Degree of Murder

For the criminal law concept, see murder.

A Degree of Murder
Directed by	Volker Schlöndorff
Written by	Arne Boyer Niklas Frank Volker Schlöndorff Gregor von Rezzori
Produced by	Rob Houwer
Starring	Anita Pallenberg Hans Peter Hallwachs
Cinematography	de
Edited by	de
Music by	Brian Jones
Distributed by	Constantin Film (Germany) Universal Pictures (US)
Release date	19 April 1967
Running time	87 min.
Country	West Germany
Language	German

A Degree of Murder (German: Mord und Totschlag, French: Vivre à tout prix) is a 1967 West German film, starring Anita Pallenberg and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. The film is mainly known because of the soundtrack composed by Brian Jones (founder of the Rolling Stones), Pallenberg's boyfriend at the time. The film was entered into the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.

It was filmed in colour in West Germany in 1967.

Plot

Marie (Anita Pallenberg) shoots her ex-boyfriend with his own gun, after he attempts to beat her. Instead of reporting this to the police she hires two men to help her dump the body in a construction site near an autobahn. While doing this she becomes romantically involved with both men.

Cast

• Anita Pallenberg as Marie
• Hans Peter Hallwachs as Gunther
• Manfred Fischbeck as Fritz
• de as Hans
• Kurt Bulau as (uncredited)
• de (uncredited)
• Angela Hillebrecht (uncredited)
• Sonja Karzau (uncredited)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack by Brian Jones has never had an official release, possibly because of legal conflicts. Although Jones played on the soundtrack, Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, session pianist Nicky Hopkins, musician Peter Gosling, and session drummer Kenney Jones contributed their respective instruments to the recording sessions. It was recorded between late 1966 and early 1967 at IBC Studios in London. Jones stated that "the boys in the band played on the record" but Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has said that neither he or drummer Charlie Watts participated in the music making and Jones never elaborated exactly which members played on the soundtrack. Jones also stated that many session musicians play on the soundtrack but session logs reveal that most of the instrumentation was done by Jones himself.

In Rolling Stone issue #1171, Jimmy Page talks about working on the soundtrack."Brian knew what he was doing. It was quite beautiful. Some of it was made up at the time; some of it was stuff I was augmenting with him. I was definitely playing with the violin bow. Brian had this guitar that had a volume pedal-he could get gunshots with it. There was a Mellotron there. He was moving forward with ideas."

The musicians were:

• Brian Jones: sitar, organ, acoustic guitar, recorder, Mellotron, dulcimer, harmonica
• Jimmy Page: guitars
• Nicky Hopkins: piano
• Kenney Jones: drums
• Glyn Johns: engineering
• Peter Gosling: vocals (on one song)
• Mike Leander: orchestra

External links

• Mord und Totschlag at IMDb