Book Review: Hitchcock & Herrmann

June 9, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock & Herrmann, John Williams, Max Steiner, North by Northwest, Oxford University Press, Psycho, Sisters, Steven C. Smith, Taxi Driver, Vertigo | Leave a comment

Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores That Changed Cinema
Published by Oxford University Press, 2025. 295 pages
By Steven C. Smith

I had purchased Smith’s previous book, on composer Max Steiner, so when this new one was coming out, I pre-ordered it. Not only because I knew it was going to be interesting with the subject matter being the work that Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann did, but I just love learning more about the making of the films. Learning about the making of the music for these films was something new and made me very curious to dig into. Especially since I have not one bit of musical talent myself, would I be able to understand what the author was describing? While there are parts where Smith delves into the actual music, for a layman like me, it was still very comprehensible and not overpowering where you lose interests.

The book opens with Herrmann conducting the score for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976), which would be his last score. It shows just how much influence his scores had been to this new generation of directors, such as Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and even modern composers like John Williams. And while Herrmann started his film score career with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941), it really was his work with Alfred Hitchcock that gave him his fame. Even with his last scores, it showed Herrmann’s temperament and attitude, but also his ethics, style, and just sheer talent.

Continue reading →

Fond of His Mother: Queer-coded Hitchcock

April 25, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Farley Granger, Jimmy Stewart, Music Box Theatre, Psycho, Rebecca, Rope, Strangers on a Train | Leave a comment

No matter how you want to, or not want to, read into the subtext of some of the films from Alfred Hitchcock, he no doubt was pushing the limits of certain subject matters in some of his films. Whether it be sex, violence. or queerness, Hitchcock was not only a master of suspense, but subtext, getting different things past the censors and studio heads without them even realizing it. Next month, the Music Box Theatre is celebrating 4 of those films: Strangers on a Train (1951), Rebecca (1940), Psycho (1960), and Rope (1947). While Rebecca will be from a DCP, the rest of the films will be screening from 35mm prints.

Continue reading →

Book Review: Rear Window

January 15, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Francois Truffaut, Grace Kelly, Jennifer O'Callaghan, Jimmy Stewart, Rear Window | Leave a comment

Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age
Published by Citadel Press, 2025. 253 pages.
By Jennifer O’Callaghan

I hadn’t expected to read a second book on a Hitchcock film after just finishing Criss-Cross by Stephen Rebello, but since Rear Window is my favorite of the director’s work, and I was already knee-deep in the Hitchcock cinematic world, I figured why not. And just like the Rebello book, there is a ton of information on the making of it. From finding the right writer to tackle adapting the short story by Cornell Woolrich, to getting the studio to foot the bill for an entire neighborhood to be built on a soundstage. And then there casting as well, along with the design, art direction, and all that other fun stuff that goes into making a classic.

Finding an actor for the lead role would have to be someone that would follow Hitchcock’s direction. When he had worked with Montgomery Cliff in I Confess (1953), the director ran into issues getting him to do what he wanted because Cliff was a method actor, something Hitchcock did not care for. Hitchcock worked in visuals, what the audience was going to see and how that carried the story along. When Cliff didn’t want to do something in particular because “my character wouldn’t do that”, it caused issues with Hitchcock not being able to get the shots he wanted. Hitchcock had said “It’s a movie. You’re an actor. Act.”

Continue reading →

Book Review: Criss-Cross

December 27, 2025 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Criss-Cross, Farley Granger, Laura Elliott, Psycho, Robert Walker, Running Press, Stephen Rebello, Strangers on a Train, Terror in the Aisles | Leave a comment

Criss-Cross: The Making of Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers on a Train
Published by Running Press, 2025. 312 pages.
By Stephen Rebello

I don’t remember when I first watched Strangers on a Train, but the first time I saw clips of it (even though not knowing where it was from) was in the film Terror in the Aisles (1984), a compilation of scenes from different horror films, as well as some from the suspense sub-genre. For Strangers, it’s the scene at the carnival, where Robert Walker pops the kid’s balloon, and then strangles Laura Elliott. At the time, I didn’t even know it was a Hitchcock title. But when I finally got around to watching the entire film, it became one of my favorites of Hitchcock.

I was thrilled to see a book out on this film especially since it was written by Rebello, who had previously written about Hitchcock and the making of Psycho. Anytime I’ve read about a particular movie, or director, or anything in general about a film, I always come out of it learning something new as well as seeing the film a little different. Anytime you learn more about what exactly went into the making of one, from the casting, the set design, cinematography, it makes you see more but gives you more appreciation of it. But in the case of something from Hitchcock, it goes even further than that, when you come to understand what was going on in his mind during the making of one of his movies.

Continue reading →

Hitchcock and Herrmann Book

June 3, 2025 by Jon Kitley in Book News and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock & Herrmann, North by Northwest, Oxford University Press, Psycho, Steven C. Smith, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo | Leave a comment

Composer Bernard Herrmann worked with Alfred Hitchcock on some of his most well-known scores, such as Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and of course, Psycho (1960). They would work on 8 films together, creating some of the finest in cinematic history. Now, author Steven C. Smith gives us a book that delves into that relationship in his new book Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema, due out this fall. Smith spent over four decades doing research, from unpublished documents, new interviews, giving us readers a look inside the collaboration between Hitchcock and Herrmann.

