Cape Fear

Label: MCA     
Catalogue No: MCAD 10463

Release Date: 1991

Total Duration: 43:01

UPN: 0-0881-10463-2-3

Many Hermann fans approached the 1991 version of CAPE FEAR with both hope and trepidation, wondering exactly how Elmer Bernstein would arrange Hermann's score from the original 1962 version. Therein lies the trick to enjoying this score to the fullest: put the 1962 version out of your mind. If one approaches this adaptation with expectations of hearing the old score verbatim, disappointment will result. Tempi are different (usually slower), certain musical ideas are quoted only momentarily, and then are never heard again (such as the short chase music at the end of “Love?”), and some of Hermann's sequences never made it into the new film. However, if listened to with the same openness one affords a new score, the score is able to exert itself and be judged on its own merits.

Bernstein supplies his own arresting main title music (in the beginning of the cue, “Max") stylistically matching Hermann’s sound, and interpolating Herrmann themes. At 2:39 into “Max”, the real Herrmann takes over. Basically from thereon, Herrmann’s oppressive feeling of tension and despair presses onward, uninterrupted by any moments of calm or hope. Some particularly chilling moments are the eerie, slow build-up of string dissonances in “Rape and Hospital” and “Teddy Bear Wired” - a slow, queasy descent into insanity; and the PSYCHO-like string chords during the latter part of “Strip Search”.

Although the brooding mood is occasionally broken up by a few slightly urgent moments, as in the beginning of “Houseboat”, and the coarse, high violins which open “Frightened Sam”, full-out fury is saved for “The Fight” and “Destruction”, in which Bernstein melds original CAPE FEAR themes with fragments of Hermann's unused TORN CURTAIN score, and some pseudo-Hermann original Bernstein. The power of this savage music, full of jabbing brass, is further intensified by the introduction of tympani, which have not been heard since the main title (and indeed were not present in any of the original CAPE FEAR, which was totally without percussion.)

Herrmann's music was fitted by Bernstein to the film with great care and respect for the music and the needs of the film, but on CD, the adapted score seems rather disjointed and repetitious. But there are some standout moments, and all in all it is fortunate to at least have a recording of this music in some form, in truly wonderful sound.

Jim Doherty - Originally Published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.11 /No.42 / 1992