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Reviews
The Vikings (1958)
The Excellent Soundtrack
I have good memories of this movie, especially the soundtrack, as a 10 year old kid. The haunting music of the "Vikings Horn- Regnar Returns" is one of my favorite melodies. I originally purchased the VHS, then the DVD, for the soundtrack alone. I then was lucky enough to find the soundtrack on a CD from Classic Hollywood Soundtracks from DRG Records. The music was composed, orchestrated, and recorded by direction of Mario Nascimbene. Most of the information that follows is from the liner notes of the CD and included because it is out of print.
From Nascimbene's autobiography: "The film was already shot, and was being assembled: and its director, Richard Fleischer, had already gone back to the United States. For me, this meant writing a score without the cumbersome, unnecessary and at times damaging presence of the director, a situation I particularly welcomed
" The way the composer got the sound of that large horn is interesting: The 'Vikings Horn' was one of the "routine scenes in the film" explained in the liner notes: "In the second scene, when the victorious Vikings return to their home base, the arrival of their ship is announced by a sentry blowing into an enormous horn. I didn't know of any instrument that could produce the sound corresponding to the size of that horn, says Nascimbene, who recorded the theme played by three horns in the orchestra at double the speed, and played it back an octave lower at half the speed. It resulted in a deep Nibelungen sound, out of this world, very suggestive, he comments in his autobiography" {End Quote} The film and the memorable score get a 10/10.
Many Rivers to Cross (1955)
The theme song of the film, "The Berry Tree"
I have been searching for the theme song of this movie "The Berry Tree" since I saw it once as a 6 year-old kid in 1955 or 56. I've hummed the melody and sung the few lyrics I remembered since then. I finally got the VHS tape last week and what a pleasure. This is a fantastic frontier comedy and it brings back fond memories of me as a young kid wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap and singing the song. Here are the lyrics to the song if anyone else has wondered what they were for 45 years or so, as I had. From other comments here, this song made an indelible impression on almost everyone that has heard it.
The higher up the berry tree the sweeter grows the berry
The more you hug and kiss a gal the more she wants to marry
The berry tree's a wise old tree the sweetest fruit is his'n
But marryin' up with any gal is just like goin' to prison
(Bridge)
Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall Till I find the gal I want, a' gonna have none at all
Cause higher up.