The Musical World of Menahem Golan
Okay, back to Cannon Films for a minute. One of the two founders, Menahem Golan, was a producer/director who got his start directing films in Isreal, as well as the 1969 British sexploitation film What's Good for the Goose during his directorial training in England. Upon returning to his homeland, he decided to mount a big-scale musical in the tradition of Fiddler on the Roof; the result was 1974's Kazablan, which was shot in both Hebrew and English versions and was picked up by MGM for international distribution. Future Cannon composer Dov Seltzer (The Ambassador) wrote the music, and while the vocal numbers are pretty standard musical fare (upbeat and moderately catchy), the real standout is three funktastic intstrumentals: "Chassidic Rock," "Getting Dressed Ballet," and especially "Construction Rock Ballet," which could have easily come from a top-rung black action or Bollywood film from the period. 
After officially buying Cannon Films from its British founders in 1979, Golan stepped behind the camera again for another colorful, widescreen musical spectacular, this time shot in Germany with a bizarre international cast including newbie Catherine Mary Stewart (Night of the Comet), future BBC staple Grace Kennedy, Joss Ackland (Lethal Weapon 2), and the wonderfully hammy Vladek Sheybal (From Russia with Love) as Mr. Boogalow, a satanic record producer who controls the world of pop culture in the futuristic year of 1994. The end result, The Apple, appalled audiences worldwide with its glam-rock fusion of biblical symbolism, dirty disco, and dieties descending from the sky in pimpmobiles, though it has more recently become a perpetual revival house and midnight movie favorite. The, uh, unique songs are the brainchild of Israeli popster Coby Recht and American composer George S. Clinton (who also appears onscreen as a mind-controlled reporter), later known for much bigger titles like Austin Powers, Wild Things and Mortal Kombat. Xanadu ain't got nothin' on this one, baby.Kazablan
1. Overture
2. Men Of Respect
3. We Are All Jews
4. Chassidic Rock
5. There's A Place
6. Democracy
7. Construction Rock Ballet
8. Jaffa
9. Hey, What's Up!
10. Rosa, Rosa
11. Kazablan (Get Off My Back)
12. Getting Dressed Ballet
13. Brith Milah Pageant
The Apple
1. BIM
2. Universal Melody
3. Made For Me
4. Showbizness
5. The Apple
6. How To Be A Master
7. Speed
8. Where Has Love Gone
9. Cry For Me
10. Coming
11. I Found Love
12. Child Of Love
13. Creation
Labels: 1970s, 1980s, Cannon Films, disco
posted by 7 Black Notes at 11:14 AM
11 Comments:
I thought that almost all copies of "The Apple" soundtrack had been lost, hurled at theater screens years ago. Thanks so much.
Miraculously, a few copies seem to have survived (and weren't burned after the movie came out).
Incidentally, I forgot to mention that the album also contains the complete version of "Child of Love," which was hacked to pieces in the film; in fact, the whole ending of The Apple seems drastically edited. Anyone out there ever see a version longer than 90 minutes?
I had the "honor" of seeing THE APPLE in an unbelievably pristine print about a year-and-a-half ago at a Sci-Fi Marathon in Columbus, OH. It's one of my favorite bad movies. Thanks!
This movie is, as Tom Scharpling would term it, "Awfulsome" ie awesome in its awfulness. I was introduced to it at a screening in LA by a friend and have gone to see it every time it has played since then. Every aspect of this movie is so wrong that it it boggles the mind. It is the epitome of what what the Subgeniuses call "Bulldada": that detritus that falls from our pockets and is found centuries hence by archaeologists, giving them mistaken insight into our culture.
Thanks the efforts of film geeks here in Hollyweird (spearheaded by Marc at the NuArt) the DVD is now available. I got mine at the grocery store for $10.00! All hail the BIM!
p.s. On the DVD there is a trailer that shows snippets of a wedding scene among the Hippies that isn't in the final version. C'mon Criterion, get on the stick and give us the Director's Cut!(This might prove dificult as,supposedly, Golan claims not to remember directing it.)
please repost the apple soundtrack. i want it so baddly!
Argh, I want it so badly to!! I'm French, own the French VHS (which is even more truncated, as it is only 68 mn long!), the US DVD and am a member of a French website dedicated to "so bad it's good movies" (please, find a review of this gem here : http://www.nanarland.com/Chroniques/Main.php?id_film=bimstar). In exchange, I can provide you with some quite rare or very rare "bad musicals" soundtracks ("Voyage of the Rocks Aliens", "Hard Rock Zombies", "Xanadu", "Breakin" and "Breakin' 2" from Golan / Globus etc.)
rollermitraillette@yahoo.fr
pretty please, please repost the apple soundtrack, i would do anything!
Sorry I missed this. My friend just introduced me to The Apple and I want to find the soundtrack for her.
Please repost! Many thanks, -me
Good Lord! What can I do to get you to repost this AMAZING soundtrack???
Anything!
could you repost kazablan pleaseeeeeeeeeee tnx see ya :D
PLEEEEASE repost the apple!!!
PLEASE!!!!
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