There's a New James Bond Song! Listen to Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die"

Wow! We're so close to the release of a new Bond movie now that a new James Bond theme song has been released into the world! Listen for yourself to Billie Eilsish's title track to the twenty-fifth EON 007 movie, No Time to Die. Eilish recently won all the Grammies, pretty much, and performed at the Oscars. It seems pre-ordained that this track will shoot to the top of the charts. Eilish reportedly wrote the song with her brother, Finneas. Hans Zimmer composed the film's score.

Expanded Score CD for Danny Elfman's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) Out this Week from La-La Land

Years in the making, La-La Land Records finally made the announcement today that Mission: Impossible fans have been craving: an expanded score CD featuring Danny Elfman's amazing music from the first Tom Cruise Mission movie! The 2-disc limited edition soundtrack to the 1996 Brian De Palma film (review here) will contain the original score album assembly, mastered by Patricia Sullivan, on Disc 1, while Disc 2 (per the label) "showcases the remastered film score, expanding the original album release by more than twenty minutes. Produced by Dan Goldwasser and Neil S. Bulk and remastered by Mike Matessino, this powerhouse 2-CD set is limited to 3000 units and features exclusive liner notes by writer Jeff Bond. The sleek art direction is by Dan Goldwasser." It should be noted that, like the original score album, this release will not contain the version of Lalo Schifrin's "Mission: Impossible Theme" by U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, which was originally included on the entirely different album Mission: Impossible - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture (remember those annoying "From and Inspired by" albums so popular in the late Nineties?), and also issued as a single. Elfman's music, however, frequently incorporates Shifrin's theme, too, as well as his distinctive cue "The Plot" from the Sixties TV show. Missing from the track list for the new release are the three Elfman tracks originally included on that "From and Inspired by" album, but my guess is that that those tracks contain music already inclued in other tracks on the original score album. (Can anyone confirm or refute that?) Last year, Mondo released Elfman's Mission: Impossible score on vinyl, but that release contained no extra music.

Strictly limited to 3000 units, La-La Land's Mission: Impossible - Limited Edition soundtrack retails for $29.98. It's available to order now, and starts shipping later this week on September 13.

Here's the full track listing from the La-La Land website:

DISC 1 ORIGINAL POINT MUSIC SCORE ALBUM
1. Sleeping Beauty(†) 2:33
2. Theme From Mission: Impossible(§) 1:07
    Composed by Lalo Schifrin, arr. Danny Elfman
3. Red Handed(§) 4:23
4. Big Trouble 5:37
5. Love Theme? 2:24
6. Mole Hunt 3:05
7. The Disc(†) 1:58
8. Max Found 1:05
9. Looking for “Job”(†) 4:40
10. Betrayal 2:59
11. The Heist(†) 5:49
12. Uh-Oh! 1:31
13. Biblical Revelation 1:37
14. Phone Home 2:28
15. Train Time(§)(†) 4:15
16. Ménage à Trois 2:57
17. Zoom A 1:54
18. Zoom B(§) 2:58
TOTAL DISC TIME: 53:20

DISC 2 FILM SCORE
1. Sleeping Beauty**(†) (Film Version) 3:03
2. Theme From Mission: Impossible(§) 1:07
    Composed by Lalo Schifrin, arr. Danny Elfman
3. Red Handed** (†/§) (Film Version) 6:21
4. Big Trouble** (Film Version) 7:01
5. Lonely March* 0:54
6. Mole Hunt** (Film Version)/Escape* 3:35
7. Looking For “Job”(†) 4:44
8. Max Returns*/Max At Last* 1:30
9. Max Found 1:05
10. The Disc(†) 1:59
11. Disavowed*/Worse Than You Think** (†) 2:48
12. Langley*(§) 1:01
13. The Heist** (†) (Film Version) 5:05
14. Uh-Oh! 1:31
15. Biblical Revelation 1:36
16. Phone Home 2:28
17. Betrayal** (Film Version) 3:01
18. Love Theme? 2:24
19. Train Time** (Film Version)/Is He?* 5:33
20. Ménage à Trois 2:57
21. Zoom A** (Film Version)/Zoom B**(§) (Film Version) 5:21

ADDITIONAL MUSIC
22. Red Handed**(†) (Alternate Ending) 1:46
23. Disavowed* (Alternate)/Worse Than You Think*(†) (Alternate) 2:59
24. Zoom A** (Alternate)/Zoom B**(§) (Alternate) 5:19
TOTAL DISC TIME: 75:15

TOTAL ALBUM TIME: 128:35

* previously unreleased
** contains previously unreleased material
§ contains “Theme From Mission: Impossible” by Lalo Schifrin
† contains “The Plot” by Lalo Schifrin

Tradecraft: Netflix Orders Elvis Spy Series

It's always struck me as so weird that Elvis never made a spy movie. I mean, the King of Rock and Roll made movies in just about every other genre, throughout the whole spy craze of the Sixties! And even worked with lots of spy actresses, like Ann-Margaret (Murderers' Row, Viva Las Vegas) Nancy Sinatra (Last of the Secret Agents, Speedway), and Ursula Andress (Dr. No, Fun in Acapulco). But now, according to Deadline, Elvis will finally get to be a spy... sort of. At least an animated version of him will star in a Netflix series, Agent King (no, not Jason, I'm afraid!), which explores the premise what if the actual Elvis Presley were actually a secret agent? According to the trade, in the series, created by Elvis's widow Priscilla Presley and singer/songwriter John Eddie, "Elvis trades in his white jumpsuit for a jet pack when he is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country he loves — all while holding down his day job as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll." Mike Arnold, who knows a thing or two about animated spy series, having written for Archer for six seasons, will be the showrunner.

La La Land Records to Release Expanded Score for THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

La La Land Records has announced another expanded James Bond score! Hot on the heels of their unexpected but extremely welcome Die Another Day expanded score last year, the specialty label has another David Arnold score on tap. On November 27, they'll release a remastered and expanded 2-CD set of Arnold's stellar second Bond score, 1999's The World Is Not Enough. It will be packed with previously unreleased music, including tracks fans have been clamoring for for nearly two decades like "Snow Business" and the gun barrel music, along with hitherto undreamed of rarities like two early song demos performed by Arnold himself (one for the title song, and another for "Only Myself to Blame," which was intended for the closing credits and not used, but included in its final version on the original soundtrack CD). Unlike La La Land's Die Another Day, which omitted the Madonna title track (some would say mercifully), this new The World Is Not Enough release will include the songs! (The excellent theme performed by Garbage, and the album version of "Only Myself to Blame," performed by Scott Walker, who also performed the greatest Bond theme not written for a Bond movie, "Deadlier Than the Male" from the terrific Eurospy film of that title.) Liner notes by Tim Greiving will include new remarks from Arnold, legendary Bond lyricist Don Black, and director Michael Apted. This special expanded score will be strictly limited to 5,000 copies. It will go on sale on the La La Land website at noon, Pacific Time, on Tuesday, November 27, retailing for $29.98. I really hope this trend continues, and La La Land eventually releases expanded editions of all of David Arnold's James Bond scores!

