When I was a teenager some 25 years ago I first
saw Marisa Mell on TV in the Umberto Lenzi directed 1972 giallo “Sette Orchidee
Machiatte di Rosso”. I was immediately mesmerized by her strange mysterious
beauty. At the same time I also started to collect soundtracks of my favorite
movies. One genre I especially loved was the italian gialli with their stylish
music. Film scores by Ennio Morricone , Riz Ortolani or Bruno Nikolai were
rather easy to find in Germany. Finding soundtracks from other composers of Italian
gialli was a complete other story mostly due to the lack of popularity in my
home country. Commercial releases on records and later cd’s were almost non existent.
But at the end of the 90’s things started to change. Labels like Beat Records ,
Digit Movies , Dragored started to release a lot of soundtracks from the late
60’s and 70’s, especially from Italian genre movies. In early 2002 I visited a
music store in Cologne, Germany. As always I was looking for rare and unusual soundtracks
of some of my favorite composers and movies. The store was known for importing
often rare soundtracks. Going through the racks I discovered a soundtrack from
one of my favorite composers “Riz Ortolani”. The title of the soundtrack was
unknown to me: “Una Sull’Altra”. Whaw! What a find! On the cover I saw a half-naked
women with a stunning face and platinum blond hair. It was Marisa Mell, one of
my favorite actresses. I had to buy this soundtrack. Once home I noticed the
great quality of this soundtrack by Dragored. The movie was also available in
Germany but in a heavy cut version. Now I wanted to own more soundtracks of
Marisa Mell movies. Hopefully the soundtrack to Una Sull’Altra was not a lucky
shot. There had to be other soundtracks on the market. So the hunt was on! It
was not easy but I persevered. In the end I found the EP release from Polydor
with music from the Eurowestern “Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz” with 12 tracks.
Then came a very rare CAM LP called “Superdrago” and the cd of the Diana
Ross-starrer “Mahogony”. On Ebay I found the soundtrack of “Danger: Diabolik”
by maestro Ennio Morricone. I knew that the score was destroyed in a fire so
the edition that I bought was a copy of a Japanese laserdisc audio reel made
into a soundtrack. The song “Deep Deep Down” by Chrissy is one of my favorite
songs, ever! A lesser known sexy Marisa Mell movie “Casanova & C°” with
Tony Curtis became also available on CD with another movie “La Vergine di
Norimberga” written again by Riz Ortolani. My favorite soundtracks in my Marisa
Mell movie discography are the complete scores from the movie “Stuntman” and
“La Moglie Giovanne” issued on cd by Beat Records. Carlo Rusticelli is a real
master composer for the movie “Stuntman”. The tracks 19 and 22 are really mind
blowing. He also composed another Marisa Mell movie “Milano Rovente”. Finally I
am very happy to own a copy of the music for the movie “Nel Buio Del Terrore”
by Carlo Savina who has dedicated a title of a score for the movie to Marisa
Mell.
RUF DER WILDGÄNSE
(1961)
Music by Rolf Wilhelm
To my knowledge there exists only the main
theme of this movie on a cd: “Deutsche Filmkomponisten” Volume 4: Rolf Wilhelm
. The composer is also famous for his soundtracks for the movies “Via Mala”
with Gert Froebe and Christine Kaufmann and “Die Nibelungen” with Uwe Beyer and Karin
Dor.
DAS RATSEL DER ROTEN ORCHIDEE (1962)
Music by Peter Thomas
Here is another rare track from the Mystery of the Red Orchid. I think that the complete score is lost so only the opening title was published on the Kriminal Filmmusik cd. It is direct tranfer from the movie audio reel. This cd has also some great music from German Edgar Wallace movies for which Peter Thomas wrote the soundtracks. In later years after this movie Peter Thomas became very famous, even in America, for the score the German science fiction television series "Raumpatrouille Orion".
