Hurry, Hurry, Herrmann

Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock's go-to man for scoring, composed the music for North by Northwest. And there's no denying that he did a bang-up job. What resulted from his collaboration with Hitch was, in one critic's colorful description, "a kaleidoscopic orchestral fandango designed to kick-off the exciting rout which follows" (source).

And "kick-off" is right. Just think of how important fast-paced music is for a movie made up of so many chase scenes and hot pursuits. When you cue the music, you cue the speed. The score keeps the audience enthralled and gives a sense of unity and direction to the film's most action-packed sequences, which might otherwise seem like an incoherent bunch of shots.

Herrmann's score does the work of making these shots cohere especially well, sending subliminal messages that let us know when to brace ourselves and when we can relax once a chase has wound down. Needless to say, North by Northwest's score also contributes to the development of the film's love story. So the ultimate moment of relaxation comes at the very end, when soaring strings announce the honeymoon that's also a happily ever after.

Meet the Composer

Like Hitchcock, Herrmann lays claim to a cult of his own. There are whole books dedicated to his accomplishments, even if these don't quite amount to the library that Hitch fills.

Herrmann's renowned for collaborating not only with the Master of Suspense, but also with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane, which often vies with Hitchcock's own Vertigo for the title of Best Film of All Time. It's impossible to imagine what either film would be without its scores—almost as impossible as it is to conceive of North by Northwest without Herrmann's up-tempo music to accompany and fuel its chase scenes.