Cinema became a huge part of his childhood.

The profundity of loss permeated Barrys life in other ways.

It would take a score of passion, classicism and yearning to elevate this seemingly hopeless cause.

Fortunately for director Jeannot Szwarc, John Barry was not afraid of a hopeless cause.

He was the champion of them.

In different hands, this sentimental juxtaposition might have seemed insincere, manipulative or just saccharine.

Matheson had suggested Mahler as a potential fit, but Barry struggled with it.

By the time Richard falls for Elise, who has already died, the spell is cast.

The musical textures that pervade Richards 1912 experience play on this dreamlike quality.

Ultimately, all dreams will be paid in full.

Richards time trip is paid for in the form of a shiny new penny from 1979.

Little wonder Barry received more fan mail for this unparalleled paean to heartache than for any other score.

When those searing end credits have subsided, something of that outro-energy lingers in the psyche.

It may be just a dream, but the effects of the dream are very real.

Body Heat (1981)

If ever a film score dripped with sexual intent, this was it.

Sticky and sultry, this 1980s homage toDouble Indemnityis the soundtrack to entrapment and voluntary abandonment of the self.

Rather than fight the musical language of an earlier genre, Barry teased provocatively with the phrasing.

This was noir with erotic nuance.

With temperatures running high, the old rules dont apply.

Barry knows exactly how to undress her, with a score that conceals as much as it reveals.

For Matty hides as much as she displays, and the tease extends far beyond foreplay.

There is an undeniable symbolism to the wind chimes in Im Weak.

Were told that wind chimes usually indicate cool air, but not this year.

This year, those chimes dont tell you what you think theyll tell you.

Kathleen Turner would later credit Barry for the way his music enhanced the intensity of her allure.

Truly, he transformed her modus operandi into a sonnet to sexuality and suspense.

However, facts only scratch the surface of the inner world in which this critically acclaimed score took flight.

Barrys stirring arrangements add elegance to internal fractures, with help from MozartsSonata in A Major K331.

He still picked up a Grammy.

Elsewhere, Bob Wilbur created the Ellington-style sound and Richard Gere played his own cornet solos.

The show closed after sixteen previews, but several tracks would resurface as source music for Bob Swaims Masquerade.