Here is the full track listing for this one:

TRACK LISTING:

Disc 1
Score Presentation

1. Gun Barrel*† / Bond Has Left The Building*† 3:13
2. Show Me The Money† 1:27
3. Come In 007, Your Time Is Up† 5:20
4. Balloon* 1:03
5. The World Is Not Enough 3:54
-Performed By Garbage
6. Dr. Warmflash* :30
7. Access Denied 1:34
8. M’s Confession 1:35
9. Welcome To Baku 1:42
10. Snow Business* 1:15
11. Ice Bandits 3:42
12. Out Of The Snow* / Stay With Me Please* 1:27
13. Casino Jazz* 2:12
14. Casino 2:56
15. Card Game* 1:27
16. Devil’s Breath* 2:08
17. Elektra’s Theme 2:06
18. Body Double 3:00
19. Welcome To Kazakhstan*† 1:32
20. Going Down - The Bunker (Extended Version)**† 8:50
21. Bond’s Bedroom Bombshell* :38
22. Pipeline† 4:16
23. Elektra Turns* / Renard’s Plutonium Gift* 1:38
24. Remember Pleasure (Extended Version)** 3:14
25. Caviar Factory (Extended Version)**† 6:03
26. Submarine Surfaces* / Renard Greets Nik* / M Clocks Locator* 1:52
27. Bomb* 2:30
28. Torture Queen 2:24

Total Disc 1 Time 73:58

Disc 2
Score Presentation Continued

1. I Never Miss 3:32
2. Submarine #1 4:11
3. Submarine #2** 6:26
4. Sub Gets It* :46
5. Christmas In Turkey 1:28
6. Orbis Non Sufficit*† 4:01
7. Only Myself To Blame 3:36
Performed by Scott Walker

Total Score Time 97:58

Additional Music

8. Gun Barrel (Separate Elements)*† 1:14
9. Welcome To Baku (Film Version)** 1:42
10. Snow Business (Alternate)* 1:27
11. Elektra’s Theme (Alternate)* 2:05
12. Going Down - The Bunker 6:26
13. Pipeline (Full Mix)**† 4:15
14. Remember Pleasure 2:45
15. Caviar Factory† 6:01
16. Submarine 10:19
17. The World Is Not Enough (Demo)* 3:59
Performed by David Arnold
18. Only Myself To Blame (Demo)* 2:56
Performed by David Arnold

Total Additional Music 43:09
Total Disc 2 Time 67:40

* Previously unreleased
** Contains previously unreleased material
† Contains “James Bond Theme” written by Monty Norman

Thanks to Neil for the heads-up!

Mondo To Release Danny Elfman's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE Score on Vinyl... Plus More Info on La La Land's MISSION Plans

Austin-based T-shirt company turned record label Mondo announced today that they would release Danny Elfman's terrific score for Brian De Palma's original 1996 Mission: Impossible movie on vinyl in October. It will be that score's first ever vinyl release, as the film came out between the "death of vinyl" in the early Nineties and the format's miraculous resurrection in the past decade. (The movie's version of "The Mission: Impossible Theme" by U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, however, was released at the time as a 12" single for the DJ market.) Mondo's 2-disc release, sporting a retro-style record sleeve that will make a nice companion piece to the original 1960s Lalo Schifrin Mission: Impossible LPs, and liner notes by Austin composer Brian Satterwhite, will be pressed on 180 Gram colored vinyl. There will be a "Red Light/Green Light" edition (in honor of the film's explosive chewing gum), limited to 1,000 copies, and an unlimited translucent red version. (Hm... that's a tough call!) Both retail for $35, and are available for pre-order on the Mondo website, shipping in October. (Hopefully that gives them time to correct the spelling of Lalo Schifrin's name on the back cover!) Here's the track list:

Side A
01. Sleeping Beauty
02. Mission: Impossible Theme
03. Red Handed
04. Big Trouble

Side B
05. Love Theme?
06. Mole Hunt
07. The Disc
08. Max Found
09. Looking For “Job”

Side C
10. Betrayal
11. The Heist
12. Uh-Oh!
13. Biblical Revelation

Side D
14. Phone Home
15. Train Time
16. Ménage à Trois
17. Zoom A
18. Zoom B

For those who want even more music from that movie, La La Land Records recently mentioned in a post on the Film Score Monthly Forum that they're working on an expanded, double CD release of Elfman's score that was supposed to be out for the 20th anniversary in 2016, but has (obviously) been held up. They hope to have it out next year. That will certainly be exciting! (They also mention they might do an expanded release of Joe Kraemer's score for Rogue Nation... but not until that movie's 10th anniversary in 2025. I would sure love to see all the source music from the opera included on that release should it happen!)

Meanwhile, La La Land's Mission: Impossible - Music from the 1988 Television Series, announced last week, is now available to buy from their website... which also offers some more intel on the album's contents. The 2-disc set seems to include nearly all the music original theme composer Lalo Schifrin (The Liquidator) wrote for the revival series (three episodes' worth) along with a good sampling of Ron Jones' (Star Trek: The Next Generation) work. While the official copy claims this release "showcases the series’ musical highlights over its two season run," all the episodes on the track list are actually from its first year, the 1988-89 TV season. So I remain hopeful (which is to say, greedy!) that perhaps in a few years we'll get a second volume containing some more Jones tunes and a healthy selection of John E. Davis's (Matt Houston) music for that series (a few tracks of which can be found on the GNP album The Best of Mission: Impossible... Then and Now). But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's just be thrilled about what they're offering right now!

Finally, to celebrate the release of that new set, the company are offering their indispensable 6-CD box set from the original series, Mission: Impossible - The Television Scores (normally $100; details here) at the bargain price of just $80. Fewer than a hundred units of the limited run remain, so the fuse is burning rapidly down! The sale price is in effect through August 13.

Thanks to Mike for the heads up about the vinyl!

Read my review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) here.
Read my review of M:I-2 (2000) here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible (1996) here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season here.

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fourth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Second TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The First TV Season here.

La La Land Announces 2-Disc Soundtrack for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE 1988 TELEVISION SERIES

Here's some fantastic news for Mission: Impossible Week! In 2015, coinciding with the release of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, La-La Land Records brought us the utterly fantastic 6-disc set Mission: Impossible - The Television Scores. (Which is still available from their site.) This had long been a Holy Grail for fans of the series, and completely lived up to (and exceeded!) our wildest expectations. Every single episode of the original 1966-73 TV series that had an original score was represented... but the 1988-90 revival series was not. (Which was entirely appropriate, as the Eighties music had a different vibe and would have felt out of place.) But now, to coincide with the release of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, La La Land is doing it again!

