Finally, Universal's production director went to the head of the studio's office, [Lew Wasserman]. He asked for a meeting with Herrmann. When the composer showed up at his office, [Wasserman] said: "Bernie, I understand that you only wish to write for Hitchcock, but he only directs a movie a year."
Herrmann said: "Yes, but the other pictures are just rubbish, and I refuse to sign my name to those scores."
Wasserman opened his desk drawer and brought out a document. "Well, Bernie, this is our contract, why shouldn't we break it? When you get hungry, please call me up."
Herrmann's reply: "Lew, when I get hungry, I'll go to Chasen's!" (Chasen's was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Los Angeles at that time).
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Even the great ones had to hustle and scrap when dealing with the studios!
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Well, its somewhere in here that Hitchcock fired Herrmann off of Torn Curtain...and rumors are that Wasserman put Hitchcock up to it. Wasserman and his studio gang felt that Herrmann's music was too "old fashioned" and that Hitchocck movies needed pop radio songs to sell them. (Now THAT's hard to picture, I can only think of Charade and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte as thrillers with pop radio songs -- songs usually went with dramas like Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Days of Wine and Roses.)
So...which was it? Universal wanted Herrmann to score non-Hitchcock movies for them, or Universal wanted Herrmann to scram? Maybe a little of both. (i.e. Push Herrmann to score lousy movies and he quits. Push Hitchcock to fire Herrmann from a Hitchcock movie, and he quits.)
PS. I have to offer this: came the 60's, I think Herrrmann's exciting thriller music was fine, but his romantic music was, indeed, old fashioned. I am thinking of the love theme on the train in NXNW and the climactic kiss in Vertigo. They are not of the "Moon River" type.
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jay440 (107)
5 years ago
Herrrmann's exciting thriller music was fine, but his romantic music was, indeed, old fashioned. I am thinking of the love theme on the train in NXNW and the climactic kiss in Vertigo. They are not of the "Moon River" type.
Marnie is another one that suffers from being old-fashioned, in spite of some modern themes, it's more like slick magazine fiction, and I think Herrmann's music was inappropriately lush and romantic and more dated than his thriller scores. Scorsese reused Herrmann's original 1962 score for his 1991 Cape Fear remake and it still worked.
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ecarle (14979)
5 years ago
Marnie is another one that suffers from being old-fashioned, in spite of some modern themes, it's more like slick magazine fiction, and I think Herrmann's music was inappropriately lush and romantic and more dated than his thriller scores.
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Hitchcock thought so. Hitch sent Herrmann a memo before his scoring of Marnie(chastising Herrmann's score on a non-Hitchcock film) and wrote something like "the tastes of young audiences are changing and we must adjust. That is why I you get your money and I get mine."
Hitchcock WAS pretty ruthless in the sixties. No more James Stewart and Cary Grant. Now: Sean Connery and Paul Newman. He didn't hire cinematographer Robert Burks(everything from Strangers on a Train to Marnie, less Psycho) for Torn Curtain(Hitch wanted a "new look" for the movie.) And he fired Herrmann off of Torn Curtain.
But Herrmann called it: "Hitch can't out run his shadow. He doesn't make pop movies."
Which is why I believe that Hitchcock should have stuck by Herrmann to the end(Herrmann died in late 1975, he could have scored Family Plot.) The suspense music would still be good; the romantic music, however old-fashioned, would remind folks of Vertigo.
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Scorsese reused Herrmann's original 1962 score for his 1991 Cape Fear remake and it still worked.
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Yes, it did. Especially supercharging the opening frames with fear. Better still: Scorsese put much of Herrmann's unused "Torn Curtain" score over the houseboat hurricane finale. Music written for the murder of Gromek in Torn Curtain became music to sink a houseboat by in Cape Fear 1991.
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