Posted by John Wilson Smith on August 28, 1998 at 18:56:34:
Picking up on David Radcliffe's comment about the 1974 S & A film,
and his purchase of the soundtrack LP. I happily "rediscovered" this album in my loft a few months ago. For those who have never encountered it (but might well search through car boot sales, etc.), it contains some good slices of dialogue, commentary by David Wood, who did the adaptation for the film, and great chunks of the music.
I met David many years ago - more or less at the time he was working on the film - in relation to a children's play he wrote based on "The Owl and the Pussycat" which was extremely good.
So far as the soundtrack is concerned, I have always greatly admired the music, which involves some very clever arranging of shanties and original material by the distinguished composer Wilfred Josephs - "distinguished" in quality, as with Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Bliss, William Walton, etc., writing first-rate film scores. What I would like to know is whether the original score still exists - it really ought to be in the Ransome Archive. Does anybody know?