Next week they'll release a 2-disc collection of music by Lalo Schifrin and Ron Jones from Mission: Impossible - The 1988 Television Series! I was really hoping they'd do this, but didn't dare actually expect it. As with just about any score incorporating Schifrin's iconic theme, this series featured some great music. Some of it was included on GNP Crescendo's release The Best of Mission: Impossible Then and Now, but that was really just the tip of the iceberg, and didn't feature any Jones music. (It did include John E. Davis's score work, however.) La-La Land has released very little information about this title so far (basically just a teaser to whet our appetites), so I'm not sure if this release will feature music from both seasons of the revival series or just the 1988 one. (If it's the latter, hopefully that means we'll see another volume around the time the next Mission movie hits screens!) Here's what we do know:

It's a limited edition of 1988 units. The album is produced by Lukas Kendall, with liner notes by Jon Burlingame (whose extensive spy music expertise has also graced his own productions, like the aforementioned 6-disc original series set, FSM's Man from U.N.C.L.E. discs, as well as his book The Music of James Bond) and art direction by Dan Goldwasser. The price point will be $29.98, and the set goes on sale through the La-La Land website on July 31, 2018 at 12 pm Pacific. That's next week! I can't wait.

La-La Land will also be releasing the physical CD of Lorne Balfe's score for Mission: Impossible - Fallout, due out on August 3. (They also put out the soundtrack for Rogue Nation.)

Quartet Releases Two Expanded Spy Soundtracks: CASINO ROYALE and THE RUSSIA HOUSE

Quartet Records have announced half a quartet (sorry) of newly expanded spy scores. And the two movies are about as far apart as you can get within the same genre: Jerry Goldsmith's somber, intimate, jazz-infused score for the 1990 John le Carré adaptation The Russia House, and Burt Bacharach's infectious, iconic score for the bloated 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale.

Fred Schepisi’s film of The Russia House starred Sean Connery as one of le Carré’s most memorable characters, Barley Blair, a publisher who becomes unwittingly entangled in East/West spy games and a dangerous romance with Michelle Pfeifer’s Katya. James Fox, Roy Scheider, Michael Kitchen, and Klaus Maria Brandauer co-starred. Besides a romance between two of the screen’s most popular stars, the film was notable for being one of the first Western movies to be shot in Russia, and makes an excellent time capsule of the late Soviet era. Goldsmith’s score was atypical for him in that era (coming right after the more bombastic Total Recall), and remains controversial among fans of the composer and le Carré. The decision to go with a sax-driven, romantic jazz sound reflects Blair’s own musical taste. The original MCA album contained 61 minutes of music, but Quartet have dug up an additional 15 minutes’ worth of previously unreleased material including what they call “some key suspense cues.” According to the label, “the new edition was produced by Mike Matessino, with tracks prepared by Neil S. Bulk (Die Another Day) and mastered by Matessino from the original mixes by Bruce Botnick. The package includes a 16-page full color booklet with [le Carré fan] Dirk Wickenden providing in-depth liner notes and musical analysis of this masterful Goldsmith score.”

As for Casino Royale, you're probably asking, "Hasn't that score already been reissued twice in time this blog's been around?" And you would be right. (Or at least partially right, because you don't seem to be counting the Varese Sarabande reissue which was pretty much identical to the original Varese release, and apparently a subsequent reissue of one of the legitimately expanded versions.) The famous score, long sought after on LP owing to its reputation among audiophiles as the ultimate demonstration record, was first released in an expanded edition by Kritzerland in 2010. The original master tapes were allegedly damaged or destroyed, so they set about repairing the issues caused by that damage. They also attempted to replicate the vaunted sound of the LP by including as a bonus program a direct transfer of the record itself. Then in 2012, Quartet put out a 2-disc release with lavish packaging and a stellar, 60+ page book of liner notes by Gergely Hubai in honor of the film's 45th anniversary. That release was motivated by the discovery of a quarter-inch stereo tape copy of the original album in the vaults of Sony Music Spain, and new access to MGM's DVD elements which permitted a complete film score release (albeit reflecting the sound mixer's dialogue-motivated volume shifts) for the first time. Both of those releases were limited editions, and both sold out. Apparently there was even a second printing of the Quartet one. And now they are releasing a brand new 50th Anniversary edition with completely different audio. Here's the label's reasoning:

This edition is an important landmark for this legendary score, and we can proudly say that it now sounds better than ever. This new edition has been produced, restored and mastered by wizard engineer Chris Malone, rebuilding the score from the ground up. Malone’s work has focused on addressing unintended technical anomalies (such as filling dropouts and covering analogue splices) rather than broadly applying a modern sound palette. He has eschewed dynamic range compression and retained the brilliance of the original recording. Because the LP program derived from the original film recordings (with some edits made for a more pleasure listening), we have included it on our CD and added all the music composed by Bacharach that was not on the LP to make a 77-minute CD. The bonus tracks are in mono (music stems are still the only available source to date), but Chris has worked them in a very different mood from our previous edition, respecting the mono without adding any stereo reverb and carefully restoring each track in a very warm way. We can say the sound is day and night compared with our previous edition. Live and learn.

So they seem to be, sort of, apologizing for their previous version? Understanding its less than ideal sources, I never had any issues with it and appreciated its completeness. Though I still preferred the sound on the Kritzerland version, and it sounds as if Malone may have approached this new one along the same lines they did. The new Quartet release appears to be just one disc as opposed to the 45 Anniversary's double-disc version, and does not include the original booklet. It does, however, boast all-new liner notes (20 pages of them!) by film score expert Jeff Bond. It's kind of strange that this odd-duck step child of the Bond saga as by now proven to be the title most frequently revisited on CD, but they've got me curious. I'll definitely be buying this one, as I have all the others. They always sell out, so my advice is to act quickly if you've missed out on the previous limited editions.

The discs can be ordered now directly from Quartet, or pre-ordered from Screen Archives Entertainment:

Casino Royale
The Russia House

Coming on the heels of La-La Land's recent expanded Die Another Day score, this winter is proving a boom time for collectors of spy soundtracks!

Expanded DIE ANOTHER DAY Soundtrack

La-La Land Records, the company behind such spy fan favorites as the Mission: Impossible television soundtrack box set and this year's fantastic Wild Wild West TV soundtrack, has announced the first authorized, expanded release in fifteen years of any James Bond score that isn't called Casino Royale. And it might seem at first like a surprising title to get that treatment: the 2002 Pierce Brosnan movie Die Another Day, scored by David Arnold. While relatively few fans would put forth Die Another Day as one of the series' best entries, I've always enjoyed Arnold's score in the film. The original soundtrack album, however (issued on the Warner label), was disappointing, as it left off many of my favorite pieces, instead squandering precious data space on "enhanced CD" frills like two music videos, a music video making-of, and a "James Bond Poster Gallery." So, personally, I welcome an expanded Die Another Day score! Especially since this one contains the track I've most wanted ever since crashing the movie's Los Angeles premiere: "Cuban Car," Arnold's spectacular, Cuban-tinged take on the James Bond Theme that plays when 007 drives a 1957 Ford Fairlane out of Havana. But La-La Land's 2-disc release contains a lot more new music than just that track.

