The Last Music on Earth

Richard Matheson's classic apocalyptic sci-fi/vampire novel I Am Legend has been adapted for film twice so far, first with Vincent Price as the 1964 Italian-American AIP production, The Last Man on Earth. The film suffered a bad reputation for many years due to awful public domain prints and chopped-up TV screenings, all of which demolished its careful pacing and scope photography; however, in recent years (primarly thanks to DVD and laserdisc) it's finally being appreciated as a chilling, potent visualization of one of Matheson's strongest works. Incidentally, the second adaptation was 1971's cult classic The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, featuring a dynamite score by Ron Grainer (available elsewhere if you check around a bit). A third version is currently in the works, but don't get your hopes up since it already has three huge strikes against it thanks to the star (Will Smith), screenwriter (Akiva Goldsman), and music video-based director (Francis Lawrence). The moody and often striking score for the original film is by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter, a pair who, in various combinations, also underscored Vincent Price in The Fly series.

Master Baxter

At the height of his frantic gig writing scores for American-International Pictures, Les Baxter was mostly busy rescoring European import and doing Roger Corman's great Poe series. However, 1961's Master of the World is a bit of a change of pace, obviously designed to cash in on the recent success of Around the World in 80 Days (which is mentioned no less than twice on the back sleeve notes). Vincent Price and Charles Bronson star in the tale of a megalomaniac determined to enforce world peace, even if it means dragging a bunch of people across the sky in an airship and bombing everyone into submission. This was one of AIP's earliest multi-channel releases (in four-channel "StereoSonic Sound!"), so ol' Les really gets to cut loose with the right-left channel separation here. The music is really lush and grand with a nice old Hollywood feel, crammed with soaring themes and tons of crescendoes.

Les Baxter Swings

A while back some rare isolated music and effects (M&E) tracks for a handful of AIP and Filmways titles fell into my hands; here's the first of those forbidden fruits for your listening pleasure: Les Baxter's freaky, atonal score for Roger Corman's Pit and the Pendulum (1961), one of the best (and scariest) Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe outings. Here's every note (53 minutes' worth) of Baxter's original score off the isolated track; you'll hear an odd sound effect here and there (creaking feet, closing doors), but hopefully that will just add to the ambience. Track titles are my own, assigned to give you some idea of the music's chronology.