FILM FOCUS

Discussing a classic film and its score

The Film
The Score
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100 Essential Film Scores

Film Focus No. 8:

Bernard Herrmann

and

50th Anniversary of PSYCHO

The Film

PSYCHO Shocks:
The First Showing of a Classic Thriller

Instead of trying to analyze this popular film, which has been done by so many writers, I want to tell my own experience at watching this Hitchcock classic when it was first shown.

It was the end of June in 1960 and I had just graduated from high school so I was floating on a cloud of teenage euphoria. I had noticed the clever promo trailer by Alfred Hitchcock on television for his latest film and I was intrigued by it. Since I couldn't interest my best friend Gene to see it with me, I went alone to the Paramount Theater, an enormous film palace in downtown Newark, New Jersey.

I was immediately interested when the film opened with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in a white bra and slip kissing a bare chested Sam Loomis (John Gavin) on the bed. That was really daring in those conservativtimes and how it got past the censors is a mystery to me. It was reported that bra sales increased dramticially after that scene with the beautiful and buxom Janet Leigh.

Warning! Spoilers ahead...

Naughty Marion

Then there was the not so good Marion who was stealing 40,000 dollars and for that she was shown dressed in black bra and slip. She had gone from the good girl (white) to a bad one stealing money (black) and both were illustrated by what color underwear she wore! What a lovely sight she was for a teenage guy sitting in the theater with raging hormones! Obviously, I wasn't paying much attention to the music in that scene.

Nutty Norman

But I was aware the music was rather somber to fit Marion's dilemna. There is a long scene when Marion talks with Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) at the Bates Motel and he reveals himself to be a very strange guy who lives in that big house on the hill [right]. He stuffs birds and loves his mother and says she is "ill." Marion feels sorry for him. Then after Marion retires to her room in Cabin No. 1, there is the famous scene...which was not yet famous at that first showing.

The Shower Scene

When Marion gets ready to take a shower there is no music. Then a shadowy figure appears behind the shower curtain and suddenly the curtain is pulled back and there is the sound of high-pitched "shrieking strings." Marion screams are echoed by the strings. This music came across like a bolt of lightning and made some in the audience jump in their seats when the knife starts cutting up poor Marion Crane. Then something happened I'll never forget -- several people in the audience were screaming at the top of their lungs and two woman actually ran out of the theater shouting and screaming. These audience members were not a bunch of screaming kids either, like in today's scary films. No, the audience was made up of mostly older folks so to hear many of them screaming was quite a surprise to me and added fear to the murder being shown so effectively and gruesomely on screen. Everyone who saw it then believed that Miss Leigh was getting sliced up in that shower. And wasn't she one of the film's stars? How could that happen that a star gets killed? Well it happened, and Hitchcock deserves much credit for keeping it a secret for so long. Unfortunately, this scene has become so familiar that the thrill of surprise is no longer there but the music has remained just as effective in scaring the daylights out of people.

In my book, A GUIDE TO FILM MUSIC, this is what I wrote about it:

"One of the most innovative and imitated scores was composed by Bernard Herrmann for Hitchcock's classic thriller, PSYCHO. The use of strings for what Fred Steiner called Herrmann's 'black and white music.' It was unhard of at that time. Incredibly, Herrmann's score was not nominated for an Oscar."

And which score did win the Oscar for Best Film Score? It was EXODUS, a very good score, but hardly as trend-setting as Herrmann's memorable PSYCHO score, which is much more than just those "shrieking strings" for the murder scenes. The rest of the score is just as effective in setting the moods of the various scenes and it fully deserved to win an Oscar, or at least be nominated.

On this 50th anniversary of the film and score, what should be remembered is that when it was first shown in theaters, the audiences experienced a tremendous thrill of surprise. Everytime I watch PSYCHO, I think back to when I first saw it and the reaction from that audience of totally surprised and scared moviegoers. And I was one of those frightened viewers.

A great deal of credit -- Hitchcock said it at least a quarter of the success -- was due to Bernard Herrmann's classic "black and white" music.

This may be thought of as a classic horror film -- I'd prefer to call it a suspense thriller -- with a finely written screenplay by Joseph Steffano based on Robert Bloch's novel of the same name. It also has excellent acting from Janet Leigh, Vera Miles (Marion's sister Lila Crane), Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam (Milton Arbogast). In addition to all that there are the two people who contribute the most behind the scenes: Alfred Hitchcock, the director; and the composer, Bernard Herrmann.

What is best remembered is the series of surprise scenes set to a chilling score.

Or, to put it another way, this movie is like taking a bumpy and thrilling ride with PSYCHO shocks!

-- Roger Hall, June 2010

The Score

PSYCHO Sounds:
Herrmann's Black and White Score

Because of the enormous appeal of this Hitchcock classic suspense thriller,
there are many CDs with music from PSYCHO.

Here are three of the best:

Conducted by Bernard Herrmann...

PSYCHO: Bernard Herrmann's Complete Music
for Alfred Hitchcock's Classic Suspense Thriller
(National Philharmonic Orchestra)

Conducted by Joel McNeely...

PSYCHO: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score
(Royal Scottish National Orchestra)

Retro Review

This review was originally posted on Film Music Review
when this CD was named
Best of the Month in August 1999...

