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"Psycho (film)" redirects here. For other uses, see Psycho#Films.
| Psycho | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster for Psycho | |
| Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Produced by | Uncredited: Alfred Hitchcock Alma Reville |
| Written by | Novel: Robert Bloch Screenplay: Joseph Stefano Uncredited: Samuel A. Taylor |
| Starring | Anthony Perkins Janet Leigh Vera Miles John Gavin Martin Balsam John McIntire |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | John L. Russell |
| Editing by | George Tomasini |
| Distributed by | 1960–1968: Paramount Pictures 1968-present: Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 16, 1960 (US) |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Country |  United States
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$806,950 (est.) |
| Gross revenue | $32,000,000 (sub-total) |
| Followed by | Psycho II |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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. 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).
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 filmsPsycho 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. and highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics,Psycho reviews. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. Psycho is also acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films. It was a genre defining film, and almost every scene is legendary, and many have been copied or parodied. The film spawned several sequels and a remake, which are generally seen as works of lesser quality.
"The Shower Scene" has been studied, discussed, and cited countless times in print and in film courses much with debate focusing on why it is so terrifying and how it was produced, including how it passed the censors and debate over who directed it.
Contents |
The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, where we see 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 which had been tendered as payment for a real estate deal at the 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 freedom and happiness.
Sam lives in a California town where he runs a hardware store. Marion starts to drive there. All the while she keeps looking behind her, fearful that she is being followed. She drives well into the night and parks alongside the road to sleep.
In the morning, a highway police officer, noticing her car parked at the side of the road, stops to investigate and awakens her. When he explains to her that it is dangerous to sleep in a car, and tells her to find a motel in the future, her nervousness and desperation to get going arouses his suspicions. He looks at her license and registration, taking note of the plate number. He allows her to go on, but he follows her for the time being, which intensifies Marion\'s agitation. Realising he now knows her plate number and that she can be tracked by the authorities when the money is reported stolen, she trades her 1956 Ford sedan (and pays an additional $700) for a 1957 Ford sedan. She completes the deal while the same highway patrolman watches her from across the road. Nervous, she drives away and continues toward California (though not before the same patrolman gets a glance at her new license plate).
Still driving, after it gets dark she becomes fatigued, from stress and from driving in heavy rain with poor visibility. She decides to find a proper place to sleep for the night, fearing a reprise of the incident with the highway patrolman. She does not realize she has already turned off the new main road onto "the old road". She sees a sign for a motel, and decides to stay there for the night. It is a 12-cabin motel called the Bates Motel and there are no other guests.
When Marion goes to check in, she encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner, boyishly handsome and innocent-seeming. He explains that he takes care of the motel and of his ailing mother in the nearby 19th century house on higher ground behind the motel.
Norman invites Marion to have dinner at his house, as it is raining so hard that he feels that Marion won\'t want to drive to the nearest diner, ten miles away, especially as she is so tired. As Norman is preparing a sandwich for Marion, she hears his mother shouting angrily at him from her room. The mother says that his meal with Marion is part of a sordid affair.
Norman comes down to the motel to give her the sandwich in the motel office instead. While talking with Norman, Marion shows concern. She thinks that his mother is abusive to him, and asks if he has ever considered having her get help from outside. Norman is taken aback by this as he believes she is referring to putting his mother in an "institution".
He takes this as an insult to his mother. He tells Marion how terrible mental asylums are and angrily claims that Marion\'s notion of putting her away is heartless and unnecessary. She takes him to be something of an eccentric. He recovers his composure from his brief outburst, and the mood of the conversation calms down.
As soon as Marion has finished the sandwich and milk Norman brought her, she decides to retire to sleep in her motel room which is the one right next to the office. We see that Norman watches her undress through a concealed peephole in the wall.
Marion decides that the right thing to do is to drive back home in the morning, and return the money she has stolen. She is relieved that she has decided to do the honest thing, and is enjoying a hot relaxing and purifying shower.
Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his overbearing mother\'s illness. As Marion showers in her motel room, she is stabbed to death in the now-infamous "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 of all the evidence of the crime by sinking Marion\'s body, her car, and her belongings, including the newspaper with the money hidden in it (Norman hasn\'t seen the money) in a swamp behind the Bates\' property.
Marion\'s disappearance, along with the money, sets a search in motion. A private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), is hired to find and recover the money, stating that Marion\'s employer doesn\'t want to press charges on her, but simply wants to get the money back. He traces Marion to the Bates Motel. He then questions Norman (who sweats and seems very nervous and edgy), He then sneaks into the old house in order to question Mrs Bates and is stabbed to death by Norman\'s mother in an attack (during which he falls backwards down a flight of stairs.)
Marion\'s sister, Lila (Miles), and Sam immediately become concerned when Arbogast does not telephone them after reaching the motel. They decide to alert the local sheriff and explain to Sheriff Al Chambers (McIntire) and his wife their story about Marion\'s disappearance. However, when they mention Mrs. Bates, Chambers\' wife asks "Oh, Norman took a wife?". Sam and Lila clarify that they meant Norman\'s mother. At their urging, Chambers phones the motel and talks to Norman, who says that Arbogast had been there, but had left.
