Bernard Herrmann's Underscore in "LITTLE GIRL LOST"
"Little Girl Lost" Herrmann's underscore is built mainly on a harp ostinato* figure heard at the beginning; an elegiac (sad) viola solo, suggesting the lost girl; and harp glissandi* evoking the sci-fi theme of the 4th dimension. There's also a soft harp arpeggio* as host Rod Serling appears (introduced by a pan shot); and a low harp figure as the father runs to phone his friend. For the sequence when the father enters the 4th dimension to find his daughter (not shown in this segment) Herrmann uses a staccato flute chorus in octaves (that is, flutes attacking the same pitch at different registers).
From these basic elements, Herrmann establishes the credibiliity (believability as sci-fi drama) of the mise-en-scene. To prove this, view the sequence with the sound turned off. The father waking up, putting on his slippers, then searching under the bed might be a scene in a funny sitcom (situation comedy). It's the music that tells us how to "read" the mise-en-scene.
Note that the underscore stops during the "rational" sequence when the friend arrives and plans how to find the girl (lifting the bed, etc.).
To motivate you to study this sequence in depth (several times), I am only assigning the first part of three. But I may base an exam question on this sequence, so study it carefully.
At the same time, do not ignore the wonderful camera tilt-pan-dissolve-dolly combination in the opening sequence; the dolly-in on the girl's picture on the table; the sound effects of the girl crying, followed by another pan to the parents' bed linked to the girl's cry "Mommy," along with Herrmann's ostinato harp figure: all establish with economy the subject of the story. But camera movement and impact cutting (such as when the parents explore under the bed) are vital throughout. There's the pan shot as the father discovers the girl's empty bed; the tilt shot as he visually checks under the bed (the camera following his action, but not his point of view), etc.
Subtext
(NOT REQUIRED)
For those students who wish to explore the subtext, you can go more deeply into the show's narration. But you must view all three segments (not required): (NOT REQUIRED)
The girl cries for her "mommy," but it's the father who gets out of bed (the mother shows no interest in doing so), suggesting the child's unsatisfied relationshp to her mother. The dog is shown trapped behind a glass door in several shots until he's finally let out; the girl is similarly trapped, behind the 4th dimension.
Both dog and girl are part of an alienated family: the "girl lost" is already lost: not in the 4th dimension but in the 3 dimensions of ordinary family life: that is, she is alienated from her family. The dog, with its animal instinct, can easily run to the child, but the parents are puzzled. (Dogs can be trained to sense when its owner has depressed feelings and instinctively nuzzle up to the owner to comfort her.)
The mother who refused to get out of bed for her child is punished later in the drama by being forced to frantically search all over the house for the child she had previously been shown to be indifferent towards. Later the child asks, "Where are you, Mommy" and "Will he [her dog] take me to you?" At show's end, the mother hugs her child close to her as she races out of the room, presumably to her own bedroom, which is where the child wants to be in the first place.
The resolution of the sci-fi drama restores the child not only to the three dimensions of ordinary life, but also into the arms of her mother, which was the goal of the child's first cry for "Mommy." In this sense the show has been resolved not only on the level of sci-fi, but on the level of the domestic (family) drama of the show's subtext.
This may seem like "over-reading" of a simple sci-fi tale; but Rod Serling always preached social messages underneath a sci-fi disguise in order to bypass commercial censorship. Admittedly, in this case the message is not a theme but a subtext, yet still worth exploring.
Musical Terms
*An ostinato figure is a repeated short musical motif. "Ostinato" is related to the English word "obstinate." Thus an ostinato figure obstinately repeats itself.*A glissando glides across several notes of a musical instrument quickly. Herrmann uses this effect to suggest the girl's slipping into the 4th dimension. The glissando is especially evident in key moments, as when host Rod Serling speaks the word, "the Twilight Zone," or when the dog disappears into the 4th dimension.
*An arpeggio (arpeggiation) is the sounding of the notes of a chord in succession instead of at the same time, as a harp does; hence "arpeggio."
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