Movie Wave Home
Reviews by Title | Reviews by Composer

Composed by
ALFRED NEWMAN
and
HUGO FRIEDHOFER

Rating
***

Album running time
69:30

Performed by
THE GRAUNKE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conducted by
BERNHARD KAUN

Orchestrated by
EARL HAGEN
HERBERT SPENCER
HUGO FRIEDHOFER

Produced by
LUKAS KENDALL

Released by
FILM SCORE MONTHLY
Serial number
FSM Vol 4 No 13

Artwork copyright (c) 1958 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; review copyright (c) 2003 James Southall

THE BRAVADOS

Stark, brooding western score
A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

The dark, mature 1958 western The Bravados, starred Gregory Peck, who played a rancher bent on revenge on four outlaws who raped and murdered his wife.  Given the subject matter, a typically boistrous western score of the period was clearly not in order (though I'm sure Dimitri Tiomkin would have tried to open the movie with a cheerful song).  Fox music chief Alfred Newman chose the assignment for himself, though his busy schedule meant he had to pass along about half of the score to his friend and colleague Hugo Friedhofer.  Mysteriously, the movie credits the score to Lionel Newman, even though he didn't write a single note of it - most strange.

Newman's main theme, which forms the basis for the bulk of his material in the score, is by far the strongest thing on offer, a macho march for Peck's character; and by far the second best thing on offer is the love theme, "Josefa", also by Newman, a highly-attractive melody.  A hint of his religious music is heard in "A Mother's Prayer", a piece of stunning beauty.  The rest of the score, mostly by Friedhofer, is dark and uncompromisingly brooding, rather unattractive on the whole and difficult to like.  Of course, that particular style was entirely necessary for the film, but it's quite clear that Newman picked all the best scenes for himself to score and those he left to Friedhofer didn't give much of a chance for great material.

Film Score Monthly's album presents the entire score, twice, a practice that seems somewhat bizarre to me - first, fifteen stereo tracks are heard, then various source music, then nine mono tracks.  The stereo presentation of the dramatic score lasts about 35 minutes.  Sound quality is fine, considering the age of the source material, and Bill Rosar's liner notes superb.  The music ain't bad either, but I wouldn't exactly call it an essential golden age score. 

Tracks

  1. The Hunter (3:04)
  2. The Scaffold (1:28)
  3. Mistaken Identity (1:23)
  4. Jailbreak (1:06)
  5. The Real Mr Simms / Who Is He? (4:27)
  6. The Posse Rides (1:41)
  7. Parral's Ambush (2:43)
  8. A Mother's Prayer (2:39)
  9. Douglas and Taylor / Posse Finds Taylor (3:25)
  10. The Dead Miner and Emma / Josefa (6:17)
  11. Over the Border (1:24)
  12. Douglas and Lujan (1:34)
  13. The Truth (1:04)
  14. A Mother's Prayer (1:12)
  15. Josefa (:35)

Guitar source

  1. Josefa (4:22)
  2. Carmela (1:39)

Church source

  1. O Saluteris Hostia (:53)
  2. Panis Angelicus (3:22)
  3. Salvatore Mundi (2:38)
  4. O Sanctissima, O Pissima (:47)

Damaged stereo

  1. The Posse Leaves (1:49)

Mono suite

  1. The Hunter (3:04)
  2. The Scaffold (1:28)
  3. Mistaken Identity (1:23)
  4. The Posse Leaves (1:49)
  5. The Real Mr Simms / Who Is He? (4:27)
  6. Parral's Ambush (2:43)
  7. Douglas and Taylor (2:56)
  8. The Truth (1:04)
  9. Josefa (:35)