In the two years since the release of Stephen Sondheim’s Evening Primrose (1967), Kritzerland Records’ catalogue of classic film score titles has grown to include many premiere releases, allowing fans to scratch off titles from their Wish Lists, and hope maybe another impossible gem might appear on the horizon.

In our second Q&A, producer Bruce Kimmel discusses the inimitable music of Albert Glasser, and the 2-CD release of Hugo Friedhofer’s One-Eyed Jacks (1961), perhaps the composer’s last great score prior to his moving into TV, where the work was more steady, and differently affected by studio politics, egos, and the music editor’s sharp scissors.

Mark R. Hasan:  Before we get to Albert Glasser, did you first develop an interest in film music as a child going to the movies, or as a filmmaker?

Bruce Kimmel: Oh, as a child, definitely.  I remember staying to see a second showing of The High and the Mighty (1954) to see who wrote that wonderful music, and basically from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) on, I always took note of who the composer was. I'd say by nine years of age I could pretty well identify a Herrmann score before the credit came up - same with a few other composers - but Herrmann was unmistakable to me and was my favorite back then. 

MRH: Albert Glasser was pretty much forgotten until Kerry O'Quinn released Fantastic Film Music of Albert Glasser and Rocketship X-M (composed by Ferde Grofe, and orchestrated by Glasser) between 1977-1978, which was followed a few years later in 1987 by Screen Archives Entertainment's Huk! (1956) and Tokyo File 212 (1951), but then things quieted down. Why has it taken so long for Glasser's music to appear on CD, and how did your first release - Earth vs. the Spider (1958) - come about?

BK: You know, funnily, no one thought he would sell - I talked to a lot of people about it before actually doing one -  and MGM didn't really have any assets on this stuff, but thank goodness Glasser gave copies (sometimes the ORIGINAL copy) to various collectors over the years, and that's how we got those elements.  I now have a whole batch of Glasser stuff that all came from one guy - sheet music, tapes, his book, everything.

MRH: Is your decision to stick within the 1000 copy run for CDs like Glasser's Earth vs. the Spider due to a mix of cost and rights issues, or are there really roughly 1000 people who care about Glasser's work?

BK: A 1000 people cared about Earth Vs. The Spider, certainly.  Not quite that many cared about The Boy and the Pirates (1960), but it sold pretty well.  We've found that we're safe with 1000 units - we've really only gone beyond that on a handful of bigger titles with major composers. 

MRH: Even from just a passing listen to Glasser's Earth vs. the Spider score, it's obvious he was a top-notch orchestrator who could write a lush love theme, as well as some striking dissonant music without throwing the entire brass section at the moviegoer.

As The Boy and the Pirates demonstrates, he could really write for an orchestra. Why do you think his work pretty much remained within low budget exploitation films, because he was also responsible for turning Ferde Grofe's Rocketship X-M (1950) into a solid score?

BK: I think like a lot of people he found a niche and just got comfortable there.

He's who he was, and an awful lot of kids grew up loving the movies he scored and loving that music - I was one of them.  I was crazy for his score to Attack of the Puppet People (1958) - but all his Mr. BIG [Bert I. Gordon] scores are great, and even stuff like Invasion USA (one of my all-time favorite weird movies) is great - we'll be putting that out at some point.  

No one wrote screaming brass like Glasser - occasionally it's like he threw a hundred musical notes in the air and let them land on some score paper - but the scores really work in the films, and they're a lot of fun to listen to.