September 3, 2014

Every once in a while, you’ll hear the details of an event that sounds so, so awesome, that it takes you a moment to properly process what you just heard. Such was the case when my friend Monica invited me to join her for what was being billed as “The Big Picture: Hitchcock!” – A tribute to the great Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest directors of all time, and more importantly a tribute to all the wonderful music that has been created for his masterpieces. The concert took place at the legendary Hollywood Bowl theater on August 31st, 2014 with composer David Newman (son of the great Alfred Newman) leading the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to perform live music from select scenes of 12 Hitchcock pictures.

The performers took to the stage to the narration that opens the record Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Music To Be Murdered By,” which immediately set the fun and darkly humorous vibe of the entire evening. They opened with a fun montage giving only a small taste of how the rest of the show would unfold. (See Clip 1 below)

After that, the selections spanned Hitchcock’s entire career and included films like STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, LODGER, THE 39 STEPS, REBECCA and classics such as VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and PSYCHO. NORTH BY NORTHWEST leading lady Eva Saint Marie hosted the evening by stepping up to the podium and introducing each segment, which primarily consisted of about 2 clips per movie, sometimes with the orchestra performing two movies worth of music in one shot. I can’t properly articulate how interesting and unique an experience it was to see this music performed live, but it only solidified to me that Hitchcock movie’s truly do play best with as large an audience as possible and on the big screen. (And this audience was about 10000 strong!) On one side was my friend and I, casually drinking from a bottle of wine, on the other, complete strangers I’d never met prior and yet within minutes, we all had huge smiles on our faces (along with all the other people around us) as the dark humor of each scene played out in front of us accompanied by the live score. Even in small segments, it’s so easy to get drawn in by the power of Hitchcock’s movies. The following videos can’t possibly do justice to the event itself, but naturally since I’m the “PSYCHO” guy (having directed THE PSYCHO LEGACY documentary), I couldn’t help but snag some snippets from their PSYCHO selections.

At the end of the show, they encored and performed the entire infamous “shower sequence” from PSYCHO and the audience loved ever second of it.

If anything, the evening served as a reminder just how great a filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was, but also how pivotal and important the music and various legendary composer he worked with over the years helped amplify the suspense of his greatest works. It got me in a Hitchcock mood, so I’ve since broken out my Blu-Ray boxed set to the master. If you’ll excuse me, another devilishly clever murder mystery awaits in my living room! Good evening, indeed!