Oscar Profile #592: Bernard Herrmann

Born June 29, 1911 in New York, New York, Bernard Herrmann was the son of middle-class Jewish parents, born into a family of Russian origin. His father encouraged his interest in music. Started out as a violinist a violinist, he became a composer at 13 and a conductor of his own orchestra at 20. Later the chief conductor for the CBS Symphony Orchestra.

Herrmann married writer Lucille Fletcher (Sorry, wrong Number) in 1939. When he arrived in Hollywood in 1941, his gifts for film scoring were immediately recognized. He received Oscar nominations for his first two films, Citizen Kane and The Devil and Daniel Webster aka All That Money Can Buy, winning for the latter. It was the beginning of a tempestuous relationship with the movie industry.

Herrmann was unusual among film composers of the day in that he preferred to work on a per-film basis, refusing to be put under long-term contract. He insisted on doing his own orchestrations and introduced instruments and techniques that were new to movie scoring.

His work on 1942’s The Magnificent Ambersons was uncredited. He only composed four more films scores during the 1940s, but they were important ones – 1943’s Jane Eyre, 1945’s Hangover Square, 1946’s Anna and the King of Siam for which he received a third Oscar nomination, and 1947’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which he considered his favorite. He was divorced from Fletcher in 1948. In 1949, he married her cousin, Lucy Anderson.

Hermann’s next film was The Day the Earth Stood Still for which he won kudos for his electronic effects. Other memorable scores during the decade were the ones composed for 5 Fingers, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, King of the Khyber Rifles, Garden of Evil, The Egyptian, Prince of Players, The Kentuckian, and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suite.

The composer’s first collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock began with 1955’s The Trouble with Harry, quickly followed by The Man Who Knew Too Much, and The Wrong Man. He interspersed his work on Hitchcock’s Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and Marnie with work on films for other directors including A Hatful of Rain, The Naked and the Dead, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Blue Denim, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Mysterious Island, Tender Is the Night, and Cape Fear.

Herrmann fell out with Hitchcock when the master of suspense rejected his score for 1966’s Torn Curtain. Divorced from Anderson in 1964, he married third wife Norma Shepherd in 1967. Subsequent films included Fahrenheit 451, The Bride Wore Black, Twisted Nerve, The Night Digger, Endless Night, Sisters, Taxi Drivere and Obsession. He received posthumous Oscar nominations for the latter two at the 1976 awards.

Bernard Herrmann died December 24, 1975 at 64.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) , directed by William Dieterle

Herrmann received Oscar nominations for his first two Hollywood films, Citizen Kane, and The Devil and Daniel Webster aka All That Money Can Buy, winning for the latter. Although Citizen Kane is considered the greater film overall, his haunting score for The Devil nd Daniel Webster is equally memorable. Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and more starred in the former, while Walter Huston, Edward Arnold, James craig, and Anne Shirley led the spirited cast of the latter. It wouldn’t be until five years later Herrmann would receive his next Oscar nod.

ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946) , directed by John Cromwell

The 1956 musical remake of Anna and the King of Siam, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I is the better known work but this version of the famous story based on the real-life work of British teacher Anne Leonowens (shortened to Owens here) and her relationship with Siam’s King Mongkut, but both films are fascinating and Herrmann’s Oscar nominated score is certainly one of its treasures. Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb, and Oscar nominated Gale Sondergaard star in this version of the story later populated by Deborah Kerr, Yul Bynner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson, and Terry Saunders.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951), directed by Robert Wise

Hermann used two Theremins to create the film’s eerie electronic effects, one pitched higher, the other lower. The score was one of the Herrmann’s most celebrated. One of the most popular science-fiction films of all time, it starred the then relatively unknown Michael Rennie in a career defining role as the gentlemanly alien. His message to the people of the earth is that we must learn to live peaceably or be destroyed as a danger to other planets, something that we still haven’t learned. Rennie was justly celebrated in the role, but Patricia Neal is every bit his equal as the kindly widow he spends time with. Sam Jaffe as Neal’s professor boss, and Billy Gray s her son, also turn in strong performances.

PSYCHO (1960) , directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The most celebrated of the scores Herrmann composed for Hitchcock, is performed entirely on stringed instruments because he said he wanted to have black-and-white music go with the black-and-white film. Music from his score is still being utilized to this day, particularly the still frightening music from Janet Leigh’s show scene. Both Leigh and star Anthony Perkins said in relation to their strong association with the film that they would rather be remembered for this than not be remembered at all. Walter Disney so hated what he considered Hitchcock’s “disgusting” film that he wouldn’t let him film a scene at Disneyland for one of his subsequent films.

TAXI DRIVER (1976) , directed by Martin Scorsese

After Alfred Hitchcock rejected Herrmann’s score for his 1966 film, Torn Curtain, the composer broke with the director. It wasn’t until ten years later that his scores approached the legend of those he created for Hitchcock ‘s The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. His scores for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Brian De Palma’s Obsession resulted in dual posthumous Oscar nominations for Herrmann. He was supposed to start work on De Palma’s Carrie when he died.