Psycho (1960 film)

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Psycho (1960)
File:Psycho (1960).jpg
Directed byAlfred Hitchcock
Written byNovel:
Robert Bloch
Screenplay:
Joseph Stefano
Samuel A. Taylor (uncredited)
Produced byAlfred Hitchcock
Alma Reville (uncredited)
StarringAnthony Perkins
Janet Leigh
Vera Miles
CinematographyJohn L. Russell
Edited byGeorge Tomasini
Music byBernard Herrmann
Distributed byParamount Pictures (1960-1968)
Universal Pictures (1968-present)
Release dates
United States June 16, 1960
Running time
109 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$806,948

Psycho (1960) is a suspense/thriller/horror film directed by world-renowned auteur Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which was in turn based on the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein. The film depicts the encounter between a secretary who embezzles her employer on impulse and a lonely, profoundly disturbed motel proprietor, Norman Bates.

The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, is relatively faithful to the novel. Commonly regarded as one of Hitchcock's best films and highly praised as a work of cinematic art by international critics, Psycho has also been acclaimed as one of the most effective horror films. The film spawned several sequels and a remake, though they are generally seen as works of lesser quality.

The film stars Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Martin Balsam, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Simon Oakland, John McIntire, Lurene Tuttle, Frank Albertson, Mort Mills, Patricia Hitchcock and Chief Tahachee.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler The movie's first scene takes place in a cheap hotel room in Phoenix and shows Marion Crane (Leigh) and her boyfriend Sam Loomis (Gavin) in their undergarments after a Friday afternoon tryst. Marion is clearly unhappy, torn between her desire to be with Sam and her shame at these discreet meetings. But Sam explains that between his father's unpaid debts and alimony payments to his ex-wife, he is forced to live in the back room of a store. Until his finances improve, they cannot marry. Marion returns to find that her boss has just sold a house to the rich Tom Cassidy (Frank Albertson) for $40,000. Cassidy flirts with Marion, asking if she is "unhappy." "You know what I do about unhappiness," he tells her, "I buy it off." He then plops down $40,000 in cash, explaining that his daughter has never had an unhappy day in her life and this house is to be her wedding present. Marion's boss is uncomfortable with that amount of cash in the office and asks Marion to deposit it at the bank for the weekend, explaining that he'll get Tom to write a check the next week. Instead of going to the bank, Marion impulsively packs and leaves town with the money, which she sees as the ticket to her and Sam's happiness.

Hitchcock builds his trademark tension as Marion becomes convinced people know of her crime, trading her car for another in California because she believes she is being followed. Driving at night in the pouring rain, Marion realizes she can go no further and turns off at the sign for the Bates Motel. The place seems deserted, but she notices the figure of a woman in the window of the house around back. Honking her horn for service, Marion encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner who runs down from the house and helps her into the office.

The motel, Norman explains, receives few visitors, as a newer freeway has bypassed the road she was following. Only those who are lost or take the wrong turn ever come here, but Norman keeps it open to give him some relief from taking care of his ailing mother. Despite finding out that she is only 15 miles from Fairvale and Sam, Marion decides to stay the night. Norman cheerfully offers to share his dinner with her rather than force her back out into the storm. While settling into her room, Marion overhears a fight between Norman and his mother through the open window. The mother refuses to allow Marion to come up to the house, accusing Norman of having a "cheap erotic mind" that "disgusts" her, and lacking the "guts" to send Marion away. Norman sheepishly brings some food down to the motel, inviting Marion to dine in the office's parlor, which is gaudily decorated with examples of Norman's hobby of taxidermy: birds being his favorite subject. As she eats, Marion discovers that Norman's mother is not only ill, but also overly controlling of her son. He evidently wants to free himself and leave her alone, but he can't bring himself to do it, because she's ill. Norman becomes enraged when Marion suggests that he should commit Mother "someplace," such as a mental institution. He insists that you don't do that to someone you love, reiterates that "Mother" is harmless, and mentions "We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?" Marion comes to realize that Norman's position is much worse than her own, and she comes to the conclusion that she must return to Phoenix and make amends "before it's too late."

File:Bateshower.jpg
The infamous shower scene.

Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his mother's madness. As Marion showers in her hotel room, Mother runs in and stabs her to death in the now-infamous "shower scene" (with its trademark score by Bernard Herrmann, featuring screeching violins). When he runs to the room, Norman is horrified to find the bloody corpse, but he quickly cleans everything up as if he is accustomed to doing so. Marion's body, her car, her belongings and the money are sunk in a swamp behind the Bates' property, in an attempt to hide any evidence that she was here and to "protect" Mother.

