Musical quotes from other films

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by gottenbold, Dec 11, 2018.

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  1. gottenbold

    gottenbold Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    West Yorkshire
    I had the misfortune of watching some of the Eddie Murphy starrer "Daddy Day Care" last night.

    One scene finds Eddie going into the bathroom after someone has done their business. He is apprehensive about what he may find in there, and then appalled when he actually goes in.

    The music that soundtracks the scene is the iconic "stabbing violins" from Psycho. I'm pretty sure that I have come across the same musical quote used in another film as well.

    Are there any other instances of one film lifting a musical "quote" from another for a comedic, or other effect?
     
  2. Otlset

    Otlset I think I am I think

    Location:
    Temecula, CA
    The shark 'theme' from "Jaws" playing at the opening of "Airplane".

     
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  3. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    The music from Psycho was also used when Janet Leigh did her cameo in Halloween H20.

    A theme from The Crying Game was used for comic effect in Ace Ventura.
     
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  4. gottenbold

    gottenbold Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    West Yorkshire
    Ah yes. Good one!
     
  5. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Going on memory, but I think "1941" reuses the "Jaws" theme as well during the opening - in which Spielberg goes down a comedic self-plagiarism path in other ways, too!
     
  6. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    At the end of "Split", we see Bruce Willis and the theme from Unbreakable plays, signaling that the character of David Dunn will be in the sequel and in the same universe.
     
  7. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans

    "The Cannonball Run" took the p*#s out of the James Bond music, briefly using it several times throughout the movie (with Roger Moore's scenes), and they almost got sued!

    I think Hal Needham calmed Cubby Broccoli down, though...
     
  8. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy still trudgin'

    Location:
    Central Canada
  9. gabacabriel

    gabacabriel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    I seem to recall the Psycho violin stab also got used in Finding Nemo at the dentist's office.

    Could be wrong - been years since I watched it.
     
  10. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    Those five notes from Close Encounters are a key code in Moonraker.
     
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  11. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    In the film The January Man, Kevin Kline played a former detective brought back to investigate a serial killer, and the notes of the song Calendar Girl are...

    ...used to determine who he plans to kill next.
     
  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Apparently "Dueling Banjos" showed up in "Beverly Hillbillies" (movie) and "Graffiti Bridge"! :eek:
     
  13. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    How is "Calendar Girl" a musical quote from another movie?
     
  14. Witchy Woman

    Witchy Woman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Third Coast, USA
    The theme from A Summer Place was used in Animal House.
     
  15. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    It was related to the concept of a musical phrase being a "key code."
     
  16. RexKramer

    RexKramer Senior Member

    Location:
    Outside of Philly
    Though I haven't watched it, the Amazon show Homecoming uses lots of film scores: The French Connection, Body Heat, Capricorn One, The Eiger Sanction, All The President's Men and John Carpenter's The Fog and Escape From New York. It got distracting for a co-worker who's really into soundtracks.

    'Homecoming' Stars Julia Roberts & a Score of Scores, a New Soundtrack Feat

    I also remember hearing a bit of Herrmann's Vertigo score in the past few years. A quick internet search suggests it was in The Artist.

    Mark
     
  17. Frozensoda

    Frozensoda Forum Resident

    The main theme from Star Wars was in the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the scene where the garage workers take the sports car for a joy ride.
     
  18. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    The OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the thread is about movies that use music from other movies.

    Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" was never identified with a movie. I specify "identified with" because "Dueling Banjos" wasn't written for "Deliverance" but a) the version used there was arranged/recorded for the film and b) has been used as shorthand to connect to "Deliverance" and its themes by subsequent movies/TV shows.

    "Calendar Girl" has no "throwback" to a movie that used it. "January Man" didn't use it to connect to another movie...
     
  19. htom

    htom Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Michel Hazanavicius' Academy Award winning film The Artist used Bernard Herrman's "Scene d'amour" (in its entirety) from Vertigo in a scene near the end. The film also won for Best Original Score for Ludovic Bource, interestingly enough.
     
  20. Andy Smith

    Andy Smith .....Like a good pinch of snuff......

    Not quite but similar; Was please to see and hear the Stingray clip in the early scenes of Aquaman.
     
  21. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    He reuses soundtracks all the time. Like Hermann's score for Twisted Nerve which he uses in Kill Bill.

    What is interesting as well is that he used Morricone's unused pieces for The Thing in Hateful Eight.
     
  22. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    There are a few bars of ET's theme in the scene where Yoda says goodbye on the Wookie planet
     
  23. nopedals

    nopedals Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbia SC
    I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles was the main theme in Public Enemy, Cagney's breakout film. Eight years later an organ grinder plays it in the scene where Cagney comes home from WW1 in Roaring Twenties.
     
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  24. Quadboy

    Quadboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds,England
    Elvis on tour and 2001?
     
  25. wolfram

    wolfram Slave to the rhythm

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    And of course there's Yoda's theme in the Halloween scene in ET.
     
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