Arthur Morton

Birth : 1908-08-08, Duluth, Minnesota, USA

Death : 2000-04-15

History

Arthur Morton was an American music composer and orchestrator for film and television productions. Arthur Morton, aka Arthur Goldberg, was born on 8th August 1908 in Duluth at the southern end of Lake Superior, 150 miles from Minneapolis. He was educated at West High School , 2808 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis. The school closed in 1982. He continued his education at the University of Minnesota, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where he also played in jazz bands. He graduated in 1929 and after a year studying law and undertaking further graduate work in philosophy he moved to Los Angeles. Surprisingly, there is no mention of him receiving an advanced musical education. In 1935 he married Emmy Lou Hellman, the daughter of screenwriter Sam Hellman and the sister of Verna Fields, the Academy Award winning film editor of “Jaws”. His 65-year career in Hollywood began in the music departments of the Hal Roach Studios - of Laurel and Hardy fame - and at Columbia Pictures, composing and orchestrating uncredited stock music. His first credited film score was for Night Life of the Gods (1935). While at Columbia he began collaborating with George Duning, aka George Dunning, composing additional music for films such as the 1949 film Lust for Gold and eventually becoming Duning’s orchestrator. During the period, he composed and orchestrated music for over fifty films including: From Here To Eternity (1953), The Man From Laramie (1955), Kismet (1955), and the cult film Oceans Eleven (1960) staring The Rat Pack. In 1955, he orchestrated perhaps the most famous of George Duning’s scores for the film Picnic, which included the hit song Theme from Picnic, which in the film, was blended with the 1930’s standard Moonglow. The score was nominated in 1956 for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Jerry Goldsmith Online

Movies

Midsummer
Puck
L.A. Confidential
Orchestrator
Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
Star Trek: First Contact
Orchestrator
The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise E pursue the Borg back in time to prevent the invaders from changing Federation history and assimilating the galaxy.
Chain Reaction
Orchestrator
Two researchers in a green alternative energy project forced on the run when they are framed for murder and treason.
The Shadow
Orchestrator
Based on the 1930's comic strip, puts the hero up against his arch enemy, Shiwan Khan, who plans to take over the world by holding a city to ransom using an atom bomb. Using his powers of invisibility and "The power to cloud men's minds", the Shadow comes blazing to the city's rescue with explosive results.
Total Recall
Orchestrator
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a company who manufacture memories. Something goes wrong during his memory implant turning Doug's life upside down and even to question what is reality and what isn't.
Explorers
Orchestrator
The visionary dreams of three curious and adventuresome young boys become an exciting reality in Explorers, the action-fantasy from director Joe Dante, who combines keen humor, warmth and fantasy with unexpected twists. In their makeshift laboratory, the boys use an amazing discovery and their ingenuity to build their own spaceship and launch themselves on a fantastic interplanetary journey.
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Orchestrator
John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
Orchestrator
A paleontologist and her husband discover a mother and baby brontosaurus in Africa, and try to protect them from hunters who want to capture them.
Gremlins
Orchestrator
When Billy Peltzer is given a strange but adorable pet named Gizmo for Christmas, he inadvertently breaks the three important rules of caring for a Mogwai, and unleashes a horde of mischievous gremlins on a small town.
First Blood
Orchestrator
When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, the Vietnam vet snaps, runs for the hills and rat-a-tat-tats his way into the action-movie hall of fame. Hounded by a relentless sheriff, Rambo employs heavy-handed guerilla tactics to shake the cops off his tail.
Damnation Alley
Orchestrator
Following World War III, four survivors at an desert military installation attempt to drive across the desolate wasteland of America to Albany, where they hope more survivors are living, using a specially built vehicles to protect themselves against the freakish weather, mutated plant and animal life, and other dangers encountered along the way.
Islands in the Stream
Orchestrator
An isolated sculptor is visited by his three sons just before the start of WWII.
Islands in the Stream
Original Music Composer
An isolated sculptor is visited by his three sons just before the start of WWII.
The Omen
Orchestrator
Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.
Papillon
Orchestrator
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
The Other
Orchestrator
A series of gruesome accidents plague a small American farming community in the summer of 1935, encircling two identical twin brothers and their family.
The Mephisto Waltz
Orchestrator
A frustrated pianist himself, music journalist Myles Clarkson is thrilled to interview virtuoso Duncan Ely. Duncan, however, is terminally ill and not much interested in Myles until noticing that Myles' hands are ideally suited for piano. Suddenly, he can't get enough of his new friend, and Myles' wife, Paula, becomes suspicious of Duncan's intentions. Her suspicions grow when Duncan dies and Myles mysteriously becomes a virtuoso overnight.
