What exactly does music do for films when we wouldn’t expect it in the theatre? Why is it no longer the force it once was? From the closing years of the silent era to close on a hundred years of ‘the talkies’, we trace and analyse the role of music ‘in the film cast’ with the aid of many film excerpts and some brilliant music scores. Included are those for Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver, Schindler’s List, Star Wars, Vertigo, King Kong, High Noon and more. We honour the musical imaginations of composers such as Max Steiner, John Williams, Richard Rodney Bennett, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Korngold, Vaughan Williams and Malcolm Arnold.