Bernard Herrmann is the man to thank for those Psycho shower scene strings. And the spooky rumble under Citizen Kane. For Taxi Driver's moody Manhattan vibe. And Vertigo's dizzy delirium.
Now Herrmann gets a suitable salute, every September Tuesday on Turner Classic Movies, with 23 of the films his robust music made better.
Did you know that Herrmann (1911-1975) -- who cut his sonic teeth at CBS Radio alongside Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre (yes, he did War of the Worlds) -- also scored Ray Harryhausen stop-motion fantasies like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad? For that matter, Herrmann even cut a fine score for a '70s drive-in fave TCM sadly isn't showing, the underrated Larry Cohen shocker It's Alive! (Another fave that fails to make TCM's lineup: The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Herrmann's eerie Theramin electronics.)
TCM will move chronologically through Herrmann's career of 40 years, starting this week with four '40s scores -- his "Concerto Macabre" for the film noir Hangover Square (Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET), his Oscar-winning work on The Devil and Daniel Webster (9:30 p.m. ET), his first film Citizen Kane (11:30 p.m. ET), and Welles' follow-up The Magnificent Ambersons (1:45 a.m. ET, all on TCM).
Next week's Herrmann lineup turns to such '50s films as Five Fingers (Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. ET), before the following two weeks spotlight Herrmann's work with Alfred Hitchcock, including Vertigo (late Sept. 15 at 12:15 a.m. ET) and Psycho (Sept. 22 at 10:30 p.m. ET, all on TCM). Wrapping things up are Herrmann's final two films, both touted as TCM premieres: Brian DePalma's Obsession and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (late Sept. 29 at midnight and 2 a.m. ET, running wee-hours thanks to adult content TCM admirably declines to remove).
TCM's full Herrmann lineup can be found here. There's much more online about Herrmann here and here.