Featuring more than an hour of never-before-released score music, the whole album runs over 148 minutes (48 tracks compared to the original release's 15)--longer than the run time of the film itself. This is because it includes alternate versions and different mixes, and even orchestra-only versions of tracks that were originally fortified with a lot of 2002-appropriate electronica. The mixture of "the time-honored romance and swagger of classic Bond," as the press release puts it, and "cutting-edge electronics" (a mixture first brought to the series by John Barry on his final Bond score, The Living Daylights) was a particular specialty of Arnold's at this time, and for those of us steeped in the electronica of the era (the sound of my college years!), it was thrilling. He first tantalized us with the Propellerheads collaboration "Backseat Driver" in the largely traditional Tomorrow Never Dies, then fully committed to the electronica sound in his second score, The World Is Not Enough and its signature instrumental "Ice Bandits." Die Another Day was probably his most even balance of traditional and electronic, before (appropriately) taking the series back to its more classic sound with the 2006 Daniel Craig reboot Casino Royale. One of Arnold's particular skills is the ability to create a score that completely captures its time (in this case 2002), but in a timeless manner that doesn't sound instantly dated (like the aural cocaine of Bill Conti's disco-infused For Your Eyes Only).

Produced by David Arnold and Neil S. Bulk (a dyed-in-the-wool Bond fan as well an expert in his field), and mastered by Doug Schwartz from new transfers of analog stereo tapes provided by the composer, La-La Land promises, "this 2-CD deluxe presentation showcases Arnold’s score in a revelatory fashion that’s sure to leave listeners shaken and stirred in the best possible way!" It also features in-depth liner notes by Tim Greiving, "including new comments by the composer." Strictly limited to 5,000 units and retailing for $29.98, the double-disc album will be available to order from the La-La Land website as of noon Pacific Time on Monday, November 28--just in time for the holidays and making the perfect stocking stuffer for the Bond fan in your life. ("I thought Christmas only comes once a year!" Sorry; wrong Brosnan movie.)

Here's the full track listing for La-La Land's 2-disc, expanded Die Another Day:

Disc 1 (Score Presentation)
1. On the Beach (extended version)**† 3:56
2. Bond Meets Moon* / Hovercrafts* 2:16
3. How Do You Intend to Kill Me Now, Mr. Bond?* 2:02
4. Hovercraft Chase† 3:48
5. Bond to Jail* :49
6. Some Kind of Hero? 4:32
7. Kiss of Life*† 4:46
8. Peaceful Fountains of Desire* 1:05
9. What’s In it For You?* / Cuba* 1:21
10. Cuban Car*† :50
11. Jinx Jordan 1:28
12. Jinx & James 2:03
13. Wheelchair Access*† 2:22
14. Jinx, James and Genes* 5:14
15. Gustav Graves’ Grand Entrance*† 1:34
16. Blades*† 3:12
17. Bond Gets the Key* / Virtual Reality*† 2:01
18. The Vanish* / Bond Goes to Iceland*† 2:10
19. The Explanation* 1:36
20. Icarus 1:23
21. Ice Spy*† 3:00
22. A Touch of Frost 1:50
23. Laser Fight 4:36
24. It Belongs to His Boss* / Double Agent* 2:34
25. Whiteout† 4:55
26. Bond Kidnaps Skidoo*† 2:29
27. Iced Inc.† 3:08
28. Ice Palace Car Chase*† 4:57
Total disc 1 time = 76:47

Disc 2 (Score Presentation Continued)
1. Switchblades*† 3:23
2. Antonov 11:51
3. Antonov Gets It*† 3:20
4. Moneypenny Gets It* 1:11
5. Going Down Together 1:32
Total score time = 98:04

Additional Music
6. On the Beach† 2:50
7. Hovercraft Chase (film version)**† 3:47
8. Some Kind of Hero? (film version)** 4:32
9. Peaceful Fountains of Desire (alternate ending)* 1:06
10. What’s In it For You? (orchestra only)* :41
11. Welcome to Cuba 2:07
12. Jinx Jordan (orchestra only)** 1:28
13. Jinx & James (film version)** 2:07
14. Wheelchair Access (original version)*† 2:22
15. Party Trick (source)* 1:37
16. A Touch of Frost (film version)** 1:50
17. Laser Fight (film version)** 4:38
18. Whiteout (full mix)**† 4:55
19. Antonov (film version)** 11:51
20. James Bond Will Return*† 3:54
Total additional music = 49:45
Total disc 2 time = 71:43
Total album running time = 148:30

* Previously unreleased
** Contains previously unreleased material
† Contains “James Bond Theme” written by Monty Norman

Not included, you'll notice, are the dreadful title song by Madonna (my personal least favorite of the series... which isn't to say I don't own the single, with its six club remixes!) or "Bond Vs. Oakenfold," Paul Oakenfold's remix of The James Bond Theme (somewhat lacking in comparison to the awesome Moby "re-version" of just five years earlier), so you completists may want to hang onto your original Warner Bros. soundtrack album as well. (The music video making-of is actually pretty good, too, as much as I disapprove of such content on CDs, and I don't believe it's included on the Die Another Day Blu-ray.)

WILD WILD WEST TV Soundtrack Coming Next Week!

It was rumored earlier this year, but today La La Land Records officially announced on their Facebook page that they will release a 4-disc soundtrack for the classic Sixties spy Western The Wild Wild West on July 11! (Which makes this a very good summer for Wild Wild West fans, as the two TV reunion movies were just released on a standalone DVD for the first time a few weeks ago.) The set will be produced by Jon Burlingame, renowned not only for his immeasurable soundtrack knowledge at large, but particularly for his spy music expertise. Burlingame wrote the book The Music of James Bond and previously produced four excellent volumes of music from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the amazing 6-disc Mission: Impossible TV soundtrack. He also provided extensive liner notes for each of those releases, and this one will be no different, coming with a lengthy booklet.

According to a post from Burlingame, the set includes "excerpts from 26 scores representing all four seasons. Composers include Richard Markowitz, Robert Drasnin, Richard Shores, Dave Grusin, Fred Steiner, Harry Geller, Walter Scharf, Jack Pleis -- plus the never-before-heard Dimitri Tiomkin theme that was rejected early on." Burlingame asserts that there were three rejected Tiomkin themes (at least one a vocal), but it's unclear if all three will be included in the set or not. The tapes that made this release possible were found in an exhaustive two-year search of the UCLA Film and Television Archives, which also contained alternate, unused versions of Markowitz's iconic main theme. The set contains over an hour of music by Shores.

