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EspañolPSYCHO (1960 FILM)
'''Psycho''' is a 1960 suspense/horror film directed by auteur Alfred Hitchcock from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano about a psychotic killer. It is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.13 The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who is in hiding at a motel after embezzling from her employer, and the motel's owner, the lonely Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). "The Shower Scene" has been studied, discussed, and referenced countless times in print and in film courses with debate focusing on why it is so terrifying and how it was produced, including how it passed the censors and who directed it.
It initially received mixed reviews but outstanding box-office returns, prompting a re-review which was overwhelmingly positive and led to four Academy Award nominations. Regarded today as one of Hitchcock's best films[1] and highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics,[2] ''Psycho'' is also acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films.19 The film spawned several sequels and a remake, which are generally seen as works of lesser quality.
Plot summary
The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, with discreet lovers Marion Crane (Leigh) and Sam Loomis (Gavin) together in a downtown hotel room. Until Sam's finances improve, the two cannot marry, as he is in debt and must also pay heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 cash from a sale at the real estate office where she works. Asked to deposit the money at the bank for the weekend, she instead packs and leaves town with the money, which she sees as the ticket to her and Sam's happiness.
Sam lives in a California town where he runs a hardware store. Marion heads there, and her behavior along the way draws the attention of others. In one scene, she trades her car for another used car while a suspicious lawman watches.
While driving fatigued in the dark, in pouring rain, she sees a seemingly deserted 12-cabin motel. There, Marion encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner who looks after the motel and his ailing mother in the nearby mansion on a hill. Norman offers to make her a sandwich; while going into the house to prepare the sandwich, Marion hears his mother shouting at him as though his meal with Marion was part of a sordid affair. While talking with Norman, she considers him something of an eccentric, especially when he shows surprising knowledge of the interior of a mental asylum. Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his overbearing mother's illness. Ultimately, as Marion showers in her motel room, she is stabbed to death in the now-famous "shower scene" by a shadowy woman's figure while Bernard Herrmann's screeching string score plays.
Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse. To protect his mother, he disposes all evidence of the crime by sinking Marion, her car, and her belongings (including the money, which Bates has not seen) in a swamp behind the Bates' property. Marion's disappearance, with the money, sets a search in motion. A private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), is hired to find and recover the money. He traces Marion to the Bates Motel, questions Norman (who sweats and seems very nervous and edgy) and is similarly slashed to death by Norman's mother after being pushed down a flight of stairs.
Sam and Marion's sister, Lila (Miles), immediately become concerned when Arbogast does not telephone them after reaching the motel and decide to alert the local sheriff. However, when they mention Mrs. Bates, his wife asks: "Oh, Norman took a wife?" Apparently, Mrs. Bates died ten years ago, when she committed suicide with strychnine.
Sam and Lila, tipped by Detective Arbogast before his demise, are also suspicious of Norman and his mother. While investigating they decide to check into the Bates Motel, to search for proof of Marion, where they find a paper with the sum of $40,000 written on it. Theorizing that Norman's mother might know more about Marion, Lila sneaks into the house while Sam confronts Norman at the office. Sam's heated argument with Norman quickly escalates to violence, and Norman knocks Sam unconscious and flees to the house. Meanwhile, Lila slips into the basement to discover the semi-preserved corpse of Norman's mother just as Norman enters to find her. Cross-dressed in his mother's clothing, complete with wig, Norman is wielding the deadly butcher's knife, preparing to kill Lila. Sam regains consciousness, reappearing just in time to wrestle the knife away from Norman and rescue Lila, who watches in disbelief.
At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Fred Richmond (Oakland), explains to Lila, Sam and the authorities that Bates' mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Norman was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by exhuming her corpse and preserving it with his taxidermy skills, thereby inciting a split personality in Norman, creating the persona of his mother. He acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. Because Norman was so very jealous of his mother while she lived, his split personality is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. Norman's psychosis prohibits him from knowing of his mother's crimes or her original demise.
The last scene shows Norman Bates in a cell, his mind now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. She blames Norman for the crimes, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that she is utterly harmless, thinking to herself, "They’ll see, they'll know, and they’ll say, 'Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly!'" A brief epilogue shows Marion's car being towed from its watery grave in the swamp, presumably to collect her body and the $40,000.
Production
Pre-production
The film is based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. Hitchcock acquired the film rights anonymously through an agent for a very small sum of $9,000.[3]
Hitchcock embraced ''Psycho'' as a means to regain success and individuality in an increasingly competitive genre. He had seen many B-movies churned out by William Castle such as ''House on Haunted Hill'' (1958), and by Roger Corman such as ''Bucket of Blood'' (1959) that cleaned up at box offices despite being panned by critics. There were also a series of competing directors who had tried their hand at typical Hitchcock fare in such films as ''When Strangers Marry'' (1944), ''The Spiral Staircase'' (1946), ''Gaslight'' (1944), and so forth.[4]
Furthermore, both Hitchcock and Henri-Georges Clouzot had adapted two books by the same authors with very different results. Clouzot's ''Les Diaboliques'' (1955) was critically acclaimed and financially successful, earning him the title of the "French Hitchcock," while Hitchcock's ''Vertigo'' (1958) had failed both critically and financially. Hitchcock was also constantly reinventing himself (he once said "Style is self-plagiarism"), so, when Peggy Robertson, a trusted production assistant, brought ''Psycho'' to his attention, he seized on it not only for its originality but also as a way to retake his mantle as an acclaimed director of suspense.
