Known to the English-speaking world as the infamously cheesy, MST3K-mocked movie Puma Man, L’uomo Puma boasts a score that, heard in isolation, outclasses its accompanying movie in nearly every inportant way. Well, for the most part.
Let’s quantify the outclassing being done by the score here: this isn’t “the first Star Trek movie was okay, but Jerry Goldsmith’s groundbreaking score made it even better” territory. Instead, the orchestral portions of L’uomo Puma‘s score class up the adventures of Tony (the hapless nerd who receives “the powers of a puma”) and Vadinho just enough to give the perhaps mistaken impression that money was spent on the movie as a whole (spoiler: it really wasn’t).
This long, long overdue CD release – this score’s first release on any format – was issued by Italy’s Beat Records in late 2017 in a ridiculously small pressing of 500 units, and to be quite honest, its track titles are opaque and unhelpful at best, managing to completely obscure where that track falls in the movie unless you’re a Puma Man scholar who has memorized the movie (a status which your reviewer is slightly embarrassed to admit he may be approaching).
There are three primary themes in the Puma Man score: a noble-but-mysterious theme for the alien visitors who conferred “the powers of a puma” upon a selected member of the human race, an ominously menacing theme for the machinations of the character played by Donald Pleasence (whose sole instruction from the movie’s director must have been “that’s nice, but can you do it more like Blofeld?”), and of course, the goofily late-’70s-supermarket-commercial-jingle feel of Puma Man’s theme.
The former two categories of music are where the most praise is deserved; they’re nicely composed, marvelously played, and well-engineered. The hollow echo treatment on the cellos lend them more menace than usual. Composer Renato Serio, known primarily to Italian audiences, wasn’t fooling around here; this music outclasses the movie it’s in easily.
If you’re even slightly enamoured of late ’70s scoring that tries to force an orchestra to play to a disco beat, then you’ll be a sucker for the Puma Man theme, a cheery recurring theme that seems oblivious to 
the fact that its hero seems to have stumbled upon his superpowers and doesn’t really know how to use them. There’s something hilariously compelling about it – you’ll find yourself humming or whistling it for days afterward.
Earlier, the small pressing of 500 copies of L’uomo Puma was described as ridiculously small; maybe it is. Or maybe it’s just right, given how far underground this movie’s cult following must be. But for those who enjoy this slab of finest Italian-made cheese, it’s almost certain to earn a place of honor on the soundtrack shelf.
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 1 (2:14)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 2 (2:13)
- Puma Man #1 (2:03)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 3 (2:38)
- Puma Man #2 (2:07)
- Puma Man #3 (3:13)
- Puma Man #4 (1:43)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 4 (2:04)
- Puma Man #5 (2:26)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 5 (2:36)
- Puma Man #6 (2:28)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 6 (2:07)
- Puma Man #7 (2:26)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 7 (2:40)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 8 (2:24)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 9 (1:42)
- Puma Man #8 (1:57)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 10 (2:15)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 11 (2:22)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 12 (2:14)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 13 (1:35)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 14 (2:03)
- Puma Man #9 (2:38)
- Puma Man #10 (1:49)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 15 (2:46)
- Puma Man #11 (2:13)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 16 (2:08)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 17 (2:38)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 18 (1:54)
- L’Uomo Puma – Seq. 19 (2:04)
- Puma Man #12 (3:14)
- Puma Man #13 (2:45)
Released by: Beat Records
Release date: October 20, 2017
Total running time: 75:12