Limited to just 1,000 units, Music From the Television Series The Wild Wild West will be available to order from the La La Land website starting at noon Pacific on July 11.

R.I.P. Chris Cornell

Singer Chris Cornell died yesterday at the age of 52. Numerous outlets report that his death is being treated as a possible suicide. A superstar of the Nineties grunge scene, Cornell rose to fame as the front man of the band Soundgarden. He found similar success with another group, Audioslave, and as a solo recording artist. It’s in the latter capacity that he is probably best known to James Bond fans, for co-writing and performing “You Know My Name,” the theme song to Daniel Craig’s debut 007 movie, Casino Royale, in 2006.

As much as I love Adele’s “Skyfall,” for me “You Know My Name” is easily the best Bond song in the last 30 years. It’s also the last one, to date, to be co-written by the film’s composer—in this case David Arnold. Arnold and Cornell achieved a perfect creative symbiosis with this track, which boldly introduced Craig’s new, younger, rawer Bond with aggressive first-person lyrics. According to John Burlingame’s The Music of James Bond, Arnold wanted the song to serve as an alternative theme for the less mature Bond, who wouldn’t “earn” the classic Monty Norman/John Barry version of “The James Bond Theme” until the end of the movie. Therefore, he wanted it to have “the same genetic material as the Bond theme, but in a different order and in a different shape.” Indeed it does, and it makes for a truly fantastic substitute theme as Arnold weaves the melody throughout his score. Yet it’s Cornell’s powerful vocals (at the time the first male vocals on a Bond song in nearly two decades) that really cement “You Know My Name” as one of the all-time great Bond themes.

Incredibly, given that he is one of the youngest and most recent, Cornell is the first James Bond main title vocalist to leave us. (The songs performed by Matt Monro, Louis Armstrong, and Dusty Springfield did not play during the main titles of their respective films.) Cornell had battled addiction for most of his life, but seemed to be doing better in recent years. In his final performance, with Soundgarden, earlier last night, CNN reports that he substituted the planned encore with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time of Dying.” Cornell’s death so young is a tragedy, but in addition to his lasting impact on popular music, he left an indelible mark on the Bond series with a terrific theme song for one of the franchise’s best films.

Double O Section 10th Anniversary: Top 7 Spy Scores of the Past Decade

The score is an integral element of any movie, but for me even moreso in a good spy movie. As a genre, spy movies have a more distinctive sound than just about any other popular genre—yet there are endless variations on what we think of as that "spy sound," as evidenced by this fairly eclectic list of....

My Favorite Spy Scores 2006-2016

1. Daniel Pemberton: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Urged by director Guy Ritchie to avoid the brassy, bombastic spy tropes of James Bond music for his 1960s-set film version (review here) of the classic TV show, Daniel Pemberton drew instead from slightly more obscure corners of Sixties spy music and ended up creating the most enjoyable soundtrack of the decade. He comes out of the gate offering not horns, but bongos and flutes, setting the precedent for an eclectic score that evokes more than anything the somewhat obscure Eurospy scores of the decade (and their close cousins, Spaghetti Westerns) by the likes of Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani. His inspired use of a cimbalom also recalls not only Morricone’s Arabesque, but some of John Barry’s great non-007 spy music, like The Ipcress File and The Persuaders!, as well as Edwin Astley’s harpsichord-heavy ITC music. What it doesn’t especially recall is Jerry Goldsmith’s original U.N.C.L.E. music, and his theme from the show is basically absent. Would I have liked to have heard a new version of that theme in the movie? Sure, of course I would have. But I find it impossible to complain when what we’ve got is the most creative spy score of modern times! Pemberton’s music is the perfect accompaniment to Ritchie’s movie, which is a finely-crafted love letter to the same sorts of Sixties cinema from which the composer draws.
                                                                                                                                           
2. David Arnold: Casino Royale (2006)

David Arnold had done wonderful things with The James Bond Theme in his Pierce Brosnan-era Bond scores, but by deciding to withhold that famous theme (other than a few well-deployed bars) until the end of Casino Royale (review here), he demonstrated exactly how capable a composer he is for this franchise. The recurring "You Know My Name" melody throughout not only recalls the way John Barry used to incorporate the theme song into each score, but also serves as a fine theme for the character on its own. This is a Bond score that doesn't need the Bond theme, and that's a very impressive feat! In fact, I'm a little bit disappointed that "You Know My Name" didn't become a secondary recurring theme for Craig's Bond the way "007" was in the Barry days. Casino Royale is a spectacular Bond score, and would also be a spectacular score and theme establishing an entirely new character or franchise.

3. Michael Giacchino: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Michael Giacchino really upped his game in his second Mission: Impossible score. He made ample use of the Lalo Schifrin themes fans want to hear  (“Mission: Impossible Theme” and “The Plot”), but also created a lot of riveting original music that felt like a logical expansion of those themes rather than something so contemporary it felt at odds with the classic material. Best of all were the localized variations on the main theme. I absolutely love the track, “Mood India,” a terrific piece of local flavor music that slowly morphs into a Bollywood take on the famous theme. Likewise, the Middle Eastern-flavored “A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai” subtly incorporates Schifrin material into the sort of epic local flavor music that characterized the best Bond scores of the Sixties and Seventies. And he even gives us a take on “The Plot” with a Russian chorus that sounds out of The Hunt For Red October for the Kremlin sequence!

4. Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

For Kingsman (review here), Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson went the opposite route from Daniel Pemberton on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. While he sought to intentionally avoid brassy Bondian bombast, they revel in it. While distinctly contemporary, this is an unrepentant pastiche of classic Bond scores, and quite a successful one at that. (If only the movie had been as good!) The epic sound does a lot to make the film’s budget-conscious setpieces feel bigger than they are, and tries its best to make digital mattes like the Kingsman underground hangar feel as spectacular as we wish they looked. The album is a great listen outside of the film itself that simply screams, “spy!”

5. Herbert Gronemeyer: A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Herbert Gronemeyer’s very contemporary score for this taut John le Carré thriller is another one that manages to say “spy” without the traditional musical vocabulary of the genre. It does so through its wonderfully downbeat tone (utterly appropriate for the le Carré material), which always makes me feel like it’s raining when I hear it out of the context of the movie, and with its impeccable sense of place. The score not only convey’s “Hamburg” very effectively; it specifically conveys the Muslim community within Hamburg when called upon to do so. Some of the more ambient tracks, like “Text from Jamal,” are downright Eno-esque. Gronemeyer's score is completely modern, but it's the perfect 21st century compliment to Sol Kaplan's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold soundtrack.

