The Last Run/Crosscurrent/The Scorpio Letters (1971/1967)

Released by Special Arrangement With Turner Classic Movies Music. \rFSM presents a tripleheader of Silver Age scores from the "mod" era of the late 1960s and early 1970s: a feature film soundtrack album by Jerry Goldsmith, a TV movie score by the same composer, and a TV movie score by Dave Grusin. \rThe Last Run (1971) was an adventure film starring George C. Scott as a gangland driver who comes out of retirement to escort an escaped criminal and the man's girlfriend from Spain to France. The film featured picturesque Continental locations and sturdy direction from Richard Fleischer in what is essentially a character study. \rJerry Goldsmith's melodic score features a bittersweet melody for Scott's existential crisis, propulsive action cues with funk backdrops, and engaging source cues. This is Goldsmith's M-G-M Records soundtrack album of the music, which runs longer than the score as heard in the film itself (the master tapes to which are lost). \rCrosscurrent (1971)—also known as The Cable Car Murder—was a busted TV pilot aired as a TV movie. Shot on location in San Francisco, the film was an ambitious attempt to give an African American actor (Robert Hooks) a starring vehicle, in this case as a homicide detective. Goldsmith's unorthodox score—performed entirely by rhythm section—is quite brief, but a jewel in its tense, angular "mod" action style. It features what would soon become Goldsmith's main title theme to Escape From the Planet of the Apes, in a rare example of the composer repeating himself. \rThe Scorpio Letters (1967) was a TV movie starring Alex Cord as a secret agent uncovering a blackmail ring in London and Paris. The project was the first feature-length assignment for Dave Grusin, who provided jazzy, moody music often resembling his work for The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. The score features Grusin's gift for melody and subtlety, foreshadowing his great "noir" scores of the 1970s. \rThis jam-packed CD is entirely in stereo with terrific sound quality, and features informative liner notes by Lukas Kendall, Alexander Kaplan and Jon Burlingame.