Giallo fever: part 8

Title: Senza sapere niente di lei (Unknown woman)

Year: 1969

Composer: Ennio Morricone

After a long break I’m finally getting back to reviewing scores. It’s October and Halloween is around the corner so it’s again time to review some scores from Italian giallos or horror flicks. To start off the month I’m reviewing an album that consists of two scores by Maestro Morricone, one for a noir style investigative story about hunting down a scam artist and the second for a film that never made to the screen.

Senza sapere niente di lei has a pretty unusual score that never develops into straight giallo/horror territory but still creeps into the listener’s subconscious with its intoxicating fumes. The lovely opening title cue introduces the score’s main idea: a simple waltz whose ascending melody and jazz drumset keep the momentum going on. There’s also a more dreamlike B-section that also has some circus qualities to it. From that on the waltz or the B-section appear in every single cue in some form or another. For instance Un strana ragazza begins and ends with the slower version of the B-section transforming it into a restaurant source cue. Track 5 begins rather slowly but in the middle the waltz delivers some punch with a more forceful brass section. There is some lovely tremolo string work in L’avvocato e la ragazza whereas Sospetti e tenerezze has my favourite version of the waltz theme that starts around 1,5 minutes in. There’s something really moving about that intimate instrumentation which then develops into a more exciting conclusion with some added darkness in the backing chords.

A few cues break the mold though. Suspense is offered in form of Identikit di un delitto which has the rhythmic strings from the waltz and Dies irae -inspired harpsichord lines giving the cue that Morriconean giallo flavour. Frammenti d’estasi is a kaleidoscope of all kinds of dancing and tinkling colours that completely camouflage the B-section melody that the cue is actually built around. The final blow comes with Ricordo which isn’t that in-your-face but extremely unsettling with its use of abstract string writing that offers a somber ending that is luckily salvaged by the lullaby-like waltz tune that closes the album.

Is the score repetitive? Yes. Is it boring then? Well, some listeners might call it that but I’m personally captivated by the dreamlike quality that surrounds the music. It is by no means flashy or thematically brilliant but I think it’s wonderful that Morricone showed how you don’t need just atonal shrieks to accompany moments of suspense. A nice little waltz will do just fine.

Rating: ***1/2

Title: Lui per lei

Year: 1970

Composer: Ennio Morricone

As I said earlier, the album includes another score, well at least 19 minutes of it which is apparently all that was recorded for the film before it got cancelled. Maestro was so prolific at the time that he usually prepared cues for the film even before shooting and let the filmmakers move the cues around freely or cut the film to match the prerecorded cues. There is no additional info about the film but judging by the suspenseful score by Maestro Morricone, it was written for a giallo.

The first cue from the film, Stato confusionale is by far the most difficult on the album. There is a repeating musicbox melody similar to one Morricone used a decade later in a famous stairway scene. However this time there are no suspenseful strings or brass breaking the atmosphere but a constant electronic buzz, schizophrenic yet bouncy piano melody, ticking noises and a mourning female voice that sounds a lot like Edda dell’Orso. Though these elements have been used in other lengthy suspense cues during Maestro’s career, this time there is just too little variation and it can’t sustain its 9-minute duration.

The following two cues called In un ricordo include a pretty familiar theme to observant Morricone fans. It’s the same exact melody and orchestration that was used as one of the themes from 1971’s Una lucertola con la pelle di donna, a cue called Che strano to be exact. There is a whistling line that soars over some mellow grooves, nothing that exciting. Luckily it was resurrected to its final form a year later, because in context of that film it really works playing as an interlude to the surrounding brutality. The best cue on the album, Lui per lei was probably written for the main titles. It consists of odd chord progressions over a pop-inspired drum beat. Later a choir joins into the mix which is both spooky yet oddly satisfying when the chords land to a more familiar pattern.

The inclusion of this score is a great one because it breaks the monothematic structure of the first score. Unfortunately besides the main title cue, it remains as a curiosity of cues that would be later developed into more successful ones. Nevertheless as a Morricone fan it is fun to hear where those ideas originate from.

Rating: ***

Traclist:

1. Senza sapere niente di lei (Titoli) (02:03) ****

2. Una strana ragazza (02:59) ****

3. Identikit di un delitto (02:56) ***

4. Stato confusionale (08:53) ***

5. Senza sapere niente di lei (03:26) ****

6. Frammenti d'estasi (03:06) ****

7. In un ricordo (03:25) ****

8. L'avvocato e la ragazza (04:10) ***

9. Identikit di un delitto (#2) (02:26) ***

10. In un ricordo (#2) (03:26) ***

11. Sospetti e tenerezze (04:24) ****

12. Ricordo (03:00) ***

13. Lui per lei (03:08) *****

14. Senza sapere niente di lei (Finale) (02:55) ****