Elvis Mitchell on John Barry's Overlooked Gems -- and Enduring Influence

Some of Barry's finest work was for films in which the manly heroes flung themselves into miscalculated enterprises, such as his luminous score for the 1968 heist film Deadfall, again featuring Michael Caine as an out-of-his-depth burglar, mirroring the film's failed attempt to add emotional weight to the genre. (Barry worked more often than Caine; not only did he score four of Caine's '60s films, but the composer averaged four scores a year during that decade.)

The highlight of Deadfall is an extended robbery sequence given a dolorous crackle by "Romance for Guitar and Orchestra," a Barry piece with hints of Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concerto de Aranjuez." In his piece, Rodrigo practiced a musical version of crosscutting -- balancing guitar and strings, and creating a harmonic tension -- that presaged Barry's own work. It was perhaps the most haunting reverberation between mentor and de facto protégé ever for the screen. And, legend has it that Barry had to quickly hammer out his version after the producers decided they couldn't afford to buy the rights to "Concerto de Aranjuez" for the film. (Deadfall also offers a chance to see Barry at work; he's conducting "Romance" onscreen at a concert while Caine stages a burglary.)

It's unfortunately easy to detail a study of great Barry scores for movies that shouldn't be seen, or even scores for films that surfaced and sank quickly, such as writer/director James Bridges' most personal film, Mike's Murder -- in which Debra Winger discovers the gay life her friend-with-benefits led after his death. (It could stand to be remade.) But I found myself thinking of an Orbital song upon hearing of Barry's death: "The Girl with the Sun in her Head." Orbital used the title of Barry's "The Girl with the Sun in her Hair" -- a wistful tilt he did initially for a '60 British shampoo commercial and later gave an extended treatment -- as a launch point, and Orbital's take throbs into life with the sound of a beating heart. Barry provided the spark for their best and most complex recording ever, one that not only toys with synth arrangements against a backbeat that could've been a Hartnoll brothers' tribute to Barry's own duality, but which also reminds us that somewhere, John Barry lives on.

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