The score for Desirée was composed by the incomparable Alex North. North’s knack for coming up with the most heart wrenching and poignant melodies is on grand display here. Desirée is of strikingly different character than North’s other historical epics such as Spartacus, Cleopatra and The Agony and The Ecstasy. This is, by far, the most intimate of them. North’s score also features a wonderful waltz by Fox music head, Alfred Newman.

1. Main Title (Alfred Newman) (1:40)
2. Adolescence (1:01)
3. Desiree & Napoleon (Plaisir D’Amour) (Giovanni Martini) (2:24)
4. La Marseillais (Rouget de Lisle) (1:30)
5. Youthful Diary (:59)
6. Napoleon’s Arrest (1:06)
7. Proposal (3:24)
8. Paris (:12)
9. The Entrance (2:44)
10. Unrequited and Cradle (5:26)
11. Reflections (1:24)
12. Wooed (3:25)
13. Piqued (2:23)
14. Te Deum (Roger Wagner) (2:19)
15. Proclamation and Desertion (3:45)
16. The Medals (1:20)
17. Arrival (:28)
18. Etiquette (1:38)
19. Desiree Waltz (Alfred Newman) (3:53)
20. Montage (1:13)
21. Transition (1:51)
22. Decision (:59)
23. Denouement (2:50)
24. Farewell (1:57)

Director Henry Koster and writer Daniel Taradash speculate mightily in this historical tableau charting the rise and fall of Napoleon (Marlon Brando), all due to his unrequited love for noblewoman Desiree (Jean Simmons). The film takes a chronological view of Napoleon's reign and posits Napoleon's love of a woman he wanted to marry as a young general but abandoned for the sake of his career. Both Napoleon and Desiree go their separate ways - he to become Emperor of France and loveless husband to Josephine (Merle Oberon) and she to become Sweden's disinterested Queen. Napoleon and Desiree meet up again in a whimsical confrontation in which Desiree urges the Little Corporal to surrender and go to St. Helena. The film is based on a novel by Annemarie Selinko that, like the film, takes wild liberties with the truth. 1955