Mini Monday #6

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 6, 2011

Categories | Actresses, Caroline Munro, Hammer Glamour, Mini Mondays

Caroline Munro and a customized British Leyland Mini

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A Little Night Music

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 11, 2009

Categories | Actresses, Hammer Horror, Caroline Munro, Hammer Glamour

An early glamor shot of Caroline Munro

Personal obligations and holiday plans are interfering with my blogging ambitions so apologies for the lack of updates here. In an effort to keep the Hammer Glamour alive at Cinebeats I’ve compiled a little something about one of the most popular Hammer stars and a personal favorite of mine, the lovely Caroline Munro.

Hammer Glamour girl Caroline Munro turned heads in the ’70s appearing in horror films like Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974) as well as popular genre films such as The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), At the Earth’s Core (1976) and the James Bond feature The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Her “girl next door” sex appeal and sassy screen persona has gained Caroline a cult following over the years that even led to the making of a documentary about the actress called Caroline Munro: First Lady of Fantasy (2004) but some of my earliest memories of Caroline are linked to the music she recorded in the ’80s and the videos she appeared in. Who can forget Caroline’s sexy bedroom dance with Adam Ant in the Goody Two Shoes (1982) music video? It’s definitely one of my favorite music video moments from the ’80s! I liked the video so much that I even tried to emmulate Caroline’s hairstyle in it when I was a teenager. Caroline Munro also recorded a single with Gary Numan in 1984 that didn’t get much play in the US but found a small audience in Europe.

Before Caroline ever appeared in any films she recorded a two song demo in 1967. She was only 17-years-old at the time and trying to break into the music business. I first learned about Caroline’s early music career thanks to The World of Hammer Glamour site which mentioned that she had recorded a single called “Tar and Cement” but in the last few years I’ve learned a little bit more about the actresses first single.

Back in December of 2007 I posted a lengthy look at the musical career of British actor Richard Harris that I titled Richard Harris Sings. In that piece I briefly discussed the Al Martino song “Here In My Heart” that Harris sang during the film This Sporting Life (1963). I had read that Harris recorded a copy of “Here In My Heart” so I spent some time trying to track down the recording and in the process I stumbled across a great site focused on Caroline Munro’s musical career. At the site there is a lengthy article about Caroline’s early music recordings including her first single “Tar and Cement” that features a song called “This Sporting Life” as a b-side. In the article the writer mistakenly credits soundtrack composer Roberto Gerhard for writing the song “This Sporting Life” that Caroline recorded for her 1967 demo. Although the b-side of Caroline Munro’s first single and the Richard Harris film share the same title, the song that Caroline recorded is actually an old blues standard originally written by Brownie McGhee in the ’30s called “Sporting Life Blues.” Over the years “Sporting Life Blues” has been rearranged, retitled and recorded by a number of different artists including the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, Ian Whitcomb, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

Top: Caroline in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Bottom: Caroline in Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)

Caroline Munro’s version of “Sporting Life Blues” is simply called “This Sporting Life” and the arrangement can be traced to the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group. A similar arrangement was recorded by Ian Whitcomb in 1965 and Whitecomb’s version of the song became extremely popular in the mid ’60s. I wouldn’t be surprised if 17-year-old Caroline Munro was a fan of Ian Whitcomb’s version of the song since it probably inspired her own recording. Caroline Munro’s interpretation of “This Sporting Life” can be found on the British CD compilation Dream Babes, Vol. 2: Reflections and the arrangement is credited to the renowned producer and composer Mark Wirtz. It also features some impressive backing musicians including Eric Clapton, Steve Howe, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. Caroline Munro’s vocals on “This Sporting Life” are not the tracks strongest element but for a first recording by an inexperienced 17-year-old I think she shows a lot of promise. There’s something really sweet, sentimental and genuinely appealing about Caroline’s interpretation of this bluesy rock song from 1967.

For fun I thought I’d share Caroline’s recording of the song here so other Hammer Glammer fans can enjoy it!
- Caroline Munro - This Sporting Life (1967)
w/ Eric Clapton, Steve Howe (from Yes) and Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker (from Cream)

If you’re interested in learning more about Caroline Munro’s music career I highly recommend visiting this terrific fan site that features more song samples as well as lots of great information and images.

Caroline Munro still occasionally appears in films and regularly attends movie conventions. She’s also involved with fundraising for the BBC Children in Need charity that helps disadvantaged children in the UK and she has written articles for the film magazine Cinema Retro. To find out more about Caroline’s recent activities visit The Official Website of Caroline Munro.

