Let's just say there's a very good reason Max Steiner is referred to as "the father of film music".
King Kong (1933)
- King Kong's soundtrack was the first soundtrack written for an American "talkie" film, which really made history for the film industry. Steiner used a number of new film scoring techniques, such as drawing upon opera conventions for his use of leitmotifs.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
This score came in 2nd place in AFI's 25 Film Scores countdown.- Tara's Theme
is the opening music for the film, and it lets the audience know just how epic the music in the film will be.
Casablanca (1942)
- Steiner didn't actually write "As Time Goes By", but the song still became one of the most famous songs from the movie. The song became so popular and iconic, that it has since became the representative song of Warner Bros. and was also the title and theme song of the 1990s British romantic comedy series As Time Goes By.
- The "duel of the songs" from Strasser and Laszlo forms an important plot element when patrons of Rick's Café Américain, spontaneously led by Victor Laszlo, sing "La Marseillaise" to drown out Nazi officers (including the leader, Heinrich Strasser) who had started singing "Die Wacht am Rhein", thus causing Rick's to be shut down.
