Steven C. Smith

No director-composer collaboration has been more seminal to motion pictures than the partnership of Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann. In this documentary we examine the long and sometimes painful partnership that produced unforgettable musical scores for such films as Vertigo, Psycho, and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Hollywood film music has its roots in Europe. Three composers who fled war and National Socialism to the USA created the sound that still shapes film music today: Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. In the early 20th century, these classically trained composers transformed the methods acquired in Vienna and Berlin into a new American art form: film music. They balanced the relationship between image and sound and developed techniques and dramaturgical tricks to achieve the greatest possible effect on the viewer. Their influence is visible in the work of contemporary US composers such as John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. Today, Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi and Harold Faltermeyer continue this tradition. Their melodies are part of humanity's collective memory and reflect the combined traditions of European and American musical history. The documentary accompanies composers in their work and explores the European roots of Hollywood.

This is the featurette on the DVD of "The Trouble With Harry." It consists of interviews, clips of the film and stills from the making of the Hitchcock classic.

A look at the life and work of the Austrian composer who pioneered the musical scoring of films - hundreds of them - from King Kong, to Gone with the Wind, to Casablanca and beyond.

This hour long documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" incorporates the usual melange of contemporary interviews with surviving participants and liberal helpings of film clips and production shots. It also presents a nice selection of script pages and memos as well. In the former category we find cast members 'Tippi' Hedren, Diane Baker, and Louise Latham, rejected screenwriters Joseph Stefano and Evan Hunter, final screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell, production designer Robert Boyle, makeup artist Howard Smit, unit manager Hilton Green, Hitchcock historian Robin Wood, composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, and Hitchcock fan/filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. An entertaining account of the film's production, the participants offer loads of valuable information and anecdotes. Highly enjoyable for Hitchcock fans and the film's growing number of admirers.