Listen to the Soundtrack of Time
Music in
Films
1900 - 2000
Music in Films
Bernard Herrmann
1911 - 1975
Bernard Herrmann, (born June 29, 1911, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 24, 1975, Los Angeles, Calif.), American composer and conductor, widely recognized for his film scores. His music for Psycho (1960) has remained a paragon of suspense-film sound tracks.
Herrmann was born into a family of Russian immigrants. While still a student at DeWitt Clinton public high school in the Bronx, he took composition and conducting classes at New York University. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School of Music (now Juilliard School), and in the 1930s he was one of a group of young composers associated with the composer Charles Ives.In 1934 CBS radio hired Herrmann to work as a composer and arranger and to conduct the CBS Symphony Orchestra. At CBS he also worked on the radio show Mercury Theatre on the Air—directed by Orson Welles—for which he composed music in a wide range of styles to heighten the dramatic effect of the plays.
When Welles signed a contract to write and direct a film in 1939, he brought many of his Mercury players and Herrmann along with him, thus launching Herrmann’s career in film music.
Although his scores for Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) and, subsequently, for William Dieterle’s All That Money Can Buy (1941, Academy Award) were highly acclaimed, Herrmann’s work with suspense-film director Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s and ’60s won him the widest recognition. Among Herrmann’s most significant Hitchcock scores were those for Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and, especially, Psycho (1960). Aside from his film scores, Herrmann wrote music for various television series, including Rawhide and Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.
Herrmann also composed a variety of concert music, including, most notably, an operatic setting of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1943–51). Throughout his career, however, film and television scores remained the primary focus of his creative activity. Herrmann died in 1975, just one day after completing his score for director Martin Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver (1976).
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer, widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as "the Master of Suspense", he directed over 50 feature films[a] in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing of the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1965).
Born in Leytonstone, Essex, Hitchcock entered the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer after training as a technical clerk and copy writer for a telegraph-cable company. He made his directorial debut with the silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925). His first successful film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), helped to shape the thriller genre, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, was the first British "talkie". Two of his 1930s thrillers, The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938), are ranked among the greatest British films of the 20th century.
By 1939 Hitchcock was a filmmaker of international importance, and film producer David O. Selznick persuaded him to move to Hollywood. A string of successful films followed, including Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and The Paradine Case (1947); Rebecca was nominated for 11 Oscars and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His 53 films have grossed over US$223.3 million worldwide and garnered a total of 46 Oscar nominations and six wins.
The "Hitchcockian" style includes the use of camera movement to mimic a person's gaze, thereby turning viewers into voyeurs, and framing shots to maximise anxiety and fear. The film critic Robin Wood wrote that the meaning of a Hitchcock film "is there in the method, in the progression from shot to shot. A Hitchcock film is an organism, with the whole implied in every detail and every detail related to the whole." By 1960 Hitchcock had directed four films often ranked among the greatest of all time: Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). In 2012 Vertigo replaced Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) as the British Film Institute's greatest film ever made. By 2018 eight of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry,[b] including his personal favourite, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979 and was knighted in December that year, four months before he died.
1930 Murder!
1931 The Skin Game
1931 Rich and Strange
1932 Number Seventeen
1934 Waltzes from Vienna
1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much
1935 The 39 Steps
1936 Secret Agent
1936 Sabotage
1937 Young and Innocent
1938 The Lady Vanishes
1939 Jamaica Inn
1940 Rebecca
1940 Foreign Correspondent
1941 Mr. & Mrs. Smith
1941 Suspicion
1942 Saboteur
1943 Shadow of a Doubt
1944 Lifeboat
1945 Spellbound
1946 Notorious
1947 The Paradine Case
1951 Strangers on a Train
1953 I Confess
1954 Dial M for Murder
1954 Rear Window
1955 To Catch a Thief
1955 The Trouble with Harry
1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much
1956 The Wrong Man
1958 Vertigo
1959 North by Northwestn
1960 Psycho
1963 The Birds
1964 Marnie
1966 Torn Curtain
1969 Topaz
1972 Frenzy
1976 Family Plot
Murder!