Patton
Orchestrator
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.
Justine
Orchestrator
In Alexandria, in 1938, Darley, a young British schoolmaster and poet, makes friends through Pursewarden, the British consular officer, with Justine, the beautiful and mysterious wife of a Coptic banker. He observes the affairs of her heart and incidentally discovers that she is involved in a plot against the British, meant to arm the Jewish underground in Palestine. The plot finally fails, Justine is sent to jail and Darley decides to return to England.
In Like Flint
Original Music Composer
Flint is again called out of retirement when his old boss finds that he seems to have missed 3 Minutes while golfing with the President. Flint finds that the President has been replaced by an actor (Flint's line [with a wistful look] is "An Actor as President?") Flint finds that a group of women have banded together to take over the world through subliminal brainwashing in beauty salons they own.
Morituri
Orchestrator
A German living in India during World War II is blackmailed by the English to impersonate an SS officer on board a cargo ship leaving Japan for Germany carrying a large supply of rubber for tyres. His mission is to disable the scuttling charges so the captain cannot sink the ship if they are stopped by English warships.
Von Ryan's Express
Orchestrator
Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra as a POW colonel who leads a daring escape from WWII Italy by taking over a freight train, but he has to win over the British soldiers he finds himself commanding.
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
Orchestrator
During the Cold War, John Goldfarb crashes his spy plane in the Middle East and is taken prisoner by the local government. His captor, King Fawz, soon discovers that Goldfarb used to be a college football star. So he issues him an ultimatum: coach his country's football team, or Fawz will surrender him to the Russians. Goldfarb teams up with undercover reporter Jenny Ericson, and together they plot to escape their dangerous situation.
What a Way to Go!
Orchestrator
A four-time widow discusses her four marriages, in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be rich.
Paris When It Sizzles
Orchestrator
Hollywood producer Alexander Meyerheimer has hired drunken writer Richard Benson to write his latest movie. Benson has been holed up in a Paris apartment supposedly working on the script for months, but instead has spent the time living it up. Benson now has just two days to the deadline and thus hires a temporary secretary, Gabrielle Simpson, to help him complete it in time.
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?
Orchestrator
TV star Jason Steel reluctantly becomes the sounding board for his best friends' bored wives, and must fend off their advances while managing his own fragile relationship.
Move Over, Darling
Orchestrator
Three years into their loving marriage, with two infant daughters at home in Los Angeles, Nicholas Arden and Ellen Wagstaff Arden are on a plane that goes down in the South Pacific. Although most passengers manage to survive the incident, Ellen presumably perishes when swept off her lifeboat, her body never recovered. Fast forward five years. Nicholas, wanting to move on with his life, has Ellen declared legally dead. Part of that moving on includes getting remarried, this time to a young woman named Bianca Steele, who, for their honeymoon, he plans to take to the same Monterrey resort where he and Ellen spent their honeymoon. On that very same day, Ellen is dropped off in Los Angeles by the Navy, who rescued her from the South Pacific island where she was stranded for the past five years. She asks the Navy not to publicize her rescue nor notify Nicholas as she wants to do so herself.
Critic's Choice
Orchestrator
Parker Ballantine is a New York theater critic and his wife writes a play that may or may not be very good. Now Parker must either get out of reviewing the play or cause the breakup of his marriage.
Two Rode Together
Orchestrator
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
A Raisin in the Sun
Orchestrator
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall.
Swingin' Along
Original Music Composer
An amateur tunesmith and a con man pool their resources in order to win first prize in a songwriting contest.
Cry for Happy
Orchestrator
Army photographers on leave in Japan take over a geisha house.
The Wackiest Ship in the Army
Orchestrator
Lieutenant Rip Crandall is hoodwinked into taking command of the "Wackiest Ship in the Navy" – a real garbage scow with a crew of misfits who don't know a jib from a jigger. What none of them knows, including Crandall, is that this ship has a very important top-secret mission to complete in waters patrolled by the Japanese fleet. Their mission will save hundreds of allied lives – if only they can get there in one piece.
Ocean's Eleven
Orchestrator
Danny Ocean and his gang attempt to rob the five biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night.
Say One for Me
Original Music Composer
Father Conroy has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishioners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly finds a job working for a dance club of questionable character, which is run by Tony Vincent. Vincent never made the big time, and Father Conroy tries to look after Holly.
