THE BEAST FOR TEN FINGERS - Gothic Pianos All this talk of pianos leads me, inevitably, to four of my favourite starring films roles of the Grand Piano. It all began with DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT in 1941, with Richard Addinsells once-ubiquitous Warsaw Concerto, written with Rachmaninoff very much in mind, for Anton Walbrooke to play throughout this otherwise rather long-winded movie. Mr Walbrooke had obviously never learnt to play the piano, nor, judging by the way he pretends to play it, even watched a pianist, as he dabs and pokes the keyboard as though hes washing lettuce. (Louis Kentner did the honours on the soundtrack). The Warsaw Concerto appears throughout the film as a solo, a fully orchestrated orchestral bleeding chunk and as part of the underscore, but no one realised it would be such a hit. When they did, producers - particularly in England - started to structure Romantic screenplays around the piano, as in LOVE STORY, with Hubert Baths Cornish Rhapsody specially written for Margaret Lockwood to perform, and WHILE I LIVE with The Dream of Olwen by Charles Williams, not to mention a variety of repertoire classics that feature in THE SEVENTH VEIL with Ann Todd playing them - though in fact the real pianist on the soundtrack was Eileen Joyce. But there were so many more - such as Nino Rotas LEGEND OF THE GLASS MOUNTAIN, Edward Wards The Lullaby of the Bells in the 1943 THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - and these, my own top four: 4. Robert Floreys THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS in which Peter Lorre watches a severed hand play a Bach Chaconne (actually performed by Victor Aller, who famously taught Dirk Bogarde to play the piano in the Liszt biopic SONG WITHOUT END), before Max Steiner takes over with one of his weirdest scores. 3. HOUSE OF DRACULA in which John Carradine as a moustachioed Dracula, uses his hypnotic influence to transform Martha ODriscolls performance of Beethovens Moonlight Sonata into something successively more like Debussy and even Scriabin, before a crucifix protects us from all those alien harmonies. William Lavas little exercise in thematic and harmonic transformation here is a delight! 2. The Mr Steinway episode in Freddie Francis TORTURE GARDEN in which dear Barbara Ewing is actually murdered by a terrifyingly photographed Steinway, which is jealous of the the fact that she is coming between it and its pianist (John Standing). Its keyboard like a row of gleaming teeth, its body like a grim and shiny coffin, it thunders out Chopins Funeral March as he pushes Miss Ewing out of the window. 1. And, topping the bill, of course! - James Bernards wondrous Vampire Rhapsody AKA the Tooth Concerto in Don Sharps vampire classic for Hammer - THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE. Something youve composed yourself? asks the lovely Jennifer Daniels Marianne Harcourt. How exciting! And then the movies most musical vampire, (Barry Warrens dangerous Carl Ravna), begins to play...
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 11:01:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015