Murder! is a 1930 British drama film co-written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. Written by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville and Walter C. Mycroft, it is based on a novel and play called Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. It was Hitchcock's third all-talkie film, after Blackmail and Juno and the Paycock. Music by John Reynders.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Murder!
The Skin Game
The Skin Game is a 1931 British feature film by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a play by John Galsworthy and produced by British International Pictures. The story revolves around two rival families, the Hillcrists and the Hornblowers, and the disastrous results of the feud between them.
Edmund Gwenn and Helen Haye reprised their respective roles as Mr. Hornblower and Mrs. Hillcrist from the 1921 silent version.
The Skin Game (1931)
Rich and Strange
Rich and Strange, released in the United States as East of Shanghai, is a 1931 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock during his time in the British film industry. The film was adapted by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville, and Val Valentine from the novel by Dale Collins. The title is an allusion to words of Ariel's song "Full fathom five" in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Music by Adolph Hallis.
Rich and Stranger (1931)
Number Seventeen
Number Seventeen is a 1932 thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on a stage play by J. Jefferson Farjeon, and starring John Stuart, Anne Grey and Leon M. Lion. The film is about a group of criminals who committed a jewel robbery and put their money in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel, the film's title being derived from the house's street number. An outsider stumbles onto this plot and intervenes with the help of a neighbour, a police officer's daughter. Music by Adolph Hallis.
Number 17 (1932)
Waltzes from Vienna
Waltzes from Vienna is a 1934 British musical film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, also known as Strauss' Great Waltz. It was part of the cycle of operetta films made in Britain during the 1930s.
Hitchcock's film is based on the stage musical, Waltzes from Vienna, which premiered in Vienna in October 1930. With a libretto by A. M. Willner, Heinz Reichert [de] and Ernst Marischka, this stage production contains music by Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II, selected and arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner into discrete musical numbers. Hitchcock, however, did not include these musical numbers in his film. In addition, he changed the end of the story. In the stage musical, Resi, the baker's daughter, decides that her father's apprentice, Leopold, will make a more suitable husband than the composer, Schani (Johann Strauss II). By contrast, Hitchcock's film rendition ends with Resi and Schani declaring their love for each other.
Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1934 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period.
The film is Hitchcock's first film using this title and was followed later with his own 1956 film using the same name featuring a significantly different plot and script. In the second film with the same title, Hitchcock developed a separate plot and script featuring James Stewart and Doris Day in 1956 for Paramount Pictures. The two films, however, are very different in tone, in setting, and in many plot details. In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), in response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut's assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied, "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." Music by Arthur Benjamin.
The 1934 film has nothing except the title in common with G. K. Chesterton's 1922 book of detective stories of the same name. Hitchcock decided to use the title because he held the film rights for some of the stories in the book.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. The film is very loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It is about an everyman civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organization of spies called the 39 Steps from stealing British military secrets. After being mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman in the hopes of stopping the spy ring and clearing his name. Music by Jack Beaver, Louis Levy.
The British Film Institute ranked it the fourth best British film of the 20th century. In 2004, Total Film named it the 21st greatest British movie ever made, and in 2011 ranked it the second-best book-to-film adaptation of all time. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the 13th best British film ever.
Filmmaker and actor Orson Welles referred to the film as a "masterpiece". Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps."
The 39 Steps (1935) - Alfred Hitchcock
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a 1936 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, John Gielgud, and Robert Young. Future star Michael Redgrave made a brief, uncredited appearance; he would play the male lead in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). The work was also Michael Rennie's film debut (though an uncredited one).
Typical Hitchcockian themes used in Secret Agent include mistaken identity and murder.