The High Cost of Loving
Orchestrator
Middle-aged middle-manager Jim Fry, with the same company for fifteen years, is in a comfortable rut. But life becomes less predictable when he doesn't receive an invitation to an important luncheon being held by the new company president. Convinced that he's about to lose his job, Jim begins to mull over his limited prospects when his wife confirms that she's pregnant.
Pal Joey
Orchestrator
An opportunistic singer woos a wealthy widow to boost his career.
The Tijuana Story
Music
Courageous newspaper editor Manuel Acosta Mesa tries to take on the mob in Tijuana through his newspaper, reporting on the violence, prostitution and drug sales in the border town.
3:10 to Yuma
Orchestrator
Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.
Jeanne Eagels
Orchestrator
Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920's stage star Jeanne Eagels.
The Shadow on the Window
Orchestrator
Three delinquents murder a prosperous farmer at an isolated farm house. One witness to the crime - the dead man's secretary - is then taken hostage. The other witness - her young son - is thrown into state of shock. Can he recover soon enough to help the police - and his father - rescue his mother before it's too late?
Miami Exposé
Music
A police detective baits killer gamblers with a mob witness (Patricia Medina) in the Everglades.
He Laughed Last
Original Music Composer
A 1920s chorus girl inherits a slain gangster's empire.
Picnic
Orchestrator
Labor Day in a small Kansas farm town. Hal, a burly and resolute drifter, jumps off a dusty freight train car with the purpose of visiting Alan, a former college classmate and son of the richest man in town.
Inside Detroit
Music
Gus Linden, former racketeer head of a Detroit local of the United Automobile Workers of America, A.F.L, attempts to destroy his successor, Blair Vicker, so he can put his old rackets back into the auto factories. Vickers fights him off, ultimately winning help from Linden's attractive daughter Barbara and from Joni Calvin, Vickers' moll.
Three Stripes in the Sun
Original Music Composer
A racist sergeant stationed in post-war Japan finds himself softening towards the children and falling for a local woman.
Queen Bee
Orchestrator
A devilish Southern woman, married to a man who despises her, manages to manipulate those around her under the guise of being kind. But, when her sister-in-law is engaged to be married to the woman's former lover and her husband starts up an affair with her cousin, visting from New York, things start to go awry and she sets a plan to destroy it all.
The Man from Laramie
Orchestrator
Will Lockhart arrives in Coronado, an isolated town in New Mexico, in search of someone who sells rifles to the Apache tribe, finding himself unwillingly drawn into the convoluted life of a local ranching family whose members seem to have a lot to hide.
Chicago Syndicate
Original Music Composer
An ex-military accountant is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the mob in Chicago in an attempt to break open the rackets. To complicate his job, two women stand in his way, each with their own agenda.
Pushover
Original Music Composer
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
It Should Happen to You
Orchestrator
Gladys Glover has just lost her modeling job when she meets filmmaker Pete Sheppard shooting a documentary in Central Park. For Pete it's love at first sight, but Gladys has her mind on other things, making a name for herself. Through a fluke of advertising she winds up with her name plastered over 10 billboards throughout city.
The Big Heat
Original Music Composer
Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
Gun Fury
Original Music Composer
After a stagecoach holdup, Frank Slayton's notorious gang leave Ben Warren for dead and head off with his fiancée. Warren follows, and although none of the townspeople he comes across are prepared to help, he recruits two others who have sworn revenge on the ruthless Slayton.
From Here to Eternity
Orchestrator
In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.
The Juggler
Orchestrator
A Holocaust survivor moves to Israel and experiences difficulty adjusting to life.
The Lady and the Bandit
Orchestrator
Highwayman Dick Turpin rides 200 miles to save his wife from the gallows in 18th-century England.
The Harlem Globetrotters
Original Music Composer
All-American basketball player, Billy signs up with the world-famous "Harlem Globetrotters", an all-Negro professional team. Billy struggles with important life decisions and their consequences.
Harriet Craig
Orchestrator
A perfectionist woman's devotion to her home drives away friends and family.
No Sad Songs for Me
Orchestrator
Mary Scott learns she only has ten months to live before dying of an incurable disease. She manages to keep the news from her husband, Brad and daughter, Polly. She tries to make every moment of her life count, but her effort is weakened by the discovery that Brad is interested in his assistant, Chris Radner. But when she learns that Brad does indeed love her and not Chris, and that Chris is leaving town, she realizes what she must do to ensure the future happiness of Brad and Polly. She persuades Chris to stay, makes a genuine friend of her and watches Polly grow towards Chris.