The rest of the film deals with the search for Marion. Marion's sister Lila (Miles) drives to Fairvale to confront Sam, unable to believe that her sister took the money. As they talk, another individual arrives, a private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), sent by Tom Cassidy to recover his money. An intrigued Arbogast explains that he was following Lila in hopes that she would lead him to Marion. It soon becomes clear, however, that Sam is unaware of either Marion's whereabouts or the theft. Arbogast is then able to trace her to the Bates Motel, calling Lila and Sam to let them know. While making the call, he becomes intrigued to see a female figure crossing in front of a window. Believing it to be Norman's mother, he tells Lila and Sam about it, then hangs up to return to the motel. But the detective's curiosity soon proves fatal when, upon returning, he climbs up to the old house to talk with Mother, oblivious of her dark side. As he reaches her room, she leaps out and slashes his face, causing him to lose his balance and fall bodily down the stairs. While he is laying on the ground, she runs down and stabs him to death.

When Arbogast fails to report back, Sam and Lila become convinced that he must have discovered something important, possibly from Norman's mother, and decide it is time to involve the law. But the local sheriff is skeptical of their story and does not see how Norman's mother could have any important information. Norman, he explains, lives alone at the Bates Motel, his mother having died 8 years earlier in a particularly gruesome murder/suicide. They are left confused at the fact that "if Bates' mother is up there, who's that woman buried out in the cemetery?" It seems evident that Mrs. Bates faked her death, and she might have had a hand with Norman in both Marion's and the money's disappearance. Lila and Sam realize that they must go to the motel themselves to see what Arbogast had discovered. They arrive shortly after Bates finishes hiding the detective's corpse in the swamp. Upon checking in the same room Marion was in, they find one of her earrings and a paper with the sum of $40,000 on it. Then, they theorize that Bates disposed of her to keep the money for himself.

While Sam distracts Norman at the office, Lila goes up to the house to talk with his mother. Sam tries to pressure Norman into admitting that he stole Marion's money so he could leave the motel and start fresh, but the heated argument quickly escalates into violence, and Norman is able to knock Sam unconscious and flee up to the house. Hearing Norman enter, Lila slips down to the basement only to find the semi-preserved corpse of Norman's mother. At that moment, the killer is revealed to be Norman himself (cross-dressed in his mother's clothing, complete with wig). Sam also appears from behind at this moment, and he is able to wrestle the butcher's knife away from Norman.

At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist (Oakland) explains to Lila, Sam and the police that Bates' mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Norman was so dominated by his mother while she was alive, and so guilt-ridden over having murdered her 8 years earlier as a teenager, when it appeared she was about to remarry, that he tried to "erase" the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back. Physically, this was done by exhuming her corpse and preserving it with his taxidermy skills, but mentally this was accomplished by allocating half his mind to the persona of his mother. He acts as he believes she would, talks as she did, even dresses as her in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. And because Norman was so very jealous of his mother, he assumes she will also be jealous of any woman to whom he might be attracted. The Norman persona is convinced that his mother is not dead, and he has no knowledge of "her" crimes. The last scene shows Norman Bates in a cell, his mind now completely dominated by the persona of his "mother." As the scene blurs out to a brief epilogue shows Marion's car being towed from its watery grave, presumably to collect her body and the $40,000, Hitchcock briefly overlaps the image of Norman Bates' mother's skull onto his face. Template:Endspoiler

Adaptation

Template:Spoiler The book featured Mary Crane from Dallas, Texas as its heroine and protagonist. Since a real Mary Crane was found to exist in Dallas, Alfred Hitchcock changed her into Marion Crane from Phoenix, Arizona. In the novel, Norman Bates was a middle-aged recluse; Hitchcock changed him into an early-twenties handsome young man that audiences could sympathize with, until the shocking ending.

Production

There are many stories about the making of the film although it is not always easy to distinguish fact from legend.

General

In order to get Psycho made, Hitchcock and his wife had to personally finance its creation. In exchange, Paramount agreed to finance the distribution of the film to theaters (the rights were later sold to Universal in 1968). As a result, when the film became a major hit, the Hitchcocks received a much larger share of the profit than they otherwise would have done.

In Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, it is claimed that Hitchcock tested the scare factor of various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop, by placing them on various days in Janet Leigh's dressing room closet and listening to how loudly she screamed when she discovered each one. The "winner" was the one used in the film. After that prank, Leigh took the joke well and got on well with Hitchcock during filming, despite difficulties with the shower scene. The director later stated Leigh was one of the best actresses he'd ever worked with.

Hitchcock made cameo appearances in virtually every film he made; in this film, he is wearing a Stetson hat and standing outside the office window when Janet Leigh returns from her lunch break.

The voice of Norman Bates' mother throughout the Psycho movie series was that of noted radio actress Virginia Gregg (excepting Psycho IV, where the role was played by Olivia Hussey) .

The shower scene

The most iconic scene in the film 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 has spawned numerous myths and legends.

File:Psycho Knife.PNG
The infamous 3 frames

The soundtrack of screeching violins was an original piece by composer Bernard Herrmann entitled "The Murder". Hitchcock originally wanted the sequence to play without music, but Herrmann begged him to try it with the cue he had composed, and Hitchcock agreed that it vastly intensified the scene.

The blood in the scene is in fact Bosco Chocolate Syrup, which shows up better than stage blood on black-and-white film. The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by Hitchcock himself plunging a knife into a casaba melon.

