Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975)
“Alfred Hitchcock only finishes a picture 60 percent, I have to finish it for him.” Bernard Herrmann
Although Bernard Herrmann will forever be most strongly associated with Alfred Hitchcock, he came to Hollywood when asked by Orson Welles. He had worked with Welles in radio scoring a great many of CBS’s radio broadcasts of The Mercury Theater in the 1930’s, including the notorious War of the Worlds. Herrmann composed the score for Citizen Kane (1941) which was his first film score and was nominated for an academy award. He also scored The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) for which he was again nominated but this time won the Oscar.
Herrmann’s musical path was different from most other composers, which may be the reason he eventually became considered to be difficult, and why he had an eleven year collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. He had a bad temper, and he was insistent on doing things his way. Hitchcock gave him the freedom he didn’t always find with other directors. The films he worked on were eclectic and offered him the kind of challenges that enabled him develop his unique style. In 1951, Herrmann wrote the score for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The piece is brilliantly written for two theremins, piano, and a horn section, which created a hauntingly futuristic sound. The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of those movies where the music lingers in memory long after the details of the film fade.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Hermann also did wonderful fantasy scores, and the combination of his music and the genius of Ray Harryhausen make The 7th Voyage of Sinbad a classic of the genre. His score sweeps you back to the days of Jinn and Persian Nights.
Then, in 1963 he scored what is considered by many Ray Harryhausen’s best effort, Jason and the Argonauts. Its booming and majestic score is the perfect sound for such an epic. It not only gave the feel of the time and place, but foreshadowed events while building suspense as Harryhausen’s Dynamation astonished audiences.
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Cape Fear (1962) based on the John D. McDonald novel, The Executioners was full tilt horror/suspense with the maniac more than convincingly portrayed by Robert Mitchum. The film stars Gregory Peck, Polly Bergen, and Martin Balsam. Mitchum is Max Cady, and ex-con that lawyer Peck put behind bars and is now out and looking for revenge. This was a perfect assignment for a composer that had written so many scores for the Master of Suspense.
Robert Mitchum & Polly Bergen in Cape Fear (1962)
Even with the diversity of his career, it is true that many of the scores he did for Hitchcock are the best remembered due to their beauty, uniqueness and the popularity of the films. The first film Herrmann scored for Hitchcock was the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). The next was the offbeat, The Trouble with Harry (1955). The score is as lyrical as the scenic shots of the New England autumn. Not one of Hitchcock’s most popular films, but certainly one of his best. It is a subtle black comedy and Herrmann’s score accentuates both the suspense and playfully, the humor. Herrmann’s next score for Hitchcock was The Wrong Man (1956), and is beautifully haunting.
Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)
In 1958 Hitchcock would release one of his most famous films, Vertigo. Initially thought a failure, it is now considered Hitchcock’s and Herrmann’s masterpiece. The score set the stage for the powerful collaboration that will follow. The music conveyed the shattered heroes loss and underscored the desperation of Scotty (James Stewart) to re-create Madeleine (Kim Novak).
Stung by the poor reception of Vertigo, Hitchcock fell back on his strong suit with North by Northwest (1959) starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. The script by Ernest Lehman and Music by Bernard Herrmann combined with the master’s touch that heralded back to his British films, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, was a huge success. Herrmann’s score was as much a masterwork as the film that it accompanied. What came next, not even Hitchcock could have foreseen.
Anthony Perkins & Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960)
In 1960 Psycho was released. No other film score has ever had such an impact on the audience. It is impossible to imagine Psycho without Herrmann’s score. The two are joined as with no other film. The ‘all strings’ choice that Herrmann made was brilliant even though partly necessitated by budget limitations for what is a low budget black and white film. Herrmann called it a ‘black and white’ score. In this case, the freedom Hitchcock gave him did have a immense impact on the finished film. Herrmann has said that director’s don’t know music and that Hitchcock wanted a ‘jazz score’ with no music in the famous shower scene, but Herrmann had written a piece for it anyway. When Hitchcock finally admitted that the scene did need music, Herrmann had just what the director needed. Hitchcock admitted the importance of this when he doubled Herrmann’s fee for the film.
On The Birds (1963), there is no music score and Herrmann worked as a sound consultant creating atonal electronic sound effects in place of music. Once again making a remarkably important contribution to the finished film.
Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren & Jessica Tandy in The Birds (1963)
The next film that Herrmann scored for Hitchcock was Marnie (1964). This would turn out to be the last film the composer would score for Hitchcock. The studio blamed the failure of the film on Herrmann’s score, but that was nonsense. The film had a number of problems and the cause may have been the firing of the screenwriter, Evan Hunter (who had also scripted The Birds) over a disagreement about the rape scene. Hunter felt that it was out of character for Mark (Sean Connery) and he was probably right. Hunter was an exceptional writer and there is little doubt that a better film would have resulted if he had been allowed to complete the screenplay.
Unfortunately, during the making of Topaz (1969), Herrmann had a falling out with Hitchcock and was dismissed. The studio (in the form of Lew Wasserman) advised Hitchcock against using Herrmann’s score because it was too old fashioned. Hitchcock attempted to get Herrmann to reconsider the scoring, but Herrmann would never agree to bend to trends. The two were never to work together again.
Herrmann also wrote music for television. Composing and conducting for a number of popular shows including, most notably: Have Gun – Will Travel (1957-61 composer), The Twilight Zone (1959-63 as both composer & conductor), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1963-65), and Lost n Space (1965-68 composer).
Herrmann’s last films were Obsession and Taxi Driver both released in 1976. He’d come into vouge again with young film-makers including Brian DePalma and Martin Scorsese. Bernard Herrmann died just after completing the score for Taxi Driver in 1975.