Val Lewton B Unit | Roy Webb: Cat people soundtrack and other Lewton Films

Roy Webb: Music to Cat people and other Val Lewton Films

ROY WEBB: CAT PEOPLE
(Above: The cover montage of Lewton
film posters that makes up the
cover to this Roy Webb tribute.)

Roy Webb: Cat People
Classic Music for the
Val Lewton Films
Marco Polo Music CDs 8.225125
Score reconstructions by John Morgan
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
Recorded May 1999 at the Concert Hall of Slavak Radio, Bratislava
Producer: Milos Betko
Engineer: Hubert Geschwandtner
Editor: Ladislav Krajcovic
Liner Notes: Scott MacQueen
Playing time: 69:53 minutes

(Above foto: From the liner notes in the CD booklet.)

The 36-page booklet that comes with this CD collection is an excellent, short overview of Webb and Lewton. Scott MacQueen's writing on the RKO films is succinct and well-thought out:

"Through the medium of the horror film, Lewton found a curious outlet for his basically humanistic viewpoint. He rejects superstition and promotes reason, and evidences a desperate need to believe in the ultimate goodness of people. Basic Christian principals of tolerance, benevolence, humility and forgiveness underlie these stories. There is a God in the Lewton universe and he is expressed in secular endeavor and right-mindedness along almost Unitarian lines.

Evil exists for Lewton but it is not a supernatural agency (Cat People, studio-mandated, is the qualified exception). It is a mode of thinking and conduct embraced by choice. It is the refuge of broken, incomplete people who feel betrayed and disillusioned by life. The human spirit may be basically good, but we each have the power of choice; bad people elect the dark side. Lewton is not afraid to be judgmental about this, but he tempers the verdict with pity because he understands that the choice is made out of fear and human frailty." From page 14 of MacQueen's liner notes.

The biography of Roy Webb in the booklet is an interesting overview of the man's life - - titled "Roy Webb: The Forgotten Man," it traces his life story and gives an analysis of his composing style and characterizes the kind of music he designed for the films he was involved with. A familiarity with basic musical terms would probably be helpful for appreciating all that is written here, but a general reader can get the gist of what's being described.

Perhaps the best thing about this wonderful, small booklet is the musical descriptions given to the scores on the disc for each film - - it is an education in itself about the part music plays in the mood and in the telling of the story inside a movie. How well-designed Webb's contributions were for the Lewton films comes across strongly. For example:

"The cue The Zombie (index 34) demonstrates Webb's technique of understating his suspense sequences. Nurse Betty hears crying in the night and is scared witless when she unexpectedly meets her patient Jessica in a dark and lonely place. The "Fort Holland" motif is developed but, as a wraithlike figure approaches the nurse, pure color takes over. The orchestra divides: bassoons and oboes descend, the strings repeat vibrato a modulated set of agitated chromatic figures, and woodwinds joined by strings ascend, reaching an unresolved sustained chord. Webb pulls his punch - - the performance dynamics are only mezzo forte. As the frightened nurse screams, the orchestra holds the unresolved chord diminuendo, gently dying away with the reverberations of the woman's cry. The drama of the scene is not resolved for several moments, when a voice rings out of the silence." From page 30 of the liner notes booklet by Scott MacQueen.

The music on the CD is taken from the following films: Cat People, Bedlam, The Seventh Victim, The Body Snatcher, and I Walked with A Zombie. The liner note booklet includes a track index; an introduction by former Lewton director Robert Wise; a short blurb on Lewton by Curt Siodmak; a brief biography of Lewton (titled Val Lewton: 'The Sultan of Shudders'); A bio of Webb ("Roy Webb: The Forgotten Man"); an overview of the Lewton RKO films (titled "The Val Lewton Thrillers") broken up into individual film-by-film analysis that follows the tracking order of the CD; a short bio of the writer Scott MacQueen; and a two-page "Arranger's Notes" by John Morgan, who reconstructed the scores for the recording.

The music itself sounds very much like the original soundtracks to the films (at least to this purely amateur set of ears), although for the most part much fuller and delicate, which is to say, it's beautiful music. The only obvious discrepancy is the use of Russian-sounding basso singers on the I Walked with A Zombie chant O Marie Congo, versus the Caribbean soundalikes in the film. Perhaps this will seem more like a variation, since getting an entire soundtrack album on Lewton's films is such a treat.

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