george harrison song - House Calls (1978) Discussion

[–] skagway65 18 years ago

Glad I'm not the only one driven crazy by the missing song. The 'musical interlude,' popular in late '60's-'70's American films, gained new life in Hong Kong cinema, where the shooting and bloodshed stops for our lovers to be shown in a romantic montage while some Canton Pop singer croons. Sadly, it seems to have died out in filmmaking, or been replaced by all those rapid cuts and jump shots.

The 'House Calls' interlude is particularly successful, capturing the Matthau/Jackson chemistry. However, I've seen the film enough times that the replacement of the song is extremely jarring.

I can't say I'm certain this is the reason, but the DVD producers would have had to pay rights to use the song. And what I would imagine would be expensive rights, given the songwriter/performer. A friend's a huge 'Hunter' fan, but refuses to buy the DVDs because the producers cut or replaced all the popular '80's songs used in the original episodes.

Since the 'House Calls' DVD's production seems cheap, I can't imagine them paying for 'Something.' And am I crazy, but wasn't it a Paul McCartney song?

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[–] RMNYC 18 years ago

Thank you, I saw House Calls when it originally was in the theaters, and I distinctly remember "Something" playing during the romantic montage. When I saw the dvd today, it was the first time I saw the movie in about 20 years, and I thought maybe I just imagined the song being in the movie. Does anyone know if any VHS versions of the movie feature the song?

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] skagway65 18 years ago

The VHS version I owned before purchasing the DVD did not have "Something." I'd hoped they'd do a better quality job on the DVD, but not so.

I am interested to hear it's in a version being shown on TV. It was in the versions I watched years ago on US TV, but I haven't seen it broadcast for a long time. Has anyone seen it pop up on AMC, for instance?

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[–] uvl 18 years ago

I'm watching the movie right now on Universal HD, and the song is intact. I'm sorry to hear that it's not in the DVD version. Also, it is a George Harrison song.

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[–] galaxyquest86 18 years ago

This isn't the first time they've done this. They also did this with the film "little darlings".

Too much cell phone radiation means ur knockin on heaven's door

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[–] woowoo-6 18 years ago

Hmmm....very interesting. I have just watched this on one of the Encore channels, so it's uncut and unedited....and the song is there.

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[–] jrs-8 18 years ago

Yeah for some reason every time it's shown on cable the song is intact yet it is missing from the VHS and DVD. You would think since the DVD is bare of any extras the least they would do is secure the rights and include it back where it belongs. Has anyone else noticed that the instrumental piece that has replaced Something is terrible and doesn't fit at all.

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[–] galaxyquest86 17 years ago

agreed!!!!!!!

novelty items rock

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[–] ddlewiss 17 years ago

This is funny. I watched this movie yesterday and that was the first thing I noticed. The song that was replaced took away the mood of the scene. I'm happy to see other people noticed it as well.

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[–] trhickey 17 years ago

House Calls played on TCM today and the "Something" interlude was definitely in there, along with the Matheau-Jackson interplay.

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[–] richstiteler 17 years ago

that's too bad "Something" isn't in there. In 1978 I was 12 and my mother took me to see House Calls. Now, I don't suppose there's much in this film that would stick out to a 12-year old boy at the time but after all these years the only thing I really remember about the film is that song. I was going to seek it out on dvd for nostalgic reasons but if "Something" isn't in there forget it.

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[–] samanthaseaotter 17 years ago

The same thing happened with Love at First Bite - at the theater, when George Hamilton dances with Susan St. James, they play the song "I Love the Nightlife" - an in-joke already.

However, I have a VHS version that has some nasty, canned music on it.

Samantha
"Nobody's perfect."

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[–] Isaac5855 16 years ago

I didn't know that scene had been deleted from some prints..I guess wherever I taped it from they kept the scene in because I don't ever remember it being missing.

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[–] jrs-8 16 years ago

Isaac - The scene remains intact. The song "Something" by The Beatles is missing from the DVD and some television prints. Other television prints have the song though.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] profh-1 16 years ago

This nonsense about replacing songs that were in movies & TV shows has become epidemic and has to STOP! I don't know what wold need to be done, but it's clear to me that songs used in films were negotiated when the films were made, and it seems now the people who own the music are suddenly asking for much much more than is reasonable. Maybe some kind of industry-wide strike is needed, almost in reverse, to CUT prices down to where they make sense, rather than allow certain individuals or organizations to rip off companies blind, which in the long run is only hurting the viewers!