When Lila presses Chambers about the mother, he tells them that Norman\'s mother has been dead and buried for the past ten years, when she poisoned herself and her lover with strychnine. Sam and Lila continue to insist that there is an old woman out there, and that Arbogast had told them that Norman would not let him see his mother, because she was too sick. The sheriff wonders out loud, "Well if the woman up there is Mrs. Bates, who\'s that woman buried out in Greenlawn Cemetery?"
Meanwhile in the Bates\' house, we overhear a conversation as Norman confronts his mother, urging her to go into hiding in the fruit cellar, as people are already searching for Marion and will eventually search for Argoblast as well. She rejects the suggestion, angrily mentioning the previous occasion when Norman convinced her to stay down there for a long time. She then orders Norman to leave the room. He refuses, picks her up against her will and carries her downstairs to the fruit cellar.
Sam and Lila decide to check into the Bates Motel to search for proof of Marion. Caught at the edge of the toilet bowl they find a small scrap of paper with the sum of $40,000 written on it which proves that Marion had been there, something that Norman himself had denied. Theorizing that Norman\'s mother might know more about Marion, Lila sneaks into the house while Sam attempts to distract Norman at the office.
Sam\'s heated argument with Norman quickly escalates to violence. Norman knocks Sam unconscious and runs to the house. Meanwhile, Lila slips into the basement and sees Mrs. Bates from behind, sitting in a chair, Lila calls out to the woman but there is no response. She then touches Mrs. Bates shoulder, and the chair swivels around to reveal the semi-preserved mummified corpse of Norman\'s mother.
Lila screams in terror and flings her hand away from the corpse, hitting the hanging light bulb above her. At that moment Norman (wearing his mother\'s clothes and a wig) enters with a knife in order to kill Lila. However, Sam has regained consciousness and has arrived in the basement just in time to grab Norman\'s knife-wielding arm as he lunges at Lila. Norman struggles with Sam, but he cannot break free.
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. Dr. Richmond explains that while growing up, Norman and his mother lived alone, as if they were the only two people in the world. "A boy\'s best friend is his mother," Norman had told Marion early in the film. But when his mother found a lover, Norman became jealous and murdered them both. He 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 stealing her corpse ("A weighted coffin was buried," according to Richmond) and preserving his mother\'s body using his taxidermy skills. This process also created a dual personality in Norman; he incorporated the persona of his mother as a separate part of his psyche. When he is being 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 with it, his guilt. Because Norman was very jealous of his mother while she lived, the mother persona is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. Norman\'s psychosis protects him from (consciously) knowing about the crimes the mother figure commits, and it also prevents him from consciously knowing that his mother is long dead.
The last scene shows Norman Bates seated, in a cell. His mind is now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. We hear "her" internal voice as a voice-over. She blames Norman, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that it was Norman who did the crimes, whereas she is utterly harmless. She knows that people must be observing her, but she will show them what kind of a person she is. She thinks to herself, "They’ll see, they\'ll know, and they’ll say, \'Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly!\'". We see her (through Norman) give a smile of satisfaction which shows through Norman\'s demented stare. There is a brief instant when the hideous face of the decomposed mother can be seen, superimposed on Norman\'s staring face.
A brief epilogue shows Marion\'s car being winched up from its watery grave in the swamp.
The film is based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based (although very loosely) 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.Leigh, Janet. Psycho : Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. Harmony Press, 1995. ISBN 051770112X. Legend also has it that Hitchcock bought up as many copies of the book as he could, so that as many people as possible would not anticipate the twists of the story.[citation needed]
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.Rebello, Stephen. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Dembner Books, 1990. ISBN 0-942637-14-3
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.See WikiMapia {Coordinates: 34°8\'12"N 118°20\'48"W}. As a further result of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white, keeping the budget under $1,000,000.Rothenberg, Robert S. (July 2001). Getting Hitched - Alfred Hitchcock films released on digital video disks.. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education).. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 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.CBS/AP (May 20, 2004). "\'Psycho\' Voted Best Movie Death: British Film Magazine Rates It Ahead Of \'Strangelove,\' \'King Kong\'".. CBS News. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
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 quarter 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.
The film, independently produced by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue Studios,Hall, John W. (September 1995). Touch of Psycho? Hitchcock, Welles.. Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 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.
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 or to judge which corpse would be scarier for the audience.
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 Marion\'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."Truffaut, François, Helen Scott [1967] (1985-10-02). Hitchcock, Revised, New York: Simon & Schuster, 273 ISBN 0-671-60429-5 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.
