Mammoth box set celebrates Bernard Herrmann's 100th

Variety takes a look at a spendy limited edition CD box set that collects the 18 motion picture scores the great Bernard Herrman wrote for 20th Century Fox.

Varese Sarabande's 14-CD, "Bernard Herrmann at 20th Century Fox" set is said to be the most comprehensive collection of one composer's work for a single studio ever released. Included are such film-score classics as "Jane Eyre," "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Some of this music has been released before, although producers Nick Redman and Robert Townson say advances in technology have enabled them to coax better fidelity than ever from the 50-to-60-year-old recordings. And four scores from the 1940s and '50s -- "Hangover Square," "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "White Witch Doctor" and "5 Fingers" -- make their debuts in this collection.

Herrmann, who started his career with "Citizen Kane" and ended with "Taxi Driver," composed 50 feature scores, but some (notably such Hitchcock classics as "Vertigo" and "Psycho") are more revered now than during the composer's lifetime.