Alfred Hitchcock remade his own 1934 black-and-white English thriller as a star-laden Hollywood production in 1956, filmed in Technicolor and VistaVision, with Doris Day and James Stewart as a vacationing couple whose child becomes the pawn in an assassination plot. Music has always been an integral part of the success of Hitchcock’s films, and it is central to the screenplay by John Michael Hayes (Rear Window). Day performs the Oscar-winning“ Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” in character at a pivotal moment in the story, and the finale involves a symphony concert at London’s Albert Hall, with the orchestra performing under the onscreen direction of Hitchcock’s music master, Bernard Herrmann. (Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)

“Let us love Hitchcock when, weary of passing simply for a master of taut style, he takes us the longest way round.”
–Jean-Luc Godard, Cahiers du Cinéma



“Even in mammoth VistaVision, the old Hitchcock thriller-stuff has punch.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times