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Franz Waxman
1906-1967
Waxman's film music
Franz Waxman (né Wachsmann; 24 December 1906 – 24 February 1967) was a German and American composer of Jewish descent, known primarily for his work in the film music genre. His film scores include Bride of Frankenstein, Rebecca, Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, Stalag 17, Rear Window, Peyton Place, The Nun's Story, and Taras Bulba. He received twelve Academy Award nominations, and won two Oscars in consecutive years (for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun). He also received a Golden Globe Award for the former film. Bernard Herrmann said that the score for Taras Bulba was "the score of a lifetime."
He also composed concert works, including the oratorio Joshua (1959), and The Song of Terezin (1965), a work for orchestra, chorus, and children's chorus based upon poetry written by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II. Waxman also founded the Los Angeles Music Festival in 1947 with which he conducted a number of West Coast premieres by fellow film composers, and concert composers alike.
1935 Bride of Frankenstein
1940 Rebecca
1940 The Philadelphia Story
1941 Suspicion
1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1945 Objective, Burma!
1946 Humoresque
1947 The Paradine Case
1950 Sunset Boulevard
1951 A Place in the Sun
1954 Rear Window
1954 The Silver Chalice
1957 Peyton Place
1957 Sayonara
1959 The Nun's Story
1962 My Geisha
1962 Taras Bulba
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American science-fiction horror film, the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 hit Frankenstein. It is considered one of the few sequels to a great film that is even better than the original film on which it is based. As with the first film, Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as the Monster.[3] The sequel features Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the Monster's mate at the end of the film. Colin Clive reprises his role as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger plays the role of Doctor Septimus Pretorius.
The movie starts as an immediate sequel to the events that concluded the earlier film, and is rooted in a subplot of the original Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein (1818). In the film, a chastened Henry Frankenstein abandons his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by his old mentor Dr. Pretorius, along with threats from the Monster, into constructing a mate for the Monster.
Bride of Frankenstein was released to critical and popular acclaim, although it encountered difficulties with some state and national censorship boards. Since its release the film's reputation has grown, and it has been hailed as Whale's masterpiece. In 1998, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry, having been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
The Bride of Frankenstein - Soundtrac - Franz Waxman
The Bride of Frankenstein - trailer
Rebecca
Rebecca is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding, aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the young woman who becomes his second wife, with Judith Anderson and George Sanders in supporting roles. The film won the 1940 Academy Award for Best Picture.
The film is a gothic tale shot in black-and-white. Maxim de Winter's first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, his new wife and the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
Rebecca won two Academy Awards, Best Picture and Cinematography, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson also were Oscar-nominated for their respective roles as were Hitchcock and the screenwriters. Rebecca was the opening film at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival in 1951. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Alfred Hitchcock - Rebecca (1940 )
Franz Waxman - "Rebecca" Soundtrack Suite
The Philadelphia Story
The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart, and featuring Ruth Hussey. Based on the Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry, the film is about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite character of the play—performed by Hepburn in the film—was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia socialite known for her hijinks, who married a friend of playwright Barry.
Written for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and an uncredited Waldo Salt, it is considered one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s, in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders, and then remarry—a useful story-telling ploy at a time when the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Production Code.
The film was Hepburn's first big hit following several flops, which had led to her being included on a 1938 list that Manhattan movie theater owner Harry Brandt compiled of actors considered to be "box office poison". Hepburn acquired the film rights to the play, which she had also starred in, with the help of Howard Hughes, in order to control it as a vehicle for her screen comeback. According to a Turner Broadcasting documentary MGM: When the Lion Roars, after MGM purchased the film rights, they were skeptical about Hepburn's box office appeal, so Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Louis B. Mayer took an unusual precaution by casting two A-list male stars (Grant and Stewart) to support Hepburn. Nominated for six Academy Awards, the film won two: James Stewart for Best Actor, and Donald Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was remade in 1956 as a musical, retitled High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra.
