Overture

Remember when at the beginning of certain prestige pictures, usually big budgeted epics, they used to start the film with an overture, a bespoke classical piece set over illustrations representing the film? Something borrowed from symphonic music, as a way of classing up the joint. Presumably a way of providing entertainment as patrons found their seats.

The one above is from 55 Days in Peking, a rather turgid and overlong story of the Boxer Rebellion, seen recently in my quest for Nicolas Ray completion. It isn't very good. A scenery-masticating Chuck Heston doesn't help. Ray wasn't good at epic. He was always more comfortable with the intimate delicacies of In a Lonely Place or They Live by Night or Bigger Than Life. The King of Kings, his Christ picture from around the same time, is also a bit of a dud. And had an overture, if I recall correctly.

This overture, composed by the great Dimitri Tiomkin and played by the Sinfonia of London, and illustrated by the renowned Dong Kingman was, in fact, better than the film. We should bring back the overture.