JIMMY REARDON Director's Cut (Elmer Score) on Vimeo

[AndyDursin]

It's a little choppy to be sure -- especially in the beginning -- because it looks to have been assembled from different sources, but director William Reichert uploaded his "director's cut" of (A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF) JIMMY REARDON on Vimeo a while back. I just came across it -- it has the Elmer score and Johnny Mathis song in it.

You have to log into see it -- can't be embedded, but CAN be downloaded:

[Paul MacLean]

I watched this movie on DVD maybe 6-7 years ago. I thought it was very good, and Elmer Bernstein's score excellent.

It was kind of ridiculous of the studio to try and market a movie set in 1960 to 1980s teens by putting the cast in 80s clothes and hairstyles for the poster...



And why hire Bill Conti to replace Elmer's music? His replacement score wasn't any more "commercial"?

And why has no one released either score?

Oh, that's right, because labels would rather reissue Moriturri and Take a Hard Ride for the umpteenth time.

[AndyDursin]

I had such a thing for Ione Skye back in those days. Plus they gave us Meredith Salenger and the little girl from OH GOD BOOK II with the single name too!

Musically, totally agree, I don't get why Conti was brought in, unless the movie was re-edited (?) and the studio wanted a new score. It's hard to argue his music is more "contemporary" -- it may be a bit "lighter" and "energetic" I guess, but it's a strange call.

This was an "Island World" movie -- whose catalog I believe is owned internationally by MGM -- but domestically it was released by Fox. I have no idea if it was independently produced and is back in the hands of the director -- might be worth emailing him about.

Either way, I would've bought a CD of that and Elmer's score also! Alas, you're right Paul, it's not Jerry, so who cares apparently...

[Paul MacLean]

I can't remember if I ever passed this along, but William Richert's website has a page devoted to Jimmy Reardon, with a long, detailed account by the director of how the studio ruined the film...

http://williamrichert.com/jimmy-reardon.html