1930s Films

• Fatal Lady (1936). An opera star’s career suffers when she becomes a suspect for murder. Origin of the popular song, ‘Je Vous Adore’, that Young wrote with lyricist Sam Coslow, and that appears to be forgotten today.
• Wells Fargo (1937). A sprawling, fictionalized account of the formation of the famous express service. Paramount created a 15-minute ‘short’ feature about the scoring of the film, in which Victor Young and Boris Morros figure prominently, among others.
• Ebb Tide (1937). Shipwrecked sailors fall into the hands of a religious zealot. This is the first of two films that Victor Young identified, late in his career, as his favorite film scores. Origin of the popular song, ‘Ebb Tide,’ by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin.
• Maid of Salem (1937). Young lovers run afoul of repressive society as Salem elders get caught up in the witch hunts and trials of 17th-century Massachusetts. This is the second of two films that Young identified, late in his career, as his favorite film scores.

1940s Films

• For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943). An American fights in the Spanish Civil War, falling in love along the way. Origin of the popular song, ‘A Love Like This,’ that Young wrote with lyricist Ned Washington, that is mostly forgotten today. One of Young’s most dramatic, sweeping scores, it was nominated for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

• The Uninvited (1944). London siblings buy a vacant, coastal mansion with a dark past. Origin of the popular song, ‘Stella By Starlight,’ which Young wrote with lyricist Ned Washington, considered a Standard today. The first serious Hollywood treatment of haunting, it is filled with rich, original themes, such as the spritely ‘Squirrel Chase.’
• Love Letters (1945). A WW2 GI persuades his friend to write his letters home and must face the consequences when he returns at war’s end. One source has reported that Victor’s love theme, ‘Love Letters,’ written with lyricist Ed Heyman, was the favorite song of returning GIs, which was nominated for Best Original Song, and is considered a Standard today.
• I Walk Alone (1947). A gangster returns home from prison, to find a changed town and a new way of doing business. The score is replete with well-known popular tunes, performed by a band or with a torch singer. Interestingly, Young composed his own love theme, that can be heard whenever Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster are alone together.

1950s Films

• One Minute To Zero (1952). An idealistic UN official faces grim reality, early in the Korean war, and falls in love with the officer in charge of evacuating civilians. Origin of the popular song, ‘When I Fall In Love’, written with lyricist Ed Heyman, considered a Standard today.
• Shane (1953). Landmark Western in which entrenched cattlemen and new settlers fight over land use, considered by many to be the best Western ever made. Starring Alan Ladd, the Shane theme (‘The Call Of The Faraway Hills’, written with lyricist Mack David) is largely forgotten today, but was frequently heard in the Ladd home and played at Alan’s funeral, who often cited ‘Shane’ as his favorite role.
• Strategic Air Command (1955). Rousing, Cold War epic about the development of American air power, starring real-life, WW2 bomber pilot, Jimmy Stewart. The love theme was spun off as the popular song, ‘The World Is Mine’, written with lyricist Stanley Adams, which is largely forgotten today. Also, the origin of the thrilling march, ‘The Air Force Takes Command’, written with Ned Washington and Major Tommy Thomson, Jr.
• Run Of The Arrow (1957). A gritty tale in which a Civil War veteran tries to escape his past in the unsettled West but finds he cannot avoid the ongoing conflict with Native Americans. The music score, written for Producer, Writer, and Director, Samuel Fuller, was Victor Young’s second to last full score.