Psycho (1960)

Movie
German title	Psycho
Original title	Psycho
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1960
length	109 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Alfred Hitchcock
script	Joseph Stefano
production	Alfred Hitchcock for Shamley Productions
music	Bernard Herrmann
camera	John L. Russell
cut	George Tomasini
occupation
Anthony Perkins : Norman Bates Janet Leigh : Marion Crane Vera Miles : Purple Crane John Gavin : Sam Loomis Martin Balsam : Det. Milton Arbogast John McIntire : Sheriff Al Chambers Simon Oakland : Dr. Fred Richmond Frank Albertson : Tom Cassidy Patricia Hitchcock : Marion's office colleague Vaughn Taylor : Mr. George Lowery John Anderson : California Charlie Mort Mills : Highway Policeman Lurene Tuttle : Mrs. Chambers
synchronization

Psycho is an American feature film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. The film, nominated for four Academy Awards , is considered one of his key works and is a classic of American cinema. The American Film Institute voted Psycho first in 2001 in the Top 100 American Thrillers . It is the first part of the Psycho film series , followed by the sequels Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986) and Psycho IV - The Beginning (1990).

The scene in which the main female character is stabbed in the shower is one of the most famous and most cited scenes in film history , both in terms of editing and music . The character of the serial killer Norman Bates, embodied by Anthony Perkins , also achieved fame.

The film of the same name by Robert Bloch served as a template for the film .

action

Marion Crane, a Phoenix secretary , is tired of having to secretly meet up with her boyfriend Sam in the afternoons in cheap accommodation. She finally wants to get married. However, he does not feel that he is financially secure enough to enable her to lead a safe life. Marion is hired by her employer, Lowery, to bring $ 40,000 to the bank for wealthy client Tom Cassidy. She makes the decision to embezzle the money and call in sick. Marion leaves the city with the money, which her boss sees by chance. On the way, her strange behavior attracts the attention of a policeman who clings to her heels for a while. The hasty swapping of their car for another arouses the suspicion of a car dealer.

In the pouring rain, nervous and fearful, Marion finally arrives at a motel located off the main road . Its young owner, Norman Bates, tells Marion that he lives next door with his sick mother in a Victorian house and has no friends. The somewhat uptight-looking man shows interest in the attractive woman and invites her to dinner. He goes from the motel to the house to prepare dinner. Through the open window, Marion hears a bitter argument between him and his mother, who wants to forbid him from having contact with women whom she considers "dirty". Then Bates brings dinner to the motel. During the meal together, Norman and Marion start talking. Norman mentions his hobby, preparing birds, and mentions his mother as well. He describes them as "harmless", just "sometimes a little malicious". He also says he doesn't need friends because a man's best friend is his mother.

Marion struggles with herself before going to bed and is considering bringing back the stolen money. It seems like she is at peace with herself as she takes a shower. There she is brutally stabbed to death by a figure in women's clothes. Norman discovers the corpse and is dismayed by the deed apparently committed by his domineering mother. He carefully removes all traces, stows Marion's corpse and luggage - including the stolen money, which he knows nothing about - in her car and dumps it in a swamp area behind the motel.

Psycho house with motel in the foreground

Marion's employer is convinced that his employees acted emotionally . Instead of reporting her to the police, he sends the private detective Arbogast to search for her and the money. Marion's sister Lila is also worried and goes on a search with Marion's friend Sam. Arbogast rattles around all the hotels and motels in the area and finally comes across Bates, whom he distrusts because he is involved in contradictions and seems to be hiding something. Bates also refuses to let him see his mother, which makes the detective particularly curious. After reporting his suspicions to Lila over the phone, Arbogast secretly returns to the house to speak to Norman's mother. She surprises him on the first floor with a large knife and stabs him. Arbogast falls down the stairs, is unable to straighten up, and is stabbed to death by Norman's mother. Norman takes over the "cleanup" again.

Alerted by Arbogast's report and his disappearance, Lila and Sam drive themselves to the motel. The local sheriff informs them that Mrs. Bates was buried in the local cemetery ten years ago. They want to rent Bates Motel incognito to speak to Norman's mother. While Sam distracts Norman, Lila looks around the old house. She goes to Mrs. Bates' room, which is empty. Lila notices that Norman's room is full of old toys. Meanwhile, Norman becomes suspicious, knocks Sam down and rushes to the house. Lila manages to hide in the basement of the house. There she finds the mummified body of Norman's mother, placed on a chair . Norman suddenly enters the dark basement with a wig and his mother's clothes to stab Lila too. She narrowly escapes death because Sam can overpower Norman at the last moment.

In the police station, the psychiatrist Dr. Richmond of Norman's split personality : On the one hand, he is a shy, inconspicuous man, on the other hand, the other part of his personality embodies his domineering mother. Ten years earlier, Norman had poisoned her and her lover because of his pathological jealousy. Her death was mistaken for suicide. When Mrs. Bates was due to be buried, he had stolen her body and preserved it in order to undo the crime. From then on he lived with his late mother and spoke to her by imitating her voice. Since he wanted to imitate his mother, whose relationships he was pathologically jealous, exactly, he assumed that she would feel and act the same way towards him. When Norman was interested in a woman, the jealous mother inside him rebelled and murdered her - in women's clothes and wigs. After every murder he was shocked by his "sick" mother and removed the traces of "her" crime in order to protect her. In the penultimate shot of the film he is sitting in a cell and busy with his inner monologue . This reveals that the mother's personality has completely taken possession of Norman and that he considers himself his mother, which is made clear by a brief fade-in of the mother's skull on his face. In the last shot, Marion's car is pulled out of the swamp.

