Film Music Friday: Alfred Hitchcock.

The latest episode of Kansas Public Radio's Film Music Friday focuses on music in the films of Alfred Hitchcock, including The Man Who Knew Too Much (composer: Bernard Herrmann), North by Northwest (composer: Bernard Herrmann), Psycho (composer: Bernard Herrmann), Rear Window (composer: Franz Waxman), To Catch a Thief (composer: Lyn Murray), and Vertigo (composer: Bernard Herrmann).

New film music releases: Gerald Fried, Bernard Herrmann.

Film Score Friday brings news of the following new releases:

•  Gerald Fried's score for What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (dir. Lee H. Katzin and Bernard Girard, 1969; based on Ursula Curtiss' The Forbidden Garden)

• The Devil and Bernard Herrmann, which includes selections from his score for Obsession (dir. Brian De Palma, 1976) 

• Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960), performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra in 1975 and directed by the composer

Score to Cape Fear (1991).

In Film Score Friday, Scott Bettencourt discusses the release by Quartet Records of the score to Cape Fear (dir. Martin Scorcese, 1991), in which composer Elmer Bernstein incorporated elements of composer Bernard Herrmann's score for the earlier Cape Fear film (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1962) as well as Herrmann's score for Torn Curtain (1962) that Alfred Hitchcock rejected (see Steve Vertlieb's account for the story behind that, which resulted in a permanent rupture in the Hitchcock-Herrmann relationship). To listen to clips from the 1991 Cape Fear score, go here. Both films were based on the novel by John D. MacDonald.

Conductor Leonard Slatkin and composer Bernard Herrmann.

Conductor Leonard Slatkin, ca. 2015.
Wikimedia Commons

Over on ClassicalMusic.com, conductor Leonard Slatkin shares fascinating memories about the orchestras of 20th Century–Fox and Warner Brothers—his father, Felix, was lead violinist in the 20th Century–Fox orchestra, and his mother, Eleanor Aller, was first chair in the cello section of the Warner Brothers orchestra. He met composer Bernard Herrmann and witnessed the recording of Herrmann's score for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Other composers he met included Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Franz Waxman, and he has appreciative words for Carl Stallings, the well-known composer for Merrie Melodies of cartoon fame. He also shares his picks for memorable film scores, including John Williams' score for The Fury (1978).

Film music news: John Barry, Bernard Herrmann.

In Film Score Friday, Scott Bettencourt provides news of new releases of a La-La Land anniversary edition of John Barry's scores for the James Bond films The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and Moonraker (1979), as well as a Music Box remastered score by Bernard Herrmann for the 1973 film Sisters (dir. Brian De Palma, starring Margot Kidder and Charles Durning). 

• Clips from The Man with the Golden Gun score plus order information
• Clips from the Moonraker score plus order information
• Clips from the Sisters score plus order information

Margot Kidder in Sisters (1973)

Film Music Friday: Bernard Herrmann.

Catching up on Film Music Friday episodes from Kansas Public Radio, there's an episode on composer Bernard Herrmann, including excerpts from his scores for Psycho and North by Northwest.

Fan of the theremin? There's an episode on it, including an excerpt from Spellbound.

Prof. Leon Theremin with his eponymous
device, 1928. NYPL

Kickstarter campaign to re-record Bernard Herrmann.

As Scott Bettencourt notes in Film Score Monthly, Intrada has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support a re-recording by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra of Bernard Herrmann's scores to Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. 

From the Vault: Sorry, Wrong Number.

Ad for 1948 film Sorry, Wrong Number

The archival program From the Vault of Pacifica Radio Archives offers an episode from 2003 on Sorry, Wrong Number; Shirley Knight and Ed Asner star in Lucille Fletcher's classic radio drama about a woman who overhears a murder plot that hits close to home. The program includes background on Fletcher (the first wife of film composer Bernard Herrmann), a clip from the first broadcast (in 1943) featuring Agnes Moorehead, and a discussion with Knight.

University of the Air: Bernard Herrmann.

Bernard Herrmann, left, with
chorale director Roger Wagner,
center, and director Ralph Levy
1954 TV production of
A Christmas Carol

Following a program on John Williams, the radio program University of the Air focuses on film composer Bernard Herrmann. Host Norman Gilliland discusses his work with author-film professor Raymond Benson, playing excerpts from Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, North by Northwest, Psycho, Taxi Driver, and Vertigo.

WQXR Movies on the Radio: 1940s films.

Miklos Rozsa conducts his suite
 from Ben Hur, 1979 (PBS)

The March 29 episode of WQXR's Movies on the Radio features scores from the 1940s, which includes music from Double Indemnity (composed by Miklos Rozsa), The Maltese Falcon (composed by Adolph Deutsch), and Spellbound (composed by Bernard Herrmann).

Norma Herrmann on her husband's work.

This short interview on the BBC Radio3 InTune program with Norma Herrmann, widow of composer Bernard, provides insight on Herrmann's initial reaction to Martin Scorsese regarding Taxi Driver and his relationship with Hitchcock (includes some clips from Herrmann's compositions for North by Northwest and Psycho).

WQXR: "The Dark Drama of Film Noir."

The Asphalt Jungle, just one film
scored by Miklos Rozsa

A recent rebroadcast from the WQXR radio series Movies on the Radio was "The Dark Drama of Film Noir," focusing on film composers Adolph Deutsch, Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa, and Max Steiner.

Happy centenary, Lucille Fletcher.

Inger Stevens in "The Hitch-Hiker"
Twilight Zone, season 1, 1960
(adapt. of Lucille Fletcher's
radio play)

Suspense writer and playwright Lucille Fletcher—best known for the Edgar-winning Sorry, Wrong Number (play, 1944; novel, 1948; adapted for film and TV, 1946, 1948, 1954, 1957, 1962–64, 1968, 1989)—was born today in Brooklyn, NY, in 1912. She wrote nine novels, three plays, and more than a dozen radio plays that include The Hitch-Hiker (1941; broadcast on the Mercury Theater, 1946). Fletcher, the first wife of Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann, died in 2000.

Honoring Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann.

There's a movement afoot to bestow on famed film composer Bernard Herrmann's residences near London's Regent's Park an English Heritage blue plaque in time for Herrmann's centenary on June 29. To learn how you can sign the petition, go here.

Herrmann's distinguished career includes scores for The Bride Wore Black, Cape Fear, Citizen Kane, Jane Eyre, North by Northwest, On Dangerous Ground, Psycho, Vertigo, and Taxi Driver. A June 29 celebration is planned by the WQXR program Movies on the Radio, and concerts of Herrmann's works are scheduled for this month in places such as Bristol (UK), Frankfurt, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, and San Francisco.  (Hat tip to Silva Screen)

Happy birthday, Lucille Fletcher.

Suspense writer Lucille Fletcher, the first wife of Hitchcockian composer Bernard Herrmann, would have turned 95 today. She died in 2000.

Her biggest hit? "Sorry, Wrong Number" (radio play, 1943; screenplay, 1948), in which a bedridden woman overhears the plotting of a murder over the telephone. To listen to the 1943 Suspense version starring Agnes Moorehead, go here.