Ned Brown, Hitchcock's longtime agent, explains that Hitchcock liked the story because the focus began with Marion's dilemma then completely turned after the murder. Hitchcock himself said in an interview with François Truffaut that "I think the thing that appealed to me was the suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming, as it were, out of the blue. That was about all."
James Cavanaugh wrote the original screenplay, but Hitchcock turned it down citing its dragging storyline that he believed read like a TV short horror story. Hitchcock reluctantly agreed to meet with Joseph Stefano, who had worked on only one film before. Despite his inexperience, the meeting went well, and Stefano was hired.
The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel with a few notable adaptations by Hitchcock and Stefano. The book features Mary Crane, from Dallas, Texas as its heroine and protagonist. Since, at the time, a real Mary Crane existed in Phoenix, Hitchcock renamed the character Marion Crane. Stefano also changed Marion's telltale earring found in the bathroom after her death to a scrap of paper in the toilet. When developing the characters for film, Hitchcock asked Stefano why he did not like the Norman Bates character, to which Stefano replied that Norman was unsympathetic, unattractive, and a drinker. Hitchcock suggested Perkins as a sympathetic man, and Stefano agreed. Other changes Stefano made for the screenplay include the location of Arbogast's death from the foyer to the stairwell. He also changed the novel's budding romance between Sam and Lila to just a friendly relationship, and instead of using the two to explain Norman's mental condition he replaced them with a professional psychiatrist.
Paramount, whose contract guaranteed another film by Hitchcock, did not want Hitchcock to make ''Psycho''. (Paramount was expecting ''No Bail for the Judge'' starring Audrey Hepburn who became pregnant and had to bow out, leading Hitchcock to scrap the production.) Their official stance was that the book was "too repulsive" and "impossible for films," and nothing but another of his star-studded mystery thrillers. They did not like "anything about it at all" and denied him his usual budget. So Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit. Hitchcock's original Bates Motel and Psycho House movie set buildings, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney's ''The Phantom of the Opera'', are still standing at Universal Studios in Universal City near Hollywood, California and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour.[5] As a further result of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film ''Psycho'' in black and white, keeping the budget under $1,000,000.[6] Other reasons for shooting in black and white were to prevent the shower scene from being too gory and that he was a fan of ''Les Diaboliques's use of black and white.[7]
To keep costs down and because he was most comfortable around them, Hitchcock took most of his crew from his television series ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', including the cinematographer, set designer, script supervisor, and first assistant director. He hired regular collaborators Bernard Herrmann as music composer, George Tomasini as editor, and Saul Bass for the title design and storyboarding of the shower scene. In all, his crew cost $62,000.
Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock managed to cast Janet Leigh for a fourth of her usual fee, paying only $25,000. (In the 1967 book ''Hitchcock/Truffaut'', Hitchcock said that Leigh owed Paramount one final film on her seven-year contract which she had signed in 1953.) His first choice, Leigh agreed after having only read the novel and making no inquiry into her salary.Her co-star, Anthony Perkins, agreed to $40,000. Both stars were experienced and proven box-office draws.
Paramount did distribute the film, but four years later Hitchcock sold his stock in Shamley to Universal's parent company and his next six films were made at and distributed by Universal. After another four years, Paramount sold all rights to Universal. When the film became a major hit, the Hitchcocks received a much larger share of the profit than they would have otherwise.
Filming
The film, independently produced by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue Studios,[8] the same location as his television show. ''Psycho'' was shot on a tight budget of $806,947.55, beginning on November 11, 1959 and ending on February 1, 1960. Filming started in the morning and finished by six or earlier on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's).
Nearly the whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This trick closely mimicked normal human vision, which helped to involve the audience more.
Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched assistant director Hilton Green to Phoenix to scout locations and shoot the opening scene. The shot was supposed to be an aerial shot of Phoenix that slowly zoomed into the hotel window of a passionate Marion and Sam. Ultimately, the helicopter footage proved too shaky and had to be spliced with footage from the studio. Another crew filmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Fresno and Bakersfield, California for projection when Marion drives from Phoenix. They also provided the location shots for the scene where she is pulled over by the highway patrolman.
The original Bates mansion.
Green also took photos of a prepared list of 140 locations for later reconstruction in the studio. These included many real estate offices and homes like those belonging to Marion and her sister. He also found a girl who looked just like Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor.
Both the leads, Perkins and Leigh, were given freedom to interpret their roles and improvise as long as it did not involve moving the camera. An example of Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of munching on candy corn.
Throughout filming, Hitchcock created and hid various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop in Janet Leigh's dressing room closet. There were no hard feelings as Leigh took the joke well, and she wonders whether it was done to keep her on edge and thus more in character.