Pre-production

The film is based on Robert Bloch 's novel of the same name from 1959. Bloch was inspired for his book by the real case of the woman murderer Ed Gein , who had been caught two years earlier not far from Bloch's then home town in Wisconsin . Hitchcock acquired the rights to the material through an anonymous agent for the relatively small sum of $ 9,000. He then bought as many copies of the book as possible to keep the end of the story a secret. According to his agent Ned Brown, what he liked most about Psycho was the surprise murder of the main character, which gives the story a whole new direction. In an interview with François Truffaut , Hitchcock stated: “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. "

When a planned project called No Bail for the Judge with Audrey Hepburn in the lead role didn't work out, Hitchcock began working on Psycho . The unusual project represented a turning point in the director's career, who from the late 1940s was increasingly exposed to competition from other filmmakers. His style was copied many times and successfully, for example by Henri-Georges Clouzot in Die Teuflischen or George Cukor in Das Haus der Lady Alquist . In addition, Hitchcock had had enough of the star-studded, mostly cheerful, big-budget productions that he had recently shot, and was looking for new ways to shock his audience. By 1960, many cheaply produced B-movies were successful at the box office. Hitchcock wondered what would happen if such a film were made by a well-known director like himself.

The production company Paramount Pictures , for which the director had to make a film according to the contract, was initially strictly against an adaptation of the novel, on the grounds that it was too repulsive and unsuitable for a film. After the success of The Invisible Third one year earlier, another project in this direction was expected. When the studio Hitchcock refused its usual budget of around two to three million dollars at the time, presuming that he would give in, Hitchcock simply financed the film with his own production company Shamley Productions . The budget for Psycho was only around $ 806,000 (which would correspond to about $ 5.5 million today) and forced Hitchcock to take various savings measures.

The decision to shoot the film in black and white had several reasons: On the one hand, it made production cheaper, and on the other, it was believed that the bloody shower scene would appear too brutal in color. In addition, Hitchcock was a great admirer of the black and white film Die Teuflischen , which its director Henri-Georges Clouzot had earned the nickname "French Hitchcock".

script

James Cavanaugh, who had already written eleven episodes of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents , began work on the script in October 1959. However, Hitchcock was very dissatisfied with the result and said the script reads like a TV movie. He then contacted the relatively inexperienced author Joseph Stefano and, after initial concerns, entrusted him with the task.

Stefano's script adheres largely to the literary model. One of the most significant changes he and Hitchcock made was Norman Bates' characterization. In the book he is described as a short, fat and uncomfortable drinker. He's also much older than the then 27-year-old Anthony Perkins who played him. In addition, the book begins from Norman's perspective, while the film at the beginning focuses on Marion. The shower scene only takes up two short sections in the book and ends with Mary's beheading.

There is also no romance between Lila Crane and Sam Loomis in the film. The main character of the book, Mary Crane, was renamed Marion Crane after it was discovered that there was indeed a Mary Crane in Phoenix . Overall, Hitchcock's film sticks closely to the novel; here are the most important deviations:

In the novel	In the movie
The first murder victim is called Mary Crane	converted to Marion Crane
Norman is described as fat and not very handsome	Presentation by Anthony Perkins
Lila and Mary look so alike that they are often confused	little resemblance between the sisters
begins with an argument between Norman and his mother	begins with an argument between Sam and his fiancée
Mary changes vehicle several times, but remains unmolested on the journey	Marion is checked by a police officer; the vehicle only changes once
Norman takes Mary to his house for dinner	Norman takes Marion to his office for dinner
Mary registers herself under the entirely fictional name Jane Wilson	She designs her last name after the first name of her lover
Norman gives Mary room 6	Norman gives Marion room 1
Mary is beheaded in the shower	Marion is stabbed in the shower
Arbogast is murdered with a razor at the door	Arbogast is murdered on the stairs with a butcher knife
Lila finds Mary's earring in room 6 of the motel	Lila finds a note with Marion's handwriting in room 1 of the motel
Norman, half drunk, confesses to Sam that he exhumed and resuscitated his mother	This is part of the psychiatrist's final statements
Sam interviews a psychiatrist and then explains to Lila (and the reader) the background to Norman's illness	A psychiatrist explains to Sam, Lila and the police (and the viewer) the background to Norman's illness

Staff and preparation

Much of the film crew consisted of people who had worked with Alfred Hitchcock Presents on the television series . This was another way to save money and time. In addition, the director felt more comfortable when he was surrounded by familiar people. As art director was Saul Bass hired already the bias title for Vertigo - From the realm of the dead , and North by Northwest had designed. The opening credits he designed , which gave the impression that the screen was being torn to shreds by a knife, should arouse nervousness in the audience .

A few weeks before filming began, assistant director Hilton Green drove to Arizona and photographed several apartments and real estate offices that were later to be reconstructed in the studio. In total, he visited around 140 such locations. For the costume design, Helen Colvig based herself on the clothes of a young woman from Phoenix, who looked similar to Janet Leigh. Most of the costumes weren't made to measure. Both should contribute to the authenticity of the film.

Norman Bates' house was designed and built by Joseph Hurley and Robert Clatworthy along the lines of a mansion in Kent , Ohio . They used parts of the set from the 1950 film My Friend Harvey . The house cost around $ 15,000, making it the most expensive preproduction item. Both the famous Psycho House and the Bates Motel can still be visited today on the premises of Universal Studios (see picture) . The house is reduced by a factor of 7/8; this makes it appear smaller (from a frog's perspective ); the hill higher and the ensemble more menacing.

