Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2016 December 26 • Monday

The 445th Soundtrack of the Week (as well as the last one for 2016) is Paul Glass's score for Bunny Lake Is Missing.

First the movie. I wasn't into it. It's one of several movies that could have been done as an episode of The Twilight Zone but at 100 minutes is just tedious. And I can't think of it without thinking of the Odd Couple episode "Bunny Is Missing Downm by the Lake".

It's also an Otto Preminger movie and I just don't like his movies. They ususally look good and have things going for them but they fall flat for me. I've never been able to watch Laura without falling asleep.

Paul Glass's music for Bunny Lake Is Missing is curious in that it bugged me while I was watching the movie but I liked it while listening to the Intrada CD.

The opening theme mixes pastoral moods with childlike and playful figures, allowing for some more sweeping and dramatic writing as well. This theme and its airy and frisky energy continue in "Chocolates for Bunny". There's also a waltz version of the theme called "Samantha's Waltz".

Dissonance, space, tension and some very modern classical sounds start to assert themselves in "The Empty House at Frogmore End" and "Wild Games!" while "Bunny" and "A World of Dolls" return to the earlier atmospheres.

The twist ending and the horror and insanity come to a boil for "Touching the Sky" and then Glass wraps things up with an end title that's a poignant recapitulation of the theme.

One bonus is three songs by The Zombies. You see them performing on TV in the movie. Since the movie's about a missing girl, you'd expect to hear their biggest hit, "She's Not There" but they don't play it! The three songs on the CD are really great, though, for those of us who like this sort of thing: "Nothing's Changed", "Just Out of Reach" and "Remember You".