LES MISERABLES

This one ranks with Varese Sarabande's most exciting CD club releases ever! We are absolutely thrilled to present the world premiere release of Alex North’s magnificent score for 20th Century-Fox’s 1952 production of Les Miserables.

Victor Hugo’s historical epic Les Miserables (1862) is one of those cornerstone works of fiction that have become the veritable pillars of literature. For Les Miserables director Lewis Milestone gathered a cast that was led by Michael Rennie as Valjean, the year following his most famous role, Klaatu, in Robert Wise’s classic The Day The Earth Stood Still. Robert Newton (Treasure Island) was Javert, Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street, The Trouble With Harry) was Bishop Courbet, Debra Paget was Cosette, Sylvia Sidney was the prostitute Fantine, Cameron Mitchell was Marius and Elsa Lanchester turned up as the Bishop’s housekeeper, Madame Magloire.

What Alex North achieved in his score was nothing less than a masterwork and, arguably, the greatest of all musical interpretations of the great novel. In spite of this, Les Miserables is not a score as famous as many of the other entries in North’s filmography. The fact that, until recently, the film itself was all but unavailable, together with the lack of any soundtrack release, answer for this entirely. But this history is about be rewritten. Twentieth Century Fox has just recently released a DVD containing sterling restorations of both their 1935 and 1952 productions. And this CD, released 55 years after it was composed, presents the first-ever availability of Alex North’s original score. It will be, for many … for most even, a revelation. A score believed near lost, and rarely discussed, now emerges as yet another masterpiece in the career of one of film music’s demigods.

Label SOLD OUT.

1. Main Title (1:47)
2. Boiling Sea (:35)
3. This Is For Your Memory (6:28)
4. Bishop Peruses Passport (1:37)
5. Madame Courbet (1:39)
6. Jean Turns Toward Door (:30)
7. The Potter Shop (3:18)
8. Inspector Javert (3:43)
9. Fantine Collapses (3:54)
10. Order, Order (4:43)
11. Magnificat (3:41)
12. Cosette Kisses Jean (3:01)
13. The Park / Cosette And Marius (4:47)
14. Barricade (11:41)
15. Take Care Of Her (Finale) (2:30)