Intrada has announced three CD releases this week, including seldom-heard (and in one case, never-heard) scores by beloved Oscar-winning composers.

SOUNDER, director Martin Ritt's film version of William H. Armstrong's acclaimed 1969 novel about a family of black sharecroppers in the South and their dog Sounder, was a major Oscar contender in 1972 (that same year, Ritt also had the very different Pete 'n' Tillie in theaters), earning nominations for Picture and Adapted Screenplay as well as for Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson's leading performances. The film's original score was composed by the great Alex North, who had previously worked with Ritt on The Long Hot Summer, The Sound and the Fury and The Outrage, but when the film was released it featured an entirely different score composed by one of the film's cast, actor-musician Taj Mahal (Mahal returned to score the largely forgotten 1976 sequel Part 2 Sounder, and was also the only major cast member to reprise his role). Intrada's new CD features North's 45-minute score for the first time, pairing it with North's 30-minute score for Monsanto's 1953 industrial film DECISION FOR CHEMISTRY.

Hugo Friedhofer may never have achieved the fame of such Golden Age contemporaries as Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa and Max Steiner, but his great, eclectic career spanned everything from his Oscar-winning score to 1946 Best Picture winner The Best Years of Our Lives to episodes of I Spy and Paul Bartel's psychosexual thriller Private Parts. His final score for the big screen was for the 1976 thriller DIE SISTER, DIE! (aka The Companion), which starred Jack Ging, Edith Atwater and Antoinette Bower (probably best remembered as the alien witch Sylvia from Star Trek's "Catspaw"). Intrada's CD is the first ever release of this chilling work, recorded only five years before the composer's passing in 1981.

Their final release of the week is actually a re-release of another vintage Les Baxter score that sold out quickly in its earlier Intrada pressing -- HOUSE OF USHER, the first of the Vincent Price/Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe horror films from the 1960s.

Next week, La-La Land plans to release THE NAKED GUN TRILOGY, a three-disc set featuring Ira Newborn's scores for the hit comedies inspired by the cult classic TV series Police Squad -- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

On August 19, Varese Sarabande plans to release the soundtrack to the supernatural TV series PENNY DREADFUL, starring Timothy Dalton, Eva Green, Josh Hartnett and Reeve Carney. The music was composed by Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man, W.E., Escape from Tomorrow), and the series was created by John Logan (not that anyone asked, but John Logan has had the writing career I would have killed to have. Forget about the Tony award and the three Oscar nominations -- he got to write a James Bond film, a Star Trek film, a Sinbad film, and Sweeney Todd. I'm surprised he hasn't gone back in time to write a film for Hitchcock and Herrmann).

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced their latest nominations for the Primetime Emmys, including the following music categories:

OUTSTANDING MUSIC COMPOSITION FOR A MINISERIES, MOVIE OR A SPECIAL (ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE)

Readers of this site may begin to notice a small change -- no, the polls won't necessarily be changed more often (though at this point, it would be hard for me to change them less often). I am in the process of adding more than a thousand new items to the Today in Film Score History database, so if you wanted a more prompt reminder of, say, Charlie Clouser's birthday, then you, sir (or ma'am, since as everyone knows, most fans of the Saw scores are women), are in luck.

July 11 - George Gershwin died (1937)
July 11 - David Baerwald born (1960)
July 11 - John Williams begins recording his score for Not With My Wife, You Don’t (1966)
July 11 - Georges Delerue begins recording his score for Maxie (1985)
July 12 - Yasushi Akutagawa born (1925)
July 12 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "Who Mourns For Adonais?" is recorded (1967)
July 12 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "Elaan of Troyius" is recorded (1968)
July 12 - Michael Small begins recording his score for Marathon Man (1976)
July 12 - James Bernard died (2001)
July 12 - Benny Carter died (2003)
July 13 - Ernest Gold born (1921)
July 13 - Per Norgaard born (1932)
July 13 - You Only Live Twice opens in New York (1967)
July 13 - Roger Edens died (1970)
July 13 - Maurice Jarre begins recording his unused score for Jennifer 8 (1992)
July 14 - Michel Michelet born (1894)
July 14 - Elliot Kaplan born (1931)
July 14 - J.A.C. Redford born (1953)
July 14 - Nicholas Carras records his score for Missile to the Moon (1958)
July 14 - Joe Harnell died (2005)
July 15 - H.B. Barnum born (1936)
July 15 - Geoffrey Burgon born (1941)
July 15 - Walter Greene begins recording his scores for The Brain from Planet Arous and Teenage Monster (1957)
July 15 - Paul Sawtell begins recording his score for The Hunters (1958)
July 15 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
July 15 - Bill Justis died (1982)
July 15 - Dennis Wilson died (1989)
July 15 - Derek Hilton died (2005)
July 16 - Goffredo Petrassi born (1904)
July 16 - Fred Myrow born (1939)
July 16 - Stewart Copeland born (1952)
July 17 - Piero Umiliani born (1926)
July 17 - Wojciech Kilar born (1932)
July 17 - Peter Schickele born (1935)
July 17 - Stanley Wilson died (1970)
July 17 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Babe (1975)
July 17 - Bruce Broughton begins recording his score to Eloise at Christmastime (2003)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

