CONTRACT ON CHERRY STREET

JERRY GOLDSMITH

Rating:

Original Review: Jerry Goldsmith was at the height of his musical powers in the 1970s, composing what was arguably the greatest work of his career in a decade which encompassed such seminal works as Chinatown, Islands in the Stream, Papillon, The Wind and the Lion, Alien and his Oscar-winning classic The Omen. He started his career, of course, in television, and people often forget that, even during this career purple patch, Goldsmith still regularly wrote for small screen projects such as QB VII and this one, Contract on Cherry Street.

The film was directed by William A. Graham and starred Frank Sinatra, coaxed out of his seven year retirement to play a tough New York police officer who swears revenge on the Big Apple's organised crime ring after his partner is gunned down in cold blood. With a supporting cast that included such heavyweights character actors as Harry Guardino, Martin Balsam and Henry Silva, and a fine screenplay adapting Philip Rosenberg's book, Contract on Cherry Street was a successful and popular movie, and is notable not only for Goldsmith's involvement, but because it marked one of Sinatra's last screen roles.

Goldsmith's score is, on the whole, dark, dramatic and hard-bitten, taking stylistic similarities from other crime drama scores such as Chinatown and especially Capricorn One, the staccato piano and string rhythms and low muted brasses of which it echoes and predates. The predominant style of the score is set out right from the first bars of the first cue, 'Main Title', which then goes on to introduce a sultry, Raymond Chandler-inspired brass and string motif for Sinatra's character. The rumbling piano ostinato is the binding element running throughout the score, keeping pace and maintaining a real thematic consistency, over which the menacing trombones and mock-sweeping strings ply their dramatic trade. Highlight cues include the tense five-minute 'False Arrest', the superbly energetic 'One Way Ride', the increasingly frantic and bombastic 'A Dusty Death' and the all-encompassing finale 'Breach of Contract', which mixes Goldsmith's turbulent trombones and ever-present piano ostinato with a more broad and sweeping string lyricism.

This is not to say that Goldsmith's score is wholly downbeat - on the contrary, there is some lovely piano, string and woodwind interplay in the peaceful 'Equal Partners', a fleet of foot harp and flute motif in the sadly brief 'Prowling', and a melancholy cello solo in 'Eulogizing' to break the gloom. In addition, some of the string work in 'Trickin' Along' and others reminds me of the vigorous opening phrases of Henry Mancini's Lifeforce in their intricate structure and grouping, although the similarities are purely superficial.

Despite its regard as a "classic" Goldsmith score, Contract on Cherry Street has never before been available to the public in any format, so it comes as a great relief to many to see it emerge as the third in Prometheus's irregular series of Club releases, after Bruce Broughton's Master of Ballantrae and Goldsmith's Breakout. Limited to just 2000 copies, Contract on Cherry Street boasts great sound - the best of three to date - and superb liner notes by writer Gary Kester. For anyone who relishes Goldsmith's "dirtier" scores, such as Chinatown, Capricorn One and, more recently, L.A. Confidential, this is an essential purchase.

Track Listing: Running Time: 47 minutes 20 seconds

Prometheus PCR-503 (1977/1999)

Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Orchestrations by Arthur Morton. Recorded and mixed by Dan Wallin. Edited and mastered by James Nelson. Album produced by Ford A. Thaxton.

Cinemusic Online: Review by Ryan Keaveney (****)
Filmtracks: Review by Christian Clemmenson (***)
Movie Wave: Review by James Southall (****)
Score!: Review by Andreas Lindahl (***)
Scorelogue: Review by Vance Brawley (***)


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