The composer Bernard Herrmann wrote the famous film music, which is played exclusively by string instruments. Many motifs in the pieces, such as the resolving bass leading, are based on the Dante symphony by Franz Liszt . A soundtrack of jazz music was originally planned. According to Hitchcock, the film owes a third of its impact to Bernard Herrmann's score.

The total pay for the crew was $ 62,000, about seven percent of the budget.

occupation

In contrast to previous projects, Hitchcock did without big names such as James Stewart or Grace Kelly in the cast and instead relied on rather unknown actors.

The film's best-known star was Janet Leigh , who had starred in Orson Welles ' film The Sign of Evil a year earlier . There she was also in a shabby motel - with a doorman anticipating some of Norman Bates' moves - exposed to threats. It is believed that this was one of the reasons why Hitchcock hired her. Leigh accepted the role for a quarter of her usual salary, which at the time was about $ 100,000. Other actresses considered for the role of Marion were Eva Marie Saint , Piper Laurie , Martha Hyer , Hope Lange , Shirley Jones, and Lana Turner . Since she was the most famous actress in the film, the shock of her character's sudden assassination in the middle of the film took viewers even more by surprise.

Anthony Perkins was best known as a television actor and was paid $ 40,000 for the role of Norman Bates. Hitchcock also cast Vera Miles as Lila Crane, Martin Balsam as Detective Arbogast and John Gavin as Sam Loomis. With Gavin wooden representation of the director in retrospect was very unhappy and missed him the nickname The Stiff (The stiffness) . Vera Miles wore a wig during filming because she had shaved her bald head for the film Jovanka and the others . Hitchcock only hired Miles because he was paying her anyway because of an exclusive contract. He had never forgiven her that she had become pregnant before the filming of Vertigo and was therefore out of the question for the female lead in this film.

In a newspaper interview, Hitchcock announced that he was considering actress Helen Hayes for the role of mother . However, this was not meant seriously and should lure the audience on the wrong track. In the days that followed, Alfred Hitchcock received numerous letters from actresses who also wanted to audition for the role.

production

The shooting

Alfred Hitchcock, three years before Psycho turned

Shooting began on November 11, 1959. The film was made with a 50 millimeter lens, as the image most closely corresponds to the human field of vision . The viewer should have the feeling that he is experiencing the action up close. The working title of the project was Production 9401 or Wimpy (named after the cameraman Rex Wimpy).

On the first day of shooting, the entire crew had to swear not to say a word about the end of the film and not to speak to anyone about it.

Although Hitchcock officially still worked for Paramount, he shot much of Psycho on the premises of Universal Studios , which he signed in 1960. The Bates Motel and Norman Bates' house still stand there to this day . The painting House on the Railway Embankment by Edward Hopper served as a model for the latter . Even if the Paramount logo can still be seen in the opening credits, the rights to the film are owned by Universal.

The opening sequence was filmed by Hilton Green and was originally intended to show a long, uncut camera flight over the rooftops of Phoenix into a hotel window. Hitchcock got the idea after seeing In the Signs of Evil , which also begins with a tracking shot of several minutes. After technical problems (the footage that was taken from a helicopter turned out to be blurred) the scene had to be put together from several shots and partly re-shot in the studio.

Another camera crew turned at the same time on Highway 99 between Fresno and Bakersfield ( California ) Marion's escape from Phoenix. Her encounter with a police officer was the first scene in the film to be completed.

Hitchcock allowed his actors Leigh and Perkins to improvise as long as the position of the camera did not have to be changed. This is how, for example, Norman Bates' habit of chewing pumpkin seeds came about.

The art director Saul Bass was charged with the preparation of a storyboard charged for the murder of Arbogast. When Hitchcock suddenly fell ill, Bass also took on the direction of the scene. However, Hitchcock was not satisfied with the scene being filmed by Bass, as the perspective from which it was filmed suggested a threat from Arbogast. Hitchcock turned the scene again.

The content of one of the last scenes in the film, in which it turns out that Norman's mother is sitting stuffed in the basement, was kept a secret from the crew and the actors until the very end. Hitchcock even had a chair labeled Mrs. Bates set up on the set for this purpose , to give the impression that the role actually existed.

During the shoot, the director had hidden several versions of the mother doll in Janet Leigh's wardrobe to test their reaction. He finally decided on the model that produced the loudest scream. Leigh himself also suspected that the director wanted to use these occasional shocks to increase the quality and authenticity of their portrayal.

In the scenes in which Norman Bates speaks with a disguised voice, the voices of Paul Jasmin, Virginia Gregg and Jeanette Nolan can be heard in the original version .

Filming was completed on February 1, 1960.

The shower scene

On December 17, 1959, Hitchcock began work on arguably the most famous scene in the film, the murder of Marion Crane in the shower. It lasts about two minutes in total (the actual murder only 45 seconds). It took a full week to shoot, about a third of Janet Leigh's total shooting time.

Saul Bass designed the storyboard according to the director's specifications. Most of the shots are extreme close-ups of Crane's body, Norman Bates' hand or the shower head. The scene is considered to be one of the most terrifying and brutal in film history, despite the fact that it contains very little blood and no knife marks can be seen. The act of violence is only hinted at.

The disturbing sequence of cuts is reinforced in the aftermath by a subsequent plan sequence , which emphasizes slowly from the dead eyes of the corpse out of the shower, through the bedroom, past the bedside table with the misappropriated money, out the window and up to Bates' house leads. This shot lasts another minute, but this time without a single cut.

Janet Leigh wore a moleskin swimsuit while filming . The body double Marli Renfro was used for the close-ups or shots from above. Anthony Perkins was not involved in the scene at all, but was at the time in New York , where he was preparing for a play.

