28 March 2014

Deleted Scene: Horseshit

Noah Cross philosophises with Jake.

Chinatown: The Lambro Score

"I couldn't believe it - it was Chinese-sounding!"
- Jerry Goldsmith on Phillip Lambro's score, Soundtrack! Magazine

Composer Phillip Lambro
It's hard to imagine Chinatown without the now-iconic score by Jerry Goldsmith - Uan Rasey's haunting trumpet solo over the opening credits, the sense of impending doom underlying the tender love theme, the dark, brooding suggestion of a great evil approaching in Noah Cross, and the understated menace of the simple cues accompanying Jake's investigations.
What's particularly remarkable is that Goldsmith completed it in ten days, having been brought in at the very last minute when the film's initial score, by composer Phillip Lambro, was finally rejected. This earlier score has only been briefly mentioned in passing by the film's main participants, and not kindly: