I, Monster (1972), starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, had the excellence of the youngest director to make a function movie – me, on the age of twenty-two. I selected a budding younger composer – effectively, he was 34 – to create the rating. Carl Davis was unique, being American – and his Battersea flat was dominated by the grand piano that served as his desk. We determined that the rating could be closely influenced by the early work of Kurt Weill, which fitted effectively with the darkish character of the movie. It was a beautiful collaboration.
In 2003 I moved to Prague, and by probability – three years later – Carl put collectively and carried out what turned an annual Hollywood Night time live performance for the Prague Proms. Many movie scores have been recorded there, as its many gifted musicians bought only a flat charge for his or her work, moderately than royalties.
Carl was a terrific showman. A number of years in the past his new assistant referred to as me in a panic: “The place can I get luminous orange sneakers in a rush?” Maybe his favorite outfit was his union jack tailcoat, as within the opening occasion of the Karlovy Differ movie pageant in 2019, to which Carl introduced his customary vitality.
