Like Hangover Square, The Snows of Kilimanjaro was another case of Hollywood taking a classic work of modern literature and adapting it beyond all recognition. Hemingway hated the end result - particularly the changed ending - and referred to it dismissively as the "Snows of Zanuck" after the film's producer. Although it boasts impressive set design and atmospheric lighting, it suffers -at least in retrospect - from obvious back projection. Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward on a lake full of hippos are clearly in a studio tank acting against a screen. What the film does have going for it is a magnificent score by Herrmann.
Although Herrmann did not hold Hemingway in very high regard as a writer ("a complete piece of corn" is how he descibed him), he was keen to work on a project that would allow him a more colourful orchestral palate. He was also drawn to the elements of nostalgia inherent in the story of a disillusioned writer looking back on his life as he faces death on an African safari. The most perfect expression of these Proustian-like reflections is to be found in the cue "Memory Waltz", a delicate valse triste (or sad waltz) that aches with a longing for the memory of things past. Herrmann himself liked the piece so much that he included it on one his Decca London recordings alongside his more well known scores.
There are moments of terror in the score (from the slouching, prowling piece called "The Hyena" to the heart-stopping opening of the "Witch Doctor" cue), but it is the sad and haunting melodies that linger. The score is available on the Marco Polo label (8.225168) alongside Five Fingers.
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