06 Hitchcock: The Music of Suspense, Obsession, & Murder - Part I

Kinotes

In a new episode of Kinotes, we explore the music of the “Master of Suspense”, Alfred Hitchcock, in part one of a two-part series entitled “Hitchcock: The Music of Suspense, Obsession, & Murder".

There’s been so much discussion about Hitchcock’s use of visuals in the movies, but less so his soundtracks. In this first part, we’ll talk about Hitchcock’s use of music before his collaboration with Bernard Herrmann (with one exception), beginning with his first sound film BLACKMAIL and including films like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, REBECCA, SUSPICION, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS, ROPE, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, REAR WINDOW, and many others.

We’ll talk about his early sound and music innovations, his constant return to the waltz as a musical form, his technique of threading a song throughout a story, and his collaboration with a variety of accomplished composers including Franz Waxman, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Miklos Rozsa.

Show Notes:

0:00:00 - Introduction

0:02:36 - Advent of Talkies: BLACKMAIL, MURDER, JUNO & THE PAYCOCK

0:21:00 - The Waltz & Development of a Song: WALTZES FROM VIENNA, REAR WINDOW

0:26:48 - Public Performance, Music for Life and Death: THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH ('34 & '56), SECRET AGENT

0:40:58 - Earworms: THE 39 STEPS & THE LADY VANISHES

0:48:14 - Musical Performances & Guilt: YOUNG & INNOCENT, ROPE, STAGEFRIGHT

0:55:43 - Waxman's Seductive Feminine Themes: REBECCA, THE PARADINE CASE, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, SUNSET BLVD

01:06:04 - Piano Symbolism: PARADINE CASE, WESTWORLD, SABOTEUR

01:09:00 - Themes for Villains: SUSPICION, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, & STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

01:21:08 - Ticking Tiomkin: HIGH NOON, DIAL M FOR MURDER, Boris Gudonov

1:24:56 - The Two Sides of Love: SPELLBOUND, NOTORIOUS

1:32:30 - Outro / Sources / Social Media / Suite from REBECCA

Please subscribe, rate, review and/or leave a comment on iTunes. For other queries, email us at [e-mail]. We’re also on Twitter: @kinotespodcast and @nicknylen (my personal handle).

All episodes are written and produced by Nick Nylen.

Sources:

• Books: HITCHCOCK’S MUSIC by Jack Sullivan, SILENT SCREAM: ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S SOUNDTRACK By Elisabeth Weis, A HEART AT FIRE’S CENTER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BERNARD HERRMANN by Stephen C. Smith, and HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT by Francois Truffaut.

• Film commentary from the PARADINE CASE Blu-ra by Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn.

• The documentary film, HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT about the conception of the book of the same name.

• If you liked this podcast, I have a few other deep dives on music in specific Hitchcock films to recommend: “Settling the Score’s” episodes on VERTIGO and PSYCHO, “Underscore”’s episodes on VERTIGO and on Bernard Herrmann, and “The Soundtrack Show’s” episode on PSYCHO.