During shooting Hitchcock was forced to uncharacteristically do retakes for some scenes. The final shot in the shower scene, which starts with an extreme close-up on Janet's eye and pulls up and out, proved very difficult for Leigh, since the water splashing in her face made her want to blink, and the cameraman had trouble as well since he had to manually focus while moving the camera. Retakes were also required for the opening scene, since Hitchcock felt that Leigh and Gavin were not passionate enough. Leigh had trouble saying "Not inordinately" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes. Lastly, the discovery of Mother scene required complicated coordination of Mother's chair turning around, Vera Miles hitting the light bulb, and a lens flare, which proved to be the sticking point. Hitchcock forced retakes until all three elements were to his satisfaction.
According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were directed by Hilton Green, working with storyboard artist Saul Bass's drawings only while Hitchcock was incapacitated with a "temperature." However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they didn't portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs."[9] The scene was later reshot by Hitchcock, however, a little of the cut footage made its way into the film.
Filming the murder of Arbogast proved tricky due to the overhead camera angle (to hide the film's twist). A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chair-like device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.
Shower scene
The most iconic scene in the film, arguably one of the most iconic scenes in film history, is the murder of Janet Leigh's character in the shower. Although there is little visible gore portrayed on the screen, the shower scene is often regarded as one of the most frightening sequences in cinema history. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17 to December 23, 1959 and between 71 and 78 angles (the exact number is unknown). The scene "runs 2 minutes and includes 50 cuts."[10] Most of the shots are extreme close-ups except for medium shots in the shower directly before and directly after the murder. The combination of the close shots with the short duration between cuts makes the sequence feel longer, more subjective, more uncontrolled, and more violent than the images themselves were they presented alone or in a wider angle.
In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. By blocking the inner holes on the spout and placing the camera farther back, the water appeared to be hitting the lens but actually went around and past it.
The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder." Hitchcock originally wanted the sequence (and all motel scenes) to play without music, but Herrmann begged him to try it with the cue he had composed. Afterwards Hitchcock agreed that it vastly intensified the scene and he nearly doubled Herrmann's salary.[11][12] The blood in the scene is in fact chocolate syrup, which shows up better than stage blood on black-and-white film.[13] The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon.[14][15]
It is sometimes claimed that Janet Leigh was not in the shower the entire time and a body double was used. However, in an interview with Roger Ebert, and in the book ''Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho'', Leigh stated that she was in the scene the entire time; Hitchcock used a live model as her stand-in for only the scenes in which Bates wraps up Marion's body in a shower curtain and places her body in the trunk of her car.[16]
Another popular myth is that in order for Janet Leigh's scream in the shower to sound realistic, Hitchcock used ice-cold water. This was denied by Leigh on numerous occasions.[17] Also, all of the screams are Leigh's.
Another myth was that Leigh was only told by Hitchcock to stand in the shower, and had no idea that her character was actually going to be murdered the way it was, causing an authentic reaction. This myth also started the myth that Leigh would not take a shower without someone guarding the bathroom door for quite some time after the scene was completed. The most notorious urban legend arising from the production of ''Psycho'' began when Saul Bass, the graphic designer, who created many of the title sequences of Hitchcock's films and storyboarded some of his scenes, claimed that he had actually directed the shower scene. This claim was refuted by several people associated with the film. Leigh, who is the focus of the scene, stated, "...absolutely not! I have emphatically said this in any interview I've ever given. I've said it to his face in front of other people... I was in that shower for seven days, and, believe me, Alfred Hitchcock was right next to his camera for every one of those seventy-odd shots." Hilton Green, the assistant director and cameraman, also denies Bass' claim: "There is not a shot in that movie that I didn't roll the camera for. And I can tell you I never rolled the camera for Mr. Bass." Roger Ebert, a long-time admirer of Hitchcock's work, was also amused by the rumor, stating, "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such a scene."[18]
It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh.[19][20] However, a frame-by-frame analysis shows that the knife does indeed visibly penetrate the skin by a fraction of an inch, albeit only once, and so briefly (just three frames of film, or about an eighth of one second) as to be subliminal.
According to Donald Spoto in ''The Dark Side of Genius'', Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, spotted a blooper in one of the last screenings of ''Psycho'' before its official release: After Marion was supposedly dead, one could see her blink. The "making of" featurette on the Collector's Edition DVD also mentions the fact that Alma spotted a blooper in a late screening of the film; however, according to this account, the problem was that Leigh's character appeared to take a breath. In either case, the postmortem activity was edited out and was never seen by audiences.
Although Marion's eyes should be dilated after her death, the contacts necessary for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimatization in order to wear them, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them.
Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it, that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to. Then she would lock all the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open.
Janet Leigh and Hitchcock fully discussed what the scene meant:
Marion had decided to go back to Phoenix, come clean, and take the consequence, so when she stepped into the bathtub it was as if she were stepping into the baptismal waters. The spray beating down on her was purifying the corruption from her mind, purging the evil from her soul. She was like a virgin again, tranquil, at peace.
Film theorist Robin Wood also discusses how the shower washes "away her guilt." He comments upon the "alienation effect" of killing of the "apparent center of the film" with which spectators had identified.[21]
Censorship
According to ''Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho'', the censors in charge of enforcing the Production Code for the MPAA wrangled with Hitchcock because some censors insisted they could see one of Janet Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. Astoundingly, each of the censors reversed their positions -— those who had previously seen the breast now did not, and those who had not, now did. They passed the film after the director removed one shot that showed the buttocks of Leigh's stand-in. The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would reshoot the opening with them on the set. Since they did not show up for the reshoot, the opening stayed.
