Hangover Square is a brilliant example of Hollywood's use of a full-blown orchestral score to heighten the effect of melodrama, with music integrated into rather than added onto the story. As a composer, Bernard Herrmann was more often than not a collaborator, from his Citizen Kane debut to North by Northwest and Psycho. Here, his music is cleverly worked into a plot surrounding a pianist-composer who suffers schizophrenic homicidal periods. Discordant chords bear witness to, and seem to initiate, his maniacal moments. Director John Brahm, who characteristically directs mysteries of the mind rather than whodunnits, here has music to add to an array of psychological clues to the murderer's character. Laird Cregar, in his last film, plays the Jekyll-and-Hyde role with disturbing conviction. His loss of some 100 pounds before his death is evident as Hangover Square progresses.