Tweet Fake Music for Classic B Westerns

Tried to watch the Films Around the World 55-minute edit of a favorite Robert North Bradbury serial, The Star Packer (1934). I should've known five minutes into it when I saw some artificial fades-via-condensation that I was in for it, but then there was some added synthesizer music that was really, really bad, so I had to turn it off.

I certainly hope that this isn't a widespread practice, but if it is, I'd like to know of it. Has anyone else noticed a trend by where anachronistic scores have been added to early talkie westerns?

spadeneal

Perhaps the music in the PD film is still under copyright? I have seen synthesized music dubbed into DVD presentations of PD television shows like DRAGNET and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES (where Robert Osboune appeared).

Perhaps the music in the PD film is still under copyright? I have seen synthesized music dubbed into DVD presentations of PD television shows like DRAGNET and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES (where Robert Osboune appeared).

Well, if you take a public domain film and add your own awful music to it, you can claim ownership of that new abomination and charge money for it.

Sometimes crappy companies do it to old pictures with little or no music in a pathetic effort to update them.

Indeed Eric, I think that's what I was seeing -- cheesy music used to cover a scene that didn't have any. If they could've found period music to match the scene that would've been okay. But with me, the sound effects with no music is also fine for a Western, and can even suffice to build tension in its own way. This measure taken was pure crap.

spadeneal