MING, RAGAZZI!

Digitmovies is glad to present for the very first time on CD the complete OST in full stereo by Carlo Savina for the movie “Ming,ragazzi!” (aka “Schiaffoni e Karate”- “Mr. Hercules Against Karate” - “Zwei tolle Hunde in Hongkong” ) directed in 1973 by Antonio Margheriti and starring Tom Scott (Alberto Terracina) , Fred Harris (Fernando Arrien), George Wang, Suwe Chang, Alan Collins, Robert Luao, Chang Lee, Renzo Marignano, Jolina Mitchell, Frank Nuyen. This motion picture, written by Sergio Donati and produced by Carlo Ponti, was realized after the big success of the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies, but also by tipping a wink to the so many productions of the “Kung-fu” genre made in Hong Kong. The two protagonists, one of them big with moustaches and beard, the other blonde and thin, both of them reprising the elements of the most famous comedy duos of the screen, dive into an amusing and wild adventure based on fists and Karate which sees them travelling to Australia, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Italy fighting against big villains and flirting with beautiful girls. Producer Ponti supplied a nice budget not only for the international locations, but also for the score which got performed by a symphonic orchestra. Our present CD project with a duration of 46:13 is possible thanks to the Savina estate which has preserved in its archives two ½” master tapes with the complete recording session in stereo done on the 3th September of 1973 at Ortophonic Recording Studios (today Forum Village) in Rome with Sergio Marcotulli as sound engineer. At that time not one note was issued on 33 rpm or 45 rpm and only today after almost forty years this cool score can see the light of day on record. Carlo Savina has written a pleasant and lively symphonic main theme in a beat style introduced in the “Main Titles” (Tr.1), a motif in an Americana, almost Western style with solo performances of French horns, harpsichord, electric guitars together with the whole orchestra….to sum up all the instruments typical of the action and adventure cinema. Savina reprises this brilliant motif in Tr.3, Tr.4,Tr.5, Tr.11 and in “Finale” (Tr.16) and alternates it with mysterious and action music with an Eastern flavour (Tr.6, Tr.7, Tr.8, Tr.9, Tr.12,Tr.14) and some Lounge music (Tr.2,Tr.8,Tr.10,Tr.13,Tr.15).With this CD we want to rescue and and preserve another OST from the Italian Silver Age as a sincere tribute to the music art of Carlo Savina.