Hollywood's Musical Moods (1972)

During the era of the silent film, movies were never really silent. Hidden in plain sight behind the films that made figures like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton into cultural icons, were the musical giants whose compositions defined the very films that captivated a generation of movie-goers. "Hollywood's Musical Moods" is an intimate conversation with some then-living legends from a bygone golden age of Hollywood, a freeze-frame of an era where music exemplified the magic of the movies as much as any leading lad or lady. At a time when new technologies were shaping a rapidly-changing film industry as a whole, musical inventions such as the mighty Wurlitzer organ and the ethereal Theremin made the job of these geniuses a true exploration in creating emotion. Directed with an unobtrusive eye, this hour-long feature lets these masters of mood and music, as well as some of their iconic works, speak for themselves. Sincere interviews are intercut with nostalgic clips and classic scenes to showcase the sheer power with which these scores could command the films for which they were written.