When trying to convey the tone he was looking for with his latest motion picture, director Alfred Hitchcock stated drolly to the film’s composer, “Mr. Williams, murder can be fun.”

John Williams was hired to score Hitchcock’s final film, “Family Plot,” in 1976. At the time, he was poised between his breakout success with “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” which would make him a household name. He would be honored for both with Academy Awards for Best Original Score.

To satisfy Hitch’s hunger for ham on wry, Williams turned to the harpsichord, an instrument that had taken on a certain mischievous quality when applied to mysteries and thrillers.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear selections from this neglected score from the dawn of Williams’ widespread popularity, alongside Ron Goodwin’s music for “Murder She Said” (the first of Margaret Rutherford’s Miss Marple films), John Addison’s for “Sleuth” (Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine engage in a battle of wits with potentially deadly consequences), and André Previn’s for “Dead Ringer” (a post-“Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” Bette Davis plays contentious twins whose relationship, naturally, leads to murder).

Join me for an hour of wicked fun with arch harpsichords this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.