Movies have been part of American culture since the first silent black and white film. Everyone has that one movie that sticks on their mind long after they see it. Folks who know me know that Star Wars runs in my blood. But, I will say that one movie for me personally is Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In the next few paragraphs, I will explain my fascination with this classic film and give some give insight into one of greatest suspense films of all time.
In case you are one of the rare breed that hasn't seen this film, Psycho opens in Phoenix, Arizona. Marian and Sam having an affair outside of wedlock in a hotel during Marion's lunch hour. After Sam vents his anger at having the lack of funds because of his alimony and his late father's debts, Marian returns to her job as a secretary at a real estate agency. A client is closing a deal on his daughter's house with forty thousand dollars in cash. Marian is entrusted to deposit the cash in a safe deposit box at a bank. Marian leaves, but quickly absconds the money and skips town to go see Sam in Fairville, California. After close call with a police officer at the side of the road and switching her car at a dealership, Marian arrives at the Bates Motel after getting lost in a torrential rainstorm.
Marian meets Norman Bates, the young man who runs the motel. Marian accepts Norman's offer for dinner up at his house, but she overhears Norman and his mother having a rather loud argument about Marian being invited into her house. Instead, Norman treats Marian to dinner (sandwiches and milk) in the motel parlor. Norman open up to Marian about his Mother and her madness, and that serves as the impetus for Marian to reconsider her actions and wants to return home to make right her actions of theft. After saying good night to Norman, Marion returns to her cabin and does some quick math of the money she stole. After flushing the scrap of paper down the toilet (seeing a toilet in a movie in 1960 was unheard of. Psycho was the first to not only show a toilet, but to see it flush was particularity "edgy" for its time). Marion then takes a shower, and after a few moments, a showed figured stealthy creeps into the bathroom and murders her in the shower.The figure's dress and hair style is that of an older woman. After the figure leaves, Marion succumbs to her wounds and dies on the bathroom floor. After a few moments, Norman dashes into the bathroom and finds Marion's corpse. Norman proceeds to mop up the mess, packs up Marion's body and her personal effects (along with the $40,000, which Norman doesn't know he has done) and disposes the body and the car in a nearby swamp.
Marion's sister, Lila. arrives in Fairville at Sam's hardware store looking for her missing sister. Right behind her is Arbogast, a private detective hired by Marion's boss. After chatting with Lila and Sam, Arbogast scours the city without much luck, until he stumble upon the Bates Motel by accident. Arbogast meets Norman, who stammers through their conversation, obviously very nervous. Norman lets it slip that his mother was not fooled by Marion. Arbogast asks Norman is he could speak with Mrs. Bates, which Norman adamantly refuses. Arbogast spies the silhouette of a woman in the upstairs window, but Norman insists that Mother is too ill to answer any questions. Arbogast reluctantly leaves, calls and speaks to Lila from a payphone. He informs Lila that he traced Marion to the Bates Motel, and about seeing the mysterious woman in the window. He admits he is dissatisfied about his conversation with Norman and wanted to question Mrs Bates. He announces to Lila that he is headed back there and she would hear from him in an hour or less.
Arbogast returns to the Bates Motel and makes his way up to the dilapidated, foreboding mansion. He sneaks into the house, and quietly climbs the stairs. only to be attacked by the same mysterious old woman that killed Marion. Arbogast meets a grisly fate at the bottom of the staircase. Meanwhile, back at the hardware store, Sam and an impatient Lila are waiting to hear from Arbogast. He never calls. Lila insists on going out to the Bates Motel herself. Sam tells her that he will go and search for Arbogast while Lila stays put at the hardware store just in case Arbogast returns. Sam searches in vain for Arbogast, whom he cannot find, but manages to see the mysterious figure in the upstairs window.
It is the middle of the night when the Dynamic Duo of Sam and Lila visit Sheriff Chambers and his wife. They tell Chambers of Lila's sister and the theft of the money. They also tell Chambers of how Arbogast had seen a woman in the window and Norman had told him it was his mother. Chambers doubts Arbogast's story and stuns Sam and Lila with the revelation of how Mrs Bates has been dead and buried for the last ten years. She had murdered her married lover and killed herself with poison. Sam insists that he saw an old woman in the window. Chambers calls Norman and asks about Arbogast. Norman tells Chambers that Argobast did arrive, asked a few questions and then left. Chambers hangs up with Norman then asks if that was indeed Mrs Bates in the window, then who is it that is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery?
After conversing with Sheriff Chambers, Norman hangs up the phone and argues with Mother (this whole argument was done off screen. The viewer only hears the voices of Norman and Mother). Norman insists that Mother hide in the fruit cellar, much to Mother's annoyance. She refuses to budge, so Norman carries her downstairs himself.
Sam and Lila catch up with Sheriff and Mrs. Chambers Sunday after church. Chambers informs Sam that he had been out to the Bates Motel and spoke with Norman himself. He reported the Norman said the same thing as what he had said the other night on the phone. He urges Lila to file a missing person's report and Mrs Chambers told them to stop by their house later during dinner to make the report. Undaunted, Lila insists that she see the Bates Motel for herself. As she and Sam ride out there, they make plans to pass as a husband and wife and then search every inch of property for a clue to the whereabouts of Marion. They arrive at the motel, and after signing in, they sneak into Cabin One, where Marion had stayed that fateful night. They search the tiny cabin, including the bathroom. As Sam notes the puzzling absence of the shower curtain, Marion finds a scrap of paper in the toilet bowl that wasn't flushed. The paper had the number of 40 thousand dollars written on it. The duo surmise that Norman found out about the money, and somehow got it away from Marion. That way he could sell the property to get out from under a failing, useless business. Lila devises a plan to get to the old woman, thinking that this mysterious woman told Arbogast something about Marion's fate. Lila is desperate to speak to her. Sam interjects, fearing for Lila's safety. Lila assures Sam she can handle a sick, old woman. While Sam finds Norman and engages in idle chatter, Lila makes her way to the old mansion. She searches the upstairs and finds Mrs. Bates' empty room. Her room is fully furnished, with an imprint of a body in the bed, implying someone has been using the room.
