Saturday Cinema

Jerry Goldsmith's big Hollywood studio break came when a very famous film music composer from 20 Century Fox heard some of Jerry's TV music and recommended him to take the help at Universal Studios.

For Memorial Day, a tribute to all who served: "Saving Private Ryan."

I wanted to pick just the "right" movie and composer for Mother's Day to pay tribute to the love, devotion and loyalty that epitomizes motherhood. There were so many movies, it was hard to choose: "Steel Magnolias", "I Remember Mama", "Little Women" in it's many movie incarnations. Then in a flash my favorite song about Moms came to mind, and a "real" Mom isn't involved. From the WWII-era "Dumbo", we hear Barbara Cook sing the Oscar Winning "Baby Mine." Bring the tissues!

Once a relatively unknown young French composer was hired to bring "Lawrence of Arabia" to life, director David Lean never let him go. Maurice Jarre went on to score nearly all of Lean's films, and his success with "Lawrence" was quickly followed by "Dr. Zhivago." The score that started it all for Lean and Jarre, "Lawrence of Arabia."

While Jerome Kern's Showboat changed the face of American musical theater history in the late 1930s, form the 1940s on the undisputed kings of the genre were Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. And they showed the world how to do it when they turned Broadway successes into Hollywood hits like "The King and I," "Oklahoma" and our featured music on Flicks in Five, "Carousel."

A unique score for a unique film that came out of nowhere at Cannes. Now it's won Golden Globes and received numerous nominations for "best everything" (almost) from BAFTA, the Brit's Oscars to the SAG and Directors' Guild awards to The Oscars. Ludovic Bource created a score that's both original and an homage to the great film composers of the early 20th century.

Longtime music director at 20th Century Fox and father of the studio's famous fanfare, Alfred Newman holds the distinction of winning more Oscars (9) than anyone outside of Walt Disney, AND his record for nominations is tied at John Williams at 45. If Williams is nominated next week for "War Horse" the tie is broken in regard to that!

One of Hollywood's first great movie composers was a Viennese wunderkind. Erich Wolfgang Korngold was Vienna's bright operatic hope in the 1920s and 1930s, but with the outbreak of war he had to leave home and find safer ground. He was one of the earliest Oscar winners and went on to influence generations of composers that followed. Korngold's "Robin Hood" on Flicks in Five.

World War Two had just ended. The GIs were coming home and America had been forever changed. Two veterans returning from service in Europe got together in Hollywood in 1946, and the result of the teaming of Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra is a hopeful holiday favorite. A tale of love and hope restored, "It's a Wonderful Life."

Margaret Mitchell's epic novel had taken America by storm. By 1938 it was a runaway best-seller, and by 1939 it premiered in Atlanta as a big-budget epic movie that went on to become as popular as the novel.