Album: Various artists, Jazz on Film – Film Noir (Moochin' About)

Henry Mancini's cracking soundtrack for Orson Welles' Touch of Evil mixes hysterical big-band mambo with cheesy Pachuco rock'n'roll featuring Plas Johnson and Barney Kessel.

Together with Chico Hamilton's terrific additional music for The Sweet Smell of Success it's the big surprise treat of this labour-of-love 5CD box set, which also collects Ellington's Anatomy of a Murder and another four scores. Being film music, there's also a lot of written-by-the-yard strings.