Roy Budd - Film Career

Film Career

In 1967 he provided the theme tune for the Granada TV series Mr Rose, starring William Mervyn. In 1970, Budd made his film score début for director Ralph Nelson. Nelson was looking for an English composer for his controversial film, American western Soldier Blue. Budd recorded a tape of his own interpretation of music by composers Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin and Lalo Schifrin. Soldier Blue was filmed mainly in Mexico and was based, to a large degree, on a battle which took place at Sand Creek in 1864, when hundreds of Cheyenne Indians were brutally killed. Despite being intended as an 'anti-violence' Western, the film was heavily criticised for its violence. Apart from the main theme, which he based on Buffy Sainte-Marie's hit song of the same title, he composed all the music required for the film and conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who Nelson commissioned at the start of the film's production.

In 1971 he composed the music for the film Get Carter. Written and directed by Mike Hodges, Get Carter starred Michael Caine, John Osborne and Ian Hendry. The film's budget reputedly allowed only £450 for the score, but he overcame this restriction by using only three musicians, including himself playing electric piano and harpsichord simultaneously. He later worked for the producer Euan Lloyd on films, including Paper Tiger, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and Who Dares Wins. He also provided the soundtrack to the 1971 film version of Kidnapped.

He was asked by Ralph Nelson to compose the music to Flight of the Doves, starring Ron Moody, Jack Wilde and Stanley Holloway. Budd worked with Dana who sung the films theme. In 1973 Budd recorded the score to Fear Is the Key, which was based on the Alistair MacLean novel. It was directed by Michael Tuchner and starred Suzy Kendall, Barry Newman, John Vernon, Ben Kingsley and Ray McAnally. Whilst recording the score, Budd was influenced by Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Kenny Baker, thus giving the music a jazz-sounding theme. Scott played the saxophone for the car chase sequence, which took place alongside the Mississippi River. According to Tuchner, "the sequence needed to be recorded in a continuous ten-minute plus take, whilst hitting split-second action cues so as to blend perfectly with the chase sound effects. Budd and his orchestra achieved this in just two takes".