DER LETZTE RITT NACH SANTA CRUZ (1964)
Music by Erwin Halletz
There is a very rare 45 RPM from Polydor with
12 tracks! It is also partly available on a cd from the soundtrack series “Deutsche
Filmkomponisten” Volume 8: Erich Halletz with 3 tracks of the movie. Another
issue is the very rare cd from Musik Mosaik KR 001 which has also the music from
the Karl May movies “Der Schatz der Azteken” und “Pyramide des Sonngottes”. The
Karl May film series was very popular in Germany in the 60’s. Strangely ,
Marisa Mell never played a part in these film series.
LP Version
CASANOVA 70 (1965)
Music by Armando Trovaioli
There are two very interesting issues of this
great but strange soundtrack. It is very typical soundtrack of Maestro Trovaioli.
The first release is the Japanese cd from Avanz Records SP/CR-20028 from 2004
with 9 tracks. There exists also a different cd from GDM CD Club 7057 from 2009
with 10 tracks. This latest album contains also the soundtrack from the movie “Homo
Eroticus”. It is limited editon of 500 copies. The GDM version is different
from the Avenz version of the soundtrack . Collectors should own both cd’s.
CD Version
Japanese Version
NEW YORK CHIAMA
SUPERDRAGO (1966)
Music by Benedetto Ghiglia
There is only a mega rare LP issued by CAM as CDR
33.16 from the year 1966. This soundtrack was never released on CD. The LP has 21 tracks of great music and is one of the
rarest in the list of the soundtracks from the movies of Marisa Mell.
STUNTMAN (1968)
Music by Carlo Rustichelli
This movie has known three releases . The
latest is the Beat Records as BCM 9507 CD from October 2012 limited to 500
copies! It is a complete soundtrack with 28 great tracks of Maestro Carlo
Rustchelli music. He also music for other cult favorites “Milano Rovente”, “Sei
Donne per L'assassino”, “La Frusta e il Corpo”. Then there is LP release,
issued by CAM MAG 10.020 from 1969 with
only 16 tracks. This Album is very hard to find ! At last but not least you
have the Japanese edition RPM from King/Seven Seas HIT from 1974 . I think that
this is the rarest release of this soundtrack.
LP Version
Japanese Version
DANGER DIABOLIK (1968)
Music by Ennio Morricone
This is the music to probably the most classic
and well known Marisa Mell movie. Personally I find this one of the best
soundtracks ever written by Maestro Ennio Morricone! There was never an
official release of this soundtrack due to the before mentioned reasons in the
introduction but it's still in the top ten ranking list of best soundtracks
ever written! I know of 3 releases! The official 45 RPM issued by Parade as PRC
5052 with the theme song from Christie in italian. This release fetched around
95 euros the last time I checked on Ebay! Then there are the two bootleg cd's
from Pallottola Foro issued as OTHR-1968 from the year 2001 and from Sycodelic issued
as SYCO:0011 in a tri-foldet-digipack
also from the year 2001. Those are also very hard to find.
UNA SULL'ALTRA (1969)
Music by Riz Ortolani
Like Diabolik this is another Marisa Mell
classic with a lot of different issues. The most important are: Dagored RED
128-2 CD with 15 tracks from the year 2001. I do not know if this is a complete
soundtrack but it is the best issue in my opinion. There is also a limited
edition LP from the same labl, issued as Dagored RED 128-1 with a copy of the Italian
movie poster. Finally you have the cd realesed as a bonus with 11 tracks together
with the US DVD of the movie, issued by Severin as SEV1109.
The first realease of the soundtrack was the
Beat Records LP 004 with 14 tracks. A re-issue of the album was in 1997 on cd by
Beat Records as CDCR 38 with again only 11 tracks together with the soundtracks
of two other movies: “Tiffany Memorandum” and “Teresa la Ladra”.
LP Version
CD Version
Compilation
NEL BUIO DEL TERRORE (1971)
Music by Carlo Savina
This soundtrack is also one of my favorites.
