Pre-Owned Hollywoodland [Original Soundtrack] (CD 0602517060395) by Original Soundtrack

0602517060395. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Director Allen Coulter's 2006 film Hollywoodland, a crime drama that imaginatively explores the life and mysterious death of actor George Reeves, best known as the star of the '50s television series Superman, has spawned two albums, one released by Varèse Sarabande containing composer Marcelo Zarvos' score, and this one, a "music from the motion picture" collection released by Universal's Decca imprint, containing period and source music. (The term "source music" refers to music heard in a movie that has a realistic source, e.g., a song coming out of a car radio, as opposed to the background score.) Divorced from the screen, it is just a miscellaneous album by various artists, most of them from the '40s and '50s, mixing swing, traditional pop, post-bop jazz, R&B, and rock & roll. Reeves died of a gunshot to the head on June 16, 1959, his death ruled a suicide by police, although that has long been questioned, and in the film a fictional private detective played by Adrien Brody investigates, with numerous flashbacks to the life of Reeves, played by Ben Affleck. Two of the tracks date from after Reeves' death: Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae" was a hit in the fall of 1959, and Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart" came out in the fall of 1960. That may make them slightly anachronistic in the context of the film, although the listener isn't likely to be bothered. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi