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Music for a Darkened Theatre, Vol. 1: Film & Television Music | 
 enlarge | Artist: Danny Elfman
Label: Fontana Mca
Category: Music
Buy New: $11.98
New (33) Used (41) Collectible (1) from $2.54
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 18903
Format: Soundtrack
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 10065
UPC: 008811006525
EAN: 0008811006525
ASIN: B000002OEB
Release Date: October 15, 1990
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Pee Wee's Big Adventure: Overture/Breakfast Machine/Clown ... | | • | Batman (Theme)/Up the Cathedral/Descent into Mystery | | • | Dick Tracy: Main Titles | | • | Beetlejuice: Main Titles/End Titles | | • | Nightbreed: Main Titles/Meat for the Beast/End Titles | | • | Darkman: Main Titles/Woe the Darkman, Woe | | • | Back to School: Study Montage | | • | Midnight Run: Walsh Gets the Duke/Main Titles/Diner Blues | | • | Wisdom: Change of Life/Close Call in Albuquerque | | • | Hot to Trot: Main Titles/Wandering Don | | • | Big Top Pee Wee: Main Titles/Rise 'N Shine/Pee Wee's Love Theme | | • | The Simpsons: Theme | | • | Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Jar: Suite | | • | Tales from the Crpyt (Theme) | | • | Face Like a Frog: Suite | | • | Forbidden Zone: Love Theme | | • | Scrooged: Main Titles/Show Time at Ibc/Elliot Gives Blood/Walter ... |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 A Danny Elfman fan must have! October 27, 2008
Essential Danny Elfman (Singer and founder of "Oingo Boingo")compositions from his early film sound-track work. It's all here and great stuff to put on for your haunted house or Halloween party! Elfman's obsession with the dead comes through throughout!
Great compilation - and that's just the first half. September 13, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I first got this on cassette in the summer of '94 and listened to it every day, drawn by its thematic range and compositional depth. And that was just side-one.
Elfman pioneered the sound that drives today's movie adaptations of comic-books and darker-themed children's stories. Side-One kicks things off with a rollicking, hyper-cartoonish theme from the first Pee-Wee movie - the one where Pee-Wee searches for his beloved bike. Elfman's theme contains layers of different rides - on tightropes, highways, in the middle of a NASCAR rally - which rudely yet melodically crash into each other.
The Batman entry actually contains several pieces - the opening credits, the extended sequence in the cathedral and the climax - which show Batman's darkened extreme at its "Frank Miller" best. (Dir. Tim Burton couldn't sustain the mood in the next sequel, and the franchise took a turn towards the camp of the TV series with the next 2 movies.)
The theme for "Dick Tracy" is perhaps the most romantic on this disc, a quality that surpasses the theme's comic-book origins, but ends on an ironic note that's pure Elfman.
"Beetlejuice" (opening & closing credits) gives Elfman's childish ID a chance to stretch its legs, or in this case, slam-dance.
"Nightbreed" is an enigma wrapped in a dark mystery, and that's just Elfman's score. Elfman's work on this movie is as good as the movie wasn't, having a more powerful narrative than the script - easily the best track on the entire disc, one likely to exceed the movie in its dose of chills.
"Darkman" doesn't quite rise to the occasion, though the score may be hobbled by the movie itself, which seldom surpassed one of the many "Batman" clones of the early 1990's. "Darkman" (the movie, I mean) excelled as a parody of many comicbook staples (the wronged hero, the relentless villain, the scientific breakthrough with just one flaw), but not enough to escape being largely anonymous. Within those constraints, it's still a moving if scary piece.
When is Elfman not like Elfman? When he was in the mid-late `80's and scored "Back to School" (A Rodney Dangerfield vehicle) and "Midnight Run". Horns in "School" bring it closer to Elfman's over-the-top style, while "Run" sounds like a love-theme for the run-down, out-of-the-way parts of America that seldom appear in Elfman-movies. "Run" is a fun score for a fun movie - it's nothing like Elfman's previous work but it perfectly captures the on-the-road-without-a-map craziness of the movie.
To this day, I don't know why I never ventured to Side-two, but it's irrelevant. Even half this disc is worth it
 The best of Elfman!!! September 5, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was obsessed about getting this CD right from when I heard about it. I found it at the library and was so excited about it, and it didn't let me down. In fact, it was a lot better than I expected. It's a fun and creepy (strange mix, but it really works!) collection of Danny Elfman's film and television soundtracks. The first track, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, is probably my favorite. Also, I really like Batman and Wisdom. Batman is creepy and dark, and Wisdom is just weird, in the best possible way.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes film music, or everyone who is even the tiniest bit an Elfman fan. It's amazing!
Great Collection, A LIttle Too Eclectic August 19, 2003
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
You should be able to tell from the movies and TV shows listed here whether or not you'd be interested in this collection. It's a little too eclectic for my tastes (hence only 4 stars) but better than volume 2. I think thatthe miscellaneous collected ites here along with the previously unreleased stuff should make this worth buying. Especially if you're a fan of Elfman's movie soundtrack work.
What Great Music May 11, 2003
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
I fell in love with the music of Danny Elfman when Beetlejuice came out. There was something different about the music that he made. When Edward Scissorhands, and then Nightmare Before Christmas - I knew this man was a musical master. Its the verbal form of surrealism.
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