His theremin motifs symbolize extraterrestrial energy that powers Klaatu's spaceship and his robot Gort. Through the music, we hear the sound of that energy - an indication of Herrman's astute understanding of the potentiality of electronics when combined with musical instruments. A key figure in 20th century film scoring, Herrman always knew the psychological purpose behind any 'mood' he generated through his compositions and instrumentation. The score boasts some freaky analogue synth stings which wreck havoc with the orchestra's warbling and surges. Electronica in the fifties meant outer-space.
Milanese design meets Parisian electronica meets London fashion meets Hollywood stars.
Every design crevice of the film is moist with camp, imbuing it with a timeless hipness. Francophilia with intoxica. Artistic purity may be nullified, but transcultural germs spread like a glorious musical plague. Revolutionary' sexuality seemed to require an audio-visual copulation between electronics and erotics. Across thirty years, synthesizers in film soundtracks had shifted from a fifties' space age utopia through a sixties sexual cornucopia to a seventies erotic suburbia.