Alfred Hitchcock - Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage
Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, and John Loder. It is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent, about a woman who discovers that her husband, a London cinema owner, is a terrorist agent. Sabotage should not be confused with Hitchcock's film Secret Agent, also released in 1936, but based on the stories of W. Somerset Maugham. Music by Jack Beaver.
Alfred Hitchcock - Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent
Young and Innocent (American title: The Girl Was Young) is a 1937 British crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney. Based on the 1936 novel A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey, the film is about a young man on the run from a murder charge who enlists the help of a woman who must put herself at risk for his cause. It is notable for an elaborately staged crane shot Hitchcock devised towards the end of the film, which identifies the real murderer. Music by Jack Beaver, Louis Levy.
Alfred Hitchcock - Young and Innocent
The Lady Vanishes
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about a beautiful English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance. Music by Louis Levy.
The Lady Vanishes was filmed in the Gainsborough Studios at Islington, London. It was Hitchcock's last British film until the 1970s; he relocated to Hollywood soon after its release. Although the director's three previous efforts had done poorly at the box office, The Lady Vanishes was widely successful, and confirmed American producer David O. Selznick's belief that Hitchcock indeed had a future in Hollywood cinema.
The British Film Institute ranked The Lady Vanishes the 35th best British film of the 20th century. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the 31st best British film ever.[5] Having remained one of Hitchcock's most renowned British films, a remake (also titled The Lady Vanishes) was released in 1979, and in March 2013 the BBC broadcast a TV adaptation starring Tuppence Middleton as Iris. Bill Kenwright has adapted the 1938 film to a stage version which will be on a national tour in 2019.
The Lady Vanishes 1938 Alfred Hitchcock
Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn is a 1939 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name, the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted (the others were her novel Rebecca and short story "The Birds"). It stars Charles Laughton and features Maureen O'Hara in her first major screen role. It is the last film Hitchcock made in the United Kingdom before he moved to the United States.
The film is a period piece set in Cornwall in 1819; the real Jamaica Inn still exists, and is a pub on the edge of Bodmin Moor. The score was written by Eric Fenby.
Alfred Hitchcock - Jamaica Inn (1939)
Rebecca
Rebecca is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick. The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Laurence Olivier as the brooding, aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as the young woman who becomes his second wife, with Judith Anderson and George Sanders in supporting roles. The film won the 1940 Academy Award for Best Picture. Music by Franz Waxman.
The film is a gothic tale shot in black-and-white. Maxim de Winter's first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, his new wife and the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
Rebecca won two Academy Awards, Best Picture and Cinematography, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson also were Oscar-nominated for their respective roles as were Hitchcock and the screenwriters. Rebecca was the opening film at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival in 1951. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Alfred Hitchcock - Rebecca (1940 )
Franz Waxman - "Rebecca" Soundtrack Suite
Foreign Correspondent
Foreign Correspondent (a.k.a. Imposter and Personal History) is a 1940 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of an American reporter who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain who are involved in a fictional continent-wide conspiracy in the prelude to World War II. It stars Joel McCrea and features 19-year old Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann, and Robert Benchley, along with Edmund Gwenn. Music by Alfred Newman.
Foreign Correspondent was Hitchcock's second Hollywood production after leaving the United Kingdom in 1939 (the first was Rebecca) and had an unusually large number of writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg, with Bennett, Benchley, Harrison, and Hilton the only writers credited in the finished film. It was based on Vincent Sheean's political memoir Personal History (1935), the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger for $10,000.
The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941, the other being Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Basserman for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any Academy Awards.
Foreign Correspondent - 1940 Trailer - Alfred Hitchcock
Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock, 1940 Part 1
Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock, 1940 Part 2
Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock, 1940
Foreign Correspondent - 1940 - Windmill and Hat Scene
Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock, 1940
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Norman Krasna, and starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. It also features Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Philip Merivale, and Lucile Watson. Music by Edward Ward.