Caroline Munro in the Adam Ant video for Goody Two Shoes (1982)

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Top 20 Soundtrack Releases of 2007

by Kimberly Lindbergs | January 19, 2008

Categories | Soundtracks, Composers, Giallo, Seijun Suzuki, Steve McQueen, Ennio Morricone, Maurice Jarre, Caroline Munro

I’m still working on compiling my list of my Favorite DVDs from 2007, which I plan on sharing here before the end of the month, but in the meantime I thought I’d put together a list of my Top 20 Favorite Soundtrack CDs of 2007. Not surprisingly, Italy’s Cinedelic Records, Japan’s Hotwax Trax, Sweden’s Fin de Siècle Media and Universal Music France all have multiple releases on my list. All of these labels have put out some fantastic music collections in recent years and I expect more great things from them in 2008. Now on with my Top 20 Favorite Soundtrack CDs of 2007 . . .

1. Naozumi Yamamoto - Branded to Kill (Koroshi no Rakuin)
The great Japanese composer Naozumi Yamamoto created many terrific jazz inspired scores for Seijun Suzuki’s films in the sixties and his work on Branded to Kill (1967) is some of his best. Various pieces of music from the Branded to Kill soundtrack have previously been available on a few compilations, but this great new CD from Think Records in Japan is the first time Yamamoto’s complete score for the film has been made available.
*You can listen to sound samples and purchase the CD from Movie Grooves

2. Hajime Kaburagi - Hotwax Trax Composer Series Hajime Kaburagi
Due to language barriers this fantastic collection of soundtrack compositions by one of Japan’s greatest composers is often being referred to only as the Nora-neko rokku: Sekkusu hanta (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) / Furyô shôjô Mako (Bad Girl Mako) Original Soundtrack and scores for both of those 1970/1971 films are featured on the CD, but this terrific collection of Hajime Kaburagi scores also contains compositions from many other great Japanese films that he scored including Bloody Territories (1969), Blackmail is My Life (1968), Velvet Hustler (1967) and Swirling Butterflies (1970). Hajime Kaburagi’s impressive soundtracks are influenced by a wide array of music including jazz, lounge and rock and I can’t recommend this wonderful collection enough.
* You can listen to sound samples and purchase the CD from Movie Grooves

3. Michel Magne - Soundtracks from the Films of Roger Vadim
I’ve loved the soundtrack from Barbarella (1968) since I first watched the film some 25 years ago, so I was thrilled to discover that the great French composer Michel Magne had written some music for Roger Vadim’s film that had never been published before and was finally released on CD from Universal Music France just last year. This terrific collection also contains music from some of Vadim’s other great films including La Ronde (1964) and Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973). The CD comes with a nice booklet in French and English with background info on the release.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

4. Michel Legrand - Le Mans / The Hunter Original Soundtracks
The talented French composer Michel Legrand worked on some of Steve McQueen’s finest films, including the original Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and the excellent racing film Le Mans (1971). Le Mans features one of the composer’s best and most exciting scores, but the soundtrack hasn’t been available on CD for a long time. This new release from Universal Jazz France includes the complete soundtrack for Le Mans as well as the excellent score he composed for another Steve McQueen film, The Hunter (1980). The CD also contains a great booklet with background information about the composer’s work.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

5. Marc Wilkinson - Blood on Satan’s Claw Original Soundtrack
Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) is one of my favorite British horror films and without a doubt one of Tigon Studio’s best releases. Most critics and horror fans tend to praise The Witchfinder General as Trigon’s best horror film, but I personally find Blood on Satan’s Claw more effective and chilling. The film also has a really terrific and extremely creepy score by composer Marc Wilkinson, which was made available on CD for first time last year from Trunk Records. Unfortunately this is a limited release so grab it while you can. It also contains some interesting liner notes.
* You can listen to sound samples, download individual song MP3s and purchase the soundtrack at Amazon

6. Ennio Morricone - Morricone Giallo
I love the scores that Ennio Morricone has composed for many gialli films and this wonderful collection of music from Bella Casa brings together some of the composers best and most unusual compositions from many of my favorite Italian thrillers including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1971), The Fifth Cord (1971) and Short Night of the Glass Dolls (1971), plus many more. This is not necessarily easy listening since much of the music included on the CD is rather experimental and unnerving, but it showcases Morricone’s great range and will make listeners immediately feel like they’ve just wandered into the set of a giallo production.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