6. Ludovic Bource: OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies (2006)

While I was initially disappointed (as with The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) that this comedic Eurospy revival (review here) didn't make use of Michael Magne's infectious original OSS 117 theme, my disappointment was quickly mitigated by what an awesome job Ludovic Bource did capturing the spirit of the era in which the film is set. His score perfectly matches the mise-en-scene, special effects, fight choreography and all the other behind-the-scenes elements that meticulously recreate early 1960s filmmaking. The movie is a comedy, but the score plays things completely straight, as scores must in a successful parody. (Spy, Johnny English and Austin Powers all also delivered straight, good faith spy scores.) Even the scene in which star Jean Dujardin ends up flinging chickens at an opponent is scored earnestly—or at least in the manner of the era. With its hip, lounge-y vibe (my favorite cue is the ultra-chill "Froggy Afternoon"), North African local flavor and occasional legit action number, Bource most directly evokes Henry Mancini's Sixties Pink Panther music. It accompanies the film perfectly, and makes for a great listen on its own.

7. John Powell: Fair Game (2010)/Green Zone (2010)

Reflecting my own tastes, the majority of my choices on this list are deliberate throwbacks. But this pair of 2010 scores by Bourne composer John Powell ring with a thoroughly contemporary spy sound. Powell is the first composer to completely redefine what audiences think of as “spy music” since John Barry defined the sound to begin with in the Sixties. Both composers worked within a wide spectrum of sub-genres, from outlandish fantasy (You Only Live Twice in Barry’s case; Knight and Day for Powell) to grounded, serious action (From Russia With Love; the Bourne films) to gritty drama full of bureaucratic hurdles (The Ipcress File; Fair Game), applying their signature motifs across the board. While many great composers have worked in the spy genre over the last several decades (and some have experimented with totally different sorts of scores), no one has so exhaustively overhauled the sound of spy movies as Powell. Barry’s jazz-infused style remained the expected and accepted soundtrack of the genre up until the 2000s (when it may have been partially done in by George S. Clinton’s spot-on pastiche in the Austin Powers movies). Now it’s propulsive percussion–which offers somewhat less room for variation, but perfectly compliments the high-energy spy movies being made today–and Powell brings that in spades to Fair Game (review here) and Green Zone (review here), signaling “spy” to the audience as loudly as Barry-like trumpet flourishes did in the past.

VARGR contest code word: AMBER

Writing's On the Wall Music Video

The music video for Sam Smith's SPECTRE song "Writing's On the Wall" was released today, and contains some new footage from the upcoming James Bond movie not seen in trailers. (There are also much longer shots from the film than we ever get in the quick-cut trailers.) Unlike Adele's "Skyfall" video, there doesn't appear to be any material here from Daniel Kleinman's title sequence.

SPECTRE Soundtrack Features Instrumental Version of Writing's On the Wall

For decades the theme song was the centerpiece of a new James Bond soundtrack album. Then when Daniel Craig took over the role, that tradition ended. Chris Cornell's powerful theme song "You Know My Name" (still the best of the Craig era) was not included on the Casino Royale soundtrack album despite its melody forming the backbone of David Arnold's score. (The Sony Classical soundtrack album even bore the warning, "This album does not contain a Chris Cornell recording.") Jack White and Alicia Keys' "Another Way to Die" did appear on the Quantum of Solace album, but at the end instead of the beginning. (Although that melody, which Arnold had nothing to do with, didn't recur throughout his score.) The album was released on Keys' label, the Sony-owned J Records. And then Adele's superb, Oscar-winning "Skyfall" theme was left off of Thomas Newman's score album for that film. (Again on Sony Classical, and again with a dire warning about the lack of a recording "by the artist Adele.") With the SPECTRE soundtrack, we'll get something altogether different. The album, on the Decca label, will include Sam Smith's main theme "Writing's On the Wall..." but in an instrumental version. Decca is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, as is Smith's label, Capitol. Instrumental versions of both "Skyfall" and "Another Way to Die" were released, but as B-sides on the singles, not on the score albums. It will be interesting to see if the inclusion of the instrumental on the Newman album is an indication that Newman will work it into his score. At any rate, a lot of Bond fans will probably find the omission of the vocals makes for a more satisfying listening experience, as the primary complaint about the song has been with Smith's falsetto-heavy vocals and not the rather traditional Bondian orchestration. SPECTRE: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Thomas Newman, including the instrumental of Sam Smith's "Writing's On the Wall," is due out physically on November 13, a week after the film's U.S. release. A digital release, still unannounced, is expected a week or two earlier. The CD can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

The SPECTRE Title Song by Sam Smith is Here! Listen Now!

Today Sam Smith released "The Writing's On the Wall," his theme song for the latest James Bond movie, SPECTRE. Hm. It will take me a few more listens to form a real opinion. But on first listen, it doesn't strike me as a disaster, like Madonna's "Die Another Day," nor brilliant, like Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale. It certainly sounds Bondian, and that's a good thing anyway. It's lush and epic, which is nice, but still feels like it's lacking something. I'm not really familiar with Smith as an artist, but I'm not crazy about his aggressive falsetto. Then again, I wasn't crazy about Adele's "Skyfall" the first time I heard it, and I came to love that song. So we'll have to see. (Danny Kleinman's visuals can do wonders for a Bond song, too.) Anyway, have a listen! It should be available for purchase digitally later today, and the CD single is available for pre-order on Amazon, but not due out for another month. The SPECTRE soundtrack, featuring Thomas Newman's second Bond score, is also available for pre-order, and due out November 13, a whole week after the film hits cinemas.

Sam Smith to Perform SPECTRE Theme Song

British singer Sam Smith will perform the theme song for the 24th James Bond movie, SPECTRE, it was announced today on the official 007 website. The news comes on the heels of months' worth of rumors and speculation that Smith would be the one belting out a SPECTRE song come November. Then, in recent months, the tantalizing spectre of Radiohead singing the song somehow worked its way onto the Internet, cruelly taunting us with the prospect of something amazing. But it wasn't to be. Oh well. Sometimes lesser artists end up recording some of the best Bond songs, so there's certainly hope for Smith's theme. While you would think that the word "spectre" would have been fairly easy to build a song around (unlike "Octopussy" or even "Quantum of Solace"), that sadly won't be the case, and for the third time in Daniel Craig's Bond career, the title of the theme song won't be the title of the film. Smith's song, co-written with Grammy-winning lyricist and frequent collaborator Jimmy Napes, will be entitled "Writing's On the Wall," which certainly sounds suitably Bondian. The single will debut on September 25 (though if history is anything to go by it will leak earlier), at which time it will be available to purchase digitally. Unlike any other Craig-era theme, it's possible that "Writing's On the Wall" will actually be included on the movie's soundtrack, as was always the case before for Bond movies. Decca Records will release returning Skyfall composer Thomas Newman's (Skyfall) score, and they are part of Universal Music Group... which is also home to Smith.

SPECTRE opens November 6.

