Press Release from Dragon's Domain:
Dragon’s Domain Records presents the world premiere release of the original motion picture soundtrack for DEATH HUNT, featuring music composed by Jerrold Immel (HOW THE WEST WAS WON, DALLAS, MEGAFORCE) for the 1981 action adventure film directed by Peter R. Hunt (ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE), written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, starring Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Andrew Stevens, Carl Weathers, Ed Lauter, Scott Hylands, Jon Cedar, William Sanderson, Maury Chaykin, August Schellenberg, Len Lesser and Henry Beckman.
Yukon Territory, November 1931... On his way to Rat River, trapper Albert Johnson (Bronson) comes across an organized dog fight. Johnson breaks up the fight as one of the dogs is fatally injured. Johnson offers the dog’s owner, Hazel (Lauter), money to buy it but Hazel takes offense to Johnson’s intrusion and vows to catch up to him.
Later, Hazel takes several of his men and follows Johnson to an isolated cabin where he has been keeping to himself and allowing the dog time to heal from its wounds. After an unsuccessful attempt to ambush Johnson, the dog is killed and while Johnson is trying to defend himself from Hazel’s mob, he kills one of the men.
Hazel returns to the nearest town at Rat River to report what’s happened to Sergeant Edgar Millen (Marvin), the officer in charge of the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police outpost. Millen is suspicious of Hazel’s interpretation of the events that have occurred. He reluctantly agrees to investigate Hazel’s story and forms a posse and sets out for the cabin.
Arriving at the cabin, Millen attempts to parlay with Johnson, expressing his suspicions about Hazel’s claims and offering Johnson his protection if he will return to the outpost until his case can be heard by a judge. The parlay is disrupted by one of Hazel’s men opening fire on Johnson and in the course of defending himself, Johnson kills more of Hazel’s men. Johnson is now well fortified inside the cabin while the posse is outside, with the disadvantage of having to deal with night falling and the temperature dropping.
Later in the evening, Millen has one of his men prepare some dynamite to use on the cabin. After the dynamite goes off, some of the men approach the cabin and Johnson suddenly appears, opening fire and killing one of Millen’s men. Johnson disappears in the aftermath, setting off one of the largest manhunts in the history of the region...
DEATH HUNT was produced by Raymond Chow, along with veteran producer Albert S. Ruddy and Canadian producer Murray Shostak. Ruddy had achieved great success producing films such as THE GODFATHER and THE LONGEST YARD and many hours of television on shows such as HOW THE WEST WAS WON and was one of the creators of HOGAN’S HEROES.
To score DEATH HUNT, Albert S. Ruddy turned to composer Jerrold Immel, with whom he had a relationship based on employing him for the television series of HOW THE WEST WAS WON, which eventually evolved into THE MACAHANS, starring James Arness of GUNSMOKE fame.
Jerrold Immel was born in September, 1936 in Los Angeles, California, in the middle of the Great Depression. His father was a fine musician and taught band, orchestra and chorus for many years. In 1951, he joined the American Federation of Musicians and played baritone sax. Immel signed on with Four Star Television in 1959, where he was trained thoroughly as a copyist and librarian. In 1964, he followed composer Herschel Gilbert to CBS Television, where he continued to work until 1973. He was sponsored by composer Jerry Fielding into the Composers and Lyricists Guild Of America. Immel had a successful career composing music for television projects such as GUNSMOKE, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, HAWAII FIVE-O, LOGAN’S RUN, WALKER, KNOTS LANDING, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, GUNS OF PARADISE and WALKER, TEXAS RANGER and many television films. His most famous work is the theme music for the night time soap opera DALLAS. Immel has also scored many theatrical films including SOURDOUGH, MEGAFORCE and PROGRAMMED TO KILL.
Dragon’s Domain Records presents DEATH HUNT, featuring music composed by Jerrold Immel for the first time on compact disc, including liner notes written by Mike Joffe. The music has been remastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland.
