WIN: Clint Eastwood: A Life on Both Sides of the Camera by Michał Talarek
Thanks to author Michał Talarek we have 3 copies of his latest book to giveaway as prizes.
To enter, please leave answer and contact details in the comments below, details will not be published, and 3 lucky winners will be randomly selected and receive a copy of the book.
Competition is open to UK residents only please; closing date will be midnight July 31st UK time. Winning books will be sent out shortly thereafter.
Question: Le Streghe (also known as The Witches) is a film produced by Dino De Laurentiis in 1965 and released in 1967. It consists of 5 short stories, directed by Franco Rossi, Luchino Visconti, Mauro Bolognini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Vittorio De Sica. Each story is about witches and features the beautiful Silvana Mangano. But what was the name of the story which starred Clint?
Double-Bill release A Fistful of Dollars / For a Few Dollars More
I wanted to post a few bits here for the U.S. 1969 Double-Bill release of A Fistful of Dollars / For a Few Dollars More. Hoping to cash in for a second time around and on the back of the success of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, United Artists re-released the first two classic dollar westerns, pairing them up for a limited run. The two movies were also shown together in Australia and in the U.K. where it had a 2-week run at the London Pavilion in April 1969.
Below: Original Theatrical banner
Below: The U.S. One sheet poster
Below; The US Half Sheet poster
Below: An example from the Double-Bill U.S. Lobby card set
Below: The rare Australian Day bill Double-Bill
Below: A selection of rare Newspaper adverts
Below: The UK Quad Double-Bill poster
Below: Original Combo Radio Spots Vinyl Record
Below: The original Double-Bill theatrical trailer
Below: The very Rare UK double Crown poster, one of which recently sold for around £700
Ronald Alfred Goodwin (17 February 1925 – 8 January 2003) was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple films, and Frenzy.
Born in Plymouth, Devon, England, Goodwin learned to play the piano and trumpet from the age of five which allowed him to join the school band. When he was nine, the family moved to Harrow, London, where he attended Willesden County School and Pinner County Grammar School, in Middlesex.
From there he went on to study the trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music.
Whilst working as a copyist, he formed his own orchestra in his spare time and began arranging and conducting recordings for over fifty performers, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He wrote his first feature film score for Whirlpool, with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann. After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM-British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios.
Where Eagles Dare received a 1969 UK album release on MGM Records 2315 036 and in the United States on MGM Records S1E-16 ST although the sleeve designs were very different – the content was identical. The was also a French album (Quand Les Aigles Attaquent MGM Records 61 625) which again featured entirely different artwork. A Spanish album appeared (El Desafío de Las Águilas) also with different artwork and a Japanese album appeared in 1981 (MGM Records – 25MM9030) and carried the same sleeve design as the original U.S. release. In 1990 EMI Records doubled up edited highlights with 633 Squadron (CDP 79 4094 2). Available on both vinyl and CD the sleeve carried a full close-up image of Eastwood. Also, in 2001 Chapter III records in the states released a cd version (CH 37500-2).
However, in 2004 Film Score Monthly released a beautiful Remastered 2 CD version (FSMCD Vol. 6 No. 21) which was limited to just 3,000 copies and doubled up with another great Goodwin score, Operation Crossbow (1965). At 20 tracks (74:07), FSM’s release remains the ultimate version of the soundtrack. I was also very fortunate to receive a credit on this release – as I provided a great deal of the illustrative material for the accompanying 27-page booklet.
Ron Goodwin’s score opens with a quiet, terse and repetitive drumbeat before a bombastic brass section joins in. It’s a simple theme tune for a film with a storyline that is anything but. Ascending scales foretell the vertiginous cliffs below the Schloss Adler, the German castle that a team led by Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood must penetrate to fulfil their objective, and the film’s climactic fight on the roof of a moving cable car.
Mon 7th April 2025, 19:30, The Barbican, London. Kyle Eastwood teams up with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Eastwood Symphonic is a tribute from a son to his father the actor, director, musician and animal rights activist Clint Eastwood. It is also the witness of an artistic legacy, the transmission of personal passions that touch each other until they merge as often as they can.
At each step of this musical road movie. Kyle and his quintet will perform with the world-famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to offer a rich and emotional rendition of the soundtracks associated with Clint Eastwood’s masterpieces, under the baton of Gast Waltzing.
