The score for Hot Spell was by the brilliant Alex North. By that point in his career, North had been composing for Hollywood films since 1951, when he came out swinging with three incredible scores The 13th Letter, A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman (he received Oscar nominations for both Streetcar and Salesman). North's Hot Spell score is all yearning, delusion and heartbreak. His music brilliantly illuminates the drama and the characters their hopes, their dreams, their heartaches. Thanks to North and the actors (as well as the excellent writing and directing), what could have easily devolved into a melodramatic potboiler becomes a compelling character-driven drama.
Shirley Booth's other star turn that year was the polar opposite of Hot Spell: the delightful film adaptation of Thornton Wilder's popular stage success, The Matchmaker. Paramount brought it to the screen, starring Booth as Dolly Gallagher Levi, Paul Ford as Horace Vandergelder, Anthony Perkins as Cornelius, Shirley MacLaine as Irene, and Robert Morse reprising his stage role as Barnaby. The screenplay was by the great John Michael Hayes (Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much) and the film was directed by Joseph Anthony, who, the year before, had brought the play The Rainmaker to the screen for Paramount. Of course, it would be just a few years later when The Matchmaker would undergo yet another transformation, this time being turned into a big, splashy hit Broadway musical, Hello, Dolly!
Hot Spell/The Matchmaker is limited to 1000 copies only.
Hot Spell
1. Main Title
2. Happy Birthday
3. Reminiscence Theme
4. The Lonely Woman
5. We Never Close
6. The Truth Hurts
7. The Awful Truth/The Late Comer
8. Jack Leaves
9. Alma's Story/Goodbye Jack
10. News About Jack
11. Memories Fade
12. End Title*
13. End Title (original)
The Matchmaker
14. Prelude (Main Title)
15. Soliloquy No. 1 (Mrs. Levi)/Van's Store/Trap Door
16. Soliloquy No. 2 (The Barber)/ Soliloquy No. 3 (I'll Give You a Good Day)/ Bloomers
17. Close to His Heart/No Time Off/Chief Clerk/ Hot Tomatoes
18. The Matchmaker Polka
19. Flirtation
20. Bad Weather/Run For Cover
21. Quick Disguise/In Hiding/Soliloquy No. 4
22. Mrs. Levi's Discovery/No Room for Sneezes
23. The Yonkers Polka
24. A Note to Irene/We Walk to Yonkers
25. Discord in Harmonia Gardens
26. Love and Spirits/Soliloquy No. 6
27. Something Rotten in Yonkers
28. The Proposal/Finale
The Matchmaker The Stereo Cues
29. Van's Store/Trap Door
30. Soliloquy No. 3
31. Run for Cover/Quick Disguise/The Yonkers Polka
32. We Walk To Yonkers/Finale (alternate)
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