Meanwhile, Sam and Norman's conversation turns from idle chatter, to an acrimonious debate. Sam accuses Norman of stealing the money away from Marion and that his Mother knows the truth. In a panic, Norman realizes that Lila is possibly in his house. He cracks Sam over the head with a small pot and races into the house. Lila spies Norman running up the hill towards the house. She hides herself in the stairwell that leads to the fruit cellar. It is there that Lila is saved by Sam and they both discover the horrible truth about Mrs. Bates and Norman!
If you thought I was going to give away the ending, think again. You will have to watch the movie to see the terrifying ending yourself!
I first heard of Psycho back in the 1980's when my Grandpa told me he first saw it in 1960 at a drive- in movie. (Now that is going back aways!) All he really said is that the shower scene was forever etched in his mind. That sentence has been repeated over the years whenever I discuss this movie with other people. They all say virtually the same thing: "that shower scene." I think it's a safe bet to note that Psycho is one of those movies that reached a level where you didn't have to actually sit through the whole movie, yet everyone knows about "that shower scene."
Based on Robert Block's book of the same moniker, Alfred Hitchcock (or Hitch as most people called him) came upon Psycho after completing his latest film, "North by Northwest." Someone had written a review of the book in a newspaper article and Hitch just happened to read it over a weekend. Hitch was enchanted with the story and managed to buy the rights to the book from Block for a measly $9,000 dollars. After securing the rights, Hitch bought up as many copies of the book to ensure the twist in the ending would remain a secret.
James Cavanaugh, a writer who penned several scripts for the television show "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", wrote a rather dreary and dull treatment for Psycho. Quickly rejecting it, Hitch sought out a new writer for the film. Joseph Stefano then landed the plumb assignment of screenwriter. He secured the job by describing to Hitch how he saw the movie play out. The movie was scored by noted composer and musician Bernard Herrmann.
In the book Psycho, Norman Bates is characterized as middle-aged miscreant with a drinking and weight problem. In order to get the needed sympathy for the character, Stefano rewrote the character into a youthful man. Tall, thin and and someone the audience could root for. Hitch cast Janet Leigh as Marian Crane (Mary in the novel) and Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Vera Miles (Lila Crane, John Gavin (Sam Loomis) and Martin Balsam (Arbogast) rounded out the cast. Utilizing the TV crew from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", Hitch filmed Psycho in black and white to cut down on costs and because he feared the movie would be too gory in color.
For me personally, this movie established the tone of a well done horror film. First of all, the movie is very character driven. What does that mean? The characters are front and center in the story. Their actions and motivations drive the plot. Marion, Norman, Mrs Bates, Arbogast, Sam and Lila are fleshed out and well developed. You actually care about them and the predicament that they are in. Marion's hap hazard attempt to steal money so she can help her boyfriend Sam out of the financial bind he is in at the moment. She acts on impulse that the audience can relate to. We have the curiosity of Lila, who is worried sick about the whereabouts of her sister. She won't rest until she knows the full story of what happened to her sister. Later on when she is trapped in the Bates house, my daughter Sarah was talking to the TV screen, telling Lila to get out of the house and to stay away from the fruit cellar. I remember Sarah's words: "Don't go down there!!"
One of the greatest thrills and chills of Psycho is that we are forced to switch out alliance from Marion to Norman about a quarter of the way through the film. We actually feel bad for this man whose Mother commits such unspeakable crimes. The story is actually about Norman, not about Marion.
The noted shower scene was the biggest shocker in movie history. Never before has a victim in a horror film been killed in that fashion. First of all, the skillful camera angles and the sinister music by Bernard Hermann created a scene that is emblazoned on our minds forever! Hitch was a master of allowing our imaginations take over and by NOT showing us a girl getting stabbed, it forced our minds to fill in the blanks of what WAS happening, thereby involving us in the murder. That in and of itself is terrifying! Janet Leigh has subsequently said in interviews that she worked three weeks on the picture and the shower scene took up about one third of her shooting schedule. She had went on to say that because she then realized how vulnerable she was in the shower, she had trouble for the remainder of her life taking showers. She could only take them if she could see out of the shower and keep her eye to the door and the rest of the room!
Writer Joseph Stefano's script for Psycho was nothing short of brilliant. He masterfully weaved a murder mystery that managed to keep the viewing audience guessing right up to the last possible second. Just when we thought we had the film figured out, a huge twist occurs. Stefano has a keen way of creating sharp dialogue between the characters, along with little secrets into the mind of Norman (the creepiest is Norman's hobby of being a taxidermist. His collection of stuffed birds is...well.....chilling!
If you never have seen this classic film, I encourage you to view it sometime. Ignore Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake and get the Alfred Hitchcock original. I guarantee that you will have trouble taking showers for quite sometime!
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