I am an avid soundtrack collector, and have a fairly extensive collection, including all the available films of LVC. The one soundtrack that I had always wanted was El Condor by Maurice Jarre. Despite the 1970 film poster advertising a soundtrack, it was never produced.
El Condor poster false advertising!!!
Flashforward to 2011...forty one(!) years later, the original soundtrack is finally put out by Universal France as a double bill with Villa Rides! also by Maurice Jarre. El Condor comprises of 10 tracks, and it sounds to me like to includes the entire score.
This is a truely enjoyable score, with a great main title, and some catchy character pieces. My favorite track would be the end of track 6 (Luke and Jaroo), which is the sequence where Jaroo rides off after giving the boy one of his gold nuggets (also a great scene!)
Track listing:
- El Condor (Opening Credits) (03:34)
- Ballad for Two Guitars (02:25)
- Before the Attack (04:38)
- High Tension and Broken Waltz (05:25)
- The Ride (02:46)
- Luke and Jaroo (04:17)
- The Fortress (03:04)
- Pure Gold (05:19)
- A Band of Apache (02:28)
- The Escape (04:07)
This score seems to be getting harder to find. You can grab it here
When Alan Van Cleef was posting on the web board, he said "El Condor" was his father's favorite role and film. But I have also read Lee quoted that it was "For A Few Dollars More".
ReplyDeleteI drove to another town in 1970 to see El Condor because it wasn't showing in my hometown for another couple weeks and I couldn't wait. I liked the movie a lot and thought the music was a stand-out.
It's been 42 years ago but I still clearly remember when Lee first appeared on the screen he had his head back gulping a bottle of whiskey and when he slammed the bottle to the table and you could see his face clearly, a guy sitting in front of me turned to his left and said to the guy seated next to him "There he is" and I thought (he is here to see Lee..just like me).