La battaglia di Maratona

Digitmovies presents the seventh volume of the anthological series dedicated to the original soundtracks of the Italian Peplum releasing for the first time the complete original motion picture soundtrack by Roberto Nicolosi for the 1959 movie “La battaglia di maratona” (aka “The giant of Marathon”) directed by Jacques Tourneur and Bruno Vailati (for the underwater sequences) with the special effects and the photography by the great Mario Bava. The movie stars the mighty Steve Reeves as Philippides, just winner at the Olympic Games of 490 B.C. He comes to defend his country against the invasion of the Persian and against some Athens betrayers. The movie, shot in widescreen format, is one of the best motion pictures of this genre with exciting scenes of naval battles and fascinating underwater sequences. The cast was enriched by noted faces of the big screen like the beautiful French actress Mylène Demongeot (as Andromeda), who few years later appeared in the role of the dynamic Parisian journalist in the “cult” movie series of “Fantomas”, Daniela Rocca (Karis), Sergio Fantoni (the villain Teocrito), Alberto Lupo (Milziade), Daniele Vargas (Darius, king of the Persians) and Ivo Garrani (Creso).This project was again made possible thanks to the big help of the C.A.M. friends, in whose archives the 1959 mono master tapes have been preserved until today. The big discovery made in the C.A.M. archives is a paper page with a written tracks list for an album (that never saw the light of day) prepared by the author himself. Our CD contains every music note recorded that time, chronologically sequenced as heard in the movie. For artistic and historic purpose, we have also respected the edits made by M° Nicolosi himself in 1959. Roberto Nicolosi has written an epic symphonic score introduced by a heroic theme for brass, strings and percussions that becomes the “Philippides Theme” (Tr.1), then reprised with a coda of fanfares (Tr.2) and in the conclusive “Maratona Finale” (Tr.21). The score is rich of dramatic battle themes and action music (Tr.6, Tr.13, Tr.14, Tr.18, Tr.19, Tr.20) that are counterpoints of the romantic love theme for Philippides and Andromeda (Tr3, Tr.9, Tr.10, Tr.12). Source music (like Palace music) is also enclosed (Tr.5). As bonus track we include an alternate take (Tr.22) of “Battaglia navale”. Another “Must” rescue of the Italian “Golde Age” and another record to add to the always growing discography of Roberto Nicolosi.