While Hitchcock later claimed he directed the film—the only pure comedy he made in America—as a favor to Lombard, the files at RKO Radio Pictures show that Hitchcock himself pursued the project.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) – Get Out!
Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Music by Edward Ward.
Suspicion
Suspicion is a 1941 romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).
Music by Franz Waxman.
For her role as Lina, Joan Fontaine won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1941. This is the only Oscar-winning performance in a Hitchcock film.
In the film, a shy spinster runs off with a charming playboy, who turns out to be penniless, a gambler, and dishonest in the extreme. She comes to suspect that he is also a murderer, and that he is attempting to kill her.
Car Kissing scene - Suspicion (1941)
Il Sospetto - 1/2 [Suspicion] (1941 film noir Ita) Alfred Hitchcock
Il Sospetto - 2/2 [Suspicion] (1941 film noir Ita) Alfred Hitchcock
Saboteur
Saboteur is a 1942 American film noir spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker. The film stars Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd. Music by Frank Skinner.
Saboteur 1942 Alfred Hitchcock
Shadow of a Doubt
Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American psychological thriller film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell. In 1991, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Shadow of a Doubt - 1943
Shadow of a Doubt - 1943
Lifeboat
Lifeboat is a 1944 American survival film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story by John Steinbeck. The film stars Tallulah Bankhead with William Bendix. Also in the cast are Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson and John Hodiak. Additional roles in the boat were from Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, and Canada Lee. It is set entirely on a lifeboat launched from a sinking passenger vessel following a World War II naval attack. Music by Hugo W. Friedhofer.
The film is the first in Hitchcock's "limited-setting" films, the others being Rope (1948), Dial M for Murder (1954), and Rear Window (1954). It is the only film Hitchcock made for 20th Century Fox. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Original Story and Best Cinematography – Black and White. Tallulah Bankhead won the New York Film Critics Circle award for best actress of the year. Though highly controversial in its time for what many interpreted as its sympathetic depiction of a German U-boat captain, Lifeboat is now viewed more favorably and has been listed by several modern critics as one of Hitchcock's more underrated films.
Lifeboat 1944 Alfred Hitchcock
Spellbound
Spellbound is a 1945 American film noir psychological mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. It is an adaptation by Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht of the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927) by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer. Music by Miklós Rózsa.
Spellbound (1945)
Spellbound - Official Trailer
Miklos Rosza: Spellbound (1945)
Miklos Rozsa - Spellbound - Soundtrack Music Suite
Notorious
Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. It was shot in late 1945 and early 1946, and was released by RKO Radio Pictures in August 1946. Music by Roy Webb.
Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."
Two scenes in the film have been widely cited as among Hitchcock's best: in one, Hitchcock starts wide and high on a second floor balcony overlooking the great hall of a grand mansion. Slowly he tracks down and in on Ingrid Bergman, finally ending with a tight close-up of a key tucked in her hand. Hitchcock also devised a scene that circumvented the Production Code's ban on kisses longer than three seconds by having his actors disengage every three seconds, murmur and nuzzle each other, then start again. The two-and-a-half-minute kiss was described by biographer Paul Duncan as "perhaps his most intimate and erotic kiss".
In 2006, Notorious was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Notorious ( Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
The Paradine Case
The Paradine Case is a 1947 American film noir courtroom drama film, set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. The screenplay was written by Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht, from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife. Music by Franz Waxman.
Alfred Hitchcock - Paradine Case 1947
Paradine Case (1947) Trailer
Strangers on a Train
Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. It was shot in the autumn of 1950 and released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951. The film stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker, and features Leo G. Carroll, the director's daughter Pat Hitchcock, and Laura Elliott. It is number 32 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.
The story concerns two strangers who meet on a train, a young tennis player and a charming psychopath. The psychopath suggests that because they each want to "get rid" of someone, they should "exchange" murders, and that way neither will be caught. The psychopath commits the first murder, then tries to force the tennis player to complete the bargain.
