CINEFILER

Murray Cutter

Born
March 15, 1902
Died
April 19, 1983
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Murray Cutter (15 March 1902, Nice, France – 19 April 1983, Burbank, California) was a versatile Hollywood orchestrator, working mainly for film composer Max Steiner, with over 150 credits spanning the mid-thirties to early 1960s. Nevertheless, he remains relatively unknown except for the much-loved original arrangement of Judy Garland's Over the Rainbow, which continues to be sampled by modern filmmakers. Similar to fellow arranger Alexander Courage, Cutter's name has tended to be overshadowed by the popularity of the composers with whom he was most associated. Cutter was unusual among orchestrators who tended to specialize, in that he was adept in all genres: musicals (New Moon, Kismet, The Desert Song); romantic drama (Waterloo Bridge, A Summer Place); adventure (Northwest Passage, The Caine Mutiny); family/comedy (National Velvet, Sugarfoot); suspense (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Key Largo); epics ("Helen of Troy"); and westerns (The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Johnny Belinda and The Searchers). An early assignment were the vocal arrangements for the 1937 film version of Rosalie, which ten years before had been orchestrated for Broadway by Steiner. At MGM Cutter worked for Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy on The Wizard of Oz. Under the loose musical direction of Herbert Stothart he contributed the "metallic sound" for the Tin Woodman's If I Only Had a Heart. Cutter told Oz historian Aljean Harmetz for "Over the Rainbow" he made it sound as pretty as he could with lots of strings and a touch of woodwind. After the war he collaborated most closely with Steiner during his golden period with Warner Brothers. Their work on A Summer Place netted them a US #1 hit for the insistent theme song. Joining ASCAP in 1946, Cutter occasionally wrote original music for the screen but rarely received a credit. His last credit, along with Steiner, was for Disney's forgettable Those Calloways in 1965. No known Broadway credits are recorded for him.
Known For
White Heat
(1949)
Orchestrator
The Caine Mutiny
(1954)
Orchestrator
Caged
(1950)
Orchestrator
The Flame and the Arrow
(1950)
Orchestrator
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
(1948)
Orchestrator
Key Largo
(1948)
Orchestrator
The Hanging Tree
(1959)
Orchestrator
Distant Drums
(1951)
Orchestrator
The Violent Men
(1955)
Orchestrator
Three Strangers
(1946)
Orchestrator
Adventures of Don Juan
(1948)
Orchestrator
Silver River
(1948)
Orchestrator
Conquest
(1937)
Orchestrator
Rome Adventure
(1962)
Orchestrator
Come Live with Me
(1941)
Orchestrator
The Iron Mistress
(1952)
Orchestrator
Full Filmography
Sound
Conquest
(1937)
Orchestrator
Broadway Melody of 1938
(1937)
Music Arranger
Double Wedding
(1937)
Orchestrator
The Women Men Marry
(1937)
Orchestrator
Billy Rose's Casa Mañana Revue
(1938)
Orchestrator
The Captain's Pup
(1938)
Orchestrator
Mannequin
(1938)
Orchestrator
Babes in Arms
(1939)
Orchestrator
Comrade X
(1940)
Orchestrator
Ziegfeld Girl
(1941)
Orchestrator
Come Live with Me
(1941)
Orchestrator
The White Cliffs of Dover
(1944)
Orchestrator
Danger Signal
(1945)
Orchestrator
Three Strangers
(1946)
Orchestrator
Shadow of a Woman
(1946)
Orchestrator
Deep Valley
(1947)
Music Arranger
The Unfaithful
(1947)
Music Arranger
Love and Learn
(1947)
Music Arranger
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
(1948)
Orchestrator
Key Largo
(1948)
Orchestrator
Adventures of Don Juan
(1948)
Orchestrator
Winter Meeting
(1948)
Orchestrator
Silver River
(1948)
Orchestrator
White Heat
(1949)
Orchestrator
The Flame and the Arrow
(1950)
Orchestrator
Caged
(1950)
Orchestrator
Rocky Mountain
(1950)
Orchestrator
Lightning Strikes Twice
(1951)
Orchestrator
Jim Thorpe – All-American
(1951)
Orchestrator
Raton Pass
(1951)
Orchestrator
Distant Drums
(1951)
Orchestrator
Sugarfoot
(1951)
Orchestrator
Room for One More
(1952)
Orchestrator
The Iron Mistress
(1952)
Orchestrator
Mara Maru
(1952)
Orchestrator
The Caine Mutiny
(1954)
Orchestrator
The Violent Men
(1955)
Orchestrator
Escapade in Japan
(1957)
Orchestrator
The Hanging Tree
(1959)
Orchestrator
The FBI Story
(1959)
Orchestrator
John Paul Jones
(1959)
Orchestrator
Susan Slade
(1961)
Orchestrator
Parrish
(1961)
Orchestrator
A Majority of One
(1961)
Orchestrator
Rome Adventure
(1962)
Orchestrator
Two on a Guillotine
(1965)
Orchestrator
Data provided by TMDB