The Naked and The Dead

The Naked and the Dead was a war movie based on Norman Mailer's uncompromising autobiographical first novel published in 1948. The writer's own experience of combat in the Pacific was much more limited than his book suggested, but the novel was well received and established Mailer's reputation as a hard-hitting realist. The film version was originally to have been directed by Charles Laughton, but when his first (and only) feature as director Night of the Hunter bombed at the box office, the megaphone was passed on to Raoul Walsh. Walsh had directed James Cagney in some of his greatest gangster roles. He wore a black patch to hide a car crash injury which had cost him his right eye.

Mailer's book was too strong for the screen so it was watered down by the screenwriters, and not even Herrmann's suitably militaristic score could beef it back up again. As of writing there are plans for a new recording of the score. The "Prelude", which I'm listening to right now, is at the beginning of disc two of Silva Screen's compilation The Essential Bernard Herrmann Film Music Collection (FILMXCD 308). To my ears, it sounds a lot like some of the battle cues in Jason and the Argonauts.