Strangers on a Train - 1951- p1
Strangers on a Train - 1951 - p2
Dimitri Tiomkin - Strangers on a Train - suite
I Confess
I Confess is a 1953 film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Montgomery Clift as Fr. Michael William Logan, a Catholic priest, Anne Baxter as Ruth Grandfort, and Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue.
The film is based on a 1902 French play by Paul Anthelme called Nos deux consciences (Our Two Consciences), which Hitchcock saw in the 1930s. The screenplay was written by George Tabori. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Filming was done largely on location in Quebec City with numerous shots of the city landscape and interiors of its churches and other emblematic buildings, such as the Château Frontenac.
I Confess - Official Trailer
Dimitri Tiomkin - I Confess Theme
Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime mystery film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October. Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most theatres in ordinary 2-D due to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release. The film earned an estimated $2.7 million at the North American box office in 1954.
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Dial M for Murder - Official Trailer - Alfred Hitchcock
Dimitri Tiomkin - Dial M For Murder - Theme
Rear Window
Rear Window is a 1954 American Technicolor mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr. It was screened at the 1954 Venice Film Festival. Music by Franz Waxman.
The film is considered by many filmgoers, critics, and scholars to be one of Hitchcock's best and one of the greatest films ever made. It received four Academy Award nominations and was ranked number 42 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and number 48 on the 10th-anniversary edition, and in 1997 was added to the United States National Film Registry in the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Franz Waxman - Rear Window - 1954
To Catch a Thief
To Catch a Thief is a 1955 American romantic thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from a screenplay by John Michael Hayes based on the 1952 novel To Catch a Thief by David Dodge. The film stars Cary Grant as a retired cat burglar who has to save his reformed reputation by catching an imposter preying on the wealthy tourists of the French Riviera. Grace Kelly stars opposite him as his romantic interest in her final film with Hitchcock. Music by Lyn Murray.
HITCHCOCK - To Catch a Thief - 1955
The Trouble with Harry
The Trouble with Harry is a 1955 American Technicolor black comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes was based on the 1949 novel by Jack Trevor Story. It starred Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, Jerry Mathers and Shirley MacLaine in her film debut. The Trouble with Harry was released in the United States on September 30, 1955, then re-released in 1984 once the distribution rights had been acquired by Universal Pictures.
The action in The Trouble with Harry takes place during a sun-filled autumn in the Vermont countryside. The fall foliage and the beautiful scenery around the village, as well as Bernard Herrmann's light-filled score, all set an idyllic tone. The story is about how the residents of a small Vermont village react when the dead body of a man named Harry is found on a hillside. The film is, however, not really a murder mystery; it is essentially a romantic comedy with thriller overtones, in which the corpse serves as a Macguffin. Four village residents end up working together to solve the problem of what to do with Harry. In the process the younger two (an artist and a very young, twice-widowed woman) fall in love and become a couple, soon to be married. The older two residents (a captain and a spinster) also fall in love.
The film was one of Hitchcock's few true comedies (though most of his films had some element of tongue-in-cheek or macabre humor). The film also contained what was, for the time, frank dialogue. One example of this is when John Forsythe's character unabashedly tells MacLaine's character that he would like to paint a nude portrait of her. The statement was explicit compared with other contemporary movies.
The Trouble With Harry
Bernard Herrmann : The Trouble with Harry. Suite.
Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 American suspense thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. The film is Hitchcock's second film using this title following his own 1934 film of the same name featuring a significantly different plot and script.
In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), in response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut's assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional."
The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", sung by Doris Day. It premiered at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival on April 29. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Man Who Knew Too Much: Que Sera, Sera , Doris Day
Bernard Herrmann - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Keith Lockhardt conducts from the BBC proms
The Wrong Man
The Wrong Man is a 1956 American docudrama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film was drawn from the true story of an innocent man charged with a crime, as described in the book The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson and in the magazine article "A Case of Identity" (Life magazine, June 29, 1953) by Herbert Brean. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
It is one of the few Hitchcock films based on a true story and whose plot closely follows the real-life events.
