EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE isn’t sufficiently late Aldrich to normally warrant inclusion in The Late Show — the big guy had a good few raucous hours in him yet — but it’s the penultimate edition of Forgotten By Fox, and so it’s allowable, I think.
Yes, yes … De Vol. But you have to give De Vol credit for the “I’d Rather Have The Blues (Than What I’ve Got)” song in KISS ME DEADLY. That song makes up for a lot of later missteps.
DeVol’s work as composer is very underrated and needs further study. His modernist drum-roll accompaniment to Rod Steiger’s excessive performance in THE BIG KNIFE work very well. Also, I detest the term “hagsploitation” in terms of the Davis films. Although utliizing Gothic melodrama deliberately and using two of Welles Mercury Theatre players as support, these films are more poignant examinations of the dysfunctional family syndrome that leaves emotional wreckage decades after the original damage. Access to critical works shuld be helpful once this pandemic goes away.
I remember picking up a newspaper in the South — can’t remember which city — and seeing an ad with a completely different title and campaign for the film. It had been retitled “Shack!”, and the image was a full-body photo of Borgnine wielding chains. I’ve looked, but can’t find the image anywhere online.
Aldrich’s relationship with De Vol may be a bit like Lean’s with Jarre — some early, successful collaboration blinded the director to the composer’s later faults.
The music in this one has a Disney family-friendly vibe, and when it comes on merrily after we’ve just seen a hobo cut in half by a train, and while his bisected corpse is STILL IN VIEW, I choked.
shadowplay 
December 10, 2020 at 4:11 pm
Yes, yes … De Vol. But you have to give De Vol credit for the “I’d Rather Have The Blues (Than What I’ve Got)” song in KISS ME DEADLY. That song makes up for a lot of later missteps.
December 10, 2020 at 4:58 pm
DeVol’s work as composer is very underrated and needs further study. His modernist drum-roll accompaniment to Rod Steiger’s excessive performance in THE BIG KNIFE work very well. Also, I detest the term “hagsploitation” in terms of the Davis films. Although utliizing Gothic melodrama deliberately and using two of Welles Mercury Theatre players as support, these films are more poignant examinations of the dysfunctional family syndrome that leaves emotional wreckage decades after the original damage. Access to critical works shuld be helpful once this pandemic goes away.
December 10, 2020 at 5:20 pm
I remember picking up a newspaper in the South — can’t remember which city — and seeing an ad with a completely different title and campaign for the film. It had been retitled “Shack!”, and the image was a full-body photo of Borgnine wielding chains. I’ve looked, but can’t find the image anywhere online.
December 10, 2020 at 9:15 pm
True, Chris, that’s a fine song, and works with the film in really good ways (ultimately it comes to refer pointedly to radiation sickness).
Borgnine as a two-fisted action hero working for the railroad is a movie series someone should have made!
December 11, 2020 at 12:32 am
Aldrich’s relationship with De Vol may be a bit like Lean’s with Jarre — some early, successful collaboration blinded the director to the composer’s later faults.
The music in this one has a Disney family-friendly vibe, and when it comes on merrily after we’ve just seen a hobo cut in half by a train, and while his bisected corpse is STILL IN VIEW, I choked.
December 11, 2020 at 6:30 am
“I’d Rather Have the Blues”