Casablanca - Classic Film Scores for Humphrey Bogart [SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

This album was originally released on LP in 1974. Instead of having a track listing on the back sleeve, it had stills for the twelve movies in question and included inside was a 4 (LP-size) page booklet of a lengthy essay on Bogart and the films as well as another fourteen movie stills. This 1989 cd release includes the essay as an 18 page cd booklet, but only two of the twenty-six movie stills. It is not the original soundtrack from the films but instead was "newly recorded" by the National Philharmonic Orchestra.I came across the LP in a sale once and essentially bought it for a laugh: it was a surprise to me that such a record existed. As I now have a broken LP player, though, I decided to pick this up on cd. Be that as it may, it is essentially a novelty item. The music is well played throughout, although with few exceptions one is not likely to associated it with particular characters in the movies. Max Steiner was a leading film music composer in the 1940s--a time when film soundtrack composers were not as popular as in the days of John Williams or Ennio Morricone--but his film music was not akin to leitmotifs for characters. Instead, it was simply to set a scene. Until this record was made in 1974 the film scores were never set to record.Though I've seen all the movies in question bar one or two, not many of the themes are memorable and thus recognisable. Ones that are likely to be identifiable are the 'slow-march-up-the-mountain' theme from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and the 'noble-soldier-remembered' theme from "Key Largo". Like "Casablanca" and "The Two Mrs. Carrolls", these tracks are recorded as suites of themes from the film. "Casablanca" hovers between the two tunes everyone knows from that film ("as time goes by" and "la marseillaise"), though I would say that these four suite tracks do not really conjure up a sense of the characters in the films. For instance, Bogart played a psychotic character in "treasure of the sierra madre", "the two mrs. carrolls" and "the caine mutiny" (the latter represented here with a plain military march), but the soundtracks do not reflect that, although "Sabrina" is a big-ballroom-waltz type of tune, reflecting the fact that this was a "miss funny face" Audrey Hepburn movie. The brief theme for "To Have or Have Not" is, according to the sleeve notes, the same that was used in "Dark Passage" (not included).All in all, then, this is an album that, if one is not a film soundtrack composer interested in Max Steiner's example, is likely to appeal to fans of Bogart movies for its 18 page essay and unique arrangements of themes like that for "Casablanca". It seems an original soundtrack cd for that film exists, but that is surprising because original soundtrack albums from 1940s movies don't generally exist. So the rest of the tunes recorded here (unmemorable as many may be) are pretty unique. My favourite track here is "The Big Sleep: love themes". Those familiar with Chandler's novel will wonder at that title, for the original novel was an extremely sordid crime novel (the biggest "pulp fiction" hit of the 1930s) without any love story, but those familiar with the altogether-more-likeable Bogart movie will know the themes in question. The first is the "I hate to tell you but that's Mr Geiger's car pulling up" theme and the second is the "why are we stopping?/nothing you can't fix" theme. As far as I know, this album is the only album in existence where that Big Sleep film music was ever recorded. Tis a brief (only about 2 minutes long) but likeable recording.