Sound is used throughout this film to accentuate the mood of each scene.
To think, this was Alfred Hitchcock's first film made with sound, is amazing in itself and that only 45 miniutes of the ~84 min. film was filled with dialogue and if we hadn't been clued in before hand, I would have never have thought the lead character had a double speaking for her. For 1929, this film seemed very advanced, as I'm sure it was revolutionary.
During the other 39 minutes of this film, music takes the place of dialogue. Where one would yell, the music becomes loud and very pronounced.
It carries us through each scene mirroring the actions taking place. For example, as the attorneys sat around deciding what the verdict was, Hitchcock uses music to show us the passing of time, this music complements the visual he gives us as he cuts to an ash trey of one cigarette butt, and the scene fades to multiple cigarette butts. Another example is as the the affair takes place, the two walk up the stairs, and each flight the tone of the music gets higher and higher and higher . . .
A great use of diegetic off screen sound is after the murder has taken place and Alice sits to eat breakfast with her family. A friend who has stopped by to talk, is speaking " blah blah blah KNIFE blah blah blah KNIFE, blah blah, KNIFE, blah, KNIFE KNIFE!!" Hitchcock was very clever to lower and heighten the sound in just the right places, it was almost comedic to the audience because it was so over done. The only necessary part for us to hear, of what the women had to say, was about the Knife. So he made sure, thats all we heard.
Another clever use of Off-screen sound is of the birds, I wouldn't say chirping, but maybe screeching, not allowing her to get to bed after she has committed the murder. The birds chirps are overly dramatic as the film cuts to an eye-line match of her looking at the out of screen photo of her boyfriend. The birds song remind us of his constant whistling, but now in an eerie way.
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