Another cause of concern for the censors[22] was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up paper) fully visible. In film and TV at that time a toilet was never seen, let alone heard. This tradition became so well-known that later shows like ''All in the Family'' and ''Sanford and Son'' added a laugh track every time a flushing sound was heard.
Also, according to the "making of" featurette on the Collector's Edition DVD, some censors objected to the use of the word "transvestite" in the film's closing scenes. This objection was withdrawn after writer Joseph Stefano took out a dictionary and proved to them that the word carried no hidden sexual context, but merely referred to "a man who likes to wear women's clothing".
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. Notably, in Britain the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands was objected to and in Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed.
The scene with Dr. Fred Richmond was just about forced upon Hitchcock so that the audience would have a sense of relief that everything about Norman could be neatly explained and tidied up. However, he had the last laugh by cutting back to Norman Bates after Richmond's speech and scaring them all over again.
Promotion
Theatre poster providing notification of "no late admission" policy.
Hitchcock did most of the promotion on his own, forbidding Leigh and Perkins from making the usual television, radio, and print interviews for fear of them revealing the plot. Even critics were not given private screenings but rather had to see the film with the general public, which, despite possibly affecting their reviews, certainly preserved the plot.
The film's original trailer features a jovial Hitchcock taking the viewer on a tour of the set, and almost giving away plot details before stopping himself. It is "tracked" with Bernard Herrmann's ''Psycho'' theme, but also jovial music from Hitchcock's comedy ''The Trouble With Harry;'' most of Hitchcock's dialogue is post-synchronized. The trailer was made after completion of the film, and since Janet Leigh was no longer available for filming, Hitchcock had Vera Miles don a blonde wig and scream loudly as he pulled the shower curtain back in the bathroom sequence of the preview. Since the title, "Psycho," instantly covers most of the screen, the switch went unnoticed by audiences for years. However a freeze-frame analysis clearly reveals that it is Vera Miles and not Janet Leigh in the shower during the trailer.
The most controversial move was Hitchcock's "no late admission" policy for the film, which was abnormal for the time. It was not entirely original as Clouzot had done the same in France for ''Les Diaboliques''. Hitchcock thought that if people entered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would feel cheated. At first theater owners were up in arms claiming that they would lose business, but after the first day the owners enjoyed long lines of people waiting to see the film.
The film was so successful that it was reissued to theaters in 1965. A year later CBS purchased the television rights for $450,000. CBS planned to screen the film during fall, but three days prior Valerie Percy, the daughter of an Illinois senatorial politician candidate, was murdered. As her parents slept mere feet away, she was stabbed a dozen times with a double-edged knife. In light of the murder, CBS agreed to postpone the screening, but in the end ''Psycho'' was never shown. However, there were some unauthorized broadcasts of the film by some local TV stations on their late-night horror film shows but was quickly withdrawn. Following another successful theatrical reissue in 1969, the film finally made its way to television in one of Universal's syndicated programming packages for local stations in 1970. ''Psycho'' was aired for twenty years in this format, then leased to cable for two years before returning to syndication as part of the "List of a Lifetime" package.
Cast
Iconic publicity photo of Anthony Perkins.
★ 'Janet Leigh' as 'Marion Crane'. In a strange case of life imitating art, Janet Leigh's stand-in, Myra Davis, was murdered (stabbed) in her home in 1988. She was also sexually assaulted. The case, which was profiled on ''Cold Case Files'' on A&E, was solved in 1998 when another woman, Jean Orloff, was found assaulted and murdered in a similar way. Subsequent investigation, circumstantial evidence, and DNA evidence from both scenes brought Kenneth "Sonny" Hunt to justice and death row for both those crimes. Until her death, Leigh continued to receive strange and sometimes threatening calls, letters, and even tapes detailing what they would like to do to Marion Crane. One letter was so "grotesque" that it was passed along to the FBI, two of whose agents visited Leigh and told her the culprits had been located and that she should notify the FBI if she received any more letters of that type.
★ 'Anthony Perkins' as 'Norman Bates'. After ''Psycho'' had established itself, as well as jump-starting the careers of Perkins and Leigh, both suffered from typecasting. However, when Perkins was asked whether he would still take the role knowing that he would be typecast afterwards he replied with a definite yes.
★ 'Martin Balsam' as 'Detective Milton Arbogast'
★ 'John Gavin' as 'Sam Loomis'
★ 'Vera Miles' as 'Lila Crane'
★ 'Simon Oakland' as 'Dr. Fred Richmond'
★ 'John McIntire' as 'Sheriff Al Chambers'
★ 'Frank Albertson' as 'Tom Cassidy'
★ 'Patricia Hitchcock' as 'Caroline'
★ 'Chief Tahachee' as 'Citizen/Ned Place'
★ 'Ted Knight' as 'Policeman'
★ 'Alfred Hitchcock's cameo' is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In ''Psycho'', he can be seen (7 minutes into the film) through a window, wearing a Stetson hat, standing outside of Marion Crane's office.
