I must confess that I've never heard of Arthur B. Rubinstein, then again I've not seen any of the films featured on this double CD, promotional set which would probably explain why. In fact, I've not heard of many of these films. Stakeout and Another Stakeout are familiar, but none of the others are. The suites produced here provide an overview of each score and to be perfectly honest, probably about as much of each score as is necessary. The problem is that much of his music does tend toward fairly uninteresting underscore of a type that doesn't really work very well on CD. Even the selections that feature a main title don't really have any greatly memorable themes. It starts promisingly with a kind of Danny Elfman choir which provides some a suitably atmospheric opening to Nick of Time. The rest of the suite comprises mainly of minimalist suspense and meandering underscore that is high on mood and low on melody. Best of Times is probably the most fun selection from a comedy about some American team sport that I probably wouldn't understand the rules to. It's a great comedy score and while it's fairly generic stuff, it reminds me of Robert Folk's reasonably enjoyable music from the Police Academy series. The final tracks wants to be a mixture of Chariots of Fire, Rudy and Randy Newman's The Natural and does do a pretty good job with the heroic sports music motif and makes for an enjoyable rounding out to what is probably the most interesting selection.
Another Stakeout is a fairly suspenseful score and provides for some suitably suspenseful and exciting music and if you can get passed the inordinate amount of hiss on this selection, makes for a quite rewarding listen. The use of harmonica with the orchestra works particularly well and gives a decent twist on a fairly typical formula. Hypersapien starts off with some unidentifiable twinkling instrument along with high strings and high woodwind. By the name of the title I kind of imagined some kind of sci-fi horror film (i.e. a sub-Alien creature, the "Hypersapien), but based on the jaunty music, I'd say this isn't the case, even though there is some sci-fi element. Use of harmonica and Copland-esque styling make for a good pseudo-Randy Newman blow out.
Wargames starts disc two and is apparently a very sort after score, but based on the selection here I'm not entirely sure why. There's nothing particularly outstanding about the music and much of the time is spent with percussion hits and not a great deal else. The lack of a main title on this track is possibly a good reason why the suite isn't as interesting as it might be. The choir in Are The Russians Coming? does add some interest, but the choral writing is neither complex nor as full blooded as it could be. The sound quality of this suite leaves a great deal to be desired, possibly being the worst sounding CD I've heard outside of Bernard Herrmann bootlegs from the 1940's and 1950's. I am assured that the best sources available were used and while I don't doubt this, it seems a shame that tapes that aren't really all that old have deteriorated so much. Stakeout is perhaps a little more hard edged than the sequel score and is also pretty exciting with electric guitars wailing a la Michael Kamen and a few percussion riffs that recall some (more recent) Jerry Goldsmith. The sound on this is also rather poor, which is a shame as the music is really quite good.
The remaining two selections aren't particularly interesting and really only function as underscore and not well on their own terms. The jazzy motifs in Deal of the Century do inject some interest, but this isn't quite enough. The Hard Way has previously been released, which could explain why it sounds a lot better than many of the other selections. It has a very old fashioned Hollywood sweep to it, suggesting the kind of "big city" music that Carl Stalling would write for the classic animated shorts.
I have to say that I feel very sorry for Mr Rubinstein as clearly the years haven't been kind to the recordings of his work. It is especially disappointing that the best sections are those that are obscured the most. I don't know how much remastering of sort went on, but I would assume that not a great deal unfortunately. In terms of the music, there is a good single CD's worth of good music. Some of the less interesting selections could perhaps have been reduced to 5 minute single track suites. The good parts are represented perfectly well however. For those who are desperate to get their hands on one or other of these scores, then be warned that the sound isn't what it could, or probably should be and I have read that the Wargames selections don't highlight the score well. It will probably become difficult to find and become added to that mystical selection of composer promos, although since Rubinstein isn't a big name it should be reasonably easy to find for a while yet.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 68:03
Total Time ~ 71:46