Soundtrack Apocalisse

Ennio Morricone fans are in for a treat as Cinevox is reissuing the maestro’s amazing score for the 1979 Guiliano Montaldo film Il Giocattolo (aka The Toy). For years the original masters were thought to have been destroyed or lost, but the tapes were found only a few months ago and amazingly were in pristine condition (now if that could only happen to Morricone’s score for Diabolik!).

American fans are probably unfamiliar with Il Giocattolo as it doesn’t seem to have ever been released theatrically or on video in the States, but some have said it is the Italian version of Taxi Driver. Morricone scored many of Montaldo’s movies, including the work he did for the poliziotteschi Gli Intoccabili. Found here are some great Italian style funk tunes, some tense giallo appropriate atmospheres, and some trademark Morricone bassoon.

The original album contained some minor imperfections in the sound, and Cinevox has fixed these flaws as well as completely remaster it for this release. And to top it all off, they’ve included five bonus tracks of unreleased material including alternate takes and unheard music. The album is expected to drop later this month.

Cinevox also just released Morricone’s score La Donna Della Domenica (aka The Sunday Woman) for the first time in its entirety on CD. Morricone pulls out all the stops on here, and the album sounds very similar to the amazing work he did in his Giallo period. Both are definitely necessities for the Morriconephiles out there.