Worse Theme Music

[Hackett]

Sat watching "CARRY ON TEACHER" 1959 with my daughter on sunday. During the school play Charles Hawtrey's character conducts the orchestra with his own overture. The clangour or prolonged loud confused noise that issued did sound familiar. After a while it came to me. The theme music to "THE COLDITZ STORY" 1955. Well not really, but it did sound very similar. Later we watched our DVD of COLDITZ and yes we all agreed, what a racket. Its got to be the worse over the titles score ever written. I love the film but boy that row. We got to talking and another one floated to the surface. I know this is going to provoke a slap from Stevecrook so straight away let me say great film BUT!. "ILL MEET BY MOONLIGHT". That bloody singing all the way through the picture. I keep waiting for it to turn into Monty Pythons Lumberjack Song. Can you think of any more?.

[DB7]

I cant say I can recall any particularly offending intro's at the moment but I'm sure there's plenty. One variety that does make me squirm are the cheesy 1950s 'sung' themes; I'm All Right Jack being one example.

[Steve Crook]

</div><div class='quotemain'>HACKETT: We got to talking and another one floated to the surface. I know this is going to provoke a slap from Stevecrook so straight away let me say great film BUT!. "ILL MEET BY MOONLIGHT". That bloody singing all the way through the picture. I keep waiting for it to turn into Monty Pythons Lumberjack Song. Can you think of any more?. [/b]

No, no slap. I'm not overly keen on the music in Ill Met but I wouldn't call it the worst ever. But I presume you haven't seen Powell's Luna de Miel (1959) [aka Honeymoon]. That's a much better film that was thought now that it's been fully restored, but it does have the Honeymoon Song (also written by Mikis Theodorakis as was the music in Ill Met) recurring throughout (& all through the titles).

BTW The Honeymoon song was very popular at the time and was recorded by many people. Including The Beatles on their "Live at the BBC" recordings.

[funlover]

I personally loved the theme music for Margaret Rutherfords "Miss Marple" series. Written by Ron Goodwin I think. Another compostion by him I liked was "Luftwaffe March" From "Battle of Britain" Another film with a superb theme was "Das Boot"

[wadsy]

Originally Posted by funlover I personally loved the theme music for Margaret Rutherfords "Miss Marple" series. Written by Ron Goodwin I think. Another compostion by him I liked was "Luftwaffe March" From "Battle of Britain" Another film with a superb theme was "Das Boot"

Yes I Thought the music for Rutherford's Miss Marple Films suited her character

perfectly!

[christoph404]

The opening music from the "Bond" film Never Say Never Again is dire. It ruins what should have been a tense and exciting opening. Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were appalled and very dissapointed to see their opening sequence destroyed by naff music that seemed to belong to another film entirley. Normally I like Michel Legrand's film music but this must be one of his low points.

[batman]

Originally Posted by christoph404 The opening music from the "Bond" film Never Say Never Again is dire. It ruins what should have been a tense and exciting opening. Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were appalled and very dissapointed to see there opening sequence destroyed by naff music that seemed to belong to another film entirley. Normally I like Michel Legrand's film music but this must be one of his low points.

The closing song at the end of Goldeneye by Eric Serra is equally as dire as that one.

[CaptainWaggett]

The recent Importance of Being Earnest with Dame Judi was set in the 1890s but had an incongruous 1920-style Jazz score which completely destroyed the atmosphere.

[Windthrop]

Ordeal By Innocence is made unwatchable by the obtrusive Jazz score IMHO

[batman]

The title music for Vendetta For The Saint is pretty awful.

[Tony Pendrey]

Originally Posted by DB7 I cant say I can recall any particularly offending intro's at the moment but I'm sure there's plenty. One variety that does make me squirm are the cheesy 1950s 'sung' themes; I'm All Right Jack being one example.

In that case Deeb, I can highly recommend "What A Whopper".

A real toe-tapper sung by Adam Faith.

[Freddie Freeloader]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett The recent Importance of Being Earnest with Dame Judi was set in the 1890s but had an incongruous 1920-style Jazz score which completely destroyed the atmosphere.

The song "Lady Come Down" is, to my ears, an absolute abomination.
In fact, my eyes would have it that the actual scene in which it appears is equally appalling.

Fred

[Colonel Blimp]

Not a film, but the worst music I've ever heard is Carey Blyton's incidental music for the 1970 Doctor Who adventure, The Silurians.

(The worst film music is surely that provided by John Paul Jones for Michael Winner's appropriately dire Scream For Help.)

[Geoffers]

Originally Posted by christoph404 The opening music from the "Bond" film Never Say Never Again is dire. It ruins what should have been a tense and exciting opening. Screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were appalled and very dissapointed to see their opening sequence destroyed by naff music that seemed to belong to another film entirley. Normally I like Michel Legrand's film music but this must be one of his low points.

Someone supplied me with a DVD of that film with all the music replaced, except the title song, by that written (mostly) by John Barry, from previous Bond films. It worked surprisingly well and the film was much more enjoyable to watch.

It shows what a difference the wrong music can make to a film.

[hankoler]

I don't know about the worst, but the best for atmosphere for has to be the third man theme.
brilliantly played by Anton Karas .I've just watched him playing it on U tube at the Empress club in london. It must have been recorded a short while after the film was made in the fifties.Although Kars died in 1985.