Father Is a Bachelor
Original Music Composer
Johnny Rutledge is a drifter who comes to and discovers a cabin in the forest where five kids: January, February, March, April, and May are living without parents. Their parents died a while ago, and they want to keep that secret from the townspeople, especially the young school teacher, Prudence Millett, to avoid being sent to a children's home and eventual separation. Johnny moves in with the kids and poses as their uncle to take care of them while romancing Prudence. But in order to keep the children, he has to get married.
The Nevadan
Original Music Composer
A mysterious stranger crosses paths with an outlaw bank robber and a greedy rancher.
Shockproof
Orchestrator
Jenny Marsh is a hard-luck dame who's just finished five years in the slammer for killing a man. Jenny's not exactly the murdering type -- she did the deed while defending her jailbird lover, Harry, which is probably one reason she's attracted the attention of her parole officer, Griff Marat. In fact, Griff is so taken with Jenny that he gets her a job caring for his ailing mother, but although Jenny tries to fly right, she's not yet over Harry.
Millie's Daughter
Music
An errant mother tries to teach her daughter to avoid the same errors she made by choosing a different lifestyle.
Johnny O'Clock
Orchestrator
When an employee at an illegal gambling den dies suspiciously, her sister, Nancy, looks into the situation and falls for Johnny O'Clock, a suave partner in the underground casino. Selfish and non-committal by nature, Johnny slowly begins to return Nancy's affection and decides to run away with her, but conflict within his business threatens their plans. As Johnny tries to distance himself from the casino, his shady past comes back to haunt him.
Home Sweet Homicide
Orchestrator
Mystery writer Marian Carstairs is hard at work trying to finish her latest novel. Her three children meanwhile are entertaining themselves by trying to solve a murder in their own neighborhood. In between gathering clues, the kids play matchmaker by trying to fix up their widowed mom with the handsome detective investigating the case.
Gilda
Orchestrator
A gambler discovers an old flame while in Argentina, but she's married to his new boss.
Fallen Angel
Orchestrator
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.
Laura
Orchestrator
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Strange Affair
Original Music Composer
Eminent psychiatrist Dr. Brenner invites cartoonist Bill Harrison and his wife, Jack, to a banquet honoring war refugees. Bill volunteers to pick up fellow psychiatrist Dr. Baumler at the train station, but the man vanishes when he has Bill stop so he can use a pay phone. At the dinner, Bill and Jack are seated with Brenner's daughter, Freda, and, to Bill's surprise, another man is introduced as Baumler -- who dies moments later.
The Lady and the Monster
Orchestrator
A millionaire's brain is preserved after his death by a scientist and his two assistants, only to create a telepathic monster.
Quiet Please, Murder
Orchestrator
A forger steals and kills for a rare book from a library in order to make forgeries to sell to rich suckers.
Inflation
Orchestrator
The Devil works with Adolf Hitler to cause inflation in the United States.
The Day the Bookies Wept
Music Director
A pigeon breeder is hired to train a racehorse that wins only when it drinks beer.
Merrily We Live
Orchestrator
Society matron Emily Kilbourne has a habit of hiring ex-cons and hobos as servants. Her latest find is a handsome tramp who shows up at her doorstep and ends up in a chauffeur's uniform. He also catches the eye of Geraldine.
The Awful Truth
Original Music Composer
Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other's attempts to find new romance.
Night Key
Music
The inventor of a new top-of-the-line burglar alarm system is kidnapped by a gang in order to get him to help them commit robberies.
Theodora Goes Wild
Original Music Composer
The small-town prudes of Lynnfield are up in arms over 'The Sinner,' a sexy best-seller. They little suspect that author 'Caroline Adams' is really Theodora Lynn, scion of the town's leading family. Michael Grant, devil-may-care book jacket illustrator, penetrates Theodora's incognito and sets out to 'free her' from Lynnfield against her will. But Michael has a secret too, and gets a taste of his own medicine.
She Gets Her Man
Original Music Composer
Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and plots a bank robbery, Esmeralda unintentionally wrecks their plans, resulting in fame for Esmeralda as the crime-fighting "Tiger Woman," but also further complications.
Princess O'Hara
Original Music Composer
When King's beloved horse dies, Princess tries to purchase a new nag, and that's how she inadvertently gets her hands on a "stolen" race horse. Our heroine nearly ends up with a lengthy prison term before the story is resolved during the climactic Big Race.
Night Life of the Gods
Original Music Composer
A scientist named Hunter Hawk invents a device that can turn flesh to stone. While celebrating his discovery he becomes involved with a half naked leprechaun. On a trip to New York, Hunter and Meg (the leprechaun) decide to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and turn all of the Statues of Greek Gods into people. What follows in a drunken romp around New York with Medusa's severed head still in Perseus' hand.