The Philadelphia Story was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1995.
The Philadelphia Story - Trailer (1940)
Suspicion
Suspicion is a 1941 romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).
For her role as Lina, Joan Fontaine won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1941. This is the only Oscar-winning performance in a Hitchcock film.
In the film, a shy spinster runs off with a charming playboy, who turns out to be penniless, a gambler, and dishonest in the extreme. She comes to suspect that he is also a murderer, and that he is attempting to kill her.
Car Kissing scene - Suspicion (1941)
Il Sospetto - 1/2 [Suspicion] (1941 film noir Ita) Alfred Hitchcock
Il Sospetto - 2/2 [Suspicion] (1941 film noir Ita) Alfred Hitchcock
Suspicion (1941) Official Trailer - Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine
Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) with Bernard Herrmann's cue
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, and Lana Turner. The production also features Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, C. Aubrey Smith, and Sara Allgood. Its storyline is based on the gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886.
Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)
Franz Waxman : Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Suite from the film music (1941)
Objective, Burma!
Objective, Burma! is a 1945 American war film that is loosely based on the six-month raid by Merrill's Marauders in the Burma Campaign during the Second World War. Directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn, the film was made by Warner Bros. immediately after the raid.
Objective, Burma! - Trailer
"Objetive Burma" Soundtrack Suite
Humoresque
Humoresque is a 1946 American showbiz melodrama by Warner Bros. starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield in an older woman/younger man tale about a violinist and his patroness. The screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold was based upon the 1919 short story "Humoresque" by Fannie Hurst, which had been previously made into a film in 1920. Humoresque was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Jerry Wald.
Humoresque 1946 Trailer (Joan Crawford)
Wrights' Party Scene from "Humoresque" 1946 - Joan Crawford, John Garfield
The Paradine Case
The Paradine Case is a 1947 American film noir courtroom drama film, set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. The screenplay was written by Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht, from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
Alfred Hitchcock - Paradine Case 1947
Paradine Case (1947) Trailer
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. It was named after the thoroughfare with the same name that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, California.
The film stars William Holden as Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screenwriter, and Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent-film star who draws him into her fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Erich von Stroheim plays Max von Mayerling, her devoted servant, and Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, and Jack Webb play supporting roles. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper play themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by leading silent-film actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson.
Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including nominations in all four acting categories) and won three. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century, and in 2007, it was 16th on their 10th Anniversary list.
Sunset Boulevard Trailer 1950
Sunset Blvd (1950)- Last Scene
Sunset Boulevard - Soundtrack Suite - Franz Waxman
A Place in the Sun
A Place in the Sun is a 1951 American drama film based on the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the 1926 play, also titled An American Tragedy. It tells the story of a working-class young man who is entangled with two women: one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory, and the other a beautiful socialite. Another adaptation of the novel had been filmed once before, as An American Tragedy, in 1931.
A Place in the Sun was directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson, and stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters; its supporting actors included Anne Revere, and Raymond Burr.
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning six Academy Awards and the first-ever Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. In 1991, A Place in the Sun was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Sunset Boulevard - Soundtrack Suite - Franz Waxman
A Place in the Sun (1951) - trailer
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American Technicolor mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr. It was screened at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.
The film is considered by many filmgoers, critics, and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best[3] and one of the greatest films ever made. It received four Academy Award nominations and was ranked number 42 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and number 48 on the 10th-anniversary edition, and in 1997 was added to the United States National Film Registry in the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Franz Waxman - Rear Window - 1954
The Silver Chalice
The Silver Chalice is a 1954 American historical epic film directed and produced by Victor Saville, based on Thomas B. Costain's 1952 novel of the same name. It was Saville's last film and marked the acting debut of Paul Newman; despite being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance, Newman later called it "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s".
