For the film "Viva Maria!," Georges Delerue composed the music-hall songs (performed by both Bardot and Moreau) and the captivatingly beautiful and exciting score. Our source for this release of "Viva Maria!" was a pristine 3-track master and the sound is glorious.

Delerue’s score for "King of Hearts" is a classic. It’s whimsical, beautiful and lots of fun.

VIVA MARIA!
1. Overture (2:47)
2. Viva Maria (2:23)
3. Opening Song: Generique* (2:48)
4. Intérieur Roulotte (1:10)
5. Dame Blanche (2:02)
6. Theme Victoire Colline (1:20)
7. Generique* (L’Irlandaise) (3:06)
8. Les Petites Femmes* (2:10)
9. Paris, Paris, Paris*# (3:54)
10. Cirque (1:59)
11. Musique de Cachot Jeanne Flores (3:00)
12. Les Petites Femmes*# (2:24)
13. Revolution March (1:18)
14. Maria Maria*# (1:11)
15. Finale (1:01)

Original Music Composed by Georges Delerue
*Lyrics by Louis Malle and Jean Claude Carriere
#Vocals by Miss Bardot and Miss Moreau

KING OF HEARTS
16. Theme du Retour à Laisle (1:14)
17. La Valse Tordue (2:24)
18. Les Bicyclettes (1:14)
19. Marche Allemande (1:39)
20. Le Repos (1:45)
21. La Marche du Sacre (1:33)
22. La Valse Tordue (2:12)
23. Theme de la Joie de Vivre (2:20)
24. La Polka Pavane (2:38)
25. Theme de la Joie de Vivre (2:16)
26. La Pavane (1:51)
27. Marche Ecossaise (1:51)
28. La Valse Tordue (6:44)

VIVA MARIA! - Two of the most beautiful women in the European cinema of the 1960s - Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau - team up under the direction of Louis Malle in this engaging comedy-adventure. Maria Fitzgerald O'Malley (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish political dissident who has traveled to Latin America with her father to take part in an anarchist political uprising. When her father is killed, Maria, left to her own devices, happens upon a travelling circus, where she strikes up a friendship with one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau). Maria O'Malley joins up with the carnival, and she works up a dance routine with Maria; the act is a smash hit, especially after the Irish Maria accidentally loses part of her costume during a performance. Despite their success, the two Marias find themselves increasingly distressed with the poverty and brutality of the peasants' lives, and they soon decide to use their talents in support of revolutionary leader Flores (George Hamilton). "Viva Maria!'s" original ending was trimmed slightly for its American release, but the complete version was later released in the United States on DVD. 1965

KING OF HEARTS - The French/Italian/British "King of Hearts" ("Le Roi de Couer") takes place during World War I, but it might as well have been the Vietnamese conflict so far as its youthful "core" audience was concerned. Overacting outrageously, Adolfo Celi plays a British colonel who orders mild-mannered Scotsman Alan Bates to undertake a life-or-death mission in a tiny French village. While evacuating the town, the Germans have left behind a time bomb that will explode at midnight; Bates must defuse that bomb. Upon his arrival in town, Bates discovers that it is far from deserted. A group of inmates from the local insane asylum, left behind during the evacuation, have claimed the village for their own. Knocked unconscious, Bates awakens to learn that he has been crowned "King of Hearts" by the gentle lunatics. None of the inmates pay any heed to Bates' warnings about impending doom, and when he attempts to lead them out of town, they are terrified at the prospect and scurry back to the "safety" of the village. Bates is finally able to render the bomb useless, whereupon the grateful inmates decide to stage a three-year celebration. When Bates tries to leave, he is kidnaped by the loonies at the behest of beautiful inmate Genevieve Bujold, who has fallen in love with him. Bound and gagged, Bates watches helplessly as the Germans and the British troops kill each other off in comic-opera fashion. Finally set free, Bates weighs the horrible insanity of war against the more benign brand of lunacy represented by the inmates. The final image of a nude Bates, carrying a bird cage, knocking on the doors of the asylum and demanding that he be "accepted," was reproduced for the print ads of "King of Hearts," effectively giving away the ending. 1966