The Wrong Man had a notable effect on two significant directors: it prompted Jean-Luc Godard's longest piece of written criticism in his years as a critic, and it has been cited as an influence on Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
The Wrong Man (1956) Part I
The Wrong Man (1956) Part II
Bernard Herrmann - The Wrong Man - Finale
Bernard Herrmann (Conductor)
Warner Bros Studio Orchestra
Vertigo
Vertigo is a 1958 American film noir psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts (From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson. Scottie is forced into early retirement because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo (a false sense of rotational movement). Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin's wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely.
The film was shot on location in San Francisco, California, and at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It is the first film to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. As a result of its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as "the Vertigo effect".
Vertigo received mixed reviews upon initial release, but is now often cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of the defining works of his career. It has appeared repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American movie of all time.
Vertigo - Soundtrack
01 - Prelude and Rooftop - 0:00
02 - Scotty Trails Madeline - 04:56
03 - Carlotta's Portrait - 13:20
04 - The Bay - 15:56
05 - By the Fireside - 19:05
06 - The Forest - 22:45
07 - The Beach - 26:11
08 - The Dream - 29:39
09 - Farewell and The Tower - 32:23
10 - The Nightmare and Dawn - 39:06
11 - The Letter - 43:19
12 - Goodnight and The Park - 47:13
13 - Scene d'Amour - 50:23
14 - The Necklace, The Return and Finale - 55:32
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization trying to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle out microfilm which contains government secrets. This is one of several Hitchcock films which feature a music score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass, and it is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.
North by Northwest is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is often listed among the greatest films of all time. It was selected in 1995 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
North By Northwest - Bernard Herrmann
- Soundtrack Suite
-00:00 = "Overture"
-02:14 = "Cheers"
-02:54 = "The Wild Ride"
-04:21 = "The Elevator"
-05:03 = "The Knife"
-05:48 = "Conversation Piece"
-07:46 = "The Station"
-08:34 = "The Crash"
-09:39 = "The House"
-11:15 = "The Gates"
-11:51 = "The Stone Faces"
-13:11 = "On The Rocks"
-14:11 = "Finale"
North by Northwest - The Crop Duster Scene
North by Northwest
North by Northwest - I've Never Felt More Alive Scene
North by Northwest - The Ending Scene
Psycho
Psycho is a 1960 American psychological horror film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and written by Joseph Stefano. It stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, and Martin Balsam, and was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film centers on an encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, in black-and-white, and by a television crew. The film initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box-office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.
Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films and praised as a major work of cinematic art by international film critics and scholars. Often ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films, and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre.
After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a made-for-television spin-off, and a prequel television series set in the 2010s. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock
Psycho - Soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann
01 - Prelude - 0:00
02 - The City - 01:57
03 - Marion - 04:09
04 - Marion And Sam - 05:45
05 - Temptation - 07:39
06 - Flight - 10:30
07 - Patrol Car - 11:38
08 - The Car Lot - 12:45
09 - The Package - 14:30
10 - The Rainstorm - 16:02
11 - Hotel Room - 19:13
12 - The Window - 21:18
13 - The Parlor - 22:31
14 - The Madhouse - 24:09
15 - The Peephole - 26:04
16 - The Bathroom - 29:07
17 - The Murder - 30:09
18 - The Body - 31:12
19 - The Office - 31:30
20 - The Curtain - 32:50
21 - The Water - 34:05
22 - The Car - 35:52
23 - Cleanup - 36:44
24 - The Swamp - 39:00
25 - The Search - 41:04
26 - The Shadow - 41:46
27 - Phone Booth - 42:37
28 - The Porch - 43:31
29 - The Stairs - 44:35
30 - The Knife - 47:33
31 - The Search (B) - 48:04
32 - The First Floor - 49:45
33 - Cabin 10 - 52:31
34 - Cabin 1 - 53:40
35 - The Hill - 54:46
36 - The Bedroom - 55:51
37 - The Toys - 56:52
38 - The Cellar - 57:54
39 - Discovery - 59:00
40 - Finale - 59:43
The Birds
The Birds is a 1963 American horror-thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It focuses on a series of sudden, unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California over the course of a few days. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
The film stars Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren (in her screen debut), supported by Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and Veronica Cartwright. The screenplay is by Evan Hunter, who was told by Hitchcock to develop new characters and a more elaborate plot while keeping du Maurier's title and concept of unexplained bird attacks.
