Very interesting review.  Enough to make me order it for my library.
I'm not sure, but I think I backed away from it when I first saw a
review in the library press, thinking it a hard sell to the acquisitions
librarian, but what you've written makes me wonder why I felt that way.

Anyone interested in the music to Hitchcock's films would find the
biography of Bernard Herrmann very interesting--A Heart at Fire's Center
by Steven Smith.

Among the usual Hitchcock soundtracks, one I'd recommend checking out
is Herrmann's score to Torn Curtain.  Hitchcock was stunned when he saw
the orchestra Herrmann had assembled, vetoed the whole thing, and at the
last minute brought in John Addison, who wrote what I found to be an
insipid score.  I believe that this incident spelled the end of the
Herrmann-Hitchcock partnership.

I have to wonder what Torn Curtain would have been like with Herrmann's
score.  For a hint, there is a film about, the name of which I have
forgotten, that has a snippet or two of a scene that was somehow scored
and filmed.  It may have been the murder scene Steve described.  Whatever
it was was very effective.  (Interestingly, I think Herrmann had a lot
of influence on Hitchcock's use of silence.  I also think it was Herrmann
who suggested Hitch not use music for The Birds.)

Another book on Hitchcock's use of sound is by Elisabeth Weis.  Haven't
read it, though she is a former classmate.  I think the title is Silent
Scream.

Roger Hecht

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