If you’re alive today, or even long dead, you have imbibed your fair share of Alfred Hitchcock.
“Psycho”, “North By Northwest”, “Marnie”, “Vertigo”, “Rear Window”, and nearly 50 more: classic movies by the master director.
But what not as many know is that many of Hitchcock’s prime-era movies were scored by composer Bernard Herrmann. And that the movies may not have worked at all with the music of a different person.
Think of the shrieking violins while Janet Leigh is getting diced in the shower in “Psycho”. Herrmann. Think of Cary Grant getting his fingers stepped on while dangling off Lincoln’s nose – it was Lincoln’s, wasn’t it? – in “North By Northwest”. Herrmann had evil Martin Landau’s feet covered.
Steven Smith’s book perfectly describes the odd relationship – friendship, really – between the two disparate geniuses. Both men were balls of inner anxiety, to the point of psychosis. One, Hitchcock, kept it contained deep within himself. Herrmann ranted and screamed and insulted everybody, but was capable of great wit and love.
Benny’s genius was to be able to get into Hitch’s head and to know, exactly, what sound would amplify Hitch’s genius scene-by-scene. Hitchcock knew what he wanted for a score, but as a non-musician, he couldn’t always convey that information. Herrmann could intuit what that sound, that feeling, was.
Benny didn’t just score Hitchcock, he conducted, he composed serious classical music and operas, and he scored for other movies and television. He did music for Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone”. He scored Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”. He scored Ray Bradbury’s Truffaut-directed film “Fahrenheit 451”. And, of course, he wrote music for many episodes of Hitchcock’s ridiculously popular TV programs over the course of a decade, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”.
The odd couple clicked as long as the two men fundamentally left each other alone and they both made lots and lots and lots (lots!) of money.
Hitchcock really needed all the help he could get on all his productions when, at full boil, he was overworked. He could trust Benny to go off for six or ten weeks and then come back and hand him music and sonic effects that not only worked, but enhanced, the films and programs.
But it all broke down as times changed. Hitchcock had trouble with change. He had trouble with studio execs who told him he was falling behind the times. His body, always overweight, began failing him.
Herrmann was more amenable to change. He was, according to Smith, one of the earliest supporters and promoters of The Beatles. He incorporated theremins and electronic synths into his work early on. But his tastes were still overly romantic and heavy, sometimes over-the-top. And his body began failing him, too. He found studio execs even more repulsive than Hitchcock did, and resisted their calls for hit tunes and “pop” music.
Hitchcock cracked first when it came to studio demands. He told Herrmann to go off and compose lighter music. Herrman didn’t, even after repeated explicit directions from Hitch.
By the mid-’60’s, their friendship was off.
So be it. We have the good stuff. The combo is a vital part of our shared cultural heritage.
Enjoy.
