Hitchcock and Herrmann

The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema

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by Steven C. Smith

Type: Studies
Subject: Director > Alfred Hitchcock
Keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, music composer, music
Publishing date: 2026 (January 06, 2026) (Upcoming)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 296 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-0-19-768128-2

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Book Presentation:
• Takes the reader inside the private world of Herrmann — a contrary, brilliant figure, and a three-dimensional person, despite the often-presented caricature of a perpetually angry artist
• Includes unpublished material on Hitchcock's working methods and his relationship with Herrmann
• Provides the most detailed, multi-perspective account to date of their famous creative break-up over the 1966 thriller Torn Curtain
• Shows the continued relevance of Herrmann's music for Hitchcock's films still used in contemporary popular culture

This is the story of the game-changing collaboration between director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann, who channelled their inner fears and desires into films that would become the nightmarish narratives and soundtracks of our lives.

The 11-year collaboration between Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann is often called the greatest director-composer partnership in cinema history. Their eight films together include such classic thrillers as Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. In Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, Steven C. Smith delivers an intimate account of how the reserved, but deeply anxious, Hitchcock found his ideal creative partner in the cantankerous, but deeply romantic, Herrmann. Smith draws on four decades of research, including previously unpublished documents and new interviews, to deliver a riveting account of what made the teaming of "Benny and Hitch" so memorable and influential — and why it came to a bitter end.

Their story involves the tumultuous changes in Hollywood from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, as the collapsing studio system gave way to independent, counterculture filmmaking. It also involves the key figures in Hitchcock and Herrmann's inner circle including the director's gifted wife and most valued critic, Alma Reville; Herrmann's beautiful, put-upon spouse, Lucy Anderson; and talent agent-turned-studio mogul Lew Wasserman. Wasserman's negotiations made Hitchcock's greatest filmmaking period possible, but over time Lew's commercial instincts as head of Universal Studios clashed with Herrmann's pure artistic vision.

Hitchcock and Herrmann is both a deeply researched historical study and a fast-moving, cinematic narrative — one that puts readers on the film sets and scoring stages of Hitchcock masterworks. Their collaboration ended in a bitter break; but today Herrmann's pulse-quickening music has become the soundtrack of our own anxious times. The music from their movies is more popular than ever, heard in Quentin Tarantino blockbusters and Lady Gaga music videos. In Smith's expert telling, readers get an an intimate look at two legendary creators who, despite seemingly opposite personalities, found in each other artistic completion.

About the Author:
Steven C. Smith, Emmy-nominated documentary producer and award-winning author Steven C. Smith is a four-time Emmy-nominated documentary producer and award-winning author. His over 200 documentaries about film and music include collaborations with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Julie Andrews and Sidney Poitier. His biographies of composers Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner each received the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor / Virgil Thomson Award. He has lectured at the Library of Congress, American Film Institute, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum and other organizations. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times.

See the publisher website: Oxford University Press

See the complete filmography of Alfred Hitchcock on the website: IMDB ...

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