The Silver Chalice (1954) Trailer
Franz Waxman: The Silver Chalice
Franz Waxman: The Silver Chalice - Deborra's Lament
Peyton Place
Peyton Place is a 1957 American film drama from 20th Century Fox in color by De Luxe and CinemaScope. It was produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Mark Robson, and stars Lana Turner and Hope Lange. In co-starring and supporting roles are Lee Philips, Lloyd Nolan, Diane Varsi, Arthur Kennedy, Russ Tamblyn, and Terry Moore. The film is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.
The storyline follows the residents of a small fictional New England mill town in the years surrounding World War II, where scandal, homicide, suicide, incest, and moral hypocrisy belie its tranquil façade.
Peyton Place - Soundtrack Suite - Franz Waxman
Peyton Place - 1
Peyton Place - 2
Peyton Place - 3
Sayonara
Sayonara is a 1957 Technicolor American film starring Marlon Brando in Technirama. The picture tells the story of an American Air Force flier who was an ace fighter pilot during the Korean War (1950–1953).
Sayonara won four Academy Awards, including acting honors for co-stars Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki.
The film's screenplay was adapted by Paul Osborn from the 1954 novel of the same name by James Michener, and was produced by William Goetz and directed by Joshua Logan. Unlike most 1950s romantic dramas, Sayonara deals squarely with racism and prejudice.
The supporting cast also features Patricia Owens, James Garner, Martha Scott, Ricardo Montalbán, and Miiko Taka.
The original trailer in high definition of Sayonara directed by Joshua Logan and starring Marlon Brando, Miiko Taka, Ricardo Montalban, Patricia Owens, Martha Scott, James Garner and Red Buttons.
"Sayonara" - Soundtrack Suite - Franz Waxman
"Sayonara," An Original Soundtrack Music by Franz Waxman
The Nun's Story
The Nun's Story is a 1959 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, and Peggy Ashcroft. The screenplay was written by Robert Anderson, based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Kathryn Hulme. The film tells the life of Sister Luke (Hepburn), a young Belgian woman who decides to enter a convent and make the many sacrifices required by her choice.
The book was based upon the life of Marie Louise Habets, a Belgian nurse who similarly spent time as a nun. The film follows the book fairly closely, although some critics believe the film shows sexual tension in the relationship between Dr. Fortunati (Peter Finch) and Sister Luke that is absent from the novel.
A major portion of the film takes place in the Belgian Congo, site of location shooting, where Sister Luke assists Dr. Fortunati in surgical procedures at a mission hospital. The location was Yakusu, a center of missionary and medical activity in the Belgian Congo.
The Nun's Story (1959) Official Trailer - Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch
The Nun's Story - Soundtrack Suite - Franz Waxman
My Geisha
My Geisha is a 1962 American comedy film directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Shirley MacLaine, Yves Montand, Edward G. Robinson and Bob Cummings and released by Paramount Pictures. Written by Norman Krasna, based on Krasna's story of the same name, the film was produced and copyrighted in 1961 by MacLaine's then-husband Steve Parker The world premiere was at the Plaza Theatre in London's West End on January 18, 1962.
My Geisha - Trailer
My Geisha (1962) Franz Waxman
An Original Soundtrack Recording, Music Score by Franz Waxman, with selections from the opera "Madama Butterfly" by G. Puccini, Vocals for "Butterfly" by Michiko Sunahara, Vocals for "Lieutenant Pinkerton" by Barry Morell, Conducted by Franz Waxman
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a 1962 film loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's novel Taras Bulba, starring Yul Brynner in the title role, and Tony Curtis as his son, Andriy, leaders of a Cossack clan on the Ukrainian steppes. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The story line of the film is considerably different from that of Gogol's novel, although it is closer to his expanded 1842 (pro-Russian Imperial) edition than his original (pro-Ukrainian) version of 1835.
Taras Bulba (1962) Trailer
Taras Bulba (1962) full movie
Franz Waxman - Taras Bulba (1962)
