December 12-15, 1971, London. Alfred Hitchcock and composer Henry - TopicsExpress

December 12-15, 1971, London. Alfred Hitchcock and composer Henry Mancini are glimpsed during the end of the recording session for FRENZY. After the sessions ended, Mancini told The Guardians Catherine Stott: You want to know how I go about scaring people? Really it is a matter of colors. Of using the orchestra in various combinations to create tension. Frenzy is very low-key picture about a neck-tie murderer, and what I have done is to just cut off the orchestra round middle C. There is no high — there are no violins nor high flutes — it is all from there down with ten cellos, ten violas, basses, horns, bassoon, and bass flutes ... none of the screeching, high, intense sounds that would be though a little melodramatic today. It is very sparse... theres not a lot going on, but what there is will, I trust, sound pretty spooky. To Mancinis shock, Hitchcock fired him and replaced him with composer Ron Goodwin (WHERE EAGLES DARE). Said Mancini, It was not so much a matter of his being there as that [Hitchcock] didnt say much when we were doing [the recordings]. He sat through every piece and nodded approval, and finally, when he was alone in the dubbing room, he decided that it didnt work. His reason for thinking so, I was told, was that the score was macabre, which puzzled me because it was a film with many macabre things it in. It wasnt an easy decision to accept, and it was crushing when it happened. Hitchcock sent Mancini a case of Chateau Haut-Brion magnums. There is no truth to the rumor that Hitchcock told Mancini, Look if want Herrmann, Id ask for Hermann!