The Screaming Woman

[Jarbas 1]

Watch the first nine minutes from The Screaming Woman with John Williams' music:

I'd like to see the others seven parts.

[MissPadmé 17]

So that's the piece Horner's Danger Motive derives from.

This sounds fantastic, you can def. hear the Bernard Herrman Influence Johnny had in that time! Damn FSM, Varese, Intrada, LaLaLand.. please release it!

[Quintus 5,399]

Nah, I don't hear Horner anywhere.

What I do hear though is a very enthusiastic and fun JW of yesteryear. Plaudits for the link Jarbas.

Terrible acting aside, was this ever worth a watch? The premise is very intriguing I must say.

[Jarbas 1]

Yes, the music is great. I've liked the piano use a lot. And the strings have a Herrmann influence indeed.

I'm going to watch/hear again to find the Horner danger motive!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner? Or was that Lovetheme From Superman?

[MissPadmé 17]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner? Or was that Lovetheme From Superman?

The Love Theme from Superman is From: Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung.. come on, you should know that!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Why would I know that?

[Quintus 5,399]

Of course you wouldn't know that. Esther is just a nerd.

[MissPadmé 17]

Why would I know that?

ahh of course you are right, sorry

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I only ever knew because it was in an FSM Podcast, and Marian mentioned it 2000 times. But I forgot.

No time for that kind of stuff.

[Quintus 5,399]

Am I allowed to say the allegation is a load of rubbish anyway?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Which one, about you and the ox?

[Ollie 1,059]

Am I allowed to say the allegation is a load of rubbish anyway?

Most of the accusations against Williams are far fetched, there may be inspiration but nowhere near the alleged plagarisms leveled against him.

[MissPadmé 17]

Oh noo... please don't drift into that discussion.. please discuss the screaming woman main title!

[Quintus 5,399]

Which one, about you and the ox?

Don't be so stupid - I'd never deny the facts.

Having said that, I will correct wrongful and inflammatory accusations: Your mom looks more like a grazing Wildebeest.

[Omen II 1,235]

Nice find, Jarbas! This is one of those John Williams-scored movies that has always intrigued me - I'm a big fan of his early 70's work but had never heard a note of this until today. I hear little bits of Images here and there, as well as music reminiscent of his Essay For Strings. I certainly second Miss Padme's call for a CD release or, failing that, a rerecording. Interesting to see that the director was Jack Smight; he would later reunite with Williams in 1976 for Midway.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I think I have this score buried somewhere in the depths of my hard drive.

[Joe Brausam 214]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner? Or was that Lovetheme From Superman?

The Love Theme from Superman is From: Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung.. come on, you should know that!

Just the first five notes though.

[artyjeffrey 20]

Quint-- it took me seeing that image in your sig a couple of times before I got the ribaldry. Nice.

[indy4 155]

Actually, I'm still not quite sure I understand it. I would appreciate an explanation, Quint.

And artyjeffrey, that signature is hilarious. That's my favorite comic you've done so far.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner?

Horner's Danger Motif is stolen from Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony.

[Marian Schedenig 8,193]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner?

Horner's Danger Motif is stolen from Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony.

Wagner, Die Walküre/Siegfried/Götterdämmerung, the "Unmuth" motiv.

[Quintus 5,399]

Actually, I'm still not quite sure I understand it. I would appreciate an explanation, Quint.

It's a bit rude to be explaining the specifics

Oh and it looks like Santa had a few too many last night, judging by your current av.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Wasn't the Danger Motif stolen from Wagner?

Horner's Danger Motif is stolen from Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony.

Wagner, Die Walküre/Siegfried/Götterdämmerung, the "Unmuth" motiv.

Yep, but you can find it also in Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony as well (it's the opening of the first movement). Actually, Horner "borrowed" a lot from this symphony for his Troy score.

[Thor 7,504]

Here's what Ford Thaxton said in a recent thread on FSM:

Based on a bit of research and checking with BMI, it appears that the "Screaming Woman" was produced during back during the musicians strike in 1971/72 in LA.

the only thing listed for the SCREAMING WOMAN are cues by Jerry Goldsmith, not John Williams.

I SUSPECT that it was tracked from cues from earlier projects, perhaps from THRILLER
or other earlier UNIVERSAL productions (The publisher is UNIVERSAL's publishing company) because of the strike.

There are examples of this happening on several UNIVERSAL TV films during this period.

Williams might have been signed to score it and couldn't because of the strike.

The only outside chance is that he wrote a theme for it and it was recorded overseas and used, but that would show up in the BMI database so I somewhat doubt that happened here.

