Hehehehe.

The Belles of St Trinians works really well - I watched that tons of times at the cinema when I was a kid and the whole thing was excellent. Of course, Alistair Sim makes a massive difference. Also, The Green Man shows Alastair Sim at his fantastic, sardonic best. A great comedy film actor - one of the greatest probably.

Scott of the Antartic by Vaughan Williams - later to become a full blown symphony has been copied a thousand times.

Also, William Walton could write for film now and again. Battle of the Skies is too good for most filmscore writers today - and indeed, most of his Battle of Britain score was apparently too good for the director at the time.

But I think it's fair to say that most people today have absolutely no idea about what makes a good film score - partly because they have no sense of history whatsoever - and partly because they wouldn't know a good film if it came up and tatooed them on the ass 'THIS IS A GREAT FILM FOREVER'.
This is always the trouble with this type of discussion. They seem to think a film is no good if it doesn't entertain them within 5 nanoseconds or they don't like it for whatever reason.
There are tons of films I personally don't like that are absolutely brilliant - that's the difference between objectivity and being slavishly subjective when discussing this particualr artform.

Rule No. 1 - the filmscore doesn't mean shit if the film is no good.
Rule No. 2 - the filmscore is there to enhance the film.
Rule No. 3 - the filmscore doesn't mean shit if the film is no good.

In no particular order:

On The Waterfront, Leonard Bernstein (1954)
Equus, Richard Rodney Bennett (1977)
Rebel Without A Cause, Leonard Rosenman (1955)

Other important favorites:

JW- Harry Potter, Star Wars, BTTF
Goldsmith-- Powder, Alien, others
Hermann-- North by Northwest, others
Miklos Rozsa-- King of Kings
John Debney-- Paulie
Carl Stalling-- anything
Randy Newman-- Awakenings
Patrick Williams-- Julian Po (1997)

On the Waterfront is a seminal film of course and a great lesson in 'the method'. I personally thought Lee J Cobb was better than Brando - but everyone remembers Brando. Karl Marlden, Rod Steiger etc - those actors had character.

The score by Bernstien was later borrowed, I believe by Goldsmith for LA Confidential.

When we were kids - we were all trouped off to the cinema to see King of Kings - for religious education I believe. I came out with a musical one. Miklos Rozsa was the best at the 'biblical' sound and any fanfare you care to mention. He was friend of Herrmann's - when Herrmann wasn't wearing him down with constant grumbling and shouting.

You want to hear a really good and perhaps not so well known Miklos Rozsa score - hire out The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. He had the great ability to mark a film in exactly the right way when he was on form. That is a lesson in scoring a film that perhaps didn't have a huge budget - and making it something special.

Hey Paul have you heard (and seen) "The Power" with Rosza's score? That is one of his best and a very weird one. Nothing like his epics. Though of course he was famous for (to some degree) rewriting one score to fit each new movie assignment. He only really did this on films he was not inspired by. He had great taste in cinema, because his most inspired music is always from the truly best films he scored, not merely the most popular. For example again, "The Power." A totally forgotten film, not even on video now, even though it was brilliantly directed by Byron Haskin who directed the original "War of the Worlds."

On the epic side of Rozsa though, people always talk about Ben Hur it is true. But he wrote his best march ever for Quo Vadis. That is an awe-inspiring 6 minutes of music.

That's good that JWL mentions Leonard Rosenman. He is one of the most interesting and little known film composers. In the midst of the flowery romanticism or Mancini-copycat stuff being done by everyone else, he was writing pure, powerful atonalism. One extremely bizarre example is "Beneath the Planet of the Apes." Yes, I know that is a fairly tacky movie, but it had some great surreal scenes in it (which is why I like it better than the more intelligent original film), and a fantastic score. Another clinic on how to do a movie score first of all, but beyond that, some weirdly beautiful sounds created for the more insane scenes of the film, including a devotional hymn for chorus and organ to the glory of the hydrogen bomb.

Korngold said that Rosza was the best composer working in film. Hard to imagine a more authoritive source.

Rosza's scores have a directness and almost simplicity that serve the film perfectly without complicating things for the listener. At least that's what I always thought until I happen to watch Ben Hur with headphones one night. The detail and subtlety of moving parts astonished me - genius level writing everywhere.

Of course no one loved canon more than Rosza.

I think Miklos Rosza Taught Burt Bacharach also. I hope I'm talking about the right Composer. Bacharach said he composed a short sonatina learning from Rosza. And Rosza incouraged Bacharach not to be ashamed of his songwriting.

Bacharach and Roger nichols, Paul mcartney, are they the worlds best songwriters?

Roger Nichols used the best orchestrators , composers, arrangers, Producers to produce and perform the circle of friends with the Mcloeds brother & sister team. I think. My opinion is, this is the best songwriting production ever in the world. Was it because the skill of songwriting or the skill of Orchestrating, arranging, scoring ?

Most Likely all of the above ?

Alex you're on to something here. It all is intertwined somehow.

Oh, man. It does my heart well to hear folks chiming in about Rosza.

compsr2000-- sorry about the bad reference! I was typing fast, thinking too quickly, and over my three-score limit! You are correct.