7. Armando Trovajoli - Armando Trovajoli
Armando Trovajoli is one of Italy’s greatest composers and this fine collection from Cinedelic Records collects some of the composers best music from a wide selection of films, which he personally picked for this release. It’s a terrific introduction to his work and the CD also comes with an impressive book with lots of color photos, poster art from the films he worked on and extensive liner notes from many of the actors and directors he has worked with over the years.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

8. Various Artists - A Musical and Visual Tribute to the Cinema of Pasolini
The fascinating and controversial director Pier Paolo Pasolini worked with some of Italy’s finest composers during his lifetime, including Ennio Morricone, Carlo Rustichelli and Benedetto Ghiglia. This excellent collection from Cinedelic Records brings together some hard to find music from many of the director’s best films including Teorema (1968), Medea (1969), and Salo (1975). It also comes with a beautiful book that contains rare photos of the director at work, poster art, a filmography and detailed notes.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

9. Nora Orlandi - Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah Original Soundtrack
Nora Orlandi’s amazing score for the giallo film Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah (The Sweet Body of Deborah, 1968) was released on CD by Fin de Siècle Media for the first time last year. It’s an incredibly lush score with lots of groovy lounge and jazz influences. It’s also the only soundtrack from a film that I’ve never actually seen on my list. I love Orlandi’s film scores enough to purchase this blind and I can’t recommend it enough if you happen to enjoy Italian film scores as much as I do, but I’d also love to see Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah get an official DVD release in the U.S.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

10. Bruno Maderna - La Morte Ha Fatto L’Uovo Original Soundtrack
One of the most unusual giallo films I’ve ever had the pleasure to see is Giulio Questi’s La Morte Ha Fatto L’Uovo (Death Laid an Egg, 1968) and the film contains an impressive avant-garde score by composer Bruno Maderna. An edited version of the soundtrack had previously been available on CD, but last year Fin de Siècle Media released a wonderful new and complete version of Maderna’s quirky score for the film with 10 previously unheard bonus tracks.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

11. Kunihiko Murai - Hotwax Trax Composer Series Kunihiko Murai
This terrific collection of music contains the soundtracks composer Kunihiko Murai created for two of Eizo Sugawa’s Toho crime films, which starred the great action star Hiroshi Fujioka. The first score featured on the CD is for the 1974 film Yajû Shisubeshi: Fukushû no Mekanikku (Beast Must Die: The Mechanics of Revenge) and the second one included on the disc is for the 1973 film Yajû Gari (Beast Hunting). Both scores are really terrific and should appeal to anyone who enjoys funky jazz infused soundtracks.
* You can listen to song samples and purchase the CD at Movie Grooves

12. Luis Enríquez Bacalov - Django (Expanded Version) Original Soundtrack
Along with the more recognized work of Ennio Morricone, the talented composer Luis Enríquez Bacalov has created some of the best and most memorable soundtracks for many great spaghetti westerns. His score for Django (1966) has been available on CD for years, but last year the Japanese label Verita Note released this impressive soundtrack in it’s entirety. The Django Expanded Version contains 19 previously unreleased tracks and the quality is far superior to other releases I’ve heard.
* You can purchase this CD at Amazon

13. Various Artists - A Musical and Visual Tribute to the Cinema of Dario Argento
Please see my previous post about this release.

14. Ennio Morricone - Morricone Awards
At the 79th Academy Award show last year Ennio Morricone was finally honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award celebrating his long career as one of cinema’s greatest composers. In honor of the event, Cinedelic Records released a wonderful CD and book collection simply called Morricone Awards. This superb selection of music is a terrific introduction to the composer’s work if you’re unfamiliar with it, but it also comes with an impressive 62 page book that contains a complete discography of Morricone’s work with lots of rare original record sleeve art, film poster reproductions and photos that will impress longtime Morricone fans as well.
* You can purchase this CD at Amazon

15. Ronald Stein - Mad, Mod & Macabre: The Ronald Stein Collection
If you’d like to read a little more about this release, please read the brief write-up about Mad, Mod & Macabre: The Ronald Stein Collection that I wrote in June 2007 for Cinedelica.

16. Jiri Sust & Jiri Slitr - Daisies Original Soundtrack
I’ve only seen a handful of films from the Czech New Wave, but Daises (Sedmikrasky, 1966) is one of my favorites. The film features an unusual and quirky score by Jiri Sust and Jiri Slitr, which was released on CD for the first time in 2007 by Finders Keepers Records. The original soundtrack for the film has never been made available before in any format, but the music was taken from the original reels. The CD also contains unseen archive images from the film, poster art reproductions and detailed liner notes.
* You can purchase this CD at Amazon

17. Various Artists - Attori A Mano Armata
If you’d like to read a little more about this great Cinedelic Records release, please check out the brief write-up I did for Cinedelica on Attori A Mano Armata: The main actors of the most Violent season of the Italian Cinema Collection in May 2007.

