The Styrous® Viewfinder: The Day the Earth Stood Still

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May 25, 2024

101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 124: Star Wars Episode IV ~ A New Hope

photo of album cover by Styrous®

Forty-seven years ago today, on May 25, 1977, the blockbuster film, Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope, was released and Sci-Fi films would never be the same again.

I vividly remember standing in line with thousands of other Sci-Fi fanatics to see this new marvel, not really knowing what was in store for me (link below). It seems it was only yesterday that I watched the opening of the film crawl which was a throw back to the old 1930's Flash Gordon series (link below) as the film began and I heard the dramatic music of John Williams explode then slowly dwindle out and the huge Empire warship slowly emerge from the top of the screen; I can still feel the goose bumps that popped out on my arms.

Flash Gordon poster -1936

I was completely sucked in and have written extensively about the film, it's participants and, certainly not least, it's marketing items (link below) for the last few decades.

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel front cover detail

cover design by Theodor Lloyd Glazer

detail photo of album cover by Styrous®

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope was the first film released in the Star Wars film series and the fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga".

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel back cover

cover design by Theodor Lloyd Glazer

photo of album back cover by Styrous®

The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, and James Earl Jones.

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel back cover detail

cover design by Theodor Lloyd Glazer

photo of album back cover detail by Styrous®

I think the score for the film, by John Williams, is one of the greatest film scores ever written, surpassed only by Bernard Herman for The Day the Earth Stood Still. Actually, I think Star_Wars is the greatest score Williams EVER wrote; he never surpassed it.

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel spine

cover design by Theodor Lloyd Glazer

photo by Styrous®

Other collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). His work as a film composer includes Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Cowboys (1972), The Long Goodbye (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974). He received five Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Schindler's List (1993), Superman (1978) and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004).

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel box cover interior

photo by Styrous®

With Henry Mancini, he recorded the scores of Peter Gunn (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and Charade (1963), and played the piano part of the guitar-piano ostinato in Mancini's Peter Gunn title theme.

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel box cover interior

photo by Styrous®

The music from Star_Wars has been covered dozens of times. The film came out at the height of the disco era so, of course, there is a disco version by Meco (Domenico Monardo) (link below) and the latest iteration I know of is a hard rock cover by Galactic Empire with a really fun video for the song on YouTube (link below).

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel box cover interior detail

photo by Styrous®

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel tape

photo by Styrous®

Star_Wars ~ Episode IV – A New Hope

Reel-to-Reel tape detail

photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Main Title
A2 - Imperial Attack
A3 - Princess Leia's Theme
A4 - The Desert And The Robot Auction
A5 - Ben's Death And The Tie Fighter Attack
A6 - The Little People Work
A7 - Rescue Of The Princess
A8 - Inner City
A9 - Cantina Band

Side 2:

B1 - The Land Of The Sandpeople
B2 - Mouse Robot And Blasting Off
B3 - The Return Home
B4 - The Walls Converge
B5 - The Princess Appears
B6 - The Last Battle
B7 - The Throne Room And End Title

Companies, etc.

    Recorded At – Soundstream, Inc.
    Mastered At – Soundstream, Inc.
    Mastered At – Sheffield Lab Matrix

Credits:

    Composed By, Conductor – John Williams (4)
    Design [Cover Design, Illustration] – Theodor Lloyd Glazer
    Orchestra – Boston Pops Orchestra
    Photography By – William Shisler
    Producer – George Korngold

Notes:

℗ 1977 20th Century Records
CRC denotes Columbia House club edition
"For The United Kingdom, licenses for the use of recordings for public performances may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., Ganton House, 14-22 Ganton Street, London.

London Symphony Orchestra – Star Wars
Label: 20th Century Records – 1R2 6693
Format: Reel-To-Reel, 3 ¾ ips, ¼", 4-Track Stereo, 7" Cine Reel, Album, Club Edition
Country: US
Released: 1977
Genre: Classical, Stage & Screen
Style: Modern Classical, Contemporary, Soundtrack

Viewfinder links:

All things Star Wars

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Carrie Fisher

Harrison Ford

Bernard Herrmann

Henry Mancini

Meco

David Prowse, the greatest villain of all time

Star Wars (the movie)

John Williams

Net links:

Galactic Empire

Star_Wars site

YouTube links:

Flash Gordon/Star Wars crawl

Galactic Empire ~ Star Wars

Meco ~ Star Wars

Star Wars ~

Opening Crawl

Cantina

Styrous® ~ Saturday, May 25, 2024

20,000 Vinyl LPs Archive
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March 14, 2024

Klaatu articles/mentions

Klaatu

mentions:

Bernard Herrmann ~ Day the Earth Stood Still

Klaatu

date & photographer unknown

Music People

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Gort articles/mentions

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mentions:
Bernard Herrmann ~ The Day the Earth Stood Still
Klaatu

Gort - 1951

publicity photo

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Movie Articles

Movie People

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August 25, 2021

Michael Rennie ~ Klaatu barada nikto!