ALFRED HITCHCOCK Presents...Signatures in Suspense

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...Signatures in Suspense (62:36)

Compilation Produced by Didier C. Deutsch and Dana G. Smart. Orchestras conducted by John Addison, Paul Bateman, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Muir Mathieson, John Williams.

Hip-O CD HIPD-64661.

Rating: ****

Track Titles:

+ = previouly unavailable

1. Theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV series)

2. Theme from DIAL M FOR MURDER ( Dimitri Tiomkin)

3. Theme from I CONFESS (Dimitri Tiomkin)

4. + Juke Box #6 from REAR WINDOW ( Franz Waxman)

5. Scene d'Amour from VERTIGO ( Bernard Herrmann)

6. The Wild Ride from NORTH BY NORTHWEST ( Bernard Herrmann)

7. PSYCHO (A Narrative for Orchestra)( Bernard Herrmann)

8. +Prelude from MARNIE ( Bernard Herrmann)

9. +MARNIE ( Bernard Herrmann)

10. + Main Title from TORN CURTAIN ( John Addison)

11. +Prelude from TORN CURTAIN ( Bernard Herrmann)

12. +The Ship from TORN CURTAIN ( Bernard Herrmann)

13. +The Radiogram from TORN CURTAIN ( Bernard Herrmann)

14. March from TOPAZ ( Maurice Jarre)

15. The London Theme from FRENZY ( Ron Goodwin)

16. Prelude from THE WRONG MAN ( Bernard Herrmann)

17. +End Credits & End Titles from FAMILY PLOT ( John Williams)

18. A Portrait of Hitch from THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY ( Bernard Herrmann)

How appropriate that this CD compilation is now available for the centennial of Alfred Hitchcock's birth (August 13, 1899). The 100th anniversary of his birth was on Friday the 13th -- how appropriate!!

This is a marvelous collection of great themes, 8 of theme previously unreleased, from some of the greatest film composers of the past 50 years. Included are both the familiar themes (VERTIGO and PSYCHO) and less available themes (I CONFESS and REAR WINDOW).

After the opening TV theme for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," there are two themes by Dimitri Tiomkin. Both are highly dramatic and heavily sentimental but not particularly memorable. The next theme by Franz Waxman from REAR WINDOW (track 4) is much more welcome, a swinging jazz combo theme. After some familiar tracks conducted by Bernard Herrmann (tracks 5-7), there are several cues from his score to MARNIE which haven't been released before. The "Prelude" (track 8) has a theme which was adapted into a pop song recorded Nat "King" Cole. It's another of Herrmann's gloriously rhythmic themes, full of subtle changes of tempo and dynamics.

The same can be said for the three tracks from TORN CURTAIN, all conducted by Herrmann himself. Just listen to John Addison's catchy pop-lite Main Title from this film (track 10) and then hear Herrmann's unused Prelude (track 11). Herrmann's theme is far more impressive with the forceful brass (16 horns) and woodwinds (12 flutes!) firmly stating the theme. According to Steven Smith's notes, Hitchcock asked Herrmann to write a score for young audiences who were "vigorous and demanding." Then there is the wonderful Main Title theme (track 16) from a vastly underrated Hitchcock film, THE WRONG MAN. This track is expertly conducted by one of Herrmann's fellow composers and friends, Elmer Bernstein.

Besides Tiomkin, Waxman, Addison and Herrmann, there are three other composers featured: Maurice Jarre (in a sprightly March from TOPAZ - track 14); Ron Goodwin (an imposing London Theme from FRENZY - track 15); and John Williams, who wrote the score for Hitchcock's last film, FAMILY PLOT. The End Credits & Titles music (track 17) is delightfully whimsical with its prominent use of harpsichord and strings, and is ideal for this clever comedy caper directed by the master of mystery, Alfred Hitchcock.

The accompanying 16 page is not in the commonly overdone color schemes found in many other compilations. This one is in plain old black and white - thank goodness! You can actually read the excellent notes written by Steven Smith, author of the biography of Bernard Herrmann. Also there are complete recording dates and film studio information.

Soundtrack collectors will probably already have many of these themes. But even so, this is still worth buying to have such a wealth of outstanding themes and suites or, as the CD cover says: "Signatures in Suspense." They have been skillfully put together as an appropriate tribute to that Master of Mystery, Alfred Hitchcock.

A highly recommended compilation well worth adding to your collection.

-- reviewed by Roger Hall, August 1999

Follow the score of the Suite from PSYCHO on YouTube

Click here

Listen to composers and critics telling about the music
at this NPR link:

Bernard Herrmann's Score to PSYCHO

DVD and Books

2 DVDs: PSYCHO (Universal Special Edition)

Book: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of PSYCHO by Stephen Rebello

Book: PSYCHO: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller
by Janet Leight with Christopher Nickens

Book: PSYCHO: A Novel by Robert Bloch

100 Essential Film Scores

Bernard Herrmann was a supreme master of film music and today considered by many to be the greatest innovative film composer from the past.

On the Essential Film Scores survey he is listed at No. 1 with 10 film scores.

PSYCHO is No. 11 on the list of

100 Essential Film Scores of the 20th Century

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