MovieChat Forums > The Four Feathers (1939) Discussion > Need to release the soundtrack

Need to release the soundtrack


I would love to see Miklos Rozsa's terrific score for this fantastic movie released. One of the things I loved about the movie was the score.

Who else would like to see the soundtrack released?

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It's something I would love to see too, but I think it's highly unlikely that it will ever happen. The problem is that the entire Miklos Rozsa score and all related materials were destroyed when the Denham headquarters of London Film Productions were bombed during the Second World War and the place where they were stored was burned to the ground. Over thirty years later, the music for the scenes "Sunstroke" and "River Journey" were recreated for a Miklos Rozsa compilation RCA LP in 1974. Christopher Palmer made a tape recording of a 35mm print of the film, the soundtrack of which was married with music, dialogue and effects. He then painstakingly listened to every note of the music in the two cues and reconstructed them first on the piano and then orchestrated them for full orchestra. He then gave his work to Rozsa for revision and when the result was recorded for the RCA LP, Rozsa approved the finished result. Since then, nearly 38 years later, nothing else has been done regarding reconstructing the score. But we all live in hope.

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Fascinating to hear, and a great loss as this was one of the finest scores I've heard. Truly, it added immensely to the film and helped make it the rousing action/adventure classic it remains today.

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