Elfman and The Wolfman – in 1941?????

[evil-dead]

I was just watching the old Universal Wolfman (1941) starring Lon Chaney. I hadn’t watched it in years, and I never really noticed this before… BUT… at 58:30 I swore I heard the batman theme (albeit over a descending chromatic bassline), and then again at 59:00 (when Larry is throwing pebbles at Gwen’s window) I heard it again, this time in canon like Elfman used it occasionally. I thought I was tripping out, so I watched that part a few times. It’s there, although it is harmonized a little different, and the melody continues downward chromatically past the 5 note motif… Pretty weird, considering who’s scoring the remake. Any how, if anyone cares enough to check it out, there it is. IMDB lists the composers as:

Original Music by
Charles Previn (uncredited)
Hans J. Salter (uncredited)
Frank Skinner (uncredited)

Kinda nerdy, but I guess that’s why I visit this site in the first place…Let me know if you guys hear it too…

[Ryan Keaveney]

Good ears. In fact you can hear the theme in the Marco Polo re-recording of THE WOLF MAN score.

[boingomusic]

Hehe, pretty interesting. You can hear a sample of it on Amazon. Listen to the first few seconds of the 24th track :

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Music-Film-Classics/dp/B000004644

[Descent Into Mystery]

It does sound like Elfman’s Batman theme, but with Shirley Walker’s style.

[Author]

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