The Day the Earth Stood Still - 1951

movie poster

I have many songs, pieces of music or whatever, that I will always remember the moment, situation or place I was when I heard it; a case in point is the theremin; ok, it's not a song but it fits in there. The first time I heard the sound of the instrument I was 11 years old and had discovered Sci-Fi in books and films several years earlier. As far as films go, I was used to the funky stuff, Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, the VERY low budget Man From Planet X, etc., so, from the moment the The Day the Earth Stood Still opened with the electrifying (pun intended) music score by Bernard Herrmann with the quivering, other-worldly sound of the theremin, which sent shivers up and down my spine (it still does), I was transfixed in my seat! The film score by Herrmann is sensational; it is in my pantheon of the top ten film scores of all time. I think it with the excellent production values are what makes Day the Earth the Grandfather of the modern Sci-Fi film age.

The next technological/sonic breakthroughs would happen again 17 years later with the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey . . .

. . . then 35 years later with Star Wars.

Today, August 25, is the birthday of Michael Rennie who starred as Klaatu, the alien from the flying saucer in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Michael Rennie as Klaatu

The Day the Earth Stood Still

film still

Michael Rennie was a 6' 4" tall British film, television and stage actor, born in 1909, in Idle near Bradford, West Riding of West Yorkshire, England. He appeared in more than fifty films but is best remembered for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 Sci-Fi film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

He attracted the interest of a casting director at Gaumont British who took him on as an extra. Rennie said this was a deliberate strategy so he could learn how films were made. Head of production Michael Balcon said Rennie was taken on "because he was good-looking and athletic. He knew nothing of acting, but was given a contract to play small parts and to work as stand-in for players such as Robert Young and John Loder.

Rennie's first screen acting was an uncredited bit part in the Alfred Hitchcock film Secret Agent (1936), standing in for Robert Young. Balcon says he saw Rennie act in a scene in East Meets West (1936) and fired him immediately afterwards. Balcon wrote "I had seen the rushes of that day's filming and had at once decided that Rennie was far too inexperienced to justify big screen parts."

Rennie worked mostly in Yorkshire, eventually becoming a star with the York Repertory Company. Among his roles were as Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw, which was later made into the 1956 musical My Fair Lady .

During World War II, Rennie began to receive offers for film roles but continued repertory work honing his craft. He enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on 27 May 1941. "There has been a pause in Rennie's film career", wrote Balcon in 1942. "But there will be parts awaiting him when the war is over"

With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Rennie was given his first film break, when cast alongside Margaret Lockwood, then at the peak of her popularity, in the musical I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945), directed by Val Guest.

The movie was not a big hit but Rennie received excellent notices, including a review from the US trade paper Variety who said his performance made the film "noteworthy" and that he was . . .

". . . likely Hollywood material... the best bet in the way of a new male star to have come out of a British studio in many years. Rennie not only has a lot on the ball as a straight lead, he knows the value of visual tricks. Femmes will go for him in a big way."

He followed this with The Wicked Lady in 1945. Rennie was the fifth lead but it was a good part and an excellent project to be associated with – the year's biggest box-office hit, subsequently being listed ninth on a list of top ten highest-grossing British films of all time.

Rennie's prestige was raised when he was given a single prominent scene as a commander of Roman centurions in the Gabriel Pascal production of Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw (also 1945), starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains. Rennie was now established as a leading actor. One report called him "the bobbysoxers' dark idol... Gainsborough's 1945 discovery." He was mobbed by female fans on a personal appearance tour.

In 1950, he was one of several English actors cast in the 20th Century Fox medieval adventure story The Black Rose starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles. Rennie was specifically cast as the 13th-century King Edward I, whose 6' 2" (1.88 m) frame gave origin to his historical nickname "Longshanks".

After Claude Rains turned down the role, Rennie received top billing in his next film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, the first postwar, large-budget, "A" science-fiction film. It was a serious, high-minded exploration of mid-20th century suspicion and paranoia, combined with a philosophical overview of humanity's coming place in the larger universe. Rennie said director Robert Wise told him to do the role "with dignity but not with superiority". (The story was later dramatised in 1954 on Lux Radio Theatre, with Rennie and Billy Gray recreating their original film roles. Seven years later, on 3 March 1962, when The Day the Earth Stood Still made its television premiere on the NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, Rennie appeared in a two-minute introductory prologue before the start of the film.)

He appeared in the film Seven Cities of Gold in 1955 with Richard Egan and Anthony Quinn, and with them again in Demetrius and the Gladiators (link below). His film career only went up from there.

Michael Rennie - 1958

photo: CBS Television

During a visit to his mother's home in Harrogate, Yorkshire, following the death of his brother, Rennie died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm almost two months before his 62nd birthday.

Viewfinder links:

Buster Crabbe

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Demetrius and the Gladiators

Richard Egan

Bernard Herrmann

Alfred Hitchcock

Stanley Kubrick

Lux Radio Theater

Tyrone Power

Anthony Quinn

Claude Rains