This soundtrack CD of Prisoner of Zenda is sort of a mixed bag -- its original source is the Alfred Newman score composed for the 1937 film version, starring Ronald Colman, but the actual recording is of Conrad Salinger's adaptation of Newman's music, for the 1952 MGM remake starring Stewart Granger. (The latter was a notorious color remake on which the director, Richard Thorpe, reportedly kept a moviola adjacent to the set, so that a 16mm of the original could be examined, shot-by-shot, and every camera and angle and the pacing of each shot re-created). The music is a surprisingly lush and complex body, Salinger adding in some significant ways to Newman's original, so that the main theme is very Straussian in nature, which was not the case with the original orchestration. Throughout the soundtrack, Salinger has sharpened and reshaped the orchestral timbres to take into account modern (circa 1952) theater playback equipment, and it is much to our benefit; there are moments where one feels the orchestrations in one's face. He usually worked on musicals, and this was one of his rare opportunities to do a dramatic score from start to finish, in a major production -- he ran with it, and delivered a charming and extroverted score highlighted by numerous elegant and delicate moments.