Marlene Dietrich "The Boys in the Back Room"

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Marlene Dietrich
Destry Rides Again
feature film
(Universal Pictures, 1939)

Marlene Dietrich is one of the sexiest human beings ever to walk the planet. She was also bisexual, and created quite a stir when she had the nerve to appear in men's clothing in the early 1930's.

After a successful movie career starring in several films directed by Josef von Sternberg in the early 1930s, Dietrich was declared box office poison, after appearing in some unsuccessful ones. Luckily, director Joe Pasternak talked her into appearing in the western he was getting ready to shoot, Destry Rides Again. She played the barmaid & chanteuse Frenchy, opposite a young, and already very charismatic, Jimmy Stewart as Tom Destry, Jr.

Destry Rides Again ended up being a smash hit, and Dietrich's career was back on track. It also, perhaps not coincidentally, is my favorite western. In addition to those distinctions, it features one of my two favorite movie fight scenes* of all time. According to legend, the fight was not choreographed. Dietrich and co-pugilist Una Merkel agreed to no closed fists, but that was it for rules. Luckily for them, they got the scene in one take!

There are scads of recordings of today's song (written by the wonderful Friedrich Hollaender) out there, but the one from the film itself is my favorite. None of the Dietrich CDs I own has that particular version, so this one was ripped from a YouTube clip of the performance from the film. The Buy MP3 button above will take you to the movie version of the song on Amazon MP3, from the collection Music and Songs from Classic Westerns. I checked all the iTunes clips, and could not find it, so no link from there. My apologies.

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*My other favorite is the awesome fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David in They Live.

Hans Werner Henze "Un Amour de Swann" 12 Variations pour sextuor à corde et harpe autour de la petite phrase de la sonate de Vinteuil

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Hans Werner Henze
Un Amour de Swann
LP
(Milan, 1984)

I first heard the music of Hans Werner Henze on our local PBS radio state late at night. I turned on the radio, and something really cool was playing. Cool enough that I stayed awake until it was done, so I could write down the composer's name. I started buying CDs of his music not long after, and he quickly became one of my two favorite composers; the other is Allan Pettersson.

Today's selection takes up side one of the LP pictured above. Side two is the 1975 piece Katharina Blum, in case you're interested. It's also quite good.

I flagged this West Germany, btw, as Henze was born in Germany in 1929, and this piece was written after WWII but prior to the Wiedervereinigung. Henze left Germany for Italy in 1953, however, and also lived in Cuba for a time, before becoming disillusioned with Castro (that took long?), so I could potentially flag it Italy. I suppose I could also tag it France, as the music is from a French film. But I won't. Sue me.

:-P

Mariclare Costello "Stay Forever, My Love"

Mariclare Costello Let's Scare Jessica to Death feature film (Paramount Pictures, 1971)

Today's entry is a beautiful folk song from my all-time favorite horror movie, Let's Scare Jessica to Death. It's sung by Emily (played by Mariclare Costello), a squatter the titular Jessica finds living in the old house she and husband Duncan have just bought and are preparing to make their home. The song was written for the movie, and that's Mariclare herself singing it. The low drone that joins in is Duncan accompanying her on the double bass, as he's a (former?) musician with the New York Philharmonic. The scene switches back and forth from the kitchen to the hallway, so I've taken the liberty of adjusting the volume in sections to keep it as consistent as possible. There's a bit of dialog interspersed, as well, but I have no way of scrubbing that. The scene itself is below the jump, if you'd like to watch it.

Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler "I Only Have Eyes for You"

Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler Dames movie musical (Warner Bros., 1934)

I hate musicals, for the most part. There are a handful of exceptions, though, and old movie musicals with Dick Powell and/or Ruby Keeler, with production numbers by Busby Berkeley, fit the bill to a T. I pulled today's song, btw, from a great collection called Lullaby Of Broadway: The Best of Busby Berkeley at Warner Bros. The only drawback to it is it does not include "Pettin' in the Park" from Gold Diggers of 1933. That oughta be against the law!

The Peanuts「幸せを呼ぼう」

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The Peanuts
Best of Mothra
soundtrack compilation CD
(Nippon Columbia, 1997)

The tiny girls who sang for モスラ (Mothra), and communicated with her telepathically, were pop stars in non-monster reality as The Peanuts. I've always loved their singing (they sound like a Japanese version of The Barry Sisters, to my ears), and finally found a CD with quite a bit of it from various films featuring モスラ. Today's song is from the 1964 film 『三大怪獣地球最大の決戦』(Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster was the US title, and it was not a translation of the Japanese title, Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth). Totally badass movie poster after the jump!

Albert Marcœur «Deux lions au soleil» Extraits de la musique du film de Claude Faraldoenregistrée à Hérouville (novembre et décembre 1979) par Laurent Thibault

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Albert Marcœur
This Heat/Marcœur
split cassette release with This Heat
(Tago Mago, 1982)

I bought this tape because I had This Heat's album Deceit and thought it was really great. After a number of listens, I decided I liked Marcœur's side of the tape more, but had no idea where to get anything else by him. Eventually, in the mid-90s, I found a dbl-CD, Albert Marcœur présente, that compiled his first four albums: Albert Marcœur Album à colorier Armes & Cycles Celui où y'a Joseph I've been a big fan ever since.