The shower head, which you can see from below in some shots, was actually a model with a diameter of almost two meters, which allowed the water jets to be directed past the camera (no drops on the lens). Instead of the fake blood common in color film, Hitchcock used Bosco chocolate syrup , as it looked most realistic on black and white film. The sound of knife punctures was made with the help of a Turkish watermelon . The last shot, in which Crane's lifeless body lies on the ground, turned out to be particularly difficult. The recording had to be repeated several times because Janet Leigh kept getting water in her eye and had to blink.

No musical background was originally planned for the shower scene. Bernard Herrmann managed to change Hitchcock's mind, however, and he wrote the staccato string piece The Murder , which is one of the most famous themes in film history and was later quoted in countless films. Hitchcock was so enthusiastic about it that he doubled Herrmann's fee.

Over the years numerous myths and anecdotes have formed around the legendary scene that have turned out to be false. For example, it has long been claimed that Hitchcock suddenly ran ice-cold water through the shower to make Janet Leigh's scream sound as realistic as possible. Another rumor has it that Leigh was said not to have known anything about the course of the scene to the end and was completely unprepared.

In 1973, Saul Bass claimed that he was solely responsible for planning the shower scene and even directed it. This statement was rejected by several members of the crew, including Hilton Green. Janet Leigh said: "I was in this shower for seven days and you can believe me that Alfred Hitchcock was behind the camera on every single one of the twenty takes."

After the film was released, Hitchcock received an angry letter in which a father complained that his daughter stopped taking a bath after attending the film The Devilish (in which a man is drowned in the bathtub), and now after Psycho , either want to shower more. Hitchcock replied with the words: "Send her to the dry cleaner." Janet Leigh also stated that after Psycho she was afraid of showering for a while.

censorship

Psycho is one of the most daring Hitchcock films. The first scene shows Marion Crane and her lover Sam Loomis, lightly clad in a hotel bed. A dialogue that did not make it into the final version was: “I will spend the weekend in bed.” - “In bed? It's the only playground that's better than Las Vegas. ”In the remake from 1998, the dialogue is included.

The shower scene was rejected several times by the Hays Code censorship authority. Once the censors claimed to have recognized a nipple. Hitchcock sent the scene back unchanged, after which it was not further objected to.

In other countries, some major changes have been made. The murder of Arbogast and the body of the mother of the scissors fell victim in Singapore . The scene in which Norman Bates washes the blood off his hands was cut out for the British version. Almost the entire shower scene in Norway was censored.

In the USA, the censors were particularly offended by the open toilet. Psycho was the first American film in which you could see and hear a toilet flush. The only reason the scene was not cut out is that it is an important part of the plot (Lila and Sam find Marion's note in the toilet). The use of the word transvestite was only permitted after Joseph Stefano had proven that it was a medical-psychological term.

Hitchcock considered releasing the film for a while without the approval of the Hays Office .

Universal also released only a censored version of the film on DVD worldwide, in which three scenes were cut:

• Marion takes off her bra while Norman watches her.
• Norman's bloody hands after removing Marion's corpse (alternative shots were sometimes used here)
• The first punctures on Detective Arbogast are missing, only the last stitch including the fade-out can be seen.

The completely uncut version has only been seen on television so far. From 2005 to 2014, however, only the shortened version was shown here. There was no longer any way to get to the unabridged version. The uncut version was broadcast again on TV on July 13, 2014 on BR TV , the master used for this had some artifacts and was only 4: 3, but the quality was still sufficient. The cut version, on the other hand, has been completely restored and also scanned in 16: 9 .

In 2012, the so-called “German Cut”, which contains the scenes censored on the DVD , was released as video-on-demand on YouTube .

From January 2019, Psycho was available for the first time in Germany as an uncut version and as an original theatrical version with occasional image sequences translated into German within the initially limited Psycho Legacy Collection on Blu-ray Disc . Due to the high demand, a new edition of this collection is planned for November 2019.

advertising

Most of the advertising appearances were done by Hitchcock himself. He even forbade his actors from giving interviews, fearing they might reveal the end of the film. There were no test screenings, and the critics only got to see Psycho when it officially opened in theaters.

In a six-minute feature film that was released in early 1960, Hitchcock showed the audience around the rooms of the Bates Motel. Since Janet Leigh was not available for this trailer, Vera Miles - with a blonde wig - can be seen in her role. The deliberately humorous tone of the short film was intended to mislead the audience. When Hitchcock opens the shower curtain in the bathroom, you see Marion Crane screaming and you can hear The Murder .

Hitchcock decreed that once a performance of Psycho began, no one should be allowed into the cinema. Henri-Georges Clouzot had already proceeded in a similar way with Die Teuflischen . This was a controversial and unusual measure at the time. Many cinema owners feared a drop in sales. However, the director was of the opinion that the atmosphere of the film should not be destroyed by latecomers . He also wanted to prevent someone from missing the shower scene in which the star of the film was spectacularly killed after just half an hour.

To make sure that the audience didn't miss the beginning of the film, many cinemas ran a kind of countdown in the foyer that indicated the imminent start of the performance at regular intervals. A poster depicting Hitchcock pointing at his watch read:

“It is required that you see 'Psycho' from the very beginning. The manager of this theater has been instructed at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theater any persons after the picture starts. Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes or ventilating shafts will be met by force. The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy 'Psycho' more. "

“It is necessary that you look at 'Psycho' from the beginning. The manager of this theater was ordered, threatening his life, not to allow anyone to enter the theater after the film started. Unauthorized attempts to penetrate through side doors, fire doors or ventilation shafts will be responded to with violence. The whole point of these extraordinary guidelines, of course, is to help you gain more pleasure in 'Psycho'. "

- Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock's regulation has also been implemented in other countries. For example, the request "Come on time ... don't reveal anything!" Was emblazoned on German film posters.

