= BACHELOR IN PARADISE =

Excerpts from the booklet :

Bachelor in Paradise received good reviews and has added appeal today as a loving snapshot of 1960 California suburban life, with CinemaScope depictions of furniture, clothing, appliances, cars and fashions that have since been relegated to the dustbins of Americana. The icing on the cake was the formfitting music by a rising star of television who was about to become one of the brand names of 1960s cinema and popular music: Henry Mancini.

In 1961 most of this success was in the future and Mancini was a star of television breaking back into features. Bachelor in Paradise was recorded only a few weeks before the release of yet another Edwards film that would be Mancini's single most successful film project: Breakfast at Tiffany's, featuring "Moon River" (lyrics by Johnny Mercer). One wonders if Mancini had any notion that the hit of a lifetime was only weeks away; in fact, it was "Moon River" that bested the song "Bachelor in Paradise" (lyrics by Mack David) when both were nominated for Academy Awards.

Mancini's careful shepherding of his work had one side effect that has somewhat deprived future generations: he insisted upon re-recording all of his soundtrack albums (on RCA Victor) so that they would be more enjoyable and accessible for the public; as a result, virtually none of his classic '60s scores are available today in their original soundtrack recordings. (The recent release by Intrada of Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation is an exception.) Bachelor in Paradise is, then, a rare look at his scoring in its unadulterated form. It is also an example of why he sought to re-record his scores so strenuously: the main theme dominates the soundtrack to an almost unconscionable degree, although there are some other vintage Mancini set pieces: the big band brass for Adam's flights to and from suburbia (track 2), a Pink Panther-like saxophone for the introduction to seductress Janis Paige (track 6), and effortlessly drawn comic suspense (track 14).

The theme itself is a jewel: tuneful, the happy man in his perfect surroundings - better living through suburbia - but with just a wink to indicate the humor beneath the facade. (The film's premise bears similarities to Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation in that both deal with beleaguered men in domestic peril.) As always with Mancini, the bells and whistles are literally in the bells and whistles - orchestration: big ban brass, flutes (Mancini's own instrument), sparkling xylophones and vibes. It is as if movie music had always been in black and white, and now was in full color. The body of the score features verbatim statements of the theme, but the settings change drastically: a French waltz here (track 9), a nursery rhyme there (track 11), a marching band for a school crossing guard (track 5). Mancini had the guts and the smarts to know that (as John Williams has stated) the composer may play a theme 30 times, but the audience will only hear it a half a dozen. By not marking his music "cuey" - hitting the audience over the head with Mickey Mousing - Mancini was empowering the increasingly cynical movie audiences to form their own conclusions, to laugh with the movie, not at it.

Henry Mancini passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1994; he was only 70.  He was warm inside and out and beloved by all who knew him - personally, professionally and artistically. He cared about the art form to which he devoted his life and wrote more than one book on the subject. He deserved to live to be a thousand years old so that he could see, at that late date, how much people still love his music.

 -  Lukas Kendall