In 2016, The Birds was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry.
The Birds - Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds - Soundtrack - Bernard Herrmann
Marnie
Marnie is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen was based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.
The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann, his last of seven critically acclaimed film scores for Hitchcock. Marnie also marked the end of Hitchcock's collaborations with cinematographer Robert Burks (his twelfth film for Hitchcock) and editor George Tomasini (who died later in the year).
Alfred Hitchcock - Marnie - Soundtrack Suite - Bernard Herrmann
Torn Curtain
Torn Curtain is a 1966 American political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Written by Brian Moore, the film is set in the Cold War. It is about an American scientist who pretends to defect behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany as part of a clandestine mission to obtain the solution of a formula and escape back to the United States. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
Alfred Hitchcock - Torn Curtain
The Original Sound Track Album, Music Composed and Conducted by John Addison, DECCA Records, 1966, High-Fidelity. Replaced the rejected Bernard Herrmann score.
Topaz
Topaz is a 1969 American espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on the 1967 Cold War novel Topaz by Leon Uris, the film is about a French intelligence agent who becomes entangled in the Cold War politics of the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and later the breakup of an international Soviet spy ring in France. The story is closely based on the 1962 Sapphire Affair, which involved the head of French Intelligence SDECE in the United States, and spy Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli—a friend of Leon Uris—who played an important role in "helping the U.S. discover the presence of Russian offensive missiles in Cuba". The film stars Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Dor, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Claude Jade, Michel Subor and John Forsythe.
Maurice Jarre - Topaz - 1969
Topaz (1969) - Original Trailer
Frenzy
Frenzy is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern. The film stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, and Barry Foster and features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant. The original music score was composed by Ron Goodwin.
The plot centres on a serial killer in contemporary London and the ex-RAF serviceman he implicates. In a very early scene there is dialogue that mentions two actual London serial murder cases: the Christie murders in the early 1950s, and the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. Barry Foster has said that, in order to prepare for his role, he was asked by Hitchcock to study two books about Neville Heath, an English serial killer who would often pass himself off as an officer in the RAF.
Frenzy was the third and final film that Hitchcock made in Britain after he moved to Hollywood in 1939. The other two were Under Capricorn in 1949 and Stage Fright in 1950 (although there were some interior and exterior scenes filmed in London for the 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much). The last film he had made in Britain before his move to America was Jamaica Inn (1939). The film was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.
Frenzy - Alfred Hitchcock, 1972
Family Plot
Family Plot is a 1976 American Technicolor comedy thriller film that was the final film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film was based on Victor Canning's novel The Rainbird Pattern, which Ernest Lehman adapted for the screen. The film stars Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Barbara Harris and William Devane. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. Music by John Williams.
The story involves two couples: one a "fake" psychic and her cab driving boyfriend, the other a pair of professional thieves and kidnappers. Their lives come into conflict because of a search for a missing heir. The film's title is a pun: "family plot" can refer to an area in a cemetery that has been bought by one family for the burial of its various relatives; in this case it also means a dramatic plot line involving various family members.
Alfred Hitchcock - Family Plot - 1976
