Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Soap Gets in Your Ears: Part 3

Sidney Sheldon was never anyone's idea of a great novelist, but his lurid, heavy-breathing potboilers used to sell by the ton back in the '70s. One of his most popular titles was The Other Side of Midnight, which Fox mounted as their big prestige film for 1977. Of course, the fact that they had no major stars and were using the director (Charles Jarrott) from the disastrous Lost Horizon musical should have been big warning signs, but execs were still shocked when the film landed on screens nationwide with a resounding thud and was quickly eclipsed by another little Fox movie they had completely ignored... Star Wars. It's still incredibly entertaining on a camp level, though, thanks to its improper use of erotic ice cubes, self-administered abortions, gauzy romantic walks in the rain, and, uh, a young Susan Sarandon. That master of romantic melodies, Michel Legrand, does his best to save the film by going crazy with the pianos and strings; it's one of his lushest efforts on its own terms and certainly more successful than the film it accompanies.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh lord. I was obsessed with Sidney Sheldon in seventh grade, and THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT was the ultimate Sheldon trash-fest (the only one I liked more was NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, about the sordid lives of a trio of female doctors. I think that it also involved a botched self-abortion attempt. Eventually I discovered that the same five scandalous things happened in all of them). I rented this movie back then and HATED it because it couldn't live up to the many splendors of the book--but it's beyond time for a re-evaluation.

I've been very into Legrand lately--having recently acquired and practically worn out his Cole Porter album and (does one admit this publicly?) the soundtrack to YENTL. So methinks I'm going to have to check this out.

4:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for this soundtrack. Your posts never fail to surprise me. I remember this film used to play on HBO all the time many years ago. The only other Sidney Sheldon movie I remember is BLOODLINE. I have fond memories of that one. Any chance you have this rare soundtrack.

5:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i try to download
This file has been deleted.
Reason: No download for a longer period. Inactivity-timeout exceeded.say referesh tothe link please

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yes, PLEASE refresh the link. I've been trying to find Noelle's Theme for years

2:47 AM  
Blogger Ghalib Shiraz said...

PLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEASE! I MUST HAVE THIS! Please repost!

11:55 PM  

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