Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Bernard Herrmann

Hitchcock Cameos A Composer Too?

Apparently Alfred Hitchcock was not the only one to make a cameo in his films.

I share this observation in conjunction with my upcoming salute to English composer Richard Arnell, which will take place this Thursday morning, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Arnell (1917-2009) was born 100 years ago this Friday.

Patrick Jonathan, who grew close to the composer over the last 20 years of his life, and who provides the liner notes for a compact disc release of Arnell’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 featuring Warren Cohen and the MusicaNova Orchestra, on the Con Brio Recordings label, has been quite generous with personal anecdotes, documents and photographs.

I found this story particularly fascinating, since I must have seen the film in question eight or ten times, and of course I am an enormous Bernard Herrmann fan:

“Here’s an anecdote that gives some idea of how being Tony’s friend was always exciting and fun. I’ve enclosed a photo, even though I know your tribute is a radio show, just for context.

“One evening in the mid-1980s I got a call from him to ask whether I was watching TV. He asked me if I wouldn’t mind turning on the channel that was showing Hitchcock’s ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ which was already more than halfway through its broadcast. He asked me to concentrate on the scene towards the climax when James Stewart gets out of a taxi at the Albert Hall (the denouement was to feature an assassination attempt timed to coincide with a cymbal clash during a symphonic performance). I wasn’t to concentrate on the actors but on the posters in the background. To my amazement I saw his name featured prominently there!

“I spoke to him after the film had finished and he explained that he had been a close friend of Bernard Herrmann, who composed the score for the film. One of the reasons why Herrmann composed such exceptional scores (‘Psycho’, ‘Citizen Kane’, etc.) was because he didn’t get involved at the edit stage just to work from cues, but immersed himself in the production process, regularly sitting in on the film set and getting a feel for the project as it progressed. He had asked Arnell to come along with him on his visits so often that Hitchcock pulled him aside and asked who this young man was. Herrmann explained that he was maybe England’s most gifted contemporary symphonist at which point Hitchcock, who loved to insert in-jokes into his movie decided that the two composers’ names be printed on posters by the prop department so they could feature in the movie. That’s how Arnell, somehow, got himself a ‘featured role’ in a Hitchcock classic!”

September 12, 2017
Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Torn Curtain Fall

Composer Bernard Herrmann produced three indisputable masterpieces with Alfred Hitchcock: “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and “Psycho” (the biggest success of them all).

However, Hitchcock became increasingly insecure as things began to change within the studio system. The emphasis shifted more and more to the bottom line, and the pressure exerted extended to every aspect of his subsequent films.

Following “The Birds” and “Marnie,” Hitchcock became desperate for another hit. It was the studio’s thinking that its music scores should forthwith be attuned to a younger sensibility. In particular, they were interested in a hit single which would help promote their films. Herrmann’s reliance on a symphony orchestra was deemed old fashioned.

By the time Hitchcock and Herrmann began work on “Torn Curtain,” in 1966, the tension between director and composer was at a breaking point. When Herrmann didn’t produce what Hitchcock requested, the composer was fired halfway through the first day’s recording sessions.

Herrmann’s replacement was John Addison, who was a hot commodity, having won the Academy Award in 1963 for his music for Tony Richardson’s freewheeling adaptation of “Tom Jones.” Ironically, instead of going “popular,” as the studio wanted, save for one incongruous, Mancini-esque song at the end, Addison did what all of Hitch’s subsequent composers did – he emulated Herrmann. “Torn Curtain” failed to gain traction with younger audiences, and the film was not a success.

Herrmann and Hitchcock would never work together again. The “Torn Curtain” debacle spelled the end of one of the greatest artistic partnerships in all of cinema.

Join me for selections from Herrmann’s original, rejected score, alongside jettisoned music for “2001: A Space Odyssey” (by Alex North), “Edge of Darkness” (John Corigliano) and “The Battle of Britain” (Sir William Walton), this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT. It’s an hour of rejected scores on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Hitch and Herrmann – who’d have predicted anything could have gone wrong?

