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Bernard Herrmann's great contribution has been ignored...

posted 10 years ago by douglasscha
7 replies | jump to latest

Bernard Herrmann's "strings only" score saved "Psycho" as far as the
Hitchcocks (and posterity) were concerned.

(first of all sorry for my english) I think Alma Reville's contribution was more significant ( ah ah ah ah ah ). in fact in the movie the omnipresent superwoman is portayed as the person who suggests to hitch the use of this violin score (another idea from her!). maybe the silent male dummy near her was your composer... represented in the same way as the poor writer of the script (re-written by .... suspense.... alma reville!!!!)

[–] douglasscha 8 years ago

It's so depressing to think of all the talent that went into this crap...

[–] haasing1986 10 years ago

I agree douglasscha, without Herrmann's score the movie would not hold up today.

It's hard to tell how shocking and impressive the film must have been when it was released (even without a score).

I did not know that even a toilet was censored.

All good films invariably involve multiple talents creating something more than the sum of its parts which makes success difficult to attribute.

I do not think Herrmann's contribution has been ignored at all.

[–] douglasscha 10 years ago

I meant in the context of the film.

[–] lola_mento 10 years ago

Yep, I expected to see how it was created. In the movie, it just appeared, and that is all

[–] fcasnette 10 years ago

You don't seem to remember the film very well. There is a scene with Hermann in the cutting room where Hitch initially insists his landmark shower scene should be in silence, but Alma backs Hermann that is much better with his cues. They add the music and Hitch relents and says it's "ok", when his demeanour obviously is surprised how good the addition of the music is - something he willingly told anyone in interviews afterwards (eg see example in trivia section here).

[–] aleach26 7 years ago

Although Herrmann's slashing shower theme was stolen from Pohjola's Daughter by Sibelius, as he admitted.