Hank & Hitch: "Frenzy" (1972)

JOv2

Well-Known Member
The story of Mancini's and Hitchcock's lone joint film project can be visually inferred via the following photographs:

Hank-Hitch1.jpg


Hank-Hitch2.jpg


Hank-Hitch3.jpg


Hitch rejected Hank's soundtrack -- which, I understand was the only time a Mancini s/t was rejected by a film director. The story is summarized here:

Henry Mancini and “Frenzy”

Apparently Mancini's score had never been released -- until now... Quartet Records, a high-quality s/t label based in Spain and which enjoys a very high rating among collectors and completists, has released the Frenzy s/t including the much sought after original Mancini score:

Frenzy - Quartet Records
 
I read about the Frenzy score being rejected in the notes for a Dolby Surround enhanced CD that Mancini released in the mid 90s, and I believe he mentioned it in his bio also. I'll have to check these links out this evening!
 
Those are the only candid photos of Hank I've ever seen where he's clearly frustrated and downcast; and I feel for him given his creation was clearly not meeting Hitch's expectations... (By all accounts, Hitchcock was a difficult director, yet Hitch sought out Hank so the rejection must've been doubly hard.) Apparently, the photos came from Hitch's one and only visit to the recording sessions.

I didn't know about any of this until last week. In retrospect, exciting times for sure!
 
Probably more frustrating was that both Hank and Hitch were contractually tied to Universal at the time... One can imagine the corporate suits at Universal WANTED this to happen.

--Mr Bill
 
If shipping didn't cost more than the CD, and shipping wasn't via DHL (I've always had issues with them), I would order this. I'll wait, though--it's a newer release, and it will eventually end up for sale elsewhere.
 
Those are the only candid photos of Hank I've ever seen where he's clearly frustrated and downcast; and I feel for him given his creation was clearly not meeting Hitch's expectations...
Reading the article, Hank's score was macabre, for a macabre film, and Hitch didn't want that. It seems as though Hitch assumed Hank would provide a light jazz/pop score as he'd done for other films.

For the replacement score, Hitch gave detailed instructions for specific scenes in the film where Ron Goodwin was to provide music, and one of the instructions was to not convey any hint of what was going to happen in the film.

If he'd gotten those detailed instructions, Mancini would have written something completely different.

But, no hard feelings either way, as Hitch sent Hank a case of wine after the fact. And I'm sure he was paid his $25,000 (for three weeks of work) regardless of the fate of the score. Heck, I'd take $25K for three weeks of work, even in today's money! 😁
 
Reading the article, Hank's score was macabre, for a macabre film, and Hitch didn't want that. It seems as though Hitch assumed Hank would provide a light jazz/pop score as he'd done for other films.

For the replacement score, Hitch gave detailed instructions for specific scenes in the film where Ron Goodwin was to provide music, and one of the instructions was to not convey any hint of what was going to happen in the film.

If he'd gotten those detailed instructions, Mancini would have written something completely different.

But, no hard feelings either way, as Hitch sent Hank a case of wine after the fact. And I'm sure he was paid his $25,000 (for three weeks of work) regardless of the fate of the score. Heck, I'd take $25K for three weeks of work, even in today's money! 😁
Spot on. I would gather given Mancini's abilities, Hitch wanted to see "what he would do..." if left to his own devoid of instruction (which is a compliment), and which, of course, is a level of creative freedom desired by all artists. Unfortunately, as it turned out in this case...

That $25,000 from 1972 is worth approximately $180,000 today as adjusted for cost-of-living.

Quartet is expensive on the shipping, so I only order from them when I have no less than 4 CDs (in this case I also picked up titles from John Barry, Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone). I see Intrada now has the s/t available domestically.
 
Oh, good news on Intrada. I'll check in with them after the holidays.
 
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