When you have to strong-willed characters like these two, you know there are going to clashes. But they still were able to work together for some time and helped create some amazing films and film scores. This 312-page hardcover book is being published by Oxford University Press and can be pre-ordered now, with a cost of $39.99.

Soundtrack Review: Psycho II

August 6, 2024 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Soundtrack and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Intrada, Jerry Goldsmith, Psycho, Psycho II | Leave a comment

Psycho II
Released by Intrada, 2021
31 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 1:14:30 Min.
Composed and Conducted by Jerry Goldsmith

I can’t imagine being asked to take on the task of creating a sequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic, which director Richard Franklin and screenwriter Tom Holland did, and, I feel, really knocked it out of the park. Same goes with Jerry Goldsmith, having to come up with a score to follow up Bernard Herrmann. Couldn’t have been easy to even think of doing. But Goldsmith made this score his own, and it really works.

Continue reading →

Music Box Theatre in 3D!!!

March 3, 2024 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dial M for Murder, Gravity, House of Wax, Jack Arnold, Music Box Theatre, Saw 3D | Leave a comment

My favorite theater in Chicago is the Music Box, one that I have been going to for over 30 years and love the fact that something like this still exists in my world. I am truly honored every time I attend a screening there. If you have a theater like this in your neck of the woods, please make sure you support it to keep these places alive and well.

The Music Box has recently announced a 3D film series that starts in April. These are all in digital 3D so you don’t have the old-fashioned red & blue glasses. Nothing against the old way, but these new digital ones are pretty effective. While only a few of the titles announced are really in the horror genre, I think it is still an awesome idea! Especially because the film that starts the series is Jack Arnold’s 1954 film Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was originally filmed and presented in 3D. I cannot overstate just how amazing this film is when you see it in 3D. Granted, it is a classic in a regular format, but in 3D . . . just wow! So, if you haven’t had the opportunity to see this film in this format, PLEASE make plans to do so.

Continue reading →

2023 Year End Review – Part 2: Best Viewings!

December 31, 2023 by Jon Kitley in Year End Reviews and tagged Against the Grain, Alfred Hitchcock, Blood Flower, Cobweb, Demien Rugna, Don't Listen, Eloy de la Iglesia, Eskil Vogt, I See You, Joseph Stefano, La Abuela, Martin Landau, Mike Vraney, No One Heard the Scream, Paco Plaza, Psycho, Something Weird Video, Terrified, The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre, The Grandmother, The Innocents, Vinegar Syndrome, Voces, When Evil Lurks | 3 Comments

As always, it was a struggle getting my list down to ten films. It was even stranger because when I first started going through my list of movies I watched this year, at first, I thought I was going to have trouble even coming up with five titles. But the more I looked into them, the more I realized that not only did I have more than ten, but almost like last year, most of the films I have listed here came out in the last few years. I’ve only got two “old” ones and the rest from 2020 to 2023. I would like to say that it gives me hope for modern films, but really mainly if you look outside the country! Six of my films are from foreign countries, which does give me a LOT of hope of the horror genre as a whole.

Let’s get started, shall we? These are listed in alphabetical order to make it a little easier for me, since narrowing it down to ten was hard enough!

Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Hitchcock!

July 10, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Friday Favorites and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, I Confess, Lifeboat, Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, Rear Window, Rope, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Vertigo | 7 Comments

rear window friday favorite

This Friday we’re going to talk about the one of the greatest directors that ever said “Action!” The one and only Alfred Hitchcock. Unlike most fans, my first introduction to him wasn’t any of his films, but his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. But once it came to movies, Psycho was definitely the one I remember as being one of the first, if not the first. But way before we were introduced to Norman and his domineering mother, Hitchcock gave us so many great titles, from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and then remade in 1956), Lifeboat (1944), Rope (1948), I Confess (1953), Rear Window (1954), and so many more.

So for this Friday Favorites, let us hear what yours is from our friend Sir Alfred.

Dial M for Murder Soundtrack!

December 22, 2019 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Soundtrack and tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder, Dimitri Tiomkin, Intrada, Screen Archives | Leave a comment

Dial M for Murder Fans of classic Hitchcock and soundtracks will be thrilled to hear that the score for his 1954 thriller, that has been painstakingly re-recorded under the direction of William Stromberg, recorded in Glasgow’s new state-of-the-art recording venue. They wanted to make sure that with this new recording, they were able to make it feel like Dimitri Tiomkin’s original.

This release also includes both used and unused “intermission cards” for the 3-D presentations, an alternate main title, as well as unused arrangements. With 15 tracks and a total running time of 65 minutes, I think this a must for any Hitchcock fans, as well as composer Tiomkin. You can get it directly from Intrada (click HERE) or from Screen Archives Entertainment (click HERE).