If you seen even a couple of old school 50's genre flicks, be they westerns, war flicks, noir, or horror, then you have heard the music of Paul Dunlap. Starting his career in 1950 with
The Baron Of Arizona, directed by Sam Fuller and starring Vincent Price, Dunlap supplied a steady body of work to films up until 1980, with his last work being for the movie
Gorp.
Mr. Dunlap's music credits are extensive, and very familiar, especially to AIP (American International Pictures) fans. Titles include
Cry Danger, The Lost Continent, Target: Earth, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, How To Make A Monster, The Four Skulls Of Johnathan Drake, The Angry Red Planet, Destination: Inner Space,
The Destructors, and the later Three Stooges features including
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules.
Dunlap's sense of mood and bombast perfectly offset and helped to magnify the audacious and exciting nature of the genres he worked in.
This news indeed comes a bit late, as I literally just found out about his passing moments ago. But Mr. Dunlap passed away in his Palm Springs, CA home on March 11, 2010.
A true giant of genre film music, and a one-of-a-kind, Mr. Dunlap may have shuffled off this mortal coil, but he has indeed found immortality through celluloid.
Here is a belated RIP, and condolences to his family, friends, and fans
(of which I am one)
Honor him, and check out some of his amazing work in the video below.