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Film Music Discussion of film scores and music.


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Old 09-11-2006, 12:13 PM
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Question London Belongs to Me/Odd Man Out
I just watched London Belongs to Me (1948) for the first time, and I was struck by the opening sequence's resemblance to that of Odd Man Out (1947). Both open with moving aeriel footage of a city, and Benjamin Frankel's music could be a pastiche of William Alwyn's. Given the surface similarities (both films heavy on eccentric characters in a well-known city), I wonder if London Belongs to Me was trying to cash in on the success of Odd Man Out to some extent?

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Old 09-11-2006, 01:58 PM
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I just watched London Belongs to Me (1948) for the first time, and I was struck by the opening sequence's resemblance to that of Odd Man Out (1947). Both open with moving aeriel footage of a city, and Benjamin Frankel's music could be a pastiche of William Alwyn's. Given the surface similarities (both films heavy on eccentric characters in a well-known city), I wonder if London Belongs to Me was trying to cash in on the success of Odd Man Out to some extent?
Maybe it borrowed, maybe other films borrowed from it. It's not unusual. Have a look at the way that, in The Ladykillers, Alec Guinness goes up to the door of the lodging house and how his shadow is seen through the windows in the door. Then compare that to Alastair Sim as Squales in London Belongs to Me and the way that he acts at the door of the lodging house. Guinness gave such a good tribute that often people think that Alastair Sim was in The Ladykillers.

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Old 09-11-2006, 03:10 PM
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Yes, the similarity between Sim and Guinness (in The Ladykillers) had never occurred to me, but now you mention it, it's quite obvious.
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Old 10-11-2006, 10:43 PM
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Yes, the similarity between Sim and Guinness (in The Ladykillers) had never occurred to me, but now you mention it, it's quite obvious.
I seem to remember that Sim was first choice for the Professor Marcus role but declined.

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Old 11-11-2006, 12:22 AM
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I seem to remember that Sim was first choice for the Professor Marcus role but declined.

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That rumour may have started because Guinness is doing such a good impersonation of Alastair Sim. The biography by Sim's wife (Dance and Skylark by Naomi Sim) doesn't mention any suggestion that Alastair was ever going to play it. Just that they were amused by the way that everybody thought that he was in it.

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Old 17-01-2007, 11:49 AM
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I'v never seen the 1948 "LONDON BELONGS TO ME" only the 1977 TV series. Madge Ryan's proformance of Mrs. Vizzard springs to mind, but then she never lets you down. A couple of other similar films I'd like to see are "DANCING WITH CRIME" 1947 and "EIGHT O'CLOCK WALK" 1954 which I think both have Attenboroug sweating out a verdict.
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Old 18-01-2007, 11:18 AM
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Benjamin Frankel must have been called on quite often to pastiche other people's music in order to cash in on a trend. I just watched The End of the Affair (1955), and Frankel's opening theme was a blatant cash-in on the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 used in Brief Encounter.
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