The good, the better, and the best

It is an enchanting paradox that some movies we see most vividly with our eyes closed. That is the doing, of course, of the musical score. Long before John Williams set young (and not-so-young) ears aflutter, there were miraculous sounds to accompany what was up there on the screen.

Classical music fans prize Prokofiev's score for "Alexander Nevsky, " Aaron Copland's for "The Red Pony," Philip Glass's for "The Thin Blue Line" (those finger-pointing arpeggios!). Jazz fans have Miles Davis' s moody "Elevator to the Gallows" or Duke Ellington's surging, strutting "Anatomy of a Murder."

Movie purists have their preferred pantheon. Think of Maurice Jarre's sweeping score for "Lawrence of Arabia," Bernard Herrmann's stabbing dissonances for "Psycho," or how Nino Rota's music could seem even more Fellini-esque than the Fellini movies it was written for.

Not Rota, but another great Italian film composer is in the news. Ennio Morricone (above and inset) will receive an honorary Oscar at this year's ceremony "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to film music." Three weeks before that, on Feb. 3, he'll conduct a 200-piece orchestra and choir in a concert of his music at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

That orchestra and choir are sure to get a workout. The man has written more than 400 film scores, for everything from "The Battle of Algiers" and "Days of Heaven" to "The Untouchables" and "Cinema Paradiso." Above all -- no, beyond all -- there are his scores for the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns: "A Fistful of Dollars, " "For a Few Dollars More, " "Once Upon a Time in the West , " and Morricone's masterpiece (too weak a word, surely), "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

The theme opens with war-dance tom-toms. Flute trills float in. Eerily human-sounding trumpets wah-wah away. A series of soft wordless yelps answer a lonely whistler. Can it get any stranger?

Yes, it can: A surf-music electric guitar erupts in full twang, followed by a chanting male chorus, chimes, swelling strings, and a choir of both sexes. That's just the first minute. Another 96 seconds remain, but description can do only so much.

"Theme From 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' " went to number one on the British pop charts in 1968. How could it not have? This is cacophony as revelation -- or maybe revelation as hallucination -- an ecstasy of over-the-top-ness that makes "The White Album," its aural contemporary, sound like a Cowsills single.

Will the Rockettes be on the Radio City bill Feb. 3? Let's see them try to choreograph this!

MARK FEENEY

The Court of Appeals in Boston has granted "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch a hearing for his appeal of his tax evasion conviction, according to Hatch's attorney, Michael Minns. Oral arguments will be March 8 , Minns said. Hatch was convicted last January of tax evasion and filing a false tax return, related, in part, to taxes owed on his "Survivor" winnings. He is serving a 51-month prison sentence. Minns says Hatch should have been allowed to tell the jury why he didn't pay taxes on his million-dollar prize: He believed "Survivor" producers offered to pay his taxes after he uncovered cheating on the island.

JOANNA WEISS

Mechanical factors were ruled out as contributing to the fatal freeway crash in Los Angeles last month involving actress-singer Brandy (inset), who triggered the accident when her vehicle rammed into the car in front of hers, police said yesterday. But it remains to be seen whether the 27-year-old performer, whose full name is Brandy Norwood, will be found to be primarily at fault or criminally negligent in the Dec. 30 crash, police said. A motorist, Awatef Aboudihaj, 38, a married mother of one, was killed . The former star of the television comedy "Moesha" was not hurt. Alcohol and drugs have been ruled out as factors in the crash.

Nicole Kidman was taken to a Los Angeles hospital after the Jaguar she was in crashed yesterday during shooting of the science-fiction thriller "The Invasion," police said. Kidman, 39, was examined at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and released . The Jaguar was being towed by a camera rig that skidded while taking a corner and Kidman's car hit a pole, police said. The actress was wearing a seat belt.

James Brown's six adult children believe the soul singer's estate was mismanaged and want the trustees removed, according to court documents. An emergency petition filed in Aiken County, S.C., also claimed that some assets are in danger of being "lost or dissipated or stolen."

FROM WIRE REPORTS