Success and impact

Psycho was released in American cinemas on June 16, 1960; the German premiere took place on October 7, 1960. The critics were initially divided. Many viewed the film negatively, denounced its brutality, or challenged Hitchcock's judgment. Several representatives of the Catholic Church called for the film to be banned, and some psychiatrists warned against going to the cinema. The New York Daily News, on the other hand, highlighted the achievements of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins and described his performance as the best of his career. The Village Voice newspaper also paid tribute to the film and put it on a par with the major European productions of the time.

Despite the mixed reviews, Psycho was an instant hit with audiences. The extensive advertising campaign in advance and Hitchcock's secrecy had certainly contributed to this. In many cases, the queues in front of the box office extended to the street. The film achieved record box office results in the United States, Canada , the United Kingdom , France , Japan and China . Worldwide revenues were $ 50 million, including $ 30 million in the United States. Due to its excessive success, numerous critics re-evaluated Psycho and changed their minds. The TIME Magazine described the film as a masterpiece, after it had previously not panned him only a few weeks.

Hitchcock, who had waived his fee in favor of a 60 percent profit sharing, earned around $ 15 million from Psycho , which today would be comparable to a sum of $ 105 million. It became his most successful film and the last one he shot in black and white. In 1962 he sold the rights to the Music Corporation of America , which Universal owned. In return, Hitchcock received MCA shares and was there from now on the third largest shareholder. In 1965 the film was shown again in American cinemas.

Its main actors, Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins, were given a career boost by the popularity of the film, but they quickly began to focus on specific roles. The image of the inconspicuous psychopath stuck to Perkins in particular . Even so, as he said, he would have accepted the role of Norman Bates again at any time.

Psycho is considered one of the best, but also most unusual works of Hitchcock and one of the first psychological thrillers . Numerous experts certify the work a pioneering position in film history. It was partly responsible for loosening the censorship regulations and gradually removing taboos from the film business.

The film is also traded as an important predecessor of the slasher film genre and influenced numerous directors from the horror film sector. In 1961, Hammer Studios produced a series of B-Movies based on Psycho . In 1963, Herschell Gordon Lewis directed the Gore classic Blood Feast , which would have been unthinkable without Hitchcock's pioneering work.

Following Psycho, Hitchcock wanted to make a film (The Blind Man) in which key scenes take place in Disneyland. However, Walt Disney refused to consent to this because he found psycho repulsive and obnoxious. For this reason, too, the film never came about.

References in pop culture

Many of the film's motifs, quotes and characters, such as the Psycho House, the name Norman Bates and of course the shower scene, have become common knowledge and are well known to many people.

Psycho inspired numerous imitations; many directors have paid tribute to the work in their own films. The murder in the shower is often quoted and parodied to this day.

The following list is a small selection of films and pieces of music in which homages to Psycho can be found:

