Maltese Falcons, Third Men & Touches of Evil - The Sound Of Film Noir 1941-58

Two classic songs & five interesting more, makes this collection attractive. Pete Kelly's blues is not the original version. The rest compositions are partial recording form the movies and boring.

This rather perplexing collection, with its title a play on words, must be intended solely for movie addicts who have spent a lifetime in dark cinemas or nowadays searching for DVD’s featuring Hollywood crime classics from the Golden Age when the studios used black and white film to roam dark alleys for gangster guys, honest heroes and ladies with a past. Such movies deserved their title “film noir” - a label awarded by French film critics to describe such low-key, hard hitting confections. This collection of no less than forty-two brief cues and orchestra themes is an authentic tribute although the former generally play for mere seconds whilst the composition work of the latter is ideally attributed to such luminaries as Bernard Herrman, Franz Waxman, David Raksin, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini and Max Steiner.Difficult to categorise as a actual soundtrack music collection unless aimed at the obsessive film buff described above who buying this, will have a field day recalling those dark movies from the past. Excellent notes accompany this set and its varying sound quality from so many sources and which stands alone as a satisfying tribute to the shadowy presence of Hollywood’s greats.

A great collection of music from the golden age of Hollywood.Fidelity of each selection varies greatly; don't expect ideal sound.But in return for putting up with various levels of slight distortion, you can go to memory lane fueled on soundtracks that are as familiar as old friends.A fine late evening serenade.

I was very disappointed in this release. Love noir scores and such a trove of brief cues was a wonderful sampling. However, the audio is muffled and scratchy in many cases and the same cues can be had elsewhere in much better sound.I should have waited for some reviews.