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Hitchcock & Herrmann is a play written by David Knijnenburg which examines the relationship between film director Alfred Hitchcock and musical composer Bernard Herrmann.
By combining a talent for self-promotion and producing films that were popular, Alfred Hitchcock became one of the greatest directors of motion pictures. No less of a talent in the world of musical composition, Bernard Herrmann was a child prodigy who had worked with Orson Welles before finding a collaboration with Hitchcock on The Trouble with Harry , The Man Who Knew Too Much , The Wrong Man , North by Northwest , Vertigo , Psycho , The Birds and Marnie . After ten years the two men ended their collaboration.
Through what is two intersecting monologues the play Hitchcock & Herrmann explores the relationship between these two geniuses and endeavours to explain in their own words why at the height of their creative talents they parted company and never worked together again. Interspersed throughout are examples of Herrmann's music - often taking the place for important dramatic points.
The play was first performed in January, 2005 as a rehearsed reading at the 4MBS Performance Studio in Brisbane, Australia with Knijnenburg himself playing the part of Hitchcock and Yalin Ozucelik as Bernard Herrmann. This reading was somewhat of a rushed affair in order to accommodate Ozuceik who was soon to begin studies at NIDA and would subsequently be unavailable.
Nevertheless, the show was a success, resulting in a three-week performance season in March 2005. Knijnenburg again played Hitchcock, however this time the role of Bernard Herrmann was taken by Michael Priest.
Further successes followed culminating in a nomination for Best Playwright in the 2005 Matilda Awards for Excellence in Live Drama. Other nominees in the category included world-famous playwright David Williamson.
In 2006 Knijnenburg was invited to perform the show at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. With Michael Priest unavailable a new actor was cast in the role of Bernard Herrmann - Jesse Rosenfeld, a young actor who had recently graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts but had been acting since the age of twelve when he appeared in Bruce Beresford's film Paradise Road alongside Pamela Rabe, Pauline Collins, Glenn Close and Cate Blanchett and has since joined the cast of the television series Neighbours .
In 2021 the play was published by Playlab Press.
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English filmmaker who was one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", he became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director despite five nominations.
Psycho is a 1960 American psychological horror thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin), and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate the cause of her disappearance.
North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov. It follows a psychoanalyst who falls in love with the new head of the Vermont hospital in which she works, only to find that he is an imposter suffering dissociative amnesia, and potentially, a murderer. The film is based on the 1927 novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer.
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was renamed The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock himself directed only 18 episodes during its run.
Marnie is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen was based on the 1961 novel of the same name by writer Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.
James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.
Frenzy is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern. The film stars Jon Finch, Alec McCowen, and Barry Foster and features Billie Whitelaw, Anna Massey, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Bernard Cribbins and Vivien Merchant. The original music score was composed by Ron Goodwin.
The Trouble with Harry is a 1955 American Technicolor black comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes was based on the 1950 novel by Jack Trevor Story. It starred Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, Jerry Mathers and Shirley MacLaine in her film debut. The Trouble with Harry was released in the United States on September 30, 1955, then re-released in 1984 once the distribution rights had been acquired by Universal Pictures.
Roy Thinnes is an American television and film actor best known for his portrayal of lonely hero David Vincent in the ABC 1967–68 television series The Invaders.
Obsession is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Brian De Palma, starring Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold and John Lithgow. The screenplay was by Paul Schrader, from a story by De Palma and Schrader. Bernard Herrmann provided the film's soundtrack before his death in 1975. The story is about a New Orleans businessman who is haunted by guilt following the death of his wife and daughter during a kidnapping-rescue attempt gone wrong. Years after the tragedy, he meets and falls in love with a young woman who is the exact look-alike of his long dead wife.
Torn Curtain is a 1966 American political thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Written by Brian Moore, the film is set in the Cold War. It is about an American scientist who appears to defect behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 American suspense thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. The film is Hitchcock's second film using this title, following his own 1934 film of the same name featuring a significantly different plot and script.
Jack Sullivan is an American literary scholar, professor, essayist, author, editor, musicologist, concert annotator, and short story writer. He is a scholar of the horror genre, Alfred Hitchcock, and the impact of American culture on European music.
David Albertus Trelawney Knijnenburg is an Australian stage, television and film actor, best known for playing Alfred Hitchcock in his stage production Hitchcock & Herrmann and in assorted roles in Twelfth Night Theatre's numerous stage adaptations of classic BBC television series such as Dad's Army and 'Allo 'Allo!. He is notable for his height – he is two metres tall.
Jesse Rosenfeld is an Australian stage, television and film actor, best known for playing Marco Silvani on the soap opera Neighbours.
"The Murder" is a cinematic score written and composed by Bernard Herrmann for the horror-thriller film Psycho (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The score, its second movement in particular, is well recognized as one of the most famous scores in film history. It scored for an original orchestra's string section.
Daniel Frederiksen is an Australian actor who has worked in television, film and live theatre.
Hitchcock is a 2012 American biographical romantic drama film directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's 1990 non-fiction book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Hitchcock tells the story of the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville during the filming of Psycho in 1959. Hitchcock premiered at the AFI Fest on November 1, 2012 and was released in the United States on November 23, 2012, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It grossed $27 million against a $15 million budget.