The soundtrack was released for first and only
time ever on Mask MK 705 DLX, dated november 2010. It has 20 tracks and is to
my knowledge a complete soundtrack) . This is one of my favorite covers wit
beautiful artwork and a great informative booklet.
AMICO STAMMI LONTANO
ALMENO UN PALMO (1972)
Music by Gianni Ferrio
There are two issues of the soundtrack: a LP on
Cinevox MDF 33/52 with 18 tracks released in march of 1972 and a limited cd on
Digitmovies CDDM 027 released in march of 2005 with 23 tracks . The scenes with
Marisa Mell have represented with two tracks: track 3 (Come Tanto Tempo Fa) and
track 12 (Addio Sarah ). Gianni Ferrio is also best known for two great gialli “Una
Farfalla con le Ali Insanguinate” starring Helmut Berger and “L'Uomo Senza
Memoria” starring Senta Berger.
CD Version
LP Version
SETTE ORCHIDEE
MACCHIATE DI ROSSO (1972)
Music by Riz Ortolani
There was never an official release of this
soundtrack but many cues are taken from the earlier movie “Cosi Dolce, Cosi
Perversa” from 1969 starring Caroll Baker & Erica Blanc. The CD was released
on Hexacord HCD-SF 05 in 2001. The album has also great track of the song
"Why". Was the title theme of this music taken from another music?
MILANO ROVENTE (1973)
MILANO ROVENTE (1973)
Music by Carlo RustichelliT
There is only one great release of this
soundtrack issued in september of 2008 on Beat Records, CD CR 85. It is a
limited edition of only 1000 copies with 23 tracks! Every true soundtrack
collector should own a copy of this soundtrack with great artwork and beautiful
booklet.
LA MOGLIE GIOVANE
(1974)
Music by Stelvio Cipriana
This is the latest issue of a soundtrack of a Marisa
Mell movie in febuary 2013 by Beat Records DDJ024 . The album is a very limited
edition of 500 copies with 13 tracks in a jewel case with a 12-page booklet .
The music is dedicated to the beauty of Marisa Mell.
MAHOGANY (1975)
Music by Diana Ross and Michael Masser
The first release was 1975 on Motown Records M
6.858 S1 as LP with 15 tracks. In 2000 a re-issue was published on Motown
Records 012 157 677-2 . The title song sung by Diana Ross was a major hit all
over the world but the movie was a flop at the box office.
CASANOVA & C°
(1977)
Music by Riz Ortolani
The first issue was a LP in the year 1977 on
CAM SAG 9078 with 10 tracks.Riz Ortolani is a real master but this composition
was not his at his best ! There was a re-issue on CAM CSE 109 in 1993. The cd
contains also music from horror movie “La Vergine di Norimberga” starring
Christopher Lee and Rossana Podesta. This soundtrack is one of my favorites!
CD Version
LP Version
UN'OMBRA NELL OMBRA
(1979)
Music by Stelvio Cipriani
This soundtrack is since a long time out of
print. It was issued by Digitmovies CDDM052 in march of 2006. Maestro Cipirani was
also the composer of classics like Tentacoli , Ecologia del Delitto and Piranha
II. There are 22 tracks and keyboard performed by Claudio Simonetti from the
famous group Goblin.
CD Version
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Thanks to Gerald S. from Germany for making this entry. I appreciate it very much!
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If you would also like to write an entry for the Marisa Mell Blog regaring her life and work, just contact me and we will see what we can work out.
UPDATE
UPDATE
Another Marisa Mell fan from Germany, André Schneider from Berlin, has pointed out that there is also a cd available from the movie "...dopo di che uccide il maschio e lo divora" on a compilation album with two other movies, music composed and conducted by Piero Piccioni.
Thanks to André Schneider for pointing this one out!
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Gerald also send me recently an update! There is also a single available of the title music for the movie "Che Notte Ragazzi", sung by I Corvi!
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If you know of other soundtracks of Marisa Mell movies that are not mentioned here please let me know!
Love your blog... take a look at mine if you have time: http://italianmovieposter.blogspot.com/
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