This special evening’s Programme features:
Ennio Morricone A Fistfull of Dollars
Ennio Morricone The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Lalo Schfrin Dirty Harry
Lalo Schfrin Magnum Force
L. Niehaus Unforgiven
John Williams The Eiger Sanction
Lennie Niehaus Unforgiven
Lennie Niehaus The Bridges of Madison County
Clint Eastwood Flags of our fathers
Kyle Eastwood, M. Stevens Letter from Iwo Jima
Kyle Eastwood, M. Stevens Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood Changeling
Featuring Andrew McCormack on Piano, Chris Higginbottom Drums, Quentin Collins Trumpet and Bugle and Brandon Allen Saxophones.
Ticket prices range from £45 (restrictive viewing) to £150 - VIP Meet and Greet Tickets are also available for this performance. It sounds like this will be a wonderful night and it would have been nice to cover this event.
For more information and ticket availability, visit The Barbican websiteHERE
Kyle Eastwood - Eastwood Symphonic is available on both CD and vinyl
It’s always nice to find a piece of Eastwood related vinyl to add to the collection, so today was particularly rewarding. This original French Ennio Morricone compilation album dates from November 1971. Ennio Morricone – Les Bandes Sonores De Ses Films was released on the Orange RCA Victor – 741021 label.
I had never come across this one before, but it caught my attention immediately as the sleeve was a full colour image from the climax of Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964). It’s the same image which appeared on the German 7” single from 1965 – although it appeared on the single in b/w as opposed to colour.
Consisting of 12 tracks, the LP also contains a few collaborations with other composers such as Carlo Alberto Rossi, Sergio Bardotti and Gillo Pontecorvo – but in general, the majority is made up of Morricone compositions. The reverse also features a photo of Clint standing in the saloon entrance from A Fistful of Dollars.
A nice addition to the vinyl collection and well worth looking out for if vinyl collecting is your thing. This release also had a 1971 release on 8-Track Cartridge (LP8S 21132) and a 1972 release on audio cassette (RCA – 6.010).
I was playing a few scores last week when it occurred to me that we really don’t share enough of the many great soundtrack releases that have graced Clint’s films. I thought we should address this and post the occasional theme, or a suite from the vast selection of scores. Considering that most are readily accessible and available on various platforms such as YouTube – why not enjoy them here too.
I’ll back up each post with a little information to accompany each choice. If anything, I hope it will provide us all with a bit of a musical ‘interlude’ as well as a reminder of some classic Eastwood moments.
I thought I’d get things going with Lalo Schifrin’s great theme to Joe Kidd (1972). Schifrin had just finished composing his great urban jazz score for Eastwood’s previous picture, Dirty Harry when he was asked to provide the John Sturges western score. Schifrin would later work with director Sturges again on the 1976 British war film, The Eagle Has Landed. Both films also featured actor Robert Duvall.
Joe Kidd took a long while to receive a soundtrack release, eventually coming through over 40 years later on January 21st 2013 on the Intrada label (Intrada Special Collection Volume 234]. Although in an Interview with composer Lalo Schifrin, he did explain to me that there was a bootleg album which he believed originated from South America that briefly surfaced, but to this day I have never seen a copy.
The official release was certainly worth waiting for. Intrada’s complete score used pristine condition multi-track stereo session elements from Universal Pictures. The release featured highly informative liner notes by our late friend and Schifrin authority, Nick Redman plus it featured reversible covers containing original Universal/Malpaso art from both America and Europe. I was also lucky enough to assist art director Joe Sikoryak on this release, and as such - it became a very personal and rewarding experience.
To kick off the month of July, our Photo Opportunity features a great profile shot of Clint as Joe Kidd. We don’t often see too many new shots from Joe Kidd – so this great image (found by Davy Triumph) is certainly a welcome addition.
Joe Kidd was Clint’s 1972 American Revisionist Western written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges. The film is about an ex-bounty hunter hired by a wealthy landowner named Frank Harlan to track down Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama, who is fighting for land reform. It forms part of the Revisionist Western genre. Following Dirty Harry, filming began in Old Tucson in November 1971, overlapping with another film production, John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which was just wrapping up shooting and how the famous photo shoot of Clint and Paul Newman presented itself.
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