A COFFEE IN BERLIN [aka OH BOY] - The Major Minors, Cherilyn McNeil

"The wonderful 'A Coffee in Berlin,' written and directed by Jan Ole Gerster, takes us through Niko’s quest for a cup of Joe as the world slowly falls apart around him. Berlin is gorgeously shot in black and white and scored with loose, atmospheric jazz as Niko wanders from one seemingly unrelated event to another."

Travis M. Andrews, Paste Magazine

"Elsewhere, the string of awkward misunderstandings, many of them revolving around Berlin's hard-drinking culture, combine sub-'Curb Your Enthusiasm' sneering with maudlin, overly poetic speeches. As for the running gag about coffee, that gets old, fast. And the jazzy soundtrack grates. Gerster's got potential. Too bad he's not as wunderbar as he thinks."

Charlotte O’Sullivan, Evening Standard

"'A Coffee in Berlin' can't fully resolve its sardonic and serious impulses, and it scores some easy points against the usual authority figures (unfeeling fathers and frightening baristas, for starters). The film's surprising, enveloping jazz score is often deliberately at odds with Niko's moody outlook."

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

"It's fun to spot the influences in 'A Coffee in Berlin,' an 83-minute movie that swept last year's German Oscars. The gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, moody cityscapes and jazzy score? Woody Allen's 'Manhattan.'"

Jeff Baker, The Oregonian

"An ode to Woody Allen in its jazz-scored, black-and-white, low-key nomadic melancholy, Jan-Ole Gerster's debut feature 'A Coffee in Berlin' (aka 'Oh Boy') is a self-effacing film of minor pleasures and few missteps."

Mark Zhuravsky, The Playlist

"The use of black and white and a jazz soundtrack only confirms Gerster’s unhealthy film-school crush on Woody Allen."

Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly

"This German comedy shows the obvious influence of Woody Allen in its jazz soundtrack, black-and-white cinematography, and wisecracking urbanite characters, yet it also suggests a critique of Allen's privileged worldview."

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

"Shot in crisp black and white, featuring a recurring jazz-band score, and following the unproductive pursuits of a stubborn schlemiel, Jan Ole Gerster's 'A Coffee in Berlin' announces its homage to 'Manhattan' from the start."

Clayton Dillard, Slant Magazine

"In black-and-white, with a retro jazz score, Jan Ole Gerster's sly and melancholy 'A Coffee in Berlin' doesn't exactly feel timeless, but it doesn't feel of this particular time, either. That works just fine, because Niko Fischer -- the deadbeat protagonist played with a scruffy, hangdog cool by Tom Schilling -- is stopped in time: jobless, a university dropout, with an empty apartment and an empty agenda."

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"In this German hipster comedy of manners, twentysomething Niko (Tom Schilling) has just split up with his girlfriend, is out of work and prospects, and getting a cup of coffee in Berlin proves fraught with frustration. It’s another day in slackerdom, unfolding in crisp black-and-white, cut to a sleepy jazz soundtrack, and evidently channelling the same knowing cinephile vibe as, say, ‘In Search of a Midnight Kiss’ or ‘Frances Ha’."

Trevor Johnston, Time Out London

"The film looks utterly gorgeous throughout, with Phillip Kirsamer's stunning black and white cinematography, combined with a traditional jazz score, deliberately recalling Woody Allen's 'Manhattan.' The film is also reminiscent of Noah Baumbach's 'Frances Ha,' leading waggish critics to nickname it 'Frances Ja' when it played alongside Baumbach's film at Edinburgh last year."

Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

"Answers to those questions remain elusive in 'A Coffee In Berlin,' as the director instead affects a hanging-out mood that melds the slacker cool of Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 film, 'Stranger In Paradise,' to the dry, jazz-scored, melancholy-tinged comedy of early Woody Allen."

