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Waxman music in Raven


Has anyone noticed that "The Raven" opens with Franz Waxman's music for "The Invisible Ray?" It's used for Jean Thatcher's accident after the credits. The rest of the film then reverts to Roemheld's score and Shubert pastiche (the same as in the Black Cat)

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The music when Jean crashes the car was originally written for "Destination Unknown" in 1933. Both films recycle W. Franke Harling's impressive theme music (a common practice in the early sound days).

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Three of Harling's cues from DU were tracked in "The Raven". I've personally tracked them all for my FG website. Main title and Storm Scene open the film leading up to the car accident. "Poco Agitato" was tracked in a few scenes for the climax. Music tracks from "The Black Cat" were used as well ( score by Heinz Roemheld ). The original cues in "The Raven" were composed by Clifford Vaughan.



Rick

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The Waxman theme in question is heard right after the title music. It's a take-off from Harling's "Destination Unknown" ( 1933 ) score. The two motifs ( Holy Grail & Dresden Amen ) were omitted, but he left in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1, when he composed the theme cue for the 1936 film. "The Invisible Ray" was released after Flash Gordon ( 1936 ), which did have contain a good amount of Harling's score tracked in the serial.



R~

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