CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER (1974)
Composed & conducted by Laurie Johnson

GDI Records / BSX Records / TT: 56:36 / 2,000 Limited Ed. / Mono

After disappearing from the scene for a few years, GDI Records is back, continuing their exploration of Hammer soundtracks with this nice album devoted to one of the British film company’s oddest creations.

Written and directed by Brain Clemens, the producer of TV’s THE AVENGERS, CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER (simply known as KRONOS in Mother England) was kind of like the VAN HELSING of its day, only it was actually pretty good.

Stoic and dubbed, German actor Horst Janson plays the heroic captain, a one-time swordsman of the King’s Imperial Guard who, after surviving a vampire bite, is now sworn to ridding Europe of the undead pests. Together with his hunchbacked assistant Prof. Hieronymous Grost (John Cater) and a beautiful gypsy “groupie” whom he saved from the embarrassment of a pillory (Caroline Munro—oh, mama!), Kronos arrives in a village lorded over by aristocratic vampires who venture out in the daytime to suck youth, not blood, from their peasant stock victims. A spirited meshing of horror and Western themes, the film was hip without ever careening into camp and was most deserving of a sequel or two, but sadly none were ever made.

Clemens’ predictable choice of composer was Laurie Johnson, who provided his THE AVENGERS with its groovy theme, as well as memorable scores for DR. STRANGELOVE and the Ray Harryhausen effects-vehicle THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. The latter assignment came about when the renowned Bernard Herrmann, who scored the last several Harryhausen fantasy spectacles, turned down the offer. As it turns out, despite his background as a dance band arranger, Johnson’s dramatic film music is often informed by Herrmann’s style—a sonorous fusion of Wagner’s and Vaughan Williams’ orchestral palettes, with a fondness for growling contrabassoon lines.

The highlight of the album is the Main Title, a complete statement of the ‘Kronos’ theme that accompanies the hero and his assistant as they travel by horse and wagon over the hills and dales of some exquisitely gloomy English countryside (the tale is supposed to be set in European Somewhere circa 1600’s). A two-part theme, it begins with a Wagnerian trumpet fanfare, echoed by the horns—a Siegfried-like call to arms and a promise of adventure ahead; this ongoing dialog between the brass is joined by a surging passage for strings that characterizes the hero’s determination on his quest. Beneath these motifs is a driving, churning rhythm from the orchestra’s lower forces, and the whole catchy, propulsive piece has the feeling of a medieval fox hunt, albeit a decidedly macabre one. Much of the remaining underscore is derived from material found in the Main Title.

The fanfare and the secondary motif play independently or against one another throughout; the rhythmic part recurs, too, though sometimes less recognizably so in short, angry bursts, as a kind of anti-fanfare to announce conflict.

Munro’s doe-eyed gypsy inspires a motif of romantic longing that is alternately played by oboe and the Hungarian cimbalom (the latter provides a little ethnicity to her musical portrait). For color, Johnson further uses the cimbalom—usually as skeletal ticks over a dissonant string line—to depict the vampires, as well as tubular bells to illustrate their power to mesmerize. It’s a nicely orchestrated and atmospheric score, but a rather subdued one. Johnson’s approach is sophisticated rather than showy; he doesn’t hammer us with the Kronos fanfare, nor does he ever cut loose with a rip-roaring action cue.

GDI joins forces with BSX Records for this limited-edition CD that presents Laurie Johnson’s full score. The recording is mono and sounds a little pinched at first, but the ear soon adjusts and all of the instrumental detail comes through just fine. Some nice bonus tracks include a number of solo-instrumental demos for cymbals, “spooky” strings, tympani, etc, and the album concludes with a longer edited version of the title music.

Those who appreciate gothic horror scores and well-crafted English orchestral music should check it out at www.buysoundtrax.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.