July 7, 2017
Toy Movie Music on Classical Network

With everyone still reeling from Christmas, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on music from movies about toys, including selections from “Citizen Kane” (shhh, don’t give it away), with music by Bernard Herrmann; “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” (it’s in the basement of the Alamo!), with music by Danny Elfman; “Toccata for Toy Trains” (Charles and Ray Eames love vintage toys), with music by Elmer Bernstein; and “Toy Story” (not much of a stretch there), with music by Randy Newman.

There will be toys everywhere 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.

December 30, 2016
Christmas TV Specials Music Spotlight

This week on “Picture Perfect,” at this most special time of the year, the focus will be on Christmas television specials.

Keep an ear open for Howard Blake’s music for “The Snowman” (1982), which spawned his most enduring melody, “Walking in the Air;” selections from Jerry Goldsmith’s score for “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971), which was actually the pilot for the popular television series “The Waltons;” excerpts from an exceedingly rare soundtrack to a musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1954), with songs and underscore written by Bernard Herrmann; and finally, a sampler from Vince Guaraldi’s immortal music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965).

You don’t need me to tell you that it’s going to be special. Join me for music from Christmas television specials, this Friday evening at 6 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

December 23, 2016
De Palma’s Thrilling Scores Perfect Music

Brian De Palma is an extraordinarily adept filmmaker, who has been criticized for his adherence to what has been perceived in some circles as genre trash. He has always been attracted to suspense and crime thrillers, usually of a particularly violent nature, many of them tinged with horror.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” with Hallowe’en right around the corner, we’ll hear music from four of De Palma’s films.

It’s hardly surprising that such an admirer of Alfred Hitchcock would also hire Hitchcock’s signature composer. Bernard Herrmann scored two films for De Palma – the first, “Sisters,” in 1973, and the second, “Obsession,” in 1976.

“Obsession” is a spin on Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” with a botched rescue attempt resulting in the death of a businessman’s kidnapped wife, and a seemingly chance encounter, years later, with a woman who is her doppelganger. The film stars Genevieve Bujold, John Lithgow, and a very tan Cliff Roberston.

“The Fury,” from 1978, based on the novel by John Farris, is a supernatural thriller about two teenagers, endowed with the powers of telekinesis and extra-sensory perception, and the researchers who plan to use them for their own nefarious ends. For a time, Kirk Douglas has fun as a former CIA agent, and John Cassavetes is a particularly slimy villain. Cassavetes’ comeuppance makes for one of the most memorable movie endings of its era – and we’ll leave it at that!

Critic Pauline Kael praised the music, which is by none other than John Williams – hot off his third Academy Award, for “Star Wars” – characterizing it as “as elegant and delicately varied a score as any horror film has ever had.”

Of course, “The Fury” was not the first De Palma film to deal with telekinesis. His adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie,” from 1976, became one the decade’s landmark horror films. It broadened the popularity of King, whose first novel “Carrie” was, and propelled De Palma into the A-list of Hollywood directors. It also essentially launched the careers of Amy Irving, John Travolta, and Nancy Allen, among others. Sissy Spacek was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in the title role, as was Piper Laurie as Carrie’s fundamentalist mother.

The music was by Pino Donaggio. The director had wanted to continue his collaboration with Herrmann, but the composer died before the film could be completed. Donaggio, though classically trained, made his fortune writing popular songs. His biggest hit was “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” as it is known in English. It was recorded by Dusty Springfield, with a well-known cover by Elvis Presley. Donnagio went on to become a regular De Palma collaborator, providing the music for seven of his films.

Finally, we’ll turn our back on horror, to listen to music from a successful period crime thriller, loosely based on the real-life exploits of Eliot Ness and his fellow prohibition agents, “The Untouchables,” from 1987. Kevin Costner plays the by-the-book FBI agent who is given a valuable lesson in street smarts by an Irish beat cop played by Academy Award winning Sean Connery. (“He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get Capone.”) Capone is played, incidentally, by a baseball bat wielding Robert De Niro.

The score is by Ennio Morricone. Morricone, of course, was propelled to fame through his work on Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. He applies some of that same mythmaking skill to this big screen adaptation, which had previously been published as a memoir and developed into a popular television series starring Robert Stack. The high point of the film must be the director’s nail-biting homage to Sergei Eisenstein, a slow motion shoot-out around a baby carriage as it teeters down the steps of Chicago Union Station.

I hope you’ll join me for music from the films of Brian De Palma, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

October 14, 2016

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