If you look back now, night never turns to day
The riff from Mad Love (1935) which I mentioned and which is often stuck in my head turns out to be something of a mystery. It is identified in the film as the modern composition of its up-and-coming pianist and heard twice at a semi-spectral remove, once in the radio broadcast of the concert which soundtracks his wife's confrontation with a fatefully obsessed fan, once in a recording briefly and heartbreakingly mistaken for her husband recovering his prowess at the piano after the accident that replaced his hands. It has a sort of post-Gershwin orchestral jazz sound; partly because it is attributed to the fictional character and partly because the rest of his overheard repertoire is recognizably Chopin, I assumed it had been written by Dmitri Tiomkin who is credited with the musical score. According to Tiomkin's cue sheet for the movie, it is an excerpt from something called "The Skyscraper" by "St. John." Trying to discover any further information about this piece or its composer has failed amid a welter of algorithmically unhelpful search results. (I did find a Clarence Hoard St. John who seems to have composed primarily ragtime, which I enjoyed listening to.) It sounds from the title and the listing of the composer as the rights holder as though it existed prior to the production of the film, but then again David Snell who spent his entire career under contract to MGM is indicated to retain the rights to his improvised contributions to the score, so perhaps St. John was in a similar position and "The Skyscraper" is only the name of the piece when it's played by Stephen Orlac. Any thoughts even on where to look for a reliable lead on solving any of these questions would be appreciated. The fragments are notably catchy and I'd like to hear the rest of it sometime. I imagine this article would help if I could read it. [edit] It did not, but ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theseatheseatheopensea did!
theseatheseatheopensea did!
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I recommend it! We watched it last year for our 'Thon. Peter Lorre is incredible. I like the 1924 film, also.
(Can you read the article here?)
I can! Thank you so much! It . . . doesn't answer my question. Its analysis of the associations invoked by the use of extra-diegetically extant music has mostly to do with Chopin and Wagner and does not touch on the authorship of "The Skyscraper," although it describes the piece:
"The style of Orlac's composition stands in stark contrast to the other music he performs. Written in a distinctly ragtime-like jazz style, the work stands apart from Chopin, Wagner and the standard nineteenth-century Romantic idiom used in most classical Hollywood films. Like the concerto in Hangover Square, Orlac's jazzy piece, with its sequential, dissonant, syncopated style, carries with it the taint of the disturbed. In Gogol's words it is 'very modern music'."
So I get to feel vindicated because in my original review of Mad Love I described it as a "darkly catchy classical rag" without even having a degree in music theory, but it still doesn't tell me who wrote it or whether I can find more than the short, vivid excerpts employed in the film. What a white whale I have apparently chosen to chase.
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And I've had dinner now so I managed to channel some librarian energy and thought I'd search for the piece's copyright, and yessssss jackpot! (Let me know if Google's weird links don't work and I'll grab a screenshot!) Hopefully a recording will turn up somewhere?
ETA: It looks like St. John is a pseudonym! What a delightful mystery for a Friday night! \o/
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Thank you so much!
And I've had dinner now so I managed to channel some librarian energy and thought I'd search for the piece's copyright, and yessssss jackpot!
You're a godsend. Darby St. John Redlich of Hollywood, California, copyright in the name of Darby St. John. Who seems to have exactly one Hollywood credit as composer and lyricist of the songs for Gigolettes of Paris (1933), co-starring Gilbert Roland as it turns out. And if I pursue the name further, it is listed as the pseudonym of "Redlich, Elizabeth Beatrice Bateson (1909–1955). Born in Wisconsin; studied at the University of Wisconsin and University of Chicago; died in Los Angeles; a composer." She published a bunch of short stories in the 1940's. I'll have to see if
[edit] Just saw your ETA! I was running the same pseudonym down. She wrote at least one novel, too. And at least one play. Thank you for your invaluable research. Everything about this chain of discovery delights me except that I still don't know if a complete recording of "The Skyscraper" exists.
(In light of the copyright date of May 21, 1935, perhaps not. Mad Love was in production from early May into early June of that year and released in July. It may have been a studio commission. Alas! I love it. I wonder if the sheet music survives.)
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ETA: And some more!
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Oh, neat. When I saw the first hit from March 9, 1935, I wondered immediately what movies had been in production then. I am fascinated by this uncredited yet semi-traceable career of hers.
[edit] I found even more! ("Dealer in hearts" and "I'll live on in dreams" are duplicated from your links, but one of the new titles has the same November 25, 1931 copyright date as the latter, so I definitely want to know what production those were delivered for.)
The quality is ghastly, but I found Gigolettes of Paris. Gilbert Roland is entirely recognizable even at the resolution of power-washed newsprint.
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It's so cool just how much can be found once you have a name, and it's even more significant when it's about female artists! <3 I'm definitely intrigued about her now!
YT has the colourised version which isn't much better! But in both cases, it definitely looks like fun!
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Yes! Per the announcement of her marriage in 1932: "Mr Redlich at present is writing a play, for which his bride is composing the musical scores." I wonder if it was produced. I am so interested by the fact of her composing in the decades she did, even under a pseudonym.
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I hope so! I only found information about plays he copyrighted earlier.
I also found this--apparently she also used the pseudonym Ann St. John? And here's one of her stories (with some info about her)!
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I saw that on her gravestone. I'm not sure how to take the co-authorship claim on the fiction. I've read novels co-written by couples (Frances and Richard Lockridge, Dick Francis), but The Westgate Mystery (1941) seems to be the only novel published under the Darby St. John name—it was reviewed on release as "a notable first detective story by a new author who will, we trust, be heard from again"—and when it was used to copyright film music, it can only have referred to the composer in the family. I suppose it's conceivable she/they could have used other pseudonyms not yet linked up with Elizabeth Bateson, but. I'm a lot more willing to accept it in the case of the play attributed to Darby St. John, knowing the husband's line.
And here's one of her stories (with some info about her)!
"Later in Hollywood sold some music for pictures."
I would have loved to hear her symphonies, as many of them as she numbered.
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Good!
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