• In the series Knight Rider , the original theme is played in the episode Deadly Costume Festival (season 3, episode 5), Norman Bates and Ferview Road are part of the episode.
• In Mel Brooks' Höhenkoller (1977) the main character Dr. Thorndyke attacked by a bellboy in the shower with a daily newspaper. Black printing ink can be seen running down the drain.
• There are several allusions to John Carpenter's horror classic, Halloween, 1978: Jamie Lee Curtis , Janet Leigh's daughter, plays the lead role. The doctor's name is Sam Loomis, based on John Gavin's role. The name Marion Chambers is composed of Marion Crane and the name of the sheriff.
• In Scream - Scream! by Wes Craven from 1996 there is a character named Billy Loomis, who quotes Norman Bates with the words "We all go a little mad sometimes" .
• In 1981 the British pop band Landscape set a monument to the main character of Psycho and the film with the electro pop piece Norman Bates .
• The school in Brian De Palma's Carrie - Satan's youngest daughter is called Bates High . Numerous other works by De Palma, for example Dressed to Kill , have strong Hitchcock references, including numerous references to Psycho .
• In the song Motorpsycho Nightmare , Bob Dylan sings the lines: “There stood Rita, lookin 'just like Tony Perkins. She said 'Would you like to take a shower? I'll show you up to the door! ' I said 'Oh, no, no! I've been through this movie before. "
• The scene in which Marion Crane meets her boss in the city when he crosses a zebra crossing in front of her is quoted in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction .
• The German punk rock band The Bates , named after the main character of Psycho , recreated the film in terms of content and style in the 1995 video clip for Billie Jean , a cover version of the famous Michael Jackson song .
• Bernard Herrmann's score also became very famous and was sampled for several songs , including Gimme Some More by Busta Rhymes and We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel .
• Hitchcock himself quoted Psycho in his last film Family Grave , in which a scene takes place on "Bates Ave.".
• In the American series Heroes there is a flashback where you see the past of the murderer Sylar. Gabriel Gray, a watchmaker, is dressed in exactly the same way as Norman Bates and behaves similarly. Later in the series, he meets his mother, who has a similar relationship with her son.
• The Simpsons alludes to the shower scene where Maggie knocks Homer unconscious with a hammer and Homer spills a bucket of red paint which flows into the drain. This scene was also used for the film music by Bernard Herrmann. There is also a reference to a scene in which Marge and Lisa are sitting in Principal Skinner's office. Headmaster Skinner looks out the window at a house which, as in Psycho, stands a little elevated on a hill, and says in the style of Norman Bates: “What do you say, mother? They have a right to be here. It's a school problem! "
• The slapstick film The Silence of the Mutton from 1994 parodies the two classics The Silence of the Lambs and Psycho . Furthermore, actor Martin Balsam , who plays the private detective Milton Arbogast, also plays a detective under his real name.
• With regard to the character constellation, consisting of a dominant possessive mother and an unstable, self-insecure son, the 1992 splatter film Braindead by director Peter Jackson resembles the epoch-making thriller Psycho . In addition, in the first third of Braindead there is a dispute between mother and son who live together in an old mansion, which is very similar in wording to a dialogue in Psycho . In Braindead , an angry mother Vera says to her son Lionel Cosgrove after he has met his friend at the zoo: “ I think you have no idea what sorrow and pain you have caused me. I thought you could be trusted, but going out behind my back with this disgusting saleswoman. Kissing and smooching in public. Please don't interrupt me. I will tell you what it is. She's of the worst kind. Why are you doing things like that on purpose to make me sad? "
• The name of the first-person narrator character Patrick Bateman in American Psycho pays homage to Norman Bates.
• The owner of a video store in Men in Black II , who speaks loudly to his mother, clearly alludes to Bates.
• In the music video for the single "Shower" by Farin Urlaub (2005, album: "At the end of the sun") you can see at the end how Urlaub is stabbed to death in his shower. Although in this case the killer is the shower itself, the images of the shadow holiday falling behind the shower curtain and the blood seeping into the drain clearly refer to the famous Hitchcockian shower scene.
• In Neues vom WiXXer (2007), parts of the plot take place in Bates Hospital .
• In the movie Motel (2007), in which people are killed by a gang of snuff filmmakers in a motel, several stuffed birds stand on the reception counter and lead actor Luke Wilson pulls down a shower curtain. In addition, the graphics of the title sequence are very reminiscent of Saul Bass ' work for Hitchcock.
• In Police Academy 3 -… and nobody can stop it, there is an allusion to psycho when one of the policemen is in the shower and suddenly the shadow of a man with a knife appears, which ultimately turns out to be a tube.
• When Darla first appeared in Finding Nemo , the score was played by Psycho.
• In the music video Jeanny by the Austrian musician Falco , the neon letters of the Bates Motel can be seen briefly at the beginning.
• In Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Dialogue , traces of the crime are sought after a murder in the bathroom. The settings when opening the shower curtain are an allusion to Psycho .
• In the song New Millionaires by the pop group Latin Quarter (1985, album Modern Times ) the line of text “Just like Arbogast on the top two stairs You're waiting for a carver to come cutting through your cares” is used as an image for an already expected radical change .
• In the film The Shrill Four on the Move, Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase ) scares his wife Ellen ( Beverly D'Angelo ) in the shower with a banana instead of a knife. This scene has almost the same music as the shower scene from Psycho .
• The haunted mansion attraction “Phantom Manor” in Disneyland Paris was inspired by the house of the Bates family with its Victorian-architectural style.
• Episode 167 "House of Secrets" of the US crime series Murder is her hobby with Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in the lead role in Universal Studios in Hollywood, including the Psycho House.
• The British band Bastille uses the conversation between Marion and Norman over dinner as a background noise for their song "No Angels" on the sampler "Other Peoples Heartaches Pt. II".
• The 141st episode of the SOKO Stuttgart series with the title “The Dead in the Shower” alludes to “Psycho” in many ways: The murder in a boarding house recreates the legendary shower scene; the victim is a psychologist dealing with multiple personality disorders; the suspect who was ill and who spied on female guests - albeit with modern technology - is called Roman (instead of Norman); His eccentric mother, the owner of the pension, is still alive and well.
• In the game “Unterwegs in Düsterburg”, which was created with the RPG Maker , there is a “Mr. Bloch” who later attacks the player in women's clothes with a knife.
• In the 136th episode of the series The Big Bang Theory , entitled Drinks from Strangers , the shower scene is re-enacted: In the fictional series-internal film The Series Monkey Mob , Penny is attacked by a monkey in the shower.
• In the 146th episode of the series The Big Bang Theory , entitled Uncle Doctor Cooper , the basement scene is quoted in which Howard Wolowitz argues with his mother until he turns the chair in which she is sitting and the viewer sees his mother's skeleton is presented.
• In one of the episodes of American Dad , the main character Stan Smith is addicted to masturbation. After he was almost caught by his wife Francine, he drives to a motel to enjoy this pleasure in peace. This is called Bates Motel, and the associated melody from the film is also faded in.

Stylistic devices and symbols

As in all of Hitchcock's films, numerous symbolic allusions can be discovered in Psycho . For example, the picture that Norman Bates takes from the wall to watch Marion Crane shows attempted rape, presumably the biblical scene of Susanna in the bath . The registration number of the car Marion buys is NFB-418 (Norman Francis Bates' initials).

The central motifs include shadows (threats), mirrors (split personality, self-awareness) and colors. In the first scene Marion's brassiere and handbag are white, which expresses her purity, innocence and "angelicness" (Hitchcock). After stealing her boss's money, the bra and bag are black.

Divisions and breaks play a central role, starting with the cut opening credits, the staccato-like music and Norman Bates' split personality through to the composition of the picture , which is composed of horizontal and vertical lines. The viewer himself is also torn inside, as he feels certain sympathies for both Marion Crane and Norman Bates.

Everyone involved in the film seems to be hiding, hiding or hiding something: relationships (Marion and Sam), painkillers (Marion's colleague), whiskey (Marion's boss), money (Marion) or his mother (Norman Bates).

An important aspect of the film is the voyeurism of both the viewer and the characters. Psycho begins by looking through a bedroom window. Norman Bates later watches Marion through a hidden peephole in the wall. After the murder in the shower, the camera slides aimlessly across the room, as if it were a human eye, and finally gets stuck on the package of money on the bedside table. But not everything is shown: the contents of the untitled book that Lila Crane looks into with alarm is not shown.