Listen to Samples From Daniel Pemberton's Man From U.N.C.L.E. Soundtrack

Today Amazon and iTunes both posted track lists for an expanded "Deluxe Version" of the soundtrack album for Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E., featuring Sixties R&B songs alongside score music by Daniel Pemberton (The Game). And they also posted samples! While we've heard snippets in recent trailers and in the promotional videogame, this is our first real chance to hear substantial sections of Pemberton's U.N.C.L.E. score. And it sounds very, very good. While the score doesn't feature Jerry Goldsmith's beloved theme music from the Sixties TV series, it does appear to have a great Sixties spy sound going for it. Sample Track 3, for example, "His Name Is Napoleon Solo," which sounds very nicely reminiscent of John Barry's The Ipcress File. It's been a while since we've heard this particular sort of spy sound, and I can't wait to listen to it in full! Pemberton did a fantastic job capturing a Seventies espionage mood in The Game, and I fully expect him to do the same for the prior decade in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.! The soundtrack is out August 7 (also available on CD, but without the four bonus tracks in the deluxe digital version) from Water Tower Music, and the movie is out August 14.

Mission: Impossible TV Soundtrack Box Set Coming Next Month!

2015 has proven not just a great year for spy movies in theaters, but also for archival spy releases. I thought Network's Deadlier Than the Male Blu-ray would be tough to beat, but La La Land has just done it with the announcement that they will release what's long been a Holy Grail for fans of spy music: a six-disc box set of soundtrack music from the Mission: Impossible TV series! Produced by spy music expert Jon Burlingame (who also produced and wrote the liner notes for the excellent FSM Man From U.N.C.L.E. soundtrack CD releases a decade ago, and literally wrote the book on James Bond film music), Mission: Impossible: The Television Scores contains selections from all seven seasons of the iconic spy series starring Peter Graves, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus (among many others) that ran from 1966-1973, the majority of them never before released! While Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible Theme is probably the most famous and iconic piece of spy TV music ever, he is certainly not the only composer to contribute to the fantastic sound of this series. Besides Schifrin, the work of Gerald Fried, Jerry Fielding, Don Ellis, Richard Hazard, Robert Drasnin and more will will also be showcased in this box set. And every track has been meticulously restored and remastered from the original studio elements. (Most of them are presented in the original mono.) Burlingame, who personally selected each piece included, also contributes comprehensive liner notes contained in three informative booklets loaded with photos. (Just take a look at his Man From U.N.C.L.E. liner notes for an idea of how awesome these will probably be!) According to the press release, the 6-disc set is housed in an attractive hard-cover slipcase. Just look at the picture! It's so attractive that even if it didn't have all that incredible music I'd still want this thing on my shelf! The music was restored by Chris Malone and mastered by Doug Schwartz, with art direction on the package by Joe Sikoryak.

UPDATE: Burlingame revealed on Facebook that "Every single episode that had original music is represented. In some cases it's just a few minutes; in the case of the Schifrin-scored episodes it's a lot."

Limited to 1500 units, Mission: Impossible – The Television Scores will be available for order from La La Land's website starting July 28, 2015 at 12 noon PST (just in time for the release of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation in theaters) and will commence shipping out to customers on August 10. That's right around the corner! The box set retails for $99.98.

And you also need to clear just a little more room in the M section of your spy music shelf. La La Land will also release Joe Kraemer's score for Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation on August 4. If you order through their website, the first 100 units will be signed by the composer. You can currently listen a sample track from that score on Soundcloud.
Thanks to Collin for the heads-up!

Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Fourth TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Third TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The Second TV Season here.
Read my review of Mission: Impossible: The First TV Season here.

R.I.P. James Horner

The Hollywood Reporter reports that film composer extraordinaire James Horner died yesterday in a plane crash. This is tragic news. Horner was among that dying breed of great orchestral composers who wrote grand, hummable themes, in an industry that seems to be relying more and more on non-distinctive electronic compositions that blend together. Horner seemed to score everything in the 1990s, and that included the decade's biggest spy franchise, based on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character. Horner scored both of Harrison Ford's outings as Ryan, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger (a score that defines the Nineties spy sound for me). He also provided the jazzy score for another Nineties spy classic, Sneakers, and added great suspense with his music to the paranoid spy chases in A Beautiful Mind.

But the Nineties weren't a decade especially known for spy movies, nor was Horner a composer readily associated with that genre. He's probably best known for his epics like Titanic (still one of the bestselling soundtrack albums of all time, propelled by the Celine Dion song "My Heart Will Go On" for which Horner won an Oscar), Braveheart, Glory, Field of Dreams, and my personal favorite, Legends of the Fall. Composed in the same year as Clear and Present Danger, Legends of the Fall is one of the all-time great film scores. That music still moves me whenever I hear it, and that album very clearly formed the soundtrack of my junior year of high school along with (and every bit as much as) Tom Petty's Wildflowers and the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Other favorite Horner scores of mine include Disney's rollicking comic book blast The Rocketeer (with Timothy Dalton), and his fantasy scores for Krull, Willow and Battle Beyond the Stars, though I think of the latter more for the other New Concorde movies Roger Corman reused it in, like Barbarian Queen, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom and Deathstalker IV. And, speaking of Battle Beyond the Stars, there's no denying the huge impact Horner had on science fiction, with unforgettable scores for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Aliens and Avatar. More recently he'd become choosier about his work and consequently less prolific, but still created memorable, distinctive music for films like The Amazing Spider-man and the forthcoming Wolf Totem and Southpaw.

It's a real shame we never got a chance to hear Horner's take on a Bond score. He was reportedly offered Never Say Never Again, but turned it down, perhaps for fear of displeasing potential future employers at EON.

But what music he did create! James Horner leaves behind a body of work that will continue to move film fans for generations to come. Now I'm going to go put on Legends of the Fall and be transported to the fading West,WWI, and Prohibition... and simultaneously to another time in my own life. Thank you, Mr. Horner, for the memories.

Theme Song and Soundtrack for SPY Channel 007

20th Century Fox debuted the official theme song for Paul Feig's James Bond parody Spy today. The music video (which I suppose may contain elements seen in the film's credits) is done as an homage to the classic Bond title sequences of Maurice Binder and Daniel Kleinman. The song is performed by LA-based singer/songwriter Ivy Levan. While there's no question she's got the powerful vocal chops to belt out a Bond-style title song, I wish the hook came earlier in the tune. It's a somewhat disjointed affair (and nowhere near as addictively hummable as Take That's Kingsman theme, "Get Ready For It"), but still a cool, distinctively "spy" song, and likely to serve its purpose just fine in the context of the movie. In another throwback to the classic Bonds, Levan's song will be included on Theodore Shapiro's original motion picture score album. Remember when the Bond songs were included on the score albums? That's how it should be! Speaking of that album, the retro-style cover artwork is fantastic. I hope the score itself is as good as Henry Jackman's Kingsman score. With all the espionage movies in the pipeline, this should be a very good year indeed for spy music! Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Morena Baccarin and Peter Serafinowicz, opens on June 5.