Norman Bates's mother was voiced by Paul Jasmin, Virginia Gregg, and Jeanette Nolan, who also provided some screams for Lila's discovery of mother's corpse. The three voices were thoroughly mixed, except for the last speech, which is all Gregg's.
Reception
Initial reviews of the film were thoroughly mixed. Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' warned people that Hitchcock "comes at you with a club in this frankly intended bloodcurdler" and complained that the "denouement falls quite flat for us."[23] Other negative reviews stated, "a blot on an honorable career," "plainly a gimmick movie," and "merely one of those television shows padded out to two hours."[24] Positive reviews stated, "Anthony Perkins' performance is the best of his career... Janet Leigh has never been better," "played out beautifully," and "first American movie since ''Touch of Evil'' to stand in the same creative rank as the great European films."[25] A good example of the mix is the New York Herald Tribune's review, which stated, "...rather difficult to be amused at the forms insanity may take... keeps your attention like a snake-charmer."
The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people had to wait for the next showing. It broke box-office records in Asia, Japan, China, France, Britain, South America, the United States and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period. It is one of the largest-grossing black-and-white films and helped make Hitchcock a multimillionaire and the third-largest shareholder in Universal.
In Britain it shattered attendance records at the London Plaza Cinema, but nearly all British critics panned it, questioning Hitchcock's taste and judgment. Reasons cited for this were the critics' late screenings, forcing them to rush their reviews, their dislike of the gimmicky promotion, and Hitchcock's expatriate status.
Perhaps thanks to the public's response and Hitchcock's efforts at promoting it, the critics did a re-review, and the film was praised. Time magazine switched their opinion from "Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this one" to "superlative" and "masterly," and Bosley Crowther put it on his Top Ten list of 1960.
''Psycho'' was criticized for making other filmmakers more willing to show gore, and indeed a scant three years later ''Blood Feast'', considered to be the first "gore film," was released. ''Psycho's success financially and critically had others trying to ride its coattails. Inspired by ''Psycho'', Hammer Film Productions launched a series of mystery thrillers, most shot in black and white and all with twist endings, starting with ''Taste of Fear'' (1961), followed by ''Maniac'' and ''Paranoiac'' (1963), ''Nightmare'' and ''Hysteria'' (1964), ''Fanatic'' and ''The Nanny'' (1965), and ''Crescendo'' (1969).[26] Other films inspired by the success of ''Psycho'' include William Castle's ''Homicidal'', followed by a whole slew of more than thirteen other splatter films.
''Psycho'' was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Janet Leigh), Direction (Alfred Hitchcock), Black and White Cinematography (John Russell), and Black and White Art Direction-set decoration (Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy; George Milo). It did not win any Academy awards, though Leigh did win a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, and Perkins tied for best actor in an award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers. Stefano was nominated for two writing awards by Edgar Allan Poe Awards and the Writers Guild of America; he won the former only. Hitchcock was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America.
''Psycho'' is considered "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress[27] and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.[28]
"No other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising." Any number of items emblazoned with ''Bates Motel'', stills, lobby cards, and highly valuable posters are available for purchase. In 1992, it was adapted scene-for-scene into three comic books by the Innovative Corporation.
It is represented in the following of the American Film Institute's lists:
★ #18 on the list of the 100 Greatest American Movies.
★ #1 on the list of the 100 Most Thrilling Movies Ever.[29]
★ Norman Bates was ranked the second best villain on their list of the 50 Best villains in cinema history.
★ The music in the film was ranked #4 in the list of the 25 best film scores of all time.
★ Norman's famous line "A boy's best friend is his mother" was 56th on the list of the 100 Most memorable movie quotes in history.
It appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels, magazines, and books including the following:
★ ''Psycho'' is consistently in the top 25 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films.[2]
★ Its shower scene was featued as #4 on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[30]
★ The finale was ranked #4 on ''Premiere's list of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History."[31]
★ #11 in Entertainment Weekly's book titled ''The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time''.13
Innovations in film
In his novel, Bloch used an uncommon plot structure: he repeatedly introduced sympathetic protagonists, then killed them off. This played on his reader's expectations of traditional plots, leaving them uncertain and anxious. Hitchcock recognized the effect this approach could have on audiences, and utilized it in his adaptation, killing off Janet Leigh's character at the end of the first act. This daring plot device, coupled with the fact that the character was played by the biggest box-office name in the film, was a shocking and disorienting turn of events in 1960.
The most original and influential moment in the film is the "shower scene," which became iconic in pop culture because it is often regarded as one of the most terrifying scenes ever filmed. Part of its effectiveness was due to the use of startling editing techniques borrowed from the Soviet montage filmmakers, and to Bernard Herrmann's intense and imaginative musical score.
''Psycho'' is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene where Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed. In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed would be taboo. In addition, the censors were upset by the shot of a flushing toilet; at that time, the idea of seeing a toilet onscreen - let alone being flushed - was taboo in American movies and TV shows. According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Production Code censors... had no objection to the bloodletting, the oedipal murder theme, or even the shower scene—but did ask that Hitchcock remove the word ''transvestite'' from the film, He didn't."13 At one point, Hitchcock actually considered releasing the film without censorial approval. Its box office success helped propel Hollywood toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes.
