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Today is the birthday of American composer, arranger, pianist and instrumentalist, Ferde Grofé, who was born on March 27, in New York City in 1892 to German immigrants. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement symphonic poem, Grand Canyon Suite, and for orchestrating Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin for its 1924 premiere.
To honor him, I chose his score for the rarely seen film, Rocketship X-M, because I remember this as the first Sci-Fi film I ever saw when I was not yet in my teens. I was completely blown away by it.
Desperate to see more films of this type, I eagerly flew to the theater the following year to see The Man from Planet X and was heartbroken to find it a cheesy "B" movie whose cheesiness was only surpassed in 1957 by Plan Nine from Outer Space by Ed Wood. My faith in Sci-Fi films was restored by films such as When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, Destination Moon, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World.
The score by Grofé included a theremin played by Dr. Samuel Hoffman who played the instrument in the orchestral score of the Alfred Hitchcock 1945 film Spellbound.
Rocketship X-M (a.k.a. Expedition Moon and originally Rocketship Expedition Moon) is a 1950 American black-and-white science fiction film from Lippert Pictures, the first outer space adventure of the post-World War II era. The film was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and stars Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery Jr., Hugh O'Brian, and Morris Ankrum. The film is in black-and-white except when they are on the planet Mars when the film is tinted red, very red. I thought that was totally cool.
Rocketship X-M (1950)
There is fascinating information on producers Robert L. Lippert and Murray Lernet on the Beware the Blog blog (link below) as well as a plethora of information on the film on several blogs on the Net (links below).
Rocketship X-M tells the story of a Moon expedition gone awry. Through a series of unforeseen events, the expedition's crew find themselves on the red planet, Mars.
During their time on the planet they go on to discover the remnants of a
Martian civilization destroyed long ago by atomic war and now reverted
to barbarism.
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Side 1:
A1 - Main Title
A2 - Countdown; Launch; Into Orbit
A3 - Floating Free
A4 - Interrupted Mission
A5 - Romance In Space (Lisa's Theme)
A6 - Approaching Mars
A7 - Theremin Solo
A2 - Countdown; Launch; Into Orbit
A3 - Floating Free
A4 - Interrupted Mission
A5 - Romance In Space (Lisa's Theme)
A6 - Approaching Mars
A7 - Theremin Solo
Side 2:
B1 - Exploring The Red Planet
B2 - The Martian Mutants
B3 - Homeward Bound
B4 - None Came Back
B5 - End Title
Credits:
Composed By – Ferde Grofé
Orchestrated By – Albert Glasser
Theremin – Dr. Samuel Hoffman*
Notes:
Original pressing with orange labels and matrix numbers stamped in the runout grooves. This edition lists Starlog's New York address on the back cover.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout: S R 1000 A-1A
Barcode: S R 1000 B-1A
Barcode: S R 1000 B-1A
Ferde Grofé – Rocketship X-M (The Original Soundtrack Score)
Label: Starlog Records – SR - 1000
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1977
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Score
Label: Starlog Records – SR - 1000
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1977
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Score
Viewfinder links:
Net links:
Beware the Blog ~ Anatomy of a Cult Science Fiction Classic
KQEK ~ CD: Rocketship X-M (1950) review
Monster Movie Music ~ Ferde Grofé Sr. - "Walkin Around On Mars" (1950)
Monstrous Movie Music ~ Rocketship X-M
Scifist ~ Rocketship X-M
YouTube links:
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