Movie Review: The Black Box Affair aka Il Mondo Trema (1966)

Okay, here’s the story with this one: someone had access to a funfair and so they decided to make a spy movie. That story could end a lot of ways (like the one about the guy with access to California scrubland who decided to make a spy movie), but surprisingly, the product ultimately cranked out by director Marcello Ciorciolini (Tom Dollar) under the name "James Harris" turned out pretty darn well, all things considered! It’s true that at least three crucial (and lengthy) scenes take place at said funfair (though in the film it’s supposed to be a couple of different funfairs in Hamburg and Vienna), but the real surprises here are—shockingly, for a totally formulaic Eurospy movie—the character moments.

The Black Box Affair is an incredibly low-budget Italian riff on the German buddy Eurospy formula perfected by the inseparable Tony Kendall and Brad Harris in the Kommissar X series and emulated in movies like Scorpions and Miniskirts. (Even the Jerry Cotton movies employ this two-hander strategy to some degree, though there’s no question that Phil is subservient to Jerry rather than an equal partner.) Here, the lead spy guy is John Grant, played by American actor Craig Hill (The Swinger). The producers were incredibly lucky with this casting, because Hill has not only charm and credible fight moves, but also the acting chops to make us care about a Eurospy hero who is, quite atypically for the genre, a tad more fleshed out than usual. (By which I mean that he is not just a stick figure... though I wouldn’t go so far as to call him exactly full-figured.)

The Black Box Affair begins in media res, with Grant gallivanting in some truly gorgeous Italian lakeside scenery. He heads for a big country house, but before he can even get in the door—before we even know his name, no less!—he finds himself attacked right off the bat by some gardeners working the grounds. He fights them off, makes his way inside, fights some more assailants… and discovers that his old spy boss, Mr. X, has commandeered his friend’s house where Grant was hoping to spend a peaceful vacation. All the fighting was a test to see if he was still up to snuff after being out of the spy game for two years. You see, John Grant’s carrying a bit more baggage than your average Eurospy hero. He’s been retired ever since his last assignment got his wife killed. (His general attitude is still overall Eurospy Guy though, meaning grief doesn’t place him above leering at the odd beauty.) Luckily for us (since we are here for spy action, not grief drama), he’s lured back in when Mr. X reveals that the man responsible for his wife’s death, top KGB agent Fabian, has resurfaced. Yes, Grant wants the assignment! And with Grant’s reactivation, he’s re-teamed with his old partner, Pablo (Luis Marin), in keeping with the typical German buddy formula.

Pablo, unfortunately, is kind of annoying. His “thing” is that he’s a ventriloquist—and not really a great one at that. This skill isn’t used for any cool spy moments, but instead for a few lousy attempts at comic relief. It was apparently a big part of Pablo and Grant’s past partnership that they called each other “Apache” and “Paleface,” respectively. This leads to far too much cringe-worthy “Apache”/“Paleface” dialogue between them—as if Jerry Westerby had maintained his annoying “Red Indian” banter with Smiley from his brief scene in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy throughout the duration of The Honourable Schoolboy as well, if I may bring a highbrow spy reference into a lowbrow spy review. These partners are far more interesting—and funnier—when they reminisce about a fellow agent who was “so caught up in James Bond he changed his name to Sean.” (He was killed in a gadget-related accident.)

Grant quickly manages to flush out Fabian, but the two enemies discover that they may be on the same side of this odd black box affair. The titular black box in question is a randomly assigned MacGuffin that is never actually seen, but which allows a nefarious third party (probably the Chinese, Grant quickly concludes—in part, probably, since the German Eurospy movies always seem to have an odd racist agenda against the Chinese and this Italian movie is trying to be German) to pit the Americans and Soviets against each other by sending and verifying fake nuclear strike orders to their planes. For the sake of the mission the two will work together for now in an effort to prevent a war between their countries that’s in the interest of neither. They may even be more alike than either realized. “You can’t forgive yourself for involving the person you loved in our dirty business,” says Fabian sensibly between puffs on his cigarette. “Many years ago something similar happened to me.” Despite this bit of free psychoanalysis, Grant vows to kill Fabian as soon as the assignment is over. But, crucially, not yet.

It’s a good thing The Black Box Affair has this surprisingly strong character dynamic, because its pitiful budget limits it in other departments. Far too much time is spent, for instance, with Grant and Pablo following people around in cars while explaining why—and where these people are going—via voiceover dialogue like in Joseph Losey’s messy Modesty Blaise. (At least the Lake Garda scenery is uniformly beautiful in these long and pointless drives.) Furthermore, much of the action happens on the soundtrack rather than on film. When Grant cleverly books a decoy ticket to Istanbul to throw his pursuers off the track, for example, he and other shocked onlookers at the airport watch as the plane he would have been on explodes on takeoff. The filmmakers couldn’t even afford to stick a firecracker in a toy jet, though, so we the audience only hear the explosion, while watching the onlookers. (The really disturbing thing, though, is how unconcerned Grant seems about inadvertently getting a whole commercial airliner blown up! Instead, he plays it cool when an airline rep tells him he was lucky he missed his flight.)

Likewise, we only hear rather than see a major shootout toward the end of the movie. Clever, that. Even the final final shootout, which takes place in some very dark woods, happens mainly aurally (although they do crush a real car with a crane). In fact, it sounds like the sound mixer simply spliced on the audio from a war movie. We hear scores of continuously firing machine guns over a small group of spies in the forest shooting at each other with pistols!

The best trick with the soundtrack, however, is the score by Gianni Ferrio (Danger!! Death Ray). Either the producers spared no expense on the music in order to elevate their cheapo film, or else Ferrio delivered far above and beyond what he was paid for. A great score makes even a low budget movie like this one seem much more expensive, and Ferrio delivers one of the best Eurospy scores here, from the catchy title song about black boxes to the hero’s theme to some particularly moody underscore for the more dramatic moments. (And, happily, it’s available on CD!)

And those dramatic moments, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, are indeed effective. Grant gets his final showdown with Fabian, and the outcome is surprisingly mature for this genre. In fact, the dramatic climax actually works much better than the action climax, and I really can’t believe I’m typing that about a Eurospy movie. I’m not saying it’s perfect, mind you. The parallels between Grant and Fabian could have been explored in more detail and been even more satisfying, but I was just so taken aback to find them there at all that that was enough for me. And on top of the drama, the film’s got some good comedy, too, like a pair of agents who greet each other by saying, “That sounded like an agreed dialogue between two secret agents in a thriller movie,” and, “Oh, but I hate secret agents!” Amusing dialogue, a great score, and an unexpected emotional throughline elevate The Black Box Affair well above its overall cheapness and transparent “we have access to a funfair” origins. It’s worth seeking out. (And the carnival setting also guarantees us the requisite hallucinatory funhouse sequence, which is always worth the price of admission!)

As for black boxes, tomorrow I’ll review another Eurospy flick that uses the same particular MacGuffin in its title as well. Stay tuned…