The script contains several allusions to birds. Marion's last name is Crane ( Crane ) and it comes from Phoenix , named after the bird that burns and is able to rise from its ashes again. Norman Bates prepares dead birds in his spare time and says in the original that Marion eats “like a bird”. When he later discovers her body, he accidentally pushes a picture of a small bird off the wall. These references are particularly interesting in that birds played an important role in Hitchcock's entire work, particularly, of course, in his next film, The Birds .

In addition, many of the usual Hitchcock motifs can be found in Psycho , such as the blonde in the form of Janet Leigh, suspense elements (Arbogast climbs the stairs), the charming villain (see In the Shadow of Doubt , The Stranger on the Train , The invisible third party ), the MacGuffin (the 40,000 dollar), the use of light and shadow, trick-technical elements (the fade in the last scene; only included in some versions of the film) and the figure of the mother (see blackmail , The Invisible Third , The birds ).
The psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud run like a thread through Hitchcock's entire work - see. as particularly clear examples: I fight for you , Vertigo - From the realm of the dead and Marnie . On the one hand there is the Oedipus conflict between Bates and his mother and on the other hand the structural model of the psyche . As the psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek shows, the upper floor, the ground floor and the basement of Norman Bates' hotel symbolize the superego, ego and id.

Cameo

In Psycho, Hitchcock found it particularly necessary to stage his cameo right at the beginning of the film, as the audience should not be distracted from the actual plot. In addition, Hitchcock showed himself in a not particularly significant scene, which he also valued. You can see him standing in front of Marion Crane's office in a cowboy hat and his back to the camera about seven minutes after the start of the film.

Reviews and comments

source	rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
IMDb

• Süddeutsche Zeitung : "Brilliantly staged horror-horror drama ... Hitchcock piles horror on horror."
• Der Spiegel : “'Don't reveal anything!' the advertisement commands the visitors. But Alfred Hitchcock, the thriller specialist among crime film directors, is no longer concerned with the simple 'Whodunit', the 'who's done it' of the lower-order Anglo-Saxon crime poems. The horror in which he immerses the visitor more deeply from scene to scene is mainly caused by formal finesse. From light effects, sound silences, surprising perspectives and camera movements, Hitchcock puts together a cosmos of horror. […] Compared to its perfection, the ultimate clarification of the sinister murders in the remote motel seems provocatively banal. It only follows the wisdom of the three-penny pathology that was already exhausted in the Anglo-Saxon crime films of the forties. "
• Lexicon of international film : “Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece that has become a cult film, which perfectly uses atmosphere, montage and music to create oppressive horrors. Anthony Perkins shines in the leading role. "
• Ulrich Behrens in the film headquarters: “It's just the film, the technology, the cuts, the photography, hardly the story or the characters that have made 'Psycho' an unparalleled suspense. The story and characters, even the psychology in relation to Bates, are completely subordinate to this, merely instruments that Hitchcock plays on to climb the ladder of suspense and bring about surprising turns. "
• François Truffaut : “The whole construction of the film seems to me like climbing a kind of staircase of the anomaly. First a cohabitation, then a theft, then a murder, two murders and finally insanity. "
• The well-known American film critic Leonard Maltin gave Psycho four out of four possible stars.

Awards

Psycho was nominated for four Oscars in 1961 (Alfred Hitchcock for Best Director , John L. Russell for Best Black and White Camera , Janet Leigh for Best Supporting Actress , Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy and George Milo for Best Production Design ), but won none Category.

Janet Leigh was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Alfred Hitchcock received a Directors Guild of America nomination for Best Director. Writer Joseph Stefano was nominated for Best Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America .

Psycho won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Picture.

In 1992 it was found to be culturally significant and particularly worth preserving, and it was entered into the National Film Registry .

He's featured on the following American Film Institute lists :

• Best American Movies of All Time (# 14)
• The 100 best American thrillers (# 1)
• The 50 Greatest Villains in American Films (Norman Bates, # 2)
• The best American film music from 100 years (4th place)
• The 100 best movie quotes from US films of all time (Norman Bates: "A man's best friend is his mother.", 56th place)

In 2007, Psycho was also voted the best horror film of all time by users of The Internet Movie Database .

Sequels, TV series and remakes

The film had three sequels, none of which matched the popularity and quality of the original:

• Psycho II , USA 1983, directed by Richard Franklin
• Psycho III , USA 1986, directed by Anthony Perkins
• Psycho IV - The Beginning , USA 1990, directed by Mick Garris

Anthony Perkins took on the role of Norman Bates in all films and directed the third part. Vera Miles appeared again as Lila Crane in Psycho II . Joseph Stefano wrote the script for the fourth part. With the exception of Psycho IV, the set of the first film, which is still on the premises of Universal Studios to this day, was used as the backdrop .

In 1987, the NBC made the television movie Bates Motel , which is also based on the material.

In 1993, the Scottish artist Douglas Gordon produced a greatly slowed-down version of the original, which has a running time of 24 hours (title: 24 Hour Psycho ) and was performed in the New York Museum of Modern Art , among other places . This in turn became the starting point for the novel The Omega Point by the American writer Don DeLillo .

The remake of the original was released in 1998 . Directed by Gus Van Sant . Aside from the fact that the film is in color, it is very much based on Hitchcock's original work. One of the notable differences is that the shower scene is much more bloody and Norman Bates masturbates while he watches Marion in the bathroom.

In 2013 , the A&E Television Networks series Bates Motel was directed by producer Anthony Cipriano , starring Vera Farmiga , Freddie Highmore , Carolyn Adair and Jenna Romanin .

