David Amram’s Poignant Dramatic Score to John Frankenheimer’s Masterpiece, The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

 

 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

I tried to put the sequences in order, but I can’t recall where the “Queen of Diamonds” belongs.

If I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn that this melancholy music, dominated by strings and a lone trumpet, had been composed by a young Jerry Goldsmith, who scored Lonely are the Brave the same year.

And, of course, the spirit of Aaron Copland stands behind it all.

 

Main Theme


 


Opening Theme and Finale (The Manchurian Candidate)

This was posted as “Theme & Finale,” but I believe it includes a middle piece that is neither.
 


 

 

Khigh Deigh, aka "Wo Fat"! 

Queen of Diamonds
 

(I don’t recognize this passage from the picture, at least not at this length.)
 


 

Angela Lansbury 

Unrequited Love
 


 

Leslie Parrish and Laurence Harvey 

A Night in the Garden
 



 

The most unfortunate Douglas Henderson as Milt