Spellbound (1945): Hitchcock’s Psychoanalytic Thriller–Miklós Rózsa’s Oscar-Winning Score

Music

The film features orchestral score by Miklós Rózsa that pioneered the use of the theremin, performed by Dr. Samuel Hoffmann. Selznick originally wanted Bernard Herrmann, but when Herrmann became unavailable, Rózsa was hired and won the Oscar for his score.

Rózsa considered Spellbound to contain some of his best work, but said “Hitchcock didn’t like the music — said it got in the way of his direction. I haven’t seen him since.”

During the film’s protracted post-production, disagreement arose about the music, exacerbated by lack of communication between producer, director, and composer.

Rózsa had scored another film, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend, before Spellbound was released, which had used the theremin. This led to allegations that he had recycled music from Selznick’s film in the Paramount production.

Selznick’s assistant tampered with the Spellbound scoring by replacing some of Rózsa’s material with earlier music by Franz Waxman and Roy Webb. The tangled history of the scoring process has been explored by Jack Sullivan (Hitchcock’s Music, 2006) and Nathan Platte (Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood, 2018), both qualify and sometimes contradict early accounts.

Rózsa’s music achieved great popularity outside the film. Selznick’s innovative use of promotional recordings for radio broadcast eventually inspired Rózsa to prepare full-scale Spellbound Concerto for piano, theremin, and orchestra. This work became popular staple in the movie concerto genre with multiple recordings.

Intrada Records recorded the complete score with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. This album also included music not heard in the finished film.

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