Hi, it has never been released on LP. In fact I do not believe music from it has been released on any format. What is the music like?
Rgds David

leoflagg, April 11, 2007; 1:03 PM

Hi, my name's David, as well. It's a wonderful score, haunting; romantic and spectacular and easily the best of all the scores that were composed for any of those Italian sword and sandal scope and colour epics of the late 1950's and early 1960's. I've loved the score ever since I ran the film at the cinema where I was a projectionist in 1963. Luckily, I have it on video, taped when it was first run on television here in the UK in July, 1988. Unfortunately, it's not been run again since then. The running time of the print run on television was around 95 minutes, but originally, the film ran 118 minutes, so there was over twenty minutes cut out of it. However, all the highlights from the score were still there as I remembered them.

david_rayner, April 11, 2007; 1:14 PM

This sounds like a good job for the Digitmovies peplum series. I believe it can happen one day.

42zaphod, April 11, 2007; 3:17 PM

Yes, it would be nice if the original tapes have survived somewhere so that a CD of the score could one day be released. The music on the soundtrack was also conducted by Carlo Savina, as well as being composed by him. As with many film scores by talented composers, the score for Achilles makes the film seem far better than it actually is.

david_rayner, April 11, 2007; 3:28 PM

Amazing the contribution the Italian composers gave to the world of film music.

It's just so outstanding and far above the average everyday substandard trash which recieves so much publicity. I'm proud to be part of the elite group of wise souls who recognize that fact.

The old sword and sandal scores are without doubt worthy of high praise.

Interesting story about Francesco DeMasi conducting the "Conan The Barbarian" score in the early 80's. It was such an unusual and bygone occurrence for such a huge orchestra to be assembled to record a film score that many persons associated with Italian music and Cinema showed up just to watch it all unfold.

victoravalentine, April 11, 2007; 4:48 PM

Also notable from that period were Giovanni Fusco's score from The Wooden Horse of Troy (1962), also known as The Trojan Horse and The Trojan War and Mario Nascimbene's score for Constantine the Great (1962), also known as Constantine and the Cross. This score is actually available on CD and I'm lucky enough to have a copy of it.

David in England.

david_rayner, April 11, 2007; 5:06 PM

Something that I've been trying to find some info about is a soundtrack recording I have on vinyl (Essential Oils Of The Mediterian). Manufactured as a promotional deal for a perfume company (1000) copies around 1962.

Composer uncredited although I have a hunch it's actually a score composed for an entirely different film and re-used for this forgotten documentary. It's always struck me as an early 60's Italian score. But that's just a guess.

Speaking of working as a projectionist. I once knew someone who lost almost half of his index finger in 1955 on a fast rewinding 35mm spool. I asked him what film he was running... "To Hell And Back with Audie Murphy".

victoravalentine, April 11, 2007; 5:19 PM

Maybe it's a score for a film you haven't seen yet and therefore wouldn't recognise. I've just taken a look at the DigitMovies website and they've got quite a selection of scores on CD of old Italian films. I see they even have Hercules in the Centre of the Earth and Son of Spartacus (both 1962). So I reckon they could easily add Achilles to their list if they can get hold of the tapes.

Another one worthy of note from that period is Gino Marinuzzi's score for Hercules Conquers Atlantis (UK title) which had the distinction of being the only peplum filmed in 70mm, so the score may have been recorded in stereo.

David in England.

david_rayner, April 11, 2007; 5:22 PM

Yes Digitmovies have recently made several outstanding releases of the old peplum scores, in excellent presentation and (considering the age) sound quality. Next to the hopes for Achilles, I believe that they might be likely to release more of the Hercules scores too since they have already done 3 films.

However it's been just today that Digitmovies have announced their next 4 titles and no peplum score in the batch this time -- maybe next time.

Nascimbene's COSTANTINE is another personal favorite of mine too !

42zaphod, April 11, 2007; 6:06 PM

Well... perhaps it would be advantageous to all film music afficionados here on SC who would appreciate such wonderful soundtrack releases to email Digitmovies and recommend and let them know of our preferences. Achilles would be a great release, as well as an official CD release of Caligula.

serifiot, April 12, 2007; 8:03 PM

Hi David,

I recently bought a dvd box set of 50 peplum films(on 7 discs) called 'Warriors'.It ws very cheap from the U.S.On it is Achilles (here called The Fury of Achilles) with Gordon Mitchell and runnung at 116 mins.Below is the link if you are interested.Granted some of the picture quality is a bit poey but that can be expected whe it works out at about 50 pence a film.


http://www.hidefdvd.com/i/dvd/DGOS7022DVD.htm

Damjamcar, April 13, 2007; 9:43 AM

Thanks, Damjamcar, yes, I know of that very poor quality pan and scan version transferred to DVD. But I'll make do with my much clearer off air video of it until perhaos one day, the film is restored for a widescreen DVD. Quality of presentation is so important with films like this and ideally, they should be seen in full wide screen and preferably on a large screen in a cinema, where they were meant to be shown in the first place. Hopefully, a company such as Digitmovies will release the soundtrack score on CD before too long.

David on England.

david_rayner, April 13, 2007; 9:56 AM