Dimitri Tiomkin’s scores for The Thing from Another World and Take the High Ground! have been released on compact disc as part of Film Score Monthly’s Golden Age Classics series. Available for the first time, the source material for The Thing was obtained from acetate discs in the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at the Cinema-Television Library at the University of Southern California.

Christian Nyby directed this 1951 RKO science fiction film whose cast includes Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. The film’s producer, Howard Hawks, had previously worked with Tiomkin on Red River, which was directed by Hawks and edited by Nyby. As Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall point out in the detailed liner notes, “Tiomkin’s score was being written at the same time as Bernard Herrmann’s groundbreaking score for The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the two works are now considered two of the most cutting-edge film scores ever created.” The American Film Institute catalog states that “Many modern critics consider The Thing a seminal science fiction film and note that it was the first Hollywood picture to combine science fiction and monster genres.” A composer would be fortunate to have scored one seminal genre film, Tiomkin scored two: The Thing and High Noon.

Because the 13 tracks time out at just under twenty-seven minutes, the disc also contains Tiomkin’s Take the High Ground! score, adding another twenty-three tracks and more than fifty minutes of music. Richard Brooks directed this 1953 MGM military drama starring Karl Malden, Richard Widmark, and Russ Tamblyn. Included are two songs, a title song by Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington and a love song, “Julie,” by Tiomkin and lyricist Charles Wolcott. The music was originally recorded at the MGM scoring stage in Culver City, California, in February, March, and June 1953.

This limited-edition soundtrack (FSMCD Vol. 8, No. 1), produced by Lukas Kendall, is available only from Screen Archives Entertainment, now handling order fulfillment for Film Score Monthly. Only 3,000 will be sold.

For more information: http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=314