Reel Talks: Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann

Talks on movies, the culture of cinema, and filmmaking.

Don't miss this discussion with author Steven C. Smith about his book Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores that Changed Cinema.

Often called the greatest director-composer partnership in film history, the eleven-year collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann produced such classic thrillers as Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Steven C. Smith draws on four decades of research to create a riveting account of how the reserved, but deeply anxious, Hitchcock and the cantankerous, but deeply romantic, Herrmann bonded onscreen and off—and why their partnership came to a bitter end.

Steven C. Smith is a four-time Emmy-nominated documentary producer and award-winning author. His over 200 documentaries about film and music include collaborations with Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Julie Andrews, and Sidney Poitier. His biographies of composers Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner each received the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor / Virgil Thomson Award. He has lectured at the Library of Congress, American Film Institute, Academy of Motion Pictures Museum, and the British Film Institute. He lives in southern California.

Scott Adlerberg is the author of five novels, including Graveyard Love, Jack Waters, and The Screaming Child.  He has written many short stories and contributes pieces regularly to sites such as CrimeReads and Mystery Tribune.  He was born in New York City and lives in Brooklyn.