Hitchcock's Bitter Split with Composer Who Defied His Orders

Hollywood's most celebrated creative partnerships often crumble in spectacular fashion, leaving behind bitter feelings and broken trust. Alfred Hitchcock's relationship with composer Bernard Herrmann stands as one of cinema's most painful professional breakups, ending when the maestro felt his longtime collaborator had stabbed him in the back.

The Golden Years of Musical Partnership

Their collaboration began in 1955 when Herrmann crafted the musical score for The Trouble With Harry. What followed was a creative bond that would produce some of cinema's most memorable soundtracks across seven films. Herrmann's most famous contribution came with the spine-chilling music that accompanied Psycho's shower sequence, a piece that would ironically plant the seeds of their eventual destruction.

When Success Breeds Overconfidence

According to Steven C Smith, author of Hitchcock & Herrmann, the composer's downfall began when he decided to ignore the director's clear instructions while working on Torn Curtain. Smith explained to Variety that Herrmann's past success had given him false confidence about defying his boss.

"The reason Benny felt that he could go against Hitchcock's wishes on Torn Curtain, I'm confident, is because Hitchcock said on Psycho, 'Do whatever you think is best. I only have one instruction. Do not write music for the murders,'" Smith revealed. "And of course, Herrmann ignored that, and he wrote the music for the shower scene. … Herrmann had what was the supreme triumph, I think, of his career in film when he said, 'Hitch, I did write music for that scene. May I play it for you?' And he did, and Hitchcock said, 'Well, that's what we'll use.'"

The Fatal Miscalculation

For Torn Curtain, Hitchcock specifically requested a lighter musical approach, but Herrmann delivered exactly the opposite. He created a heavy, dramatic score, convinced that outside advisors were leading the director astray. This time, however, his gamble backfired spectacularly.

Smith described the devastating moment when everything fell apart: "I have a much clearer understanding now of how, when Hitchcock walked into the Torn Curtain scoring session, he was just stunned, and his thought was an understandable 'Why have you betrayed me like this? Everything's gone wrong, and I counted on you, my friend, and you did this to me too.' Benny didn't do what he was told, and he wasn't the director of the movie. And this could have been avoided."

The situation was made worse by Herrmann's personal struggles at the time. Smith noted that "he was at the lowest point of his life at that moment, and I think that he was not able to view a project with the same open-mindedness that he could have if his world had not gotten very dark in his head."

Herrmann was immediately removed from the project, with John Addison stepping in to complete the score. The two men never worked together again, ending one of Hollywood's most fruitful creative partnerships on a note of profound disappointment and betrayal.