Henry Kimball Hadley's WHEN A MAN LOVES

[pcc]

I wanted to inquire if anyone on this forum had ever seen the 1927 film WHEN A MAN LOVES, which qualifies as a topic here as it has a through-composed score by Henry Hadley which only exists (in its original orchestral version) on the film's Vitaphone sound-on-disc soundtrack, played by the Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra under Herman Heller.  Those who haven't seen and heard it, you may be in for a treat, and I'd like to know what others think. The film was made by Warner Bros., directed by Alan Crosland (best known, unfortunately, for THE JAZZ SINGER, but a fine melodramatic director nonetheless), and stars John Barrymore, Dolores Costello, and Warner Oland in a des Grieux-oriented version of MANON LESCAUT.  The film is excellent, but Hadley's score is magnificent and makes it a tremendous experience overall; sweeping and dramatically passionate, the orchestra plays it brilliantly (it's also very well recorded for the time) and shows it to be possibly Hadley's best "music drama".  It's also quite demanding technically - I'm not sure if it could be as well performed live as it was recorded, as the film is quite lengthy, and breaking it up into sections disc-by-disc for recording probably helped the orchestra stay alive.  I did some work on this film restoration when I was a film archivist and it remains my favourite of the Vitaphone synchronized score films; it was also the only wholly original score Warners' ever commissioned for synchronization, but all that exists in print is a piano-conductor score they submitted for copyright, and Hadley's autograph score and the original parts are currently lost.  The film is available through Amazon or Turner Classic Movies' sales site.

[minacciosa]

I've seen it, and I also bought the Warner video. Congratulations to you and all who worked on the restoration; it's excellent all around. Of particular note is Hadley's score. It is more than remarkable, for he just outdid himself. It is interesting and colorful from beginning to end (all the more remarkable since it is a long film), and as you noted the players perform spectacularly well throughout. The production was first rate, and because of that the film still stands up today. When I sat down to view it I expected to see arch acting, overdone in every respect, but I found myself quickly mesmerized! A great achievement by the director, actors, craftsmen, and of course Henry Hadley.

Liking what I heard so much, I used software to extract the music track for dedicated listening. The film is still available commercially, so I can't upload it. I can only suggest that anyone interested in film and film scores make it a point to see "When A Man Loves".

[Latvian]

Fascinating! I was unaware of Hadley's involvement in film and will definitely seek this out. I have a high regard for Hadley's music in general, increasing with each new work I encounter. Hopefully more will be recorded commercially in time.

[minacciosa]

I share your enthusiasm for Hadley, and since I've had the privilege of examining many of his scores at length I can say with confidence that as fine as the music of his that we have, the best of him is yet to come. In particular I'll recommend the large choral/orchestral works Music: An Ode, Resurgam, and the opera Cleopatra's Night.

[pcc]

I'm so pleased to hear you enjoyed both Hadley's music and the film itself, minacciosa.  We thought it a worthy project, and I hope more musicians as well as film historians and enthusiasts see the film and appreciate Hadley's work.  Warners' actually gave Hadley a timed cue sheet for various scenes as to what was going on and roughly what they wanted Hadley to provide for it.  I'm just getting further into this, so I'm not sure who at WB made these recommendations, possibly Crosland.  Barrymore's acting style is certainly well complemented by Hadley's own approach; impassioned, but not overflorid.  The last 20 minutes of the film is visually and musically overwhelming, though.

[minacciosa]

Please feel free to share any experiences you had in the restoration of the film, or anecdotes about it. It's all quite fascinating.

[pcc]

My part was very small and preliminary; the film was at the George Eastman House, where I was, and the discs at UCLA.  The film's provenance was from Edgar Bergen - exactly why he'd obtained a print we never discovered - and it was lacking a reel, which was found in the Czech archive, albeit with Czech titles and not in as good condition as the American material.  The discs, on the other hand, were nearly immaculate, and even in a straight "unfixed" transfer sounded excellent - no blasting from wear, and they had been played only a very few times according to the markoff boxes on the labels Vitaphone projectionists had to tick after every use. (After 20 plays the labels directed that the discs be broken to prevent further use; unlike the shellac used for regular commercial discs for home use which had an substantial abrasive component to wear down pickup needles first and slow wear of the record itself, Vitaphone discs had almost none to give the best sound and thus wore very quickly under the heavy magnetic pickups on the Vitaphone turntables. Hence the 20 play max use directive, but it's amazing how many discs with completely filled marking boxes have survived as well, and those are frequently unique copies of track sections.)  I listened to the UCLA prelim transfers, was very enthusiastic, and when Bob Gitt from UCLA came to visit us he and I did a proto-Vitaphone assessment running the film on a Steenbeck flatbed viewer and synchronizing the taped preliminary transfers "wild".  It worked great, except a bit in the Czech reel, but that was fixable. However, there was also an independent project in the works to reconstruct the film for live presentation by reorchestrating the score from the copyright 2-line score, but after discussions with me I convinced those in that project to wait until we had the film back to its original Vitaphone state with the score in Hadley's own orchestration, which was extant only on the discs, and was the version premiered in 1927. (Also, although we know the film was shown in unwired houses with live accompaniment, there was no evidence showing that it was ever presented that way with Hadley's score, which we all considered an integral part of the film's effectiveness.)  That was really the end of my work; from us it all went to UCLA, they did their usual first-rate work, and I eventually got to see it on a big screen with Hadley's wonderful music washing over me and the whole experience whipping the audience into a furore.  I have the DVD too, but despite it all being "on record", I still never miss an opportunity to see it projected with an audience.   

[minacciosa]

Thank you for that; it was really fascinating.. I've never heard of a screening anywhere near me, much though I'd love to see it that way. I do wonder about Hadley's score; surely it must be "lost" in the Warner archives somewhere. Can you ask someone with influence to consider a soundtrack only release? I think they would make some money. I'm listening to the score right now, and it's nothing if not an opera.

[pcc]

It is possible that the parts made their way to WB's music department in LA, but I know of no other extant parts for any of the Vitaphoned music-and-effects films such as DON JUAN, THE BETTER 'OLE, IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO, THE FIRST AUTO, THE DIVINE LADY, and others.  Herman Heller was not only Warners' principal synchronized-score conductor, he was actually the producer for Vitaphone shorts in New York, and most of the synch scores were recorded there by Heller, Louis Silvers, Josiah Zuro, and others, with very little done on the West Coast.  To me it seems likely that when they shut down the NYC synchronization operation they threw out the music to what was, by that time, obsolete product.  After all, it had been all recorded in disc form for posterity, right?  (Never mind that 80 years on many discs are now missing and matrices have likewise been melted down in most cases...)  But maybe I'm wrong - we can only hope, and look...

[minacciosa]

Where to begin?