''Psycho'' is widely considered to be the first film in the slasher film genre.[32][33]
Interpretation
The film often features shadows, mirrors, windows, and, less so, water. The shadows are present from the very first scene where the blinds make bars on Marion and Sam as they peer out the window. The stuffed birds' shadows loom over Marion as she eats, and Mother is seen in only shadows until the very end. More subtly, backlighting turns the rakes in the hardware store into talons above Lila's head.
Mirrors reflect: Marion as she packs, her eyes as she checks the rear-view mirror, her face in the policeman's sunglasses, her hands as she counts out the money in the car dealership's bathroom. A motel window serves as a mirror by reflecting Marion and Norman together. Hitchcock shoots through Marion's windshield and the telephone booth, when Arbogast phones Sam and Lila. The heavy downpour can be seen as foreshadowing of the shower, and it letting up can be seen as a symbol of Marion making up her mind to return to Phoenix.
There are coded references to birds. Marion's last name is Crane, she is from Phoenix, and she drives a Ford Falcon. Norman's hobby is stuffing birds, and he comments that Marion eats like a bird.
Psychoanalytic criticism
Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller."[34] The sex and violence in the film were unlike anything previously seen in a mainstream film. "[T]he shower scene is both feared and desired," wrote French film critic Serge Kaganski, "Hitchcock may be scaring his female viewers out of his wits, but he is turning his male viewers into potential rapists, since Janet Leigh has been turning men on ever since she appeared in her brassiere in the first scene."34
In his documentary ''The Pervert's Guide to Cinema'', Slavoj Žižek remarks that Norman Bates' mansion has three floors, parallelling the three levels that psychoanalysis attributes to the human mind: the first floor would be the ''superego'', where Bates' mother lives on; the ground floor is then Bates' ''ego'', where he functions as an apparently normal human being; and finally, the basement would be Bates' ''id''. Žižek interprets Bates' moving his mother's corpse from first floor to basement as a symbol for the deep connection that psychoanalysis posits between superego and id.[35]
Sequels and remakes
The original Bates Motel.
The film spawned three sequels: ''Psycho II'' (1983), ''Psycho III'' (1986), and the prequel '' (1990), the last being a TV movie written by the original screenplay author Joseph Stefano. Anthony Perkins returned to his role of Norman Bates in all three sequels, also directing part III, and the voice of Norman Bates' mother was maintained by noted radio actress Virginia Gregg with the exception of ''Psycho IV'' where the role was played by Olivia Hussey. Vera Miles also reprised her role of Lila Crane in ''Psycho II''. The sequels were generally considered inferior to the original.[36][37] Hitchcock did not participate in the making of any of the ''Psycho'' sequels (he died before any of them were made).
A spinoff of the ''Psycho'' series is ''Bates Motel'' (1987) a failed TV pilot turned TV movie. In it, the Bates Motel is bequeathed to Alex West (played by Bud Cort), a fellow inmate of the institution Norman Bates has been committed to. Because of Norman's death, it is not considered canon to the rest of the ''Psycho'' series. Anthony Perkins declined to appear in the pilot, so Norman's cameo appearance was played by Kurt Paul, who was Perkins' stunt double on ''Psycho II'' and ''III''.
In 1998, Gus Van Sant directed a remake of ''Psycho''. The film is in color and features a different cast, but aside from this it is a virtually shot-for-shot remake copying Hitchcock's camera movements and editing.
''A Conversation with Norman'' (2005), directed by Jonathan M. Parisen, was a film inspired by ''Psycho''. It premiered in New York City just three days short of the 45th anniversary of the premiere of the original film. It starred Christopher Englese as Norman, Grace Orosz as Marion and Tom Loggins as Sam.
Partial bibliography
The following publications are among those devoted to the production of ''Psycho'':
★ Naremore, James. ''Filmguide to Psycho''. Indiana University Press, 1973.
★ Anobile, Richard J.; editor. ''Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho'' (The Film Classics Library). Avon Books, 1974. This volume, published before the proliferation of home video, is entirely comprised of photo reproductions of film frames along with dialogue captions, creating a fumetti of the entire motion picture.
★ Counts, Kyle B. ''Psycho: The Making of Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece''. ''Cinefantastique'', April 1986 (Volume 16, Number 4/5). Comprehensive 22-page article.
★ Rebello, Steven. ''Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho''. Dembner Books, 1990.
★ Leigh, Janet with Christopher Nickens. ''Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller''. Harmony Press, 1995.
★ Durgnat, Ramond E. ''A Long Hard Look at Psycho'' (BFI Film Classics). British Film Institute, 2002.
★ Kolker, Robert; editor. ''Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho: A Casebook''. Oxford University Press, 2005.
★ Skerry, Philip J. ''The Shower Scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho: Creating Cinematic Suspense and Terror''. Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.
References in popular culture
''Psycho'' is referenced countless times in many aspects of popular culture. Many films, television shows and musical works homage the film, some specifically the "Shower Scene," complete with shrieking violins.
