TOP 100 HENRY MANCINI FILMS: THE SYSTEM & HONORABLE MENTIONS

That's me walking on the official Henry Mancini Bridge in West Aliquippa, PA.
Photo by Peter Mich.

To celebrate the late, great film composer Henry Mancini’s centenary, Digging Star Wars will share the Top 100 Henry Mancini films in 10 x 10 fashion: in increments of ten films over the ten weeks leading up to Mancini’s birthday on April 16, 2024. On February 4, 2024, we begin with Films 100 to 91. Yes, we go last to first in David Letterman's Top 10 style. Did you know that Mancini wrote a song for the Letterman show? It’s true. Look.

    

Learn more about Mr. Mancini by reading this short Henry Mancini biography written by yours truly.

To complete this Top 100 list, I have (so far) screened and rated all but 11 films out of the 155 films Henry Mancini composed music for and devised a system to rank all of Henry Mancini’s films. However, I wanted the Top 100 to reflect what fans, scholars, film critics, industry experts, and I thought of each film and how they stack up against each other. This is where “the system” comes in.

THE SYSTEM

The system is designed to balance out what critics, fans (including me), academia, and the film/music industry think of various titles of Henry Mancini’s film titles – both theatrical releases and made-for-TV movies.

A Few Things to Consider

I rank every film I see by giving the film a 1–5 star rating on the following: Director, Cast, Screenplay, Cinematography, Special Effects/Animation, Music, and Costumes. From those rankings, I average an overall rating between 1 to 5 stars. I came by method from a Movies Log Book designed in Middletown, DE, and published in May 2021.

In April 2022, I completed a lengthy statistics paper on the films of Henry Mancini entitled Crazy World: A Gender and Racial Study of the Films, Music, and Online Fandom of Henry Mancini. The paper was never published but I mined a significant amount of industry and fandom data on all of Mancini’s filmography. 35 participants from four different online film groups completed a 50-question survey. Questions included “favorite Mancini movie”, “favorite soundtrack”, and “favorite song”.

Since I started this project, I have purchased every Mancini soundtrack or compilation on Compact Disc or Vinyl Record in all my record stores, thrift stores, library sales, and yard sale travels. I purposely stayed away from just blanketly purchasing every soundtrack online for the thrill of the hunt. My physical copies shopping has yielded not only studio-issued soundtracks but also some funky covers. 

Screenings of the Mancini films took place online, via physical media and/or theatre venues.

My movie club at work talks about a variety of movies. Mancini’s work has come up organically in conversation with other members of the club.

In a streaming content world, the term “movie” has been redefined when it comes to distribution – and that is why I entertained made-for-TV or straight-to-video features of Henry Mancini. However, I did compensate for the lack of a theatrical release.

So, how does it work?

Each Mancini title receives a score which is the total sum of the following:

• My 1–5-star individual overall rating as listed on Letterboxd

• An extra point is I “liked” the title on Letterboxd

• Number of “favorite” votes received in my ‘Crazy World’ academic research

• Number of mentions in ‘Crazy World” paper based on academic and industry research

• Number of nominations/awards as listed on IMDB.com

• IMDB film rating (1-10 stars)

• Rotten Tomatoes Critics Rating (0-100)

• Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating (0-100)

• Letterboxd average rating (1-5 stars)

• 1 point for “Top Song” of the year on my SPOTIFY Wrapped 

• Number of times I’ve seen the film

• 10 points if the Mancini soundtrack is in my collection

• 1 point for each time a track of the Mancini film appears on a compilation album

• 1 point for each mention on the Digging Star Wars Blog and/or my work movie club

• 1 point for theatrical release or screening (TV-only screenings score a zero here)

AN EXAMPLE 

Let’s take a film that didn’t make the TOP 100 to see how the scoring works in real life. Here are the results of Ghost Dad (1990) starring Bill Cosby and featuring a score by Henry Mancini. 

• My Letterboxd rating = 1

• Any “liked” point? No = 0

• Fan research votes = 0

• Paper mentions = 2 

• IMDB.com nominations/awards = 3

• IMDB film rating = 4.4

• Rotten Tomatoes Critics Rating = 6

• Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rating = 32

• Letterboxd average rating = 3

• SPOTIFY Top Song? No = 0

• Number of my screenings = 1

• Own Soundtrack? No = 0

• Points for any compilation appearances? No = 0

• Blog and/or work movie club mentions = 1

• Theatrical release? Yes = 1

• TOTAL SCORE = 53.4

As you can see, the most impactful numbers come from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. This is the case for most films in the Top 100. My factors – my rating, academic research, Spotify/Blog/Movie Club points, Soundtrack possession, et cetera – help shift titles a few places. If Ghost Dad scored just 3.2 more points – it would have been our #100 film. But it didn’t and so it will not be listed in the Top 100.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Here are some more films that didn’t make the Top 100 but I really, really liked them for various reasons. By listing these 10, I also hope to shed more light on the scoring and project…and give you a sneak peek at the upcoming 10x10 format.

