[78-L] Hitchcock's music (was Can't Directors...)

[Cary Ginell]

This was done intentionally. Hitchcock was very attuned to use of music in his films. There's a wonderful book on the subject: "Hitchcock's Music" by Jack Sullivan that examines in detail all of the scores, including most uses of source music, in his films. The idea of "Shadow of Doubt" was to have the most innocuous music become sinister. The melody associated with Cotten's character, who is a misogynistic serial killer, is Lehar's "Merry Widow Waltz." Thornton Wilder wrote the script and Dimitri Tiomkin created a blissful, Copland-esque score to depict sleepy Santa Rosa, California. Wilder knew all about underlying evil in an innocent setting, since he had written "Our Town." So the scene in the 'Til Two bar had to have a jukebox blaring not hedonistic swing or jazz, but something unchallenging that could sound more evil when played under Cotten's rant about the sickness in our society. It also showed how protected and innocent Teresa Wright's character was, when she could be intimidated by an ordinary bar with bland dance music coming out of the jukebox. I love this film.

Cary Ginell

> Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 15:49:57 +0100
> From: julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: [78-L] Don't film directors ever get it right?
> 
> I washing watching Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow Of A Doubt", one of 
> Hitch's best, but he had to go and spoil it.
> 
> Joseph Cotten takes his well brought up niece (Teresa Wright) to a 
> "dive", frequented by GIs. "I've never been to a place like this," says 
> Teresa. And what do we hear emanating from the jukebox? Some 1935-style 
> Will Osborne 'hotel' band!
> 
> Doesn't that just bring out the lust in you?
> 
>       Julian Vein
> 
> 
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