German version

The synchronization was created in 1960 by Berliner Synchron GmbH . For dialogue book and -regie drew Hans F. Wilhelm responsible.

role	actor	Voice actor
Norman Bates	Anthony Perkins	Eckart Dux
Marion Crane	Janet Leigh	Margot Leonard
Purple crane	Vera Miles	Edith Schneider
Sam Loomis	John Gavin	Dietmar Schönherr
Detective Milton Arbogast	Martin Balsam	Gerhard Geisler
Sheriff Al Chambers	John McIntire	Paul Wagner
Dr. Fred Richmond, police psychologist	Simon Oakland	Klaus Miedel
George Lowery	Vaughn Taylor	Kurt Waitzmann
Eliza Chambers	Lurene Tuttle	Ursula War
Caroline, Marion's work colleague	Patricia Hitchcock	Käthe Jaenicke
Highway cop	Mort Mills	Heinz Petruo
Bob Summerfield, Sam's collaborator	Frank Killmond	Peter Schiff
Norman Bates as Norma Bates	Paul Jasmin , Virginia Gregg & Jeanette Nolan	Elf tailors

Since 2011, the film has also been shown with audio description on television broadcasts . The image description produced by Arte and spoken by Hans Mittermüller was nominated for the German Audio Film Award in 2012 . For the broadcast of the uncut version, the BR re-recorded the image description, this time with Christian Baumann as the speaker.

DVD release

• Psycho . Universal 2003

Soundtrack

• Bernard Herrmann : Psycho. The Complete Original Motion Picture Score . Varèse Sarabande / Colosseum, Nuremberg 1997, sound carrier no. VSD-5765. Digital and for the first time complete recording of the film music by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the direction of Joel McNeely .

literature

• Robert Bloch : Psycho. Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-01991-1 .
• Robert A. Harris, Michael S. Lasky, eds. Joe Hembus : Alfred Hitchcock and his films. (Original: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock ). Citadel film book from Goldmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-442-10201-4 .
• Janet Leigh , Christopher Nickens: Psycho. Behind the scenes of Hitchcock's cult thriller. Heyne, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-10863-9 .
• Stephen Rebello: Hitchcock and the story of "Psycho". Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-453-43726-5 .
• Johann N. Schmidt : Psycho . In: classic films. Descriptions and Comments . Edited by Thomas Koebner . 5th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006 [1. Ed. 1995], Volume 2: 1946–1962, pp. 467–473 [with references], ISBN 978-3-15-030033-6 .
• Johannes Schmitt: Feature Films in Comparison. Hitchcock's “Psycho” and the tradition of the role-subjective perspective. Lit Verlag, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8258-7024-3 .
• Donald Spoto: The Art of Alfred Hitchcock. Hopkinson and Blake, New York 1976, ISBN 0-911974-21-0 .
• Sebastian Stoppe: Original and Fake? - Hitchcock's Psycho and the remake of Gus van Sant. Munich 2002, ISBN 978-3-638-67951-0 .

Web links

Commons : Psycho (1960)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Psycho  Quotes

• Psycho in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Psycho at rotten tomatoes (English)
• Psycho at Metacritic (English)
• Psycho in the online film database
• Psycho in the German dubbing file
• Ulrich Behrens: Film criticism in the film headquarters
• Detailed analysis in the podcast "Spätfilm"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Release certificate for Psycho . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2006 (PDF; revaluation 2006).
2. ^ Film clip on Vimeo
3. ^ The Unofficial Robert Bloch Website
4. ↑ The World of Alfred Hitchcock ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Stephen Rebello: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho .
6. ↑ François Truffaut: Mr. Hitchcock, how did you do it? ISBN 3-453-86141-8
7. ^ Psycho: Box Office & Business
8. ↑ GoneMovies.com ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ Eric Gans: Clouzot's Cruel Crow
10. ^ Robert Bloch: Psycho , 1959.
11. ↑ John W. Hall: Touch of Psycho? ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2009) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ^ ^{A b} Making a Killing - The Psycho Shower Scene
13. ^ Alfred Hitchcock, The Master of Suspense
14. ^ Psychological script
15. ↑ Psycho: Alternative Versions
16. ↑ James W. Roman Bigger than Blockbusters: Movies that defined America , Greenwood Press (2009), Westport / Connecticut, London, p. 97 , ISBN 978-0-313-33995-0
17. ↑ censored version
18. ↑ See Uncut Scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
19. ↑ DVD-Forum.at: Turbine announces new edition of the "Psycho Legacy Collection" on Blu-ray - Blu-ray - DVD-Forum.at. Retrieved October 13, 2019 . 
20. ^ Alfred Hitchcock's advertising trailer
21. ^ German film poster ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
22. ^ Psycho: Release Dates
23. ^ Alfred Hitchcock: Our Top Ten
24. ^ Analysis of Psycho Painting at The Art of Film , accessed on August 15, 2013
25. ^ Analysis from the documentary “The Pervert's Guide to Cinema” at filmreporter.de, accessed on October 16, 2014
26. ↑ ^{a b} Psycho at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed May 27, 2015
27. ↑ Psycho in the Internet Movie Database , accessed October 31, 2015
28. ↑ Psycho. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
29. ↑ Thomas David: End Times in America . In: The World Week of February 25, 2010.
30. ↑ Play By Day: A&E invites you to Bates Motel
31. ↑ Cast and producer talk “BATES MOTEL” ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated March 18, 2013 
32. ↑ synchronkartei.de
33. ^ Psycho in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.
34. ↑ 10th German Audio Film Award 2012
35. ↑ Psycho (new cut version) in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.