18. Various Artists - A Musical and Visual Tribute to the Cinema of Bernardo Bertolucci
Please see my previous post about this release.

19. Laurie Johnson - Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter Original Soundtrack
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974) is one of Hammer’s best vampire films and it also happens to have a terrific and eerie score by British composer Laurie Johnson, but it has never been available in its entirety until last year when BUYSOUNDTRAX Records released it in association with GDI Records. Unfortunately this is a limited release, but it comes with a nice color booklet with movie stills and even features liner notes written by Hammer glamour girl Caroline Munro.
* You can purchase this collection at Amazon

20. Maurice Jarre - Film Music Masterworks Maurice Jarre
This nice collection from Film Music Masterworks features music from the film’s Jarre worked on with David Lean such as Ryan’s Daughter (1970), Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965), as well as compositions from some of the composer’s finest work from René Clément’s Is Paris Burning? (1966) and John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King (1975), mostly performed by the City Of Prague Philharmonic. It’s a great introduction to some of the composer’s best work and for the incredibly low retail price of $9.98, it’s well worth picking up.
* You can listen to sound samples, download individual song MP3s and purchase the CD at Amazon

I also recommend the other terrific Film Music Masterwork collections that were released in 2007 for Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein and Nino Rota.

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Cinema Retro & Caroline Munro

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 25, 2006

Categories | News, Actresses, Hammer Horror, Science Fiction, Cinema Retro, Caroline Munro, Vincent Price

If you’re not subscribed to Cinema Retro magazine yet, you should be! This great publication from Britain just released their 5th issue and the cover features a nice shot of the legendary Vincent Price from the terrific 1968 British horror film The Witchfinder General (a.k.a Conqueror Worm). Inside you’ll find an 8 page article on The Witchfinder General as well as exclusive interviews with Tigon’s Tony Tenser, actor Michael York and Playboy’s Hugh Hefner. The new issue also contains article’s on the Australian Stanley Kubrick exhibition, Ken Loach’s Kes, John Guillermin’s El Condor and the 1975 horror film Race with Devil that stars Peter Fonda & Warren Oates, plus much, much more!

This full-color glossy magazine is beautifully put together and contains lots of great information for retro cinema lovers. Each issue is a “limited edition collector’s item” and will not be sold on newsstands. It’s cover price of $11.95 may seem a little steep, but the cost of the magazine is reduced if you subscribe and the high-quality of each issue makes it well worth the cover price in my opinion.

Cinema Retro recently announced that the Hammer glamour queen Caroline Munro will soon become a regular contributor with her very own column in the magazine. Here’s a nice blurb about Caroline from the Cinema Retro website:

“Caroline made her first impression on the public by being proclaimed “Face of the Year” by Britain’s ‘The Evening News’. At the tender age of sixteen, she embarked on a recording career and has worked with such legendary musicians as Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Adam Ant. Her appearance on a calendar for Lamb’s Navy Rum caused a sensation in Britain and helped ensure the success of her budding film career. Over the years, she has risen to the top ranks of ‘glamour girls’ of the British cinema with an active fan club and numerous web sites devoted to her career. Her films include Dracula 72 A.D., The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’, At The Earth’s Core’, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, The Dr.Phibes films and the 1977 James Bond blockbuster The Spy Who Loved Me. She has co-starred with such acting giants as Christopher Lee, Richard Widmark, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Roger Moore. Caroline will relive the making of her films – both the classics and a few she would prefer to forget – in her regular column for Cinema Retro.”

Caroline Munro as Stella Star in Starcash

Caroline has always been one of my favorite Hammer glamour girls and I’m really looking forward to reading her upcoming column in Cinema Retro. It will be interesting to see what she has to say about the films she’s made and the people she has worked with.

In the meantime you can enjoy Caroline in this trailer for Luigi Cozzi’s Starcrash. Starcrash is a fun 1979 Italian Star Wars knock-off starring David Hasselhoff (yes, that David Hasselhoff), Christopher Plummer, Marjoe Gortner and Caroline Munro as the very sexy Stella Star. This might be one of the movies she would like to forget, but I think it’s worth remembering.

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