality
of the music and how important it is to each scene. I've always
wanted to own the soundtrack but until now found it be unavailable.
With this release we finally have this eerie and exciting film
music available on CD. If you've seen the film I'm sure you know
what to expect from this soundtrack, it's seminal '50 sci-fi stuff.
The quality of the transfer is excellent, I assume it's exactly as
recorded for the film and not a recent re-recording of an old score.
Now the problem. It was taken from a record. With headphones on
you can hear the needle going around ever so faintly. I'm assuming
that this was the only available source and that would explain why
it was never released before. Don't be put off by the source -
they did an exceptional job reproducing this recording on CD -
it really is as sharp and dynamic as you'd expect from any 50 year
old original source - in fact I'd expect you'd never even be aware
of the source unless you listen really carefully with headphones.
The soundtrack for "The Thing From Another World" as has been
a long time coming and well worth owning, I'm very picky about
sound quality and this is quickly becoming one of my most played
soundtracks. Fans of the Theremin shouldn't miss this one, the
unusual sounds of that instrument are used to great effect, to be
compared with "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stool Still".
Unfortunate that it only runs about 26 minutes.

Twice as long at 51 minutes is "Take the High Ground!", the second
recording on the same disk as "The Thing From Another World". In a
lot of way this is a much more ambitious effort than The Thing and
is well worth owning by itself. The producers really pack as much
as possible into this package - Total playing time for the disk is
78:42 and it comes with a 24 page booklet full of history, photos,
some rare production stills about both films.

This music is very far from the mainstream. Tiomkin does his usual miracle of creating an iconic representation of the drama in the tune:

(1) The Thing. The drama's iconic representation is a rising quarter
tone (Dee da Dee da Dee da)framed in an alarm call. Even when you
know how it's done it is still creepy, creepy, creepy. The drama
is about the all too human condition -- Things can have a way of
creeping up on you.

(2) You Must take the Hight Ground. The drama's iconic representation
is in the B flat march tune (TAKE THE HIGH GROUND... D E flat F)
(AND HOLD IT! ... E natural G F) with the AND on the four beat of
the second measure being a violent dislocation of the melody on
a note not found in the key like leaping over a trench. This note
is harmonized by a diminished seventh, the chord that has no home
key. The drama is that there is no place to stand, your girl
friend may prefer someone else, you must prove yourself today,
not yesterday, that high ground will always be waiting. Be prepared
to make that necessary leap.

The solidly tonal 'Julie's theme' presents a picture of a lover's
dream framed in effusive counter meoldies. This dream-
like quality never really comes to earth, any more
than Julie can please everyone. This is yet another example of
Tiomkin's ability to write a simple tune that is at the same time
unconventional in being an iconic representation of the drama
(What appears solid in a dream may later melt in the air).

The dramatic action sequences are typical Tiomkin: accented
melodic snatches dissolve into dimished chord formations
demanding resolution and jump of their skins in shocking
whole tone formations. This may sound simplistic but I have
always loved this style which seems to be solidy grounded
in a musical psychology that is both direct and transcendant.