The Bates Motel, as seen in ''The Simpsons'' episode "Cape Feare".
★ 'TV'
★
★ ''The Simpsons'' has homaged the film numerous times. Principal Skinner, and his relationship with his overbearing mother, was originally a parody of ''Psycho''. A scene in the episode "Brother from the Same Planet" shows Skinner opening the blinds in his office. Peering at his house from the window, he sees what looks like the Bates' house on a hill, and says "There's Mother now." Later episodes have revealed the floor plan of the Skinners' house to be identical to that of the Bates'. In "Cape Feare", Sideshow Bob plans the murder of Bart at the Bates Motel during a bad storm,[38] and in "I'm Goin' to Praiseland," Ned Flanders is depicted preserving the indentation in the bed where his wife Maude used to sleep, in an apparent reference to the preserved indentation left by Norman Bates' mother. In "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", the scene where Maggie hits Homer over the head with a mallet is an homage to the shower scene. The music and camera angles are almost identical.
★
★ In a flashback sequence in "The One with All the Thanksgivings" episode of ''Friends'', as Monica accidentally drops a butcher's knife cutting off one of Chandler's toes, the screeching string music plays.[39]
★
★ In an episode of ''The Brak Show'' entitled "Psychoklahoma," some events from the film are combined with elements of the musical ''Oklahoma!'', and are set to music, creating a bizarre, yet humorous, play.
★
★ In the ''American Dad'' episode "A Smith in the Hand", Stan Smith checks into the Bates Motel to have some "privacy".
★
★ An episode of ''Histeria!'' once parodied the shower scene. One of the characters, imitating Bates, stalks into the bathroom with "shrieking strings" in the background. Rather than attack the hapless victim in the shower, he flushes the toilet to cause the shower water to become scalding hot. (episode unknown)
★
★ In a bizarre Benny Hill segment, young blond Sue Upton, aping Janet Leigh, walks upstairs to the shower, followed by a murderous television set. When she starts showering, the set attacks; she looks out of the shower stall and screams, as the screeching violins from the movie play; the last shot in the scene is the light playing on the shower drain and Upton has disappeared!
★
★ In an episode of ''Kim Possible'', Bonnie goes into a shower room after waiting for a long time, just as Kim comes out. Bonnie then sets down her towel and other items, and turns on the water. (With the spout being shown-just like in ''Psycho''). Then, the symbolic violin screeching sound is heard, with Bonnie screaming, "Kim!" It turns out it was just cold water, because Kim used up all the hot water.
★
★ In the Nickelodeon show, ''Rocko's Modern Life'', Rocko and Heffer Wolfe are on a road trip and are looking for a motel. They pull up to a motel called the "Baits Motel" and a fish-like man is standing there telling them a room is available, and that all the bathrooms have showers. Then the camera zooms up on a house in the background with the shadow of a woman in the window, and the fish-man turns as if he has heard something. The man holds a dress up to himself and says, "Coming Mother!" Notably, the house looks exactly like the one from ''Psycho'', giving it away. The fish-man is also a parody of the ''Creature from the Black Lagoon''.
★
★ "Chick Flick", an episode of ''Charmed'' during the show's second season, makes one small reference to ''Psycho''. Piper Halliwell, after running from two on-screen horror movie killers, runs into the shower, and says, "I'm being stalked by psycho killers, and I hide in the SHOWER?"
★ The U.S. gameshow ''Fear Factor'' did three episodes in a sequence called ''Psycho Fear Factor'' in which all the stunts took place at the original mansion and motel. Contestants had to camp in the (very badly destroyed) motel. The final stunt involved blowing up a room at the top that was not seen in the film.
★ Film
★
★ Director Brian De Palma is often inspired by Hitchcock, and the name of the high school that Sissy Spacek's character in ''Carrie'' attends is called Bates High School is supposedly "De Palma's homage to Hitchcock's ''Psycho''."13
★
★ The 1978 John Carpenter film ''Halloween'' features a character named Dr. Sam Loomis, played by Donald Pleasence.
★
★ The surname is again reused in ''Scream'', which incorporated many references to horror films, through the character Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). After supposedly being seriously injured and left for dead, Loomis quotes "'We all go a little mad sometimes.' Anthony Perkins, ''Psycho''".
★
★ Darla's entrance in ''Finding Nemo'' is marked by the "shrieking strings" theme.
★
★ In his 1977 Alfred Hitchcock parody ''High Anxiety'', director and lead actor Mel Brooks is shown taking a shower in his hotel room. It mimics the shower scene in ''Psycho'' shot for shot.
★ Music
★
★ Bob Dylan made several wry references to the film in his 1964 song "Motorpsycho Nitemare," even invoking the name of Tony Perkins.
★
★ Dangerdoom incorporated in the lyric "He sure keeps it psycho like the old Bates Motel" in the song "Sofa King".
★
★ Part of the title's theme is sampled in Busta Rhymes' hit, "Gimme Some More."
★
★ The Murderdolls song "Dead In Hollywood" references Norman Bates.
★
★ A sample of the "shrieking violins" theme was used in the Beastie Boys song ''Egg Man'', the fourth track on their album Paul's Boutique.
★
★ "The Shower Scene" by New York based rock group Brand New is reference to the iconic scene from the film.
