MovieChat Forums > Farewell, My Lovely (1975) Discussion > The music

The music

posted 16 years ago by BlueGreen
6 replies | jump to latest

That sax solo is to die for...
In fact, it's the only thing I actually remember from the film itself (except for its two protagonists); and I remember I enjoyed it.

But the music... I only heard it once, many years ago, and never forgot it.
It has just the right notes to push my buttons, I suppose... ;)

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=2502

The only one in this genre that I find even better is the fantastic score for "Body Heat" (1981).
Very, very similar - only even better.

[–] jztzt 13 years ago

Chinatown is another superb score for the genre.

[–] chninlp 8 years ago

The score to Chinatown is better than all of them, (either in classic film noir or neo-noir) and was the trendsetter.

[–] rsgre 8 years ago

Thanks for your comments blue green. I agree, it is David Shire's best score by a mile. Hits just the right notes throughout, a retrospective masterpiece. A record and later CD was made of the score, but does not quite capture all the intricacies of the actual film score. This film gets better with each viewing: cast, acting, sets, story....top notch ! (And better than "Chinatown" in my opinion).

RSGRE

[–] chninlp 8 years ago

I would say Farewell, My Lovely is arguably a better typical film noir than Chinatown and that Chinatown is obviously a much, much better and greater film than Farewell, My Lovely.

There's not a chance, however, that any score for a noir film is better than Chinatown. (Let alone as good).

[–] Tabbycat (878) 4 years ago

My favorite David Shire score, and my first noir soundtrack LP bought back in the day at Rhino Records (they had stores with new and used). Except, that is, for his Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 score, which never was release until the late 90’s from Shire’s private tapes (masters presumed lost). You need the soundtrack releases to hear either in stereo as neither film was ever available in anything but mono. He didn’t do much score but these two are giants.

Now if I could just get an original stereo mix of the Quinn Martin’s Tales of the Unexpected theme ...

[–] greenbudgie (2355) 6 years ago

I heard David Shire, the composer, playing the theme tune on piano the other day. He plays it in a great jazz style. I preferred it to the more full-on version in the film. Great tune..