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(Example: THE GHOST AND MRS.MUIR, a quite dull and strange fantasy tale made into an exquisite love story merely with the addition of Bennie's gorgeous score).


Oh, I think you're being unfair. Had Alfred Newman assigned, say, Franz Waxman to the GHOST, scored it himself, or even given it to Cyril Mockridge, would it have been less than it is with Herrmann's music? Yes, but not by all that much. Credit where credit is due: Philip Dunne's screenplay is first-rate, Rex Harrison and George Sanders are splendid (Tierney is OK), Joe Mankiewicz's direction is solid, and the film stands on its own.

As for Tiomkin, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE is certainly among his best scores, and quite engaging, but is it as good as what a half-dozen other composers that you or I could name might have provided, given a similar canvas on which to paint musucally? Probably not.

Interestingly, the two above paragraphs are opposite sides of the same coin.