I remember how it took at least 20 years for the film HEAVY METAL to get released on VHS, and it was for this very reason-- it took that long to get "clearances" on all the music. Somehow, they were able to use the music in the film, but not the videotapes. It's just insane...

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[–] tigerbitsy 14 years ago

I, too, desperately miss the "Something" interlude: it was my favorite part of one of my favorite movies. My mother and I still trade wisecracks from it....

"Who is it?"
"Who would you like it to be?"
"Fred Astaire."

They did the same thing, soundtrack-wise, to the movie SLAPSHOT, which used to be filled with wonderfully awful '70s music like Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing."

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[–] URBANCOW2001 14 years ago

Cinemax showed the film a couple weeks ago, and the song "Something" was intact. Must be a homevideo rights issue.

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[–] ConDeuce 14 years ago

Interesting about Cinemax which is owned by HBO (I could be wrong...correct me please if I am...)

The reason I say this because I just watched it on my DVR after taping from HBO a week ago. The Harrison song wasn't in the movie. And I agree with a previous poster: its exclusion and the inclusion of the odd, tuneless "song" is jarring. I remember seeing the movie when it first came out and I didn't really "get it" because I was 12. But I remember when the song came on in the movie I thought it was really cool because I liked it.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] picwood123 14 years ago

If you look at the Video package dvd or vhs from some MCA/Universal Home video titles like "House Calls" and "Slap Shot" it may say HOME VIDEO VERSION, some music has been changed. It's all about the new rights to the songs. When the film came out to theatres, the producers paid for the rights to the songs for the original theatrical release. Now home video comes into play (VHS/BETA/DVD...), now the music artists wants their cut of this new market. Now the studio is the ones to pay for this new contract for the music. So studios will re-score a film to not pay the artist the new fees for the songs.

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[–] decroissance 13 years ago

Here's a really esoteric point, but as an old george fan I wanted to mention that Michael Jackson bought the rights to all the Beatles songs -- and Something is a Beatles song, written by george -- back in the '80's, I think. I can't remember if Paul bought them back a few years ago or if someone else did or if Michael Jackson's estate owns them now. I guess I can google it...

Okay, just googled it! Michael Jackson never sold them and now they are owned by something called Sony/ATV which is "a joint venture between MJ and the music arm of Sony Corp." However, there's still a huge battle going on for who controls his estate and at this point (according to the site I read), it is unclear what will happen to them in the future.

So no Beatles members or their survivors are ever involved in negotiating rights for the use of their songs in movies.

It's sad to think about John and George.

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[–] profh-1 13 years ago

Songs used in romantic montages have a long tradition, including "We Have All The Time In The World" in the film ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. However, the inclusion of "Something" in HOUSE CALLS may be the first time I'm aware of where an already-existing rock & roll song, and byy The Beatles no less, was used. It strikes me as a gimmick, a "short-cut", if you will, to get to the mind and heart of an audience, by tossing something alreayd known at them, thereby dragging them into the scene purely by "association". The thing is, in this case, IT WORKED.

Since then, far too many movie soundtracks have been littered with "classic" rock songs, often which have nothing to do with the scenes they appear in and which often get in the way. So it can be a bad thing, and it can be overdone. But in this case, it was a perfect fit. I think of "Something" as part of HOUSE CALLS the same way I think of "Meglio Stasera" as part of THE PINK PANTHER.

Watching my video again tonight, and something I never noticed before... JUST before the song starts, I could hear a couple of notes of music that sounded like the beginning of a piece of music, but then "Something" kicks in. I suspect Henry Mancini DID score that part of the film, and then someone else, at the last moment, substituted "Something" in its place. So, presumably, unlike other such bastardizations where a piece of music has been replaced with something else, I'm guessing in this place, the substitution going on in the VHS and DVD copies is actually the original piece of music that was replaced by "Something" in the first place. That doesn't make it right, however!!!

The GREED of the record labels is hurting everybody-- movie fans, music fans, and the composers who wrote the music NOT being included because some executive is trying to hold a movie or tv series HOSTAGE to try and make more money than it fair.

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