Percepto Records

If you’re a fan of Roger Corman films and the ‘B’ movie catalog of American International Pictures, you’ve most likely grooved, shivered and thrilled to the musical beats and strains of composer Ronald Stein, whether conscious of it or not. Percepto Records continues its outstanding series of Stein recordings with this limited-edition 5-disc collection that illuminates how adept the late composer was at applying his skill to genres as diverse as gothic horror, science fiction, westerns, sword-and-sandal, teen angst and more.

Each compact disc has a theme, collecting two or more complementary scores. The first one mates THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES (1955) with ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957), a couple of low-budget sea-creature films. For the former, which features one of the most unconvincing rubber suits you’ll ever encounter in a monster movie, Stein uses harp arpeggios, much like Bernard Herrmann did for films like BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF and MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, to evoke an undulating underwater atmosphere. Both scores showcase Stein’s talent at conjuring dark, menacing moods, but CRAB MONSTERS, a unique little gem about giant talking crabs (!), has the more memorable theme—a lengthy, haunting melody that is treated to all manner of instrumental variation but sounding its best when voiced by an eerie organ set against a harmonic backdrop of tremolando strings. Unfortunately, while this creepy score is one of the set’s most entertaining, it’s extremely frustrating that Percepto’s presentation lacks several cues that made up a former suite on the out-of-print Varese Sarabande compilation, NOT OF THIS EARTH: THE FILM MUSIC OF RONALD STEIN. Adding to our frustration is the fact that the climactic action music, which Stein was especially proud of and is mentioned several times in the liner notes, is also missing in action, reportedly due to the source’s quality not being up to snuff.

Disc 2 is devoted to horror, starting with THE TERROR (1963), a legendary rush job by Roger Corman to make use of a few extra days in horror icon Boris Karloff’s contract. It’s also gained some infamy down through the years for featuring a young and amusingly unconvincing Jack Nicholson in the role of a Napoleonic soldier-hero. Despite the film’s cheap qualities (utilizing sets from THE RAVEN and much stock footage), Stein’s music is a tour de force of gothic horror film scoring, marked by a brash main theme for Karloff’s castle—simultaneously majestic and brooding—that, according to Stein, is distinctive in that it is an inversion of most traditional movie themes, with the tune written in the bass, “while the harmony and other melodic lines are playing on top.” The score also features a seductive theme for the wraith-like character Helaine, which, in contrast to the castle motif, is played in the strings’ highest registers for an effect not unlike the high-pitched ghostly cry of a theremin. Following is Stein’s score for THE DEVIL’S PARTNER (1962), an ultra-cheap drive-in film starring Ed Nelson as an old man who bargains with Satan for youth and power. Stein takes a more modern approach this time, driving Nelson toward his fate with a motor-like rhythm on electric bass guitar and snare drum. Additionally, an electronic oscillator is used to characterize Nelson’s practice of black magic.

More horror fills Disc 3, though the musical worlds Stein creates couldn’t be more different. For DEMENTIA 13 (1963), Francis Coppola’s PSYCHO-like hatchet-murder thriller set in Scotland, Stein provides his scariest and most brutally violent work, in which an insanely played harpsichord ostinato is joined by shrieking winds, driving strings and startling brass-and-percussion hits. For Jack Hill’s SPIDER BABY (1968), a black comedy about a family of psychopathic maniacs, Stein zeroes in on the film’s camp value with an infectiously groovy main-title song that might have worked as a darker alternative to the famous ADDAM’S FAMILY theme, “sung” by the Wolf Man himself, Lon Chaney Jr! Evocative of the playfully sinister approach Danny Elfman would take to the films of Tim Burton, the score is a complete joy, from the cool electric-guitar plucks that supplement traditional, string-heavy suspense music to all the ingenious variations on “Itsy Bitsy Spider” that underscore one characters’ obsession with the eight-legged beasts. Percepto’s presentation utilizes a different take of the main title song than was used on the previously mentioned Varese Sarabande album.

Stein tackles period dramas on Disc 4. ATLAS (1961) is a low-rent mythical epic for which the composer provides all the customary muscular themes, palace pageantry and martial tableaux, though it all sounds a bit anemic and uninspired compared to similar biblical/historical works by Miklos Rozsa, Dimitri Tiomkin and Alex North. GUNSLINGER (1956), a feminist Western starring Beverly Garland, finds Stein in a slightly more inventive mood; a strange Western score, it’s not in the jubilant folk-song spirit of Tiomkin, nor is it informed by the rhythmic ecstasies of Copland’s Americana. Traditional instruments are joined by odder choices like xylophone and vibraphone for an altogether more introspective experience. Short, angry outbursts from the brass inform us of danger and violence, while the main theme is reserved for gentle renditions on guitar and harmonica – an anti-grandiose approach that recalls Jerry Goldsmith’s more economical Western excursions. Musically speaking, both scores are rather mundane compared to the rest, lacking the creative spark and enthusiasm found in Stein’s more macabre works.

Finally we come to the 5th and last disc, which begins with Roger Corman’s post-apocalyptic drama THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960). Set in Puerto Rico, the film inspires some Latin flavoring to Stein’s lush, romantic work. Following are two scores that showcase Stein’s affinity for sax-heavy jazz and rock: THE GIRL IN LOVER’S LANE (1959), which contains a couple of catchy jukebox ditties that fans of ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN will instantly recall, and the swinging score for an obscure youth crime drama from ’59 titled DIAL 1-1-1 (the pre-911 New Zealand telephone code for emergency calls).

All tracks have been mastered from tapes provided by the late composer’s wife and are a mix of stereo and crystal clear mono. Sound quality is robust throughout, with only GUNFIGHTER sounding a bit muffled and degraded. An informative 32-page booklet adds to our appreciation of this underrated composer.

MAD, MOD & MACABRE is limited to 1,000 copies and seems to be the subject of some legal dispute. The set disappeared from Percepto’s web site soon after debuting, only to reappear weeks later with a disclaimer that it would be “Available for a limited time only!”

If interested, we urge you to check it out at www.percepto.com.

– Bill Cooke

You can contact Bill Cooke online at williamtcooke@yahoo.com. If you are a disc producer and would like your CD reviewed by Shameful Cinema, send review material to Bill Cooke c/o Shameful Cinema, 3007 Columbia Ave., Columbia, SC, 29201.