Although he was a highly gifted composer/arranger capable of scoring films of any genre, Henry Mancini is probably best known to the general public for the jazzy, light-hearted, cocktail-confection themes from Peter Gunn and The Pink Panther, and as the melodist behind such wistful songs as "Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses." A product of the big-band era who ended up in Hollywood in the early 1950s, Mancini served his cinematic apprenticeship as a staff composer (mostly for "B" movies) at Universal. His big break came in 1958 when writer-director Blake Edwards offered him the opportunity to score the private-eye series, Peter Gunn. Mancini's main-title theme pioneered the use of jazz music in TV background music and became a hit single from one of the bestselling LP's of all time. Soon Mancini scores were gracing some of Hollywood's most stylish big-screen...