Steiner: BETTE DAVIS FILMS

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Max Steiner's career with Warner Bros. spanned almost thirty years and included the scores for more than 150 films. Bette Davis later said of the composer: \He often improved our acting. He knew more about drama than any of us." Steiner had already collaborated on Bette Davis productions for the best part of 10 years when he was assigned to 'All This, and Heaven Too' in 1940. This story concerned unfulfilled love between the two leads and therefore called for music that would not overwhelm but reinforce the suppressed yearnings of the Davis and Boyer characters. The Warner executives originally intended extensive use of Debussy's 'La Mer' to underscore 'A Stolen Life'. however this was eventually dropped and Max Steiner was free to compose an original score. The music used within the film demonstrates Steiner's more restrained and less complex scoring, looking ahead to the style he would adopt for most of his scores composed during the fifties and beyond."