Louis Levy (film composer)

Louis Levy (born November 28, 1894 in London , United Kingdom , † August 18, 1957 in Slough , United Kingdom) was a British composer and film composer .

Live and act

Louis Levy had already come into contact with music as a seven-year-old when he began to learn to play the violin. He later became a pupil of Guido Papini , but soon had to continue his self-taught training due to lack of money from his parents . Levy's undeniable talent earned him a scholarship from the London College of Music . The papini teaching there insisted on teaching Levy, this time without pay. Levy made his first contact with cinematography as early as 1910 and composed and arranged silent films as a musical companion. In 1916 Louis Levy was appointed musical director of the New Gallery Cinema in London, five years later Shepherd's Bush Pavilion hired him as musical director. In the following years Levy was the first film composer to develop the principle of the theme song in a film - a principle that was soon copied heavily by American films.

Soon after the introduction of the talkies, Levy was hired by Gaumont British Studios as their music director. As a result, Levy's rise to become one of the greatest composers in British cinema began in 1933. His collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock made him known beyond the national borders of Great Britain , whose central productions, especially in the 1930s, were accompanied by music by Levy. Levy also set a number of comedies by Will Hay, who was very popular in England at the time . At the same time, Louis Levy had his own broadcast on the BBC radio series Music From the Movies in 1936. Levy, who was extremely productive both as a composer and as musical director, and who by no means always received credit for his contributions to the composition, often worked with colleagues including Peter Yorke , Bretton Byrd , Hubert Bath , Leighton Lucas , Bob Busby and the Austrian Hans May . In some important films in his late working phase, Levy only worked as a conductor (e.g. Moby Dick and 1984 ).

Filmography

Until 1943 mainly composition, then only as musical director

• 1925: Miracle of Love (She)
• 1928: balaclava
• 1929: High Treason
• 1930: Just for a Song
• 1930: Alf's Button
• 1931: No Lady
• 1931: The Stronger Sex
• 1932: Baroud
• 1932: The Faithful Heart
• 1933: The Ghoul
• 1933: Waltz Time
• 1933: Sleeping Car
• 1933: Channel Crossing
• 1934: Forbidden Territory
• 1934: Wild Boy
• 1934: My Old Dutch
• 1934: Dirty Work
• 1934: Princess Charming
• 1934: My Heart is Calling
• 1935: Heat Wave
• 1935: Oh, Daddy!
• 1935: Hyde Park Corner
• 1935: Stormy Weather
• 1935: The 39 Steps (The 39 Steps)
• 1936: Secret Agent (Secret Agent)
• 1936: Tudor Rose
• 1936: His Lordship
• 1936: Everybody Dance
• 1936: East Meets West
• 1936: sabotage
• 1937: Otto, put the brakes on (Oh, Mr. Porter)
• 1937: King Solomon's Mines
• 1937: The Great Barrier
• 1937: Non-Stop New York
• 1937: Young and Innocent (Young and Innocent)
• 1938: Crackerjack
• 1938: Old Iron
• 1938: A Lady Vanishes (The Lady Vanishes)
• 1938: The Citadel (The Citadel)
• 1938: The Lambeth Walk
• 1939: Shipyard Sally
• 1940: Neutral Port
• 1940: Night Train to Munich
• 1941: Cottage to Let
• 1942: The Young Mr. Pitt
• 1942: Uncensored
• 1943: We Dive at Dawn
• 1943: The Man in Gray (The Man in Gray)
• 1943: Millions Like Us
• 1944: Gaslight and Shadow (Fanny by Gaslight)
• 1945: Three Marriages (They Were Sisters)
• 1945: The Woman without a Heart (The Wicked Lady)
• 1946: Dangerous journey (caravan)
• 1946: Paganini (The Magic Bow)
• 1947: Have fun (Holiday Camp)
• 1947: The Root of All Evil
• 1947: Gypsy blood (Jassy)
• 1948: Man on the Run
• 1948: The madness of Dr. Clive (obsession)
• 1949: Slave of the Heart (Under Capricorn)
• 1949: Counted Hours (The Hasty Heart)
• 1950: Holidays like never before (Last Holiday)
• 1950: Warning! Cairo ... Opium Smugglers (Cairo Road)
• 1950: Who Laughs Last (Laughter in Paradise)
• 1950: The King's Admiral (Captain Horatio Hornblower RN)
• 1951: With use of the kitchen (Young Wives' Tales)
• 1952: When the Heart Speaks (So ​​Little Time)
• 1952: Where's Charley?
• 1952: The Yellow Balloon
• 1953: Adventure in Algiers (South of Algiers)
• 1954: The Castle Ghost (Happy Ever After)
• 1954: For Better For Worse
• 1954: Duel in the Jungle
• 1954: The Black Prince (The Dark Avenger)
• 1954: May 1943 - The Dam Busters
• 1955: It's Great to be Young
• 1956: Yield to the Night
• 1956: Tarzan and the Lost Safari
• 1956: The Woman of My Longing (Let's Be Happy)
• 1957: Small Hotel
• 1957: The woman in a dressing gown (Woman in a Dressing Gown)
• 1957: The Young and the Guilty

literature

• Jürgen Wölfer, Roland Löper: The large lexicon of film composers, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, p. 309 f.

Web links

• Louis Levy in the Internet Movie Database (English)