It has been 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 participated in the scene the entire time; Hitchcock only used a live model as her stand-in for the scenes in which Bates wraps up Marion's body in a shower curtain and places the body in the trunk of her car. [1]

Another popular myth claims that, in order for Janet Leigh's scream in the shower scene to sound realistic, Hitchcock made sure the water was ice-cold. This has been denied by Leigh on numerous occasions. In fact, the warmth of the shower water caused the moleskin coverings (meant to hide her nudity) to peel off during one take, and the director decided to film one take without the moleskin.[citation needed]

In Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, it is stated that the censor board for the Hays Office wrangled with Hitchcock because some censors insisted they could see one of Janet Leigh's nipples during the shower scene (apparently, the director had used a few frames from the sans-moleskin take). Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. The censors passed the film, convinced that the director had made the changes they had ordered.

The most notorious urban legend which 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 has been refuted by several people associated with the film. Leigh, who was present during the scene, stated furiously, "I've said it in [Bass's] face in front of other people.... I was in that shower for seven days, and, believe you 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's 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 bemused by the rumor, stating, "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such a scene." [2] It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh. 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 post-mortem blink was edited out and has never been seen by audiences. However, confusion surrounding Alma's words has led to a myth that Marion is seen swallowing after she dies, and that this can be seen in the film.[citation needed]

Trailer

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 Hitch's comedy THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY; most of Hitchcock's dialogue is post-sync'ed. 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 the he pulled the shower curtain back in the bathroom sequence of the preview. Since the title Psycho instantly covers most of the screen, the "trick" went unnoticed by audiences for years. However, the freeze-frame function on DVDs clearly reveals that it is indeed Vera Miles and not Janet Leigh in the shower during the trailer.

Importance in film history

Template:Spoiler Psycho is often seen as a turning point in film history, representing the shift from Classical to the more experimental "Post-Classical" film. Psycho's unconventional storytelling and stylized photography and editing show the influence of the French New Wave and the European art films that Hitchcock admired.

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 halfway through. 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 was 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. 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. 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 movie genre.

Effect on popular perceptions of mental illness

Upon the release of this film, the word "psycho" became a derogatory synonym for a person with mental illness. The diagnoses most often associated with Norman Bates are schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder, although Norman Bates's behavior bore little resemblance to typical behavior displayed by people who are diagnosed with the disorders. Psycho's influence is evident today in the portrayals of people with mental illnesses as bizarre and dangerous.

Acclaim

Psycho has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

It is represented in the following of the American Film Institute's lists:

It has appeared on a number of lists by websites, TV channels and magazines, including the following:

  • Psycho is consistently in the top 25 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films.
  • #4 on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[3][4]
  • The finale was ranked #4 on Premiere's list of "The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History" [5]

Sequels and remakes

  • The film spawned three sequels: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990); the last one being a TV movie. Anthony Perkins returned to his role in all three sequels, and Vera Miles returned to hers in Psycho II. Psycho IV was written by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the original film. The sequels are generally considered weak and unimaginative in comparison to the original. Hitchcock did not participate in the making of any of the Psycho sequels (he passed away before any of them were made).
  • Bates Motel (1987) is a TV movie (actually a failed TV pilot) in which the motel is taken over by a new, equally mentally ill owner.
  • In 1998, Gus Van Sant remade Psycho. The remake is in color and features a different cast, but aside from this it is a virtually shot for shot remake that copies Hitchcock's camera movements and editing. (See Psycho (1998 film).)
  • A Conversation With Norman (2005), a film directed by Jonathan M. Parisen, was 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.

Trivia

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.

Hitchcock chose to film "Psycho" in Black and White for two reasons: He wanted to keep the budget under $1,000,000, and he felt that filming it in color would make it too gory.[6]

One thing did upset the censors. It wasn't the goriness or the nudity during the shower scene. It was the fact that Marion (Janet Leigh) flushed the toilet just before entering the shower which was plainly visible. In film and TV at that time a toilet was never seen let alone heard. Shows like the Brady Bunch never showed a toilet. 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.

Influence on pop culture

See also

In The Film "Scream" after supposedly being seriously injured and left for dead, Billy Loomis closes and then the words "It's Stu he's gone mad." are said, and Billy turns around quoting Norman Bates and Says, "'We all go a little mad sometimes.' Anothony Perkins, 'Psycho'" Then shoots the gun at Randy.

References

  1. ^ Roger Ebert Article about Janet Leigh's Death[1]
  2. ^ Roger Ebert Q&A Article about who directed the shower scene[2]
  3. ^ Bravo TV 100 Scariest Movie Moments[3]
  4. ^ www.artsandfaith.com[4]
  5. ^ Premiere Magazine's 25 Most Shocking Moments in Movie History[5]
  6. ^ IMDB Trivia Page for "Psycho"[6]

Further Reading

  • Stephen Rebello. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Dembner Books, 1990. ISBN 0-942637-14-3
  • Janet Leigh. Psycho : Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. Harmony Press, 1995. ISBN 051770112 .

External links


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