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."Dancyger, Ken (2002). The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice. New York: Focal Press. ISBN 0-2408-0420-1. 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 musicMr. Hitchcock\'s suggestions for placement of music (08/Jan/1960) (January 1960). Retrieved on 2007-12-27., 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.Aspinall, David (September 2003). Bernard Herrmann: Psycho: National Philharmonic, conducted by composer.. The Film Music Pantheon #3. Audiophilia.. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.Kiderra, Inga (Winter 2000). Scoring Points. USC Trojan Family Magazine.. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. The blood in the scene is in fact chocolate syrup, which shows up better and has more realistic density than stage blood on black-and-white film.Entertainment Weekly. The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. New York: Entertainment Weekly Books, 1999. The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon.Lahmann-Haupt, Christopher. "Books of The Times; \'Casaba,\' He Intoned, and a Nightmare Was Born", The New York Times, May 7, 1990. Retrieved on 2006-11-28. "Psycho stabbing \'best film death", BBC News, 20 May, 2004. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
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.Ebert, Roger (October 5, 2004). "Janet Leigh dies at age 77". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
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.Leitch, Luke (October 4, 2004). "Janet Leigh, star of Psycho shower scene, dies at 77". Evening Standard. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. Also, all of the screams are Leigh\'s.
Though graphic in nature, the shower scene features only three nearly subliminal frames of film showing penetration.
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."Ebert, Roger (December 15, 1996). "Movie Answer Man". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh.Roger Ebert (1998-12-06). Psycho (1960). Great Movies. rogerebert.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.Aljean Harmetz. "Janet Leigh, 77, Shower Taker of \'Psycho,\' Is Dead", The New York Times, 2004-10-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 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. This was done by filming the knife being drawn away, and reversed.
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.Wood, Robin (1989). Hitchcock\'s Films Revisited. London: Faber and Faber, 146. ISBN 0571162266.
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 censorsElla Taylor. "Hit the showers: Gus Van Sant\'s \'Psycho\' goes right down the drain", Seattle Weekly, 1998-12-09. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 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.
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 televise the film on September 23, 1966, 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 as a result of the Apollo pad fire of January 27, 1967, the network washed its hands of Psycho. 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.
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.
Persistent rumors claim that actor George Reeves was originally cast as Detective Arbogast and that Reeves had actually begun filming. These rumors are false. Reeves died 16 June 1959, four months before the script to Psycho was completed and five months before filming began.
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."Review of Psycho, June 17, 1960, as reprinted in Nichols, Peter M. (ed.) [1999] (2004-02-21). The New York Times Guide to the best 1,000 movies ever made, Updated and Revised, New York: St. Martins\' Griffin, 788. ISBN 0-312-32611-4. [1] 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."These are from (in order): New York Times, Newsweek, and Esquire 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."These are from (in order): New York Daily News, New York Daily Mirror, and Village Voice 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 initially 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).Hardy, Phil (1986). Encyclopedia of Horror Movies. London: Octopus Books, 137. ISBN 0-7064-2771-8. 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. In 1992, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
"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:
It appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels, magazines, and books including the following:
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,[citation needed] 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." 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.Alfred Hitchcock: Our Top 10. CNN (1999-08-13). Retrieved on 2006-12-01.Corliss, Richard (1998-12-14). Psycho Therapy: Gus Van Sant works out his Hitchcock obsession with a reverent remake. TIME. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.
Psycho has become one of the most recognizable films in cinema history, and is arguably Hitchcock\'s most well-known film. The iconic shower scene is frequently spoofed, given homage to and referenced in popular culture, complete with the violin screeching sound effects, for example, The Simpsons has spoofed it on numerous occasions.Dicks, Tim. Psycho (1960). filmsite.org. Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
Notably, director Brian DePalma has referenced Psycho in his early films, borrowing Bernard Herrmann\'s famous shrieking violins for scenes in Carrie and (more briefly) in Dressed to Kill, a movie who\'s plot is heavily inspired by Psycho.
An early stabbing murder in the "Terror in Topanga" segment of the horror anthology film Nightmares uses similar frenetic editing as that done for the shower murder in this movie.
In the survival horror video game Silent Hill, the protagonist Harry Mason visits a run-down Bates Motel, whose owner is identified simply as "Norman." Also, one of the streets in the town of Silent Hill is named Bloch after Psycho\'s author.
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.The room walls are decorated with drawings of birds.
Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller."Kaganski, Serge. Alfred Hitchcock. Paris: Hazan, 1997. 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 their 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."
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.Sophie Fiennes (director), Slavoj Žižek (writer/narrator). (2006). The Pervert\'s Guide to Cinema [documentary]. Amoeba Film.
The film spawned three sequels: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and the prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning (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. Ebert, Roger Psycho III. Roger Ebert\' Movie Home Companion. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1991Psycho III. Variety (Jan 1, 1986). Retrieved on 2006-11-26. 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.
The following publications are among those devoted to the production of Psycho:
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
| Psycho series | |
|---|---|
| Robert Bloch\'s novels | Psycho · Psycho II · Psycho House |
| Films | Psycho · Psycho II · Psycho III · Psycho IV: The Beginning · Psycho (1998 remake) |
| Other | Bates Motel · Robert Bloch\'s Psychos · Norman Bates |
 American films of the 1960s |
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| 1960 •1961 •1962 •1963 •1964 •1965 •1966 •1967 •1968 •1969 |
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