Nick Schager, The Onion AV Club

"The proverbial pain in the ass that plagues Niko throughout the film is that nobody will give him a cup of coffee. It’s supposed to be funny, but the gimmick feels almost patronizingly clichéd, distracting from the stronger aspects of the film. Some stylistic flourishes liven things up -- an original jazz score by Cherilyn MacNeil and The Major Minors (which is sweet and snappy but could use a little heat), and crisp black-and-white vignettes of Berlin, shot in digital by Philipp Kirsamer. But like the plot, these choices feel a little overdone, as if they were taken from a director’s manual of reliable techniques for expressing nostalgia in movies (spanning from Italian neorealism, to the French New Wave, to more recent 'mumblecore' films)."

Morgan Wilcock, Film Comment

"Gerster sets the movie to a freewheeling jazz soundtrack that similarly echoes Niko’s drifting mindset. But its chief asset is Schilling’s ever-deadpan reactions, which go to far greater lengths to address his situation than he can. Despite its series of capricious developments, 'A Coffee in Berlin' finds a rich blend of humor and sadness in its leading man’s predicament."

Eric Kohn, IndieWire

"Jan Ole Gerster's debut feature, 'A Coffee in Berlin' (originally titled 'Oh Boy'), arrives in the U.S. riding a wave of success, having swept several major categories at the 2013 German Film Awards, where its main competition was 'Cloud Atlas' (co-directed by Gerster's friend Tom Tykwer). By comparison, Gerster's film is agreeably modest: an 85-minute, black-and-white, jazz-scored film, with a 'Frances Ha' tone, about a day in the life of twentysomething law-school dropout Niko Fischer (Tom Schilling)."

Danny King, Village Voice

"Imagine if 'Louie' were a feature film about a listless, entitled German man-child, conceived by someone who has seen every Woody Allen movie, and watched none of them closely enough. That, more or less, is the formula for Jan Ole Gerster’s 'A Coffee In Berlin,' a fun but frustratingly didactic look at the torpor of people tormented by the luxury of indecision. (That’s a clinical way of saying 'white people problems.') Tom Schilling stars as Niko Fischer, a twentysomething Berliner whose life flows with the lilting gait of the jazz music that often soundtracks it. Living off the money his father sent for tuition, Niko is caught between school and the workforce, between passive and disengaged, between looking like James McAvoy and looking like Ryan Gosling. (His scrawniness tips the scales toward the former.)"

David Erhlich, The Dissolve

"This first feature directed by Jan Ole Gerster has plenty of style. Maybe too much. Mr. Gerster has a tendency to aestheticize Niko’s aimless angst and his city, full of the young and the hanging out. The mood-setting music -- jazz and melancholy piano -- and the beautiful black-and-white images (by Philipp Kirsamer) of light-soaked rooms, street scenes and rooftops serve to dull the story’s barbed comic edges."

Rachel Saltz, New York Times

"The score of 'A Coffee in Berlin' (original music composed by Cherilyn MacNeil and The Major Minors) is soft and jazzy, light and flippant, creating a comedic mood even when the actual events seem bleak."

Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com

"Although the tone is generally comedic, buoyed along by snatches of jazz music that give Niko’s situation a relatively carefree vibe, his situation is actually quite alarming. The business with his g.f. spells an inability to form attachment, a meeting with a psychological counselor reveals a pattern of drunk driving and so on. Generally speaking, Niko’s interactions with others -- from the actor friend (Arnd Klawitter) playing a 'good Nazi' in yet another World War II drama to the fat-camp survivor (Friederike Kempter) they called 'Roly Poly Julia' back in grade school -- reveal the sort of ironic detachment that once led Bart Simpson to quip, 'We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks a little.'"

Peter Debruge, Variety

"With its put-upon protagonist, black-and-white cityscape and snappy soundtrack of New Orleans-style jazz, the comedy 'Oh Boy' inescapably brings to mind vintage Woody Allen. But the feature debut of German writer-director Jan­-Ole Gersteris, finally, its own droll beast."

Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

DELIVER US FROM EVIL - Christopher Young

"Say this about modern exorcism movies: You usually know just what you’re gonna get. And when it comes to the clichés of demonic possession, director Scott Derrickson -- who also made 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' -- delivers. In fact, he gives us two full hours of sinister voices speaking Latin, weird phrases written in blood on the wall and screechy violins on the soundtrack. It’s all so familiar, it’s like the horror-movie equivalent of comfort food."

Scott, I used to love your selection of movie review quotes on film music. They were well chosen, pointed and illuminating, But now the list is so comprehensive, and with so many comments talking about many other aspects of the film, that I just skip it. Which seems a shame cause that's a fair amount of work.

I'd love it if you'd just cherry pick a few good ones per movie. Here's to editing!