I should have suspected as much since Williams' credit only reads "Theme by", not "Music by". Still, it's disappointing. I had always assumed the wild dissonance was Williams' too, making it a perfect companion piece to IMAGES. But the theme (heard over the end credits) is nice enough, I guess.

[Melange 446]

Great music, but I was intrigued by the scene itself. One, her hat torn off on the tree is going to be a usefull waymarker for later on because otherwise this screaming and flailing woman was going to have a whole lot of trouble going back to the scene that shocked the bejesus out of her in the first place (although once in the house she did mention the location as if familiar to her).

Two, when the camera went down into the ground it seemed to be much further away from where 'mother' looked down into the ground in the first place.

Three, cellphones today would have made that scenario a whole lot easier to deal with. lol.

Four, the reaction of the family to 'mother' running inside of the house in total hysteria is to first of all...........question her sanity while standing their quietly and handing her a glass of unspecified alcohol instead (in England it would be a cup of tea).

Obviously they're in on it (or certainly the shifty looking woman in the room who is either her daughter or her son's wife). Either that, or Quint was talking about it being hallucination.

[Thor 7,504]

It's a neat little "Hitchcockian" story written by Ray Bradbury, but also with its shortcomings, of course -- especially in this particular execution. You point out some of them. I wonder what attracted Williams to do a TV film like this so late in his career (even if he only wound up doing a theme), at a moment when his feature film career was booming. Must be because of the Bradbury connection.

[filmmusic 1,829]

As I said at FSM, still not convinced.

The Williams cues could be "hidden" at the BMI site under the cue title, as most of his other cues, that don't refer to the title of the movie.

And also, Jeff Eldridge, which has proved to be an expert on John Williams history, seems to think that this is a Williams score:

"Williams' score is predominantly for strings, piano and percussion, with much of the writing recalling his 1965 Essay for Strings and some of the quieter suspenseful passages reminiscent of this music for the Ghostbreaker pilot, although solo woodwinds and harpsichord make appearances later in the film."

http://www.johnwilliams.org/compositions/screamingwoman.html

If this was mainly a Goldsmith score, why burry him in the credits?

Wasn't he prominent enough in 1972?

He was already 5 times nominated for an Oscar.

[Thor 7,504]

Well, Ford's argument wasn't that this is an original Goldsmith score, but rather a selection of existing Goldsmith library cues from other Universal TV shows, like THRILLER! One usually doesn't credit these in the film when it also has an original composer (Williams).

Like you, I want to believe it's all or at least 90% Williams, but the "Theme by" end credit -- which I hadn't noticed before -- and now this story seems to undermine that.

[filmmusic 1,829]

Doesn't the theme appear anywhere in another cue?

I have to listen to the score again..

[Thor 7,504]

Williams' theme appears right before and over the end credits in the film. Maybe some other places too.

[filmmusic 1,829]

Williams' theme appears right before and over the end credits in the film. Maybe some other places too.

well, we have to examine that "maybe".

because then it means he wrote other cues too.

Unless those occurences are tracked from the same End Title cue.

[Thor 7,504]

Williams' theme appears right before and over the end credits in the film. Maybe some other places too.

well, we have to examine that "maybe".

because then it means he wrote other cues too.

Unless those occurences are tracked from the same End Title cue.

Yeah, I meant that last thing.

I've been meaning to re-watch a lot of the obscure Williams films one of these days, but there are always other, more "important" movies getting in the way. Let me know if you re-watch it and find any more occurences of that theme.

[Thor 7,504]

These days, we know for certain that THE SCREAMING WOMAN largely consists of existing music by other composers due to the musician's strike at the time. And that Williams' contribution is limited to the theme that can be heard towards the end and over the credits.

 

But a question remains: Since Williams was the only one who provided original music for this, was he a strike breaker? OR -- which is a scenario I find more likely -- was Williams hired as composer for the film, managed to compose that one theme BEFORE the strike, but then had to abandon it due to the strike and they had to make do with existing music? As an extension of that, I would be curious to know a) when the recording date is for Williams' piece and b) when the strike broke out, exactly. I'm guessing the latter piece of information is easier to find than the former.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,528]

Bloody hell!

I wish that woman would stop screaming, so I could hear the music?! 

Has this ever been rerecorded, or even reconstructed?

[Thor 7,504]

1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Bloody hell!

I wish that woman would stop screaming, so I could hear the music?! 

Has this ever been rerecorded, or even reconstructed?

 

No. Wouldn't be much point in reconstructing the existing pieces (by Goldsmith, Morton Stevens(?) et. al.). Maybe some of them are already available elsewhere, I don't know their sources, exactly (could be library music, tv music, film music or whatever). But it would be fantastic to have the long Williams theme recorded.