Honorable Mention: Horizons West (1952)

The real trick to making a legit list is finding titles Mancini wrote anything for – from a simple cue to the theme song to the entire soundtrack. While I used IMDB and Letterboxd a great deal to discover wayward films from long ago, two books were invaluable in hunting down Mancini’s filmography. The first is his autobiography entitled “Did They Mention the Music?” – a great book co-written by Gene Lees. The second is "Henry Mancini….Reinventing Film Music" by John Caps. It’s due to Caps book that I knew Mancini wrote some cues, uncredited mind you, for Horizons West (1952).

Honorable Mention: The Tattered Dress (1957)

While most of the film has pretty bland writing and acting, the soundtrack to The Tattered Dress (1957) cooks. It should also be noted that the music credit in the opening titles lists Frank Skinner for music and Joseph Gershenson for Music Supervision. Skinner and Mancini both worked for Gershenson at Universal and often the music composers would go uncredited. Mancini loved his time at Universal and often referred to it as his “Graduate Studies” as he scored a wide variety of films both credited and uncredited (like this one) and learned a lot from each picture.

Honorable Mention: Sam Cade (1972)

When I started this project, I wanted to keep it to strictly theatrically-released Mancini films. But more and more, streaming movies of today seem to gain equal, if not more, clout than those in the theaters. I gave in to include Mancini TV movies. To avoid including individual TV series or mini-series for fear of NEVER being able to watch everything, I permitted made-for-TV movies that were two hours or under to be included. And I’m glad I did. Movies like Sam Cade (1972) are really fun to watch and have some enjoyable Mancini themes and soundtracks.

Honorable Mention: The Land Unknown (1957)

You may be wondering, “What does any of this Mancini stuff have to do with Star Wars? After all, the blog is called Digging Star Wars.” To answer that, very little. But! There will be moments where a blatant Star Wars connection will be made. For now, all I can write about The Land Unknown (1957) from a Star Wars perspective is that this “land” is very Degobahian. 

Honorable Mention: Man Afraid (1957)

Man Afraid (1957) is an unnerving film noir that mixes religion, children, and stalkers.  It also has a pretty bizarre finale. Just too weird not to mention.

Honorable Mention: Justin Case (1988)

Like Sam Cade (1972), this little ditty of a TV movie is just delightful. It’s like candy-flavored noir with George Carlin playing a murdered gumshoe turned angel.

Honorable Mention: Six Bridges to Cross (1955)

It’s a major award! Six Bridges to Cross (1955) was an award our blog won in the 2023 Summer #classicfilmreading Challenge – hosted by the Out of the Past classic film blog. Its Mancini-written theme song – recorded by the incomparable Sammy Davis, Jr.  - would be Mancini’s first “moderate” hit.

Honorable Mention: Son of the Pink Panther (1993)

Why do I include all the Pink Panther movies? I didn’t. Only the ones that were released in Henry Mancini’s lifetime. Each film is different and Mancini brought new cues, tunes, and takes on the classic theme each time. And Son of the Pink Panther (1993) may be my highest rated scored Pink Panther film because I found it very, very funny and playful. Most others on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes did not.

Honorable Mention: Moment to Moment (1966)

What a strange and wonderful movie! Also, a song that scored my Spotify #1 listened-to song in my 2023 wrapped. I listened to this song 86 times in 2023. Just couldn’t get enough of it. Now, another Mancini film on the list scored a previous year as my most listened-to song according to Spotify Wrapped AND it did make the Top 100. It also eked out a notch up because of my Spotify scoring – so, the system works.

Honorable Mention: In the Pink of the Night (1969)

This is the only Pink Panther cartoon listed on Letterboxd which made it THE sample of the cartoon that I would include for Top 100 consideration. Sadly, Rotten Tomatoes had no data on this title (like many of the films that didn’t make our Top 100). But rules are rules. But this short is cute. You should check it out. It was also the very last film I watched in 2023.

And that’s all our Honorable Mentions. Be sure to come back and visit our blog in early February as the countdown from the #100 Henry Mancini film to the surprising #1 begins with the first 10 x 10 installment: #100-91.