What was the first Alfred Hitchcock movie scored by Bernard Herrmann?
Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock collaborated with several actors and crew members more than once, clearly finding like-minded individuals he could trust to bring his ideas to life. Actors like James Stewart, Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, and Tippi Hedren repeatedly worked with the ‘Master of Suspense’, and the result was some incredible movies like Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, and The Birds.
However, Hitchcock also worked with his beloved composer Bernard Herrmann multiple times, knowing that the musician would consistently provide impressive scores. As a result, Herrmann’s music really helped to bring Hitchcock’s ideas to life, with various pieces he made for the filmmaker becoming some of cinema’s most iconic film scores.
His most recognisable is the Psycho soundtrack, with his music replicating the essence of a knife-stabbing skin through jolting sounds that screech like a blade. During the infamous shower scene, we never see the knife entering the body of Janet Leigh’s character due to censorship rules. Instead, Herrmann’s score helps to elevate the tension and horror of the scene, and it has since been incorporated into many other horror scores as cinematic shorthand for murder.
Herrmann agreed to work on a smaller budget when scoring Psycho, which Hitchcock made with considerably less money than usual because of the studio’s reluctance to finance a horror film. It was a daring film, and Herrmann’s score helped it to become simply iconic.
So, what was the first Alfred Hitchcock movie that Bernard Herrmann scored?
The pair’s first collaboration came in 1955 when Herrmann was employed to score The Trouble With Harry. The film was Shirley MacLaine’s cinematic debut, with the star appearing alongside John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn, and Mildred Natwick. Compared to his scores for movies like Psycho and Vertigo, the music here is much more cheery and light, with the film taking place in a quaint village.
It isn’t one of Hitchcock’s most well-known movies, perhaps because the murder at the centre of the film isn’t actually that important. The main narrative revolves around romantic and humorous interactions between the characters. Still, the film’s score is lovely, and from there, Hitchcock employed Herrmann to be his de facto composer.
But how many Alfred Hitchcock movies did Bernard Herrmann score in total?
Herrmann and the filmmaker collaborated across a decade, with the composer creating scores for seven of Hitchcock’s movies. After working on The Trouble With Harry, Herrmann scored The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which he cameoed as a conductor. Next up was The Wrong Man and then Vertigo, another of his most acclaimed scores. He also created the scores for North by Northwest, Psycho, and Marnie.
The composer also acted as a sound consultant on Hitchcock’s The Birds, a movie that featured no proper score. Clearly, Hitchcock was a huge fan of Herrmann’s style, which truly elevated the films his music accompanied due to its rich and textural nature, perfectly serving Hitchcock’s visions.
…and what other movies did Bernard Herrmann score?
Besides working with Hitchcock, Herrmann also collaborated with a variety of filmmakers who are considered some of the best. His first assignment was Citizen Kane, a rather impressive first score. From classics like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to the original Cape Fear, his list of credits was extensive.
Other movies he composed scores for include Jason and the Argonauts, Taxi Driver, François Truffuat’s The Bride Wore Black and Fahrenheit 451, and Brian De Palma’s Obsession and Sisters.
