a look at the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou

Introduction
Well how shall I put it, "Ace up my sleeve" is not a controversial movie or anything, but opinions about it differ greatly to say the least. Personally I think the plot (based on the novel by James Hadley Chase) is not very plausible nor that interesting, while acting is sub-standard despite names like Omar Sharif, Karen Black and Joseph Bottoms. Surely not a film I would have cared for if it hadn't been for Vangelis' score.

Unfortunately the original score of "Ace up my sleeve" has never officially been released, so the best way to hear it is to find a copy of the film. The music heard in the film is similar in sound to "Heaven and Hell", with a couple of interesting themes and more incidental cues. There are also two funky songs played in the movie that are recognisably by Vangelis, only short snippets unfortunately, to this day it remains a mystery who the performing singers are...

Details and Credits
Ace up my sleeve (Germany, 1975)

also known as

Length: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ivan Passer

Screenplay by Jesse Lasky Jr., William Richert, Ivan Passer, Pat Silver
Music: Vangelis Papathanassiou

Executive producer: Barney Bernhard
Producer: Robert L. Abrams
Produced by Gloria Films

Copyright 1975 Film Cine Produktions GMBH

Cast

Media
For a long time the movie was only available on VHS, then finally in 2005 a DVD appears in Greece:

DVD
2005 Audio Visual Enterprises S.A. Greece (region 2 - PAL)

VHS
UK/Germany/Holland/France/Australia/Sweden/Greece (PAL)
USA/Japan (NTSC)

Beware of the USA release, it does NOT contain the score by Vangelis. Avoid the German release if possible, it is cut short on the end-titles and thus misses a part of Vangelis' score. Unfortunately the Greek DVD is based on this German "Frankenstein's Spukschloss".

All released versions are presented in 4:3 video format and a mono audiotrack. Copies of any video are scarce, even the more recent Greek DVD release already is hard to track down where it doesn't seem to have been distributed widely.

Synopsis
"When Andre Ferren (Omar Sharif), a light-hearted international speculator is down on his luck, what better than to marry his bed and business partner (Karen Black) to his most agressive creditor. When things go wrong however, intrigue, psychological tricks and elemental logic are cleverly interwoven to create an adult fairytale. Full of surprise twists, the climax of "Ace up my sleeve" makes this film one that will not easily be forgotten."