Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, the Soundtrack

Back in August, I brought you an Arthur Fiedler LP centered on Richard Rodgers's ballet music, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." At that time I noted, "This marks the fifth time I've presented some version of the music on this blog.in the wings is the soundtrack album from the 1957 film Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, in which stolid prosecutor Richard Egan takes on a waterfront mob boss, improbably played by Walter Matthau, to solve a killing on the docks - to the accompaniment of Herschel Burke Gilbert's arrangement of Rodgers's music."

Today is the day when I make good on that promise of said album. In it, Gilbert expands Rodgers's themes out to some 38 minutes or so, and makes them into convincing film noir background music. In doing so, the playful and lyrical aspects of the ballet score are shunted aside, perhaps or necessity, with the result being one dimensional, although enjoyable nonetheless.

Mobster Matthau confronts crusader Egan

Gilbert had begun his career as a Hollywood composer and arranger about 10 years before this assignment. His first soundtrack LP was for The Moon Is Blue, which I have around here somewhere, followed by Gunsmoke, Comanche and then Slaughter. He went on to score hundreds of films and television shows.

Gilbert

IMDb tells us that Henry Mancini assisted with the arranging duties on this film. Joseph Gershenson conducted the Universal-International Orchestra.

Decca's sound was characteristically strident and overbearing, which I have attempted to tame, with good results, I think. This LP did come out in a stereo version, but my copy is mono only, I'm afraid.

The cover may have been one of the first times that two legs were used as a framing device for a cover. The Empire State Building provides a convenient phallic symbol for the imposing male figure, presumably crusading district attorney Richard Egan. It's not clear why a Manhattan DA trying to clean up the NY docks is in Brooklyn (or is it Jersey?), but I guess they couldn't get the right angle on the Empire State from the West Side.