tion, American Beauty) plus some vintage 1930's sides featured in the film performed by Eddie Cantor, Bud Freeman and his Windy City Five, Miff Mole and his Molers and Roane's Pennsylvanians. Decca. 2005.

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For this movie about 1930s boxer Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe), director Ron Howard interrupted his longtime collaboration with composer James Horner and teamed up with Thomas Newman. Its a wise decision: Newman has a lighter touch and his somber palette emphasizes the fact that Cinderella Man is more thoughtful drama than mere brawling flick (even a track titled "Pugilism" eschews obvious punchiness in favor of ominous, rolling tribal-like percussion. Elsewhere, "Weehawken Ferry" illustrates Newman's ability to write swelling, majestic music that's not bombastic. Typical of the subdued approach is Paul Giamattis version of "Londonderry Air," which he delicately whistles. The score is interspersed with a few lovely Depression-era tunes such as Chicago tenor saxist Bud Freemans "Tillie¹s Downtown Now," Roane's Pennsylvanians' "Weve Got to Put that Sun Back in the Sky," and especially Eddie Cantors wonderfully biting "Cheer Up, Smile, Nertz" ("Our judges are queer/Our banks disappear/And all the while they tell us to smiiiiile"). --Elisabeth Vincentelli

36:T635,Cinderella Man is one of my favorite movies of all time. And the soundtrack does not disappoint. They have all of the powerful songs heard on the DVD. It even has the songs that you could barely hear in the movie because they were simply background music to the scenes. For instance, when Mike Wilson and Jim Braddock sit down together after work and have a drink and discuss the troubled times their nation was facing during the depression, you can faintly hear a song called, "We've G