The Tamarind Seed

1974

No Commercial Soundtrack Release

The Movie

I never saw this movie--the one time it played I came in half-way through. If it ever comes out on DVD in region 1, I'll jump on it. In the meantime, the Internet Movie Database has an eloquent synopsis:

I can understand why some find the movie plodding - it certainly is by most spy movie standards. But it's trying to do something different - and admirably succeeding - one just feels the existence of the Iron Curtain here, and one feels the Andrews character making her point that at the heart of the Cold War are questions about the value to be given an individual human being by the state, the value of truth as capturing measurable facts, the value of allowing people to live by their own goals and values rather than those determined by the state.

Interesting. Sounds as if Ayn Rand had written a spy story.

The Music

Writer/Director Blake Edwards is known primarily for two things: he makes comedies and he uses Henry Mancini scores (as Edwards explained, "when you've got a good tailor, you keep buying the suits."). This movie was an instance where neither of those applied. The Tamarind Seed was a drama and the only one of his movies to feature a John Barry score, which unfortunately didn't get a soundtrack release. The only music I'm familiar with here is the wonderful "Play It Again," which shows up on various compilations.

Release Notes

There was no commercial soundtrack release. The photo I put here is from a bootleg edition that includes music from The Glass Menagerie (if you're going to bootleg unreleased music, might as well add as much as you can). The main theme, "Play It Again" shows up on various compilations such as The Best of John Barry, The Very Best of John Barry and the aptly titled LP Play It Again. Nic Raine recorded the title for The Collection and a suite for his compilation Zulu.