HARRY PALMER, I PRESUME

Kritzerland is proud to offer a limited edition soundtrack release – two great scores on one great CD!

BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN
Music Composed by Richard Rodney Bennett

and

THE FINAL OPTION
Music Composed and Conducted by Roy Budd

From the early 1960s, when a certain character named James Bond made his debut on the silver screen in Dr. No, right up through the end of the decade it was hard to escape the world of secret agents, whether in books, serious films, spoofy films, or TV shows.   One of the most memorable creations during that time was the “unnamed hero” of author Len Deighton’s series of spy novels, which began with The Ipcress File.  Ipcress was made into a film, produced by Bond producer Harry Saltzman, starring Michael Caine as the now named Harry Palmer.  The film was such a success (and quite different in feel from the Bond films, despite having a score by Bond composer John Barry) that it spawned two sequels – Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain.  By the time of Billion Dollar Brain the spy genre was slightly on the wane so the wane in Brain stayed mainly on the plain. The film was directed by Ken Russell before he became KEN RUSSELL, the enfant terrible of cinema.  It’s a very entertaining yarn with a terrific cast and an absolutely stellar score by Richard Rodney Bennett.  Mr. Bennett had already done the brilliant score for John Schlesinger’s film of Far From The Madding Crowd (Oscar nomination), and would follow this film with a series of memorable scores for such films as Murder On The Orient Express (Oscar nomination), Yanks, Enchanted April, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Equus, Lady Caroline Lamb, Nicholas and Alexandra (Oscar nomination) and many others.  His score for Brain is filled with wonderful energy and great themes (none more so than the electric main title theme), and is one of the highlights in a career filled with them.

The Final Option (called Who Dares Wins in the UK) came out in 1982 and was a then-topical political thriller starring Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Ingrid Pitt, Richard Widmark, Edward Woodward, and Robert Webber.  The film has some exciting and taut action set pieces, main titles by Bond guy Maurice Binder (as does Billion Dollar Brain), and a rousing and wonderful score by Roy Budd.  Budd was a terrific composer and wrote great scores for Get Carter, Fear Is The Key, Catlow, Paper Tiger, The Carey Treatment, The Stone Killer, The Black Windmill, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, The Wild Geese, and others.  His score for The Final Option is grand fun and a must for Budd fans and Budd neophytes.

Previously available only as part of a very expensive limited edition box set called The MGM Soundtrack Treasury that sold out quickly, we are pleased to make these two in-demand scores available as a stand-alone release, for all who missed out on the box set or may not have even known about it.   This release has been newly remastered.

This release is limited to 1000 copies only.  The price is $19.98 plus shipping.

CDs will ship by the first week of December – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early).