★
★ "The Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13" song "Hooray For Horrorwood" gives reference to Norman Bates and other serial killers from various horror/thriller films.
★
★ Eminem made reference in his song "Role Model," saying "I'm 'bout as normal as Norman Bates, with deformative traits, a premature birth that was 4 minutes late."
★ The shower scene has specifically been spoofed and homaged on several occasions.[40] Notable examples include
★
★ ''The Simpsons'',[41]
★
★ ''High Anxiety''
★
★ ''Phantom of the Paradise''
★
★ ''The Ren and Stimpy Show''
★
★ ''
★
★ ''
★
★ ''Tiny Toon Adventures''
★
★ ''The Colonel's Bequest''
★
★ ''National Lampoon's Vacation''
★
★ ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''
★
★ ''That '70s Show''
★
★ ''Dexter's Laboratory''
★
★ ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends''
★
★ ''Goof Troop''
★
★ ''Chalkzone''
★
★ ''Jimmy Neutron''
★
★ ''Kim Possible''
★
★ ''The Far Side''
★
★ ''Round Numbers''
★
★ ''Boy Meets World''
★
★ ''Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei''
References
1. ''Psycho'' is the top listed Hitchcock film in ''The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time'' by Entertainment Weekly, among the highest rated Hitchcock films on the Internet Movie Database (second only to ''Rear Window''), and the highest Hitchcock film on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies.
2. ''Psycho'' reviews
3. Leigh, Janet. ''Psycho : Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller''. Harmony Press, 1995. ISBN 051770112X.
4. Rebello, Stephen. ''Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho''. Dembner Books, 1990. ISBN 0-942637-14-3
5. See WikiMapia {Coordinates: 34°8'12"N 118°20'48"W}.
6. Getting Hitched - Alfred Hitchcock films released on digital video disks. Rothenberg, Robert S.
7. "'Psycho' Voted Best Movie Death: British Film Magazine Rates It Ahead Of 'Strangelove,' 'King Kong'". CBS/AP
8. Touch of Psycho? Hitchcock, Welles. Hall, John W.
9. Truffaut, François, Helen Scott [1967] (1985-10-02). ''Hitchcock'', Revised, New York:
Simon & Schuster, 273 ISBN 0-671-60429-5
10. The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice, , Ken, Dancyger, Focal Press, 2002,
11. Bernard Herrmann: Psycho: National Philharmonic, conducted by composer. Aspinall, David
12. Scoring Points Kiderra, Inga
13. Entertainment Weekly. ''The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time''. New York: Entertainment Weekly Books, 1999.
14. Books of The Times; 'Casaba,' He Intoned, and a Nightmare Was Born Christopher Lahmann-Haupt
15. Psycho stabbing 'best film death
16. "Janet Leigh dies at age 77" Ebert, Roger
17. "Janet Leigh, star of Psycho shower scene, dies at 77" Leitch, Luke
18. "Movie Answer Man" Ebert, Roger
19. Psycho (1960) Roger Ebert
20. Janet Leigh, 77, Shower Taker of 'Psycho,' Is Dead
21. Hitchcock's Films Revisited, , Robin, Wood, Faber and Faber, 1989, ISBN 0571162266
22. Hit the showers: Gus Van Sant's 'Psycho' goes right down the drain
23. Review of ''Psycho,'' June 17, 1960, as reprinted in The New York Times Guide to the best 1,000 movies ever made, , Peter M. (ed.), Nichols, St. Martins' Griffin, , ISBN 0-312-32611-4 [1]
24. These are from (in order): New York Times, Newsweek, and Esquire
25. These are from (in order): New York Daily News, New York Daily Mirror, and Village Voice
26. Encyclopedia of Horror Movies, , Phil, Hardy, Octopus Books, 1986, ISBN 0-7064-2771-8
27. About the National Film Preservation Board National Film Preservation Board
28. Films Selected to The National Film Registry, Library of Congress 1989-2005 National Film Preservation Board
29. AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills: Psycho Tops AFI's List of the 100 Most Thrilling American Films
30. 100 Scariest Movie Moments
31. The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History
32. Alfred Hitchcock: Our Top 10
33. Psycho Therapy: Gus Van Sant works out his Hitchcock obsession with a reverent remake
34. Kaganski, Serge. ''Alfred Hitchcock''. Paris: Hazan, 1997.
35.
36. Ebert, Roger '''Psycho III''. ''Roger Ebert' Movie Home Companion''. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1991
37. Psycho III
38. , , Ray, Richmond, Harper Collins Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0-00063-8898-1
39. "The One With All the Thanksgivings", ''Friends'', Season 5 DVD audio commentary
40. Psycho (1960)
41. "Itchy and Scratchy and Marge", Itchy and Scratchy and Marge Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian
External links
★
★
★ Bright Lights Film Journal article on Psycho
★ Filmsite: ''Psycho'' In-depth analysis of the film.
★ Review of the UK Special Edition DVD release, by Brian Elliott of DVD Reviewer
★ Psycho vs. Psycho Comparison of the Hitchcock original to the Gus Van Sant recreation.
★ 'Psycho' Screenshot Gallery
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