Classic Film Themes
(Medley)

Movements
1. The Philadelphia Story
2. A Place in the Sun
3. This is My Love
4. Katsumi Love Theme from Sayonara

Note
Together with Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner, Franz Waxman (1906-1967) represented the great romantic tradition in film scoring. From 1935 through 1966, Waxman composed the music for 150 films and won the Oscar twice in a row for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951).

During the 1930s, “Theme from...” titles became popular. This medley is drawn from some of Waxman’s best-known film themes.

The medley opens with music from George Cukor’s delightful film version of Philip Barry’s play, which later became the Cole Porter musical film High Society — The Philadelphia Story (MGM, 1940), a tour de force for the star-studded cast — Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. Stewart won the Academy Award, and Hepburn was nominated for the third time as Best Actress. The main-title music is preceded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fanfare Waxman composed and used in all his MGM scores — a feline friend of many film fans can also be heard! The “True Love” theme takes its name from the sailboat on which Tracy Lord (Hepburn) and C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) spent their honeymoon and is sophisticatedly and stylishly Waxman.

Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy reached the screen in George Stevens’ stunning production A Place in the Sun (Paramount, 1951). The cast includes Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Shelly Winters, and the then relatively unknown Raymond Burr. The “Angela Vickers Theme” (for Elizabeth Taylor’s character), which is heard next, contains the sound most people remember from the soundtrack: a striking, wailing sound of a very high alto saxophone.

One of Waxman’s least known but lushest themes follows — “This is My Love“ (RKO, 1954) from Linda Darnell’s starrer.

Sayonara (Warner Brothers, 1957) is based on James A. Michener's bestselling novel of two opposing cultures. Marlon Brando portrayed a sensitive character; however, it is Myoshi Umeki (Katsumi) and Red Buttons’ Oscar-winning performances (Best Supporting Actress/Actor) as the star-crossed lovers caught in the anti-Japanese prejudice by the American army in Tokyo during the Korean War, that were Waxman’s inspiration for the “Katsumi Love Theme.” 

Waxman was reluctant at first to accept the assignment to compose the score for Sayonara because Irving Berlin had already written the title song. However, director Joshua Logan gave him complete artistic freedom. Waxman created one of his most poignant scores and one of his most memorable melodies, which became an international standard. Irving Berlin graciously congratulated Waxman not only on the arrangement of his song in the film, but on the beauty of the “Katsumi Love Theme.”