Classic Jazz Scores
by TsarStepan | created - 10 Aug 2016 | updated - 10 Aug 2016 | PublicWhich of these films from 1969 (and earlier) have the best original jazz score?
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1. My Man Godfrey (1936)
Approved | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye.
Director: Gregory La Cava | Stars: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick
Votes: 26,443
Score by Charles Previn and Rudy Schrager
2. A Song Is Born (1948)
Approved | 113 min | Comedy, Music, Musical
With her gangster boyfriend under investigation by the police, a nightclub singer hides out in a musical research institution staffed by bachelor professors - one of whom begins to fall for her.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey
Votes: 2,800
Score by Hugo Friedhofer and Emil Newman
3. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,305 | Gross: $8.00M
Score by Alex North
4. Sudden Fear (1952)
Approved | 110 min | Film-Noir, Thriller
After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett
Votes: 7,334
Score by Elmer Bernstein
5. The Wild One (1953)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.
Director: Laslo Benedek | Stars: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin
Votes: 17,576
Score by Leith Stevens
6. Human Desire (1954)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan
Votes: 6,342
Score by Daniele Amfitheatrof
7. The Big Combo (1955)
Not Rated | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A police lieutenant is ordered to stop investigating deadly crime boss Mr. Brown because he hasn't been able to get any hard evidence against him. He goes after Brown's girlfriend, who despises him, for information instead.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy
Votes: 8,618
Score by David Raksin
8. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Passed | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Arnold Stang
Votes: 12,208
Score by Elmer Bernstein
9. Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Music
In 1927, a Kansas City, Missouri cornet player and his band perform nightly at a seedy speakeasy until a racketeer tries to extort them in exchange for protection.
Director: Jack Webb | Stars: Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien, Peggy Lee
Votes: 1,502
Score by Ray Heindorf and David Buttolph
10. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner
Votes: 35,682
Score by Elmer Bernstein
11. Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.
Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin
Votes: 28,626 | Gross: $0.11M
Score by Miles Davis
12. I Want to Live! (1958)
Approved | 120 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A prostitute, sentenced to death for murder, pleads her innocence.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Susan Hayward, Simon Oakland, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel
Votes: 7,345
Score by Johnny Mandel
13. Touch of Evil (1958)
PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 109,782 | Gross: $2.24M
Score by Henry Mancini
14. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,298 | Gross: $11.90M
Score by Duke Ellington
15. Black Orpheus (1959)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.
Director: Marcel Camus | Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia
Votes: 12,247
Score by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim
16. The Five Pennies (1959)
Approved | 117 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Danny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong plays his horn and croons in that famed gargling-granite voice. Big Band icons Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony and Shelly Manne join the fun.
Director: Melville Shavelson | Stars: Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino
Votes: 2,120
Score by Leith Stevens
17. The Last Angry Man (1959)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
An aspiring journalist's story of his aged uncle doctor leads to the uncle's life being profiled on TV.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Paul Muni, David Wayne, Betsy Palmer, Luther Adler
Votes: 1,026
Score by George Duning
18. Dangerous Liaisons (1959)
106 min | Drama, Romance
Juliette Merteuil and Valmont is a sophisticated couple, always looking for fun and excitement. Both have sexual affairs with others and share their experiences with one another. But there ... See full summary »
Director: Roger Vadim | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Philipe, Annette Stroyberg, Madeleine Lambert
Votes: 1,527
Score by James Campbell, Duke Jordan, and Thelonious Monk
19. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters
Votes: 5,556
Score by John Lewis
20. Breathless (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama
A small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.
Director: Jean-Luc Godard | Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Van Doude, Jean-Luc Godard
Votes: 87,892 | Gross: $0.34M
Score by Martial Solal
21. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 78,177 | Gross: $19.52M
Score by Nino Rota
22. Too Late Blues (1961)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Music
Ghost is an ideological musician who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. However, when he meets and falls in love with beautiful singer Jess ... See full summary »
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Bobby Darin, Stella Stevens, Everett Chambers, Nick Dennis
Votes: 1,526
Score by David Raksin
23. Knife in the Water (1962)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Thriller
A couple pick up a hitchhiker on the way to their yacht. The husband invites the young man to come along for their day's sailing. As the voyage progresses, the antagonism between the two men grows. A violent confrontation is inevitable.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Anna Ciepielewska
Votes: 23,583
Score by Krzysztof Komeda
24. Smog (1962)
104 min | Drama
An ambitious Italian attorney has his flight delayed in Los Angeles. The vapid lawyer goes to some parties with some Italians living there and has a brief affair with a beautiful Italian expatriate.
Director: Franco Rossi | Stars: Enrico Maria Salerno, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Susan Spafford
Votes: 104
Score by Piero Umiliani
25. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A young woman separated from her lover by war faces a life-altering decision.
Director: Jacques Demy | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel
Votes: 31,324 | Gross: $0.03M
Score by Michel Legrand
26. Mickey One (1965)
Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama
After the mob tries to kill him for an unknown reason, a comedian steals the identity of a homeless man and goes on the run.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Warren Beatty, Alexandra Stewart, Hurd Hatfield, Franchot Tone
Votes: 1,878
Score by Eddie Sauter
27. Repulsion (1965)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A sex-repulsed woman who disapproves of her sister's boyfriend sinks into depression and has horrific visions of rape and violence.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 57,265
Score by Chico Hamilton
28. Alfie (1966)
Unrated | 114 min | Comedy, Drama
An unrepentant ladies' man gradually begins to understand the consequences of his lifestyle.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster
Votes: 15,825 | Gross: $18.87M
Score by Sonny Rollins
29. In Cold Blood (1967)
R | 134 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart
Votes: 29,134
Score by Quincy Jones
30. Bullitt (1968)
M/PG | 114 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon
Votes: 75,804 | Gross: $42.30M
Score by Lalo Schifrin
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