Owes much of its quality to Bernard Herrmann's score.

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2000)

Ofcourse Hitchcock is a great director. But try watching this movie without Bernard Herrmann's score and it will lose almost everything about it. Hitchcock wanted to shoot the shower sequence (most memorable but over-exagerated scene) without any music. Big mistake. Mr. Herrmann thought so too. And now it has become a masterpiece. Talking about the shower scene being over rated; my favorite scene in the film is where the lady is driving at night and it starts raining and she turns on the wipers and she keeps looking at the rear view mirror and then she finally ends up at the motel. That whole sequence is brilliant film making that owes much of its brilliance to Herrmann's score. You feel her anxiety because of her feeling of guilt for what she has done, and we as an audience have a feeling that there isn't something that pleasing awaiting her at the end of the road. How do we know that? Pay attention to how the fast pace of the string ensemble comes to an abrupt change with pizzicatos and low resonance bows, once we see the sign of the motel. And notice how the cue leads up to that part; pure genius at work here, ladies and gentleman. If it weren't for Herrmann's musical score, this film would be just an average movie.