As in the case of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (7/07), substantial sections of Miklós Rózsa’s music for Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) were omitted from the final soundtrack. The second cue, “Green Manors”, was cut in full while those for the climactic sequences “Ski Run; Mountain Lodge” and “The Revolver” were mostly replaced by pre-existing material by Waxman and Roy Webb. However, if the final cue, “The End”, seems longer than usual, this is due to Rózsa’s having used a shorter ending in the music’s various concert outings: including several suites and versions of the Spellbound Concerto.

The 20 numbers of the complete score form a coherent whole, the musical developments designed to counterpoint the film’s parallel psychological and murder mysteries. The replacement of key sections thereby undermined his thematic scheme, yet ironically the score still earned him an Oscar, largely due to the melting love theme penned for Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, and the use of the theremin to highlight Peck’s mental instability.

From a 2007 viewpoint, the score now seems somewhat schmaltz-laden and the theremin (in this context) a by-word for the hackneyed. But in its time this music was groundbreaking, not least in the use of continuous music of 10 and 16 minutes in length, with minimal dialogue. In places this strained Rózsa’s ability to reconcile keeping his melodies recognisable and their recurrences from becoming monotonous. The score is very nicely played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under Allan Wilson and Intrada’s sound is fine. Curiously, Celia Sheen’s theremin solos were recorded separately in West Sussex.