A horror film is a film that seeks to elicit fearfor entertainment purposes. Initially inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley,horror has existed as a film genre for more than a century. The macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction, and thriller genres.
Horror films often aim to evoke viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, Satanism, evil clowns, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, giant monsters, zombies, cannibalism, psychopaths, natural, ecological or man-made disasters, and serial killers.
Some sub-genres of horror film include low-budget horror, action horror, comedy horror, body horror, disaster horror, found footage, holiday horror, horror drama, psychological horror, science fiction horror, slasher, supernatural horror, gothic horror, natural horror, zombie horror, first-person horror, and teen horror.
A slasher film is a film in the sub-genre of horror films involving a violent psychopath stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. Although the term "slasher" is often used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set these films apart from other subgenres, such as splatter films and psychological horror films.
Critics cite the Italian giallo films and psychological horror films such as Peeping Tom (1960) and Psycho (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978–1984 in an era referred to as the "Golden Age" of slasher films. Notable slasher films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), My Bloody Valentine (1981), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988), Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Many slasher films released decades ago continue to attract cult followings. The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neo-slasher cycle (2000–2013).
Horror films often aim to evoke viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, Satanism, evil clowns, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, giant monsters, zombies, cannibalism, psychopaths, natural, ecological or man-made disasters, and serial killers.
Some sub-genres of horror film include low-budget horror, action horror, comedy horror, body horror, disaster horror, found footage, holiday horror, horror drama, psychological horror, science fiction horror, slasher, supernatural horror, gothic horror, natural horror, zombie horror, first-person horror, and teen horror.
A slasher film is a film in the sub-genre of horror films involving a violent psychopath stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed tools. Although the term "slasher" is often used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set these films apart from other subgenres, such as splatter films and psychological horror films.
Critics cite the Italian giallo films and psychological horror films such as Peeping Tom (1960) and Psycho (1960) as early influences. The genre hit its peak between 1978–1984 in an era referred to as the "Golden Age" of slasher films. Notable slasher films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Black Christmas (1974), Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), My Bloody Valentine (1981), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Child's Play (1988), Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). Many slasher films released decades ago continue to attract cult followings. The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neo-slasher cycle (2000–2013).
Wnen Psycho was Released in 1960
How Much Stuff Cost In 1960
- Hourly minimum wage in 1960 was between 75-$1.00 per hour
- In 1960 a new house cost $12,700.00 and by 1969 was $15,500.00
- In 1960 the average income per year was $5,315.00 and by 1969 was $8,540.00
- In 1960 a gallon of gas was 25 cents and by 1969 was 35 cents
- In 1960 the average cost of new car was $2,600.00 and by 1969 was $3,270.00...a new 1960 Corvette was $5500
- Misses Swinging Shifts Skirts $5.00
- Oxford Men's shoes $12.95
- Oranges: 89 cents for 2 dozen
- Oven ready Turkeys: 39 cents per pound
- Minimum Wage: $1.25
- A Gallon of Milk: $0.95
- 1 Ticket to the Movies: $1.00
- 1 Dozen Eggs: $0.53
- One regular size bottle of Heinz ketchup: 22 cents
- One-ounce Hershey bar: 5 cents
- Pound of pork chops: $1.03
- Pound of sirloin steak: 85 cents
- Six-pack of Pepsi: 59 cents
- Can of shaving cream: 59 cents
- Can of hair spray: 47 cents
- Six-pack of beer: 99 cents!
- Loaf of Bread: 20 cents
- Fast Food Hamburger: 20 cents
- Frozen French Fried Potatoes: 10 cents for 8 ounces
- Gerbers Baby Food: 25 cents for 3
- Ice Cream: 79 cents half gallon
- Jello: 35 cents for 4 packs
- Kraft Miracle Whip: 51 cents
- Skippy Peanut Butter: 79 cents
- Sugar: 38 cents for 5 pounds
- Toothpaste Crest: 50 cents
- Watermelon: 2 1/2 cents per pound
- Bacon: 79 cents per pound
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Psycho Theme Song
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The Making of Psycho 1997
The Psycho Legacy
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Anthony Perkins Panel Footage
Psycho 2
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Psycho
Bloch won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1959, the same year that Psycho was published. Bloch had written an earlier short story involving split personalities, "The Real Bad Friend", which appeared in the February 1957 Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, that foreshadowed the 1959 novel Psycho. However, Psycho also has thematic links to the story "Lucy Comes to Stay."
Norman Bates, the main character in Psycho, was very loosely based on two people. First was the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalized account, "The Shambles of Ed Gein". (The story can be found in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Volume 3). Second, it has been indicated by several people, including Noel Carter (wife of Lin Carter) and Chris Steinbrunner, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher of Castle of Frankenstein.
Bloch's basing of the character of Norman Bates on Ed Gein is discussed in the documentary Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, which can be found on Disc 2 of the DVD release of 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Bloch has also, however, commented that it was the situation itself - a mass murderer living undetected and unsuspected in a typical small town in middle America - rather than Gein himself who sparked Bloch's storyline. He writes: "Thus the real-life murderer was not the role model for my character Norman Bates. Ed Gein didn't own or operate a motel. Ed Gein didn't kill anyone in the shower. Ed Gein wasn't into taxidermy. Ed Gein didn't stuff his mother, keep her body in the house, dress in a drag outfit, or adopt an alternative personality. These were the functions and characteristics of Norman Bates, and Norman Bates didn't exist until I made him up. Out of my own imagination, I add, which is probably the reason so few offer to take showers with me." [19]
Though Bloch had little involvement with the film version of his novel, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock from an adapted screenplay by Joseph Stefano, he was to become most famous as its author.
The novel is one of the first examples at full length of Bloch's use of modern urban horror relying on the horrors of interior psychology rather than the supernatural. "By the mid-1940s, I had pretty well mined the vein of ordinary supernatural themes until it had become varicose," Bloch explained to Douglas E. Winter in an interview. "I realized, as a result of what went on during World War II and of reading the more widely disseminated work in psychology, that the real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls."[20] While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach (that honor belongs to Edgar Allan Poe), Bloch's psychological approach in modern times was comparatively unique.
Bloch's agent, Harry Altshuler, received a "blind bid" for the novel – the buyer's name wasn't mentioned – of $7,500 for screen rights to the book. The bid eventually went to $9,500, which Bloch accepted. Bloch had never sold a book to Hollywood before. His contract with Simon & Schuster included no bonus for a film sale. The publisher took 15 percent according to contract, while the agent took his 10%; Bloch wound up with about $6,750 before taxes. Despite the enormous profits generated by Hitchcock's film, Bloch received no further direct compensation.
Only Hitchcock's film was based on Bloch's novel. The later films in the Psycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch's sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch's proposed script for the film Psycho II was rejected by the studio (as were many other submissions), and it was this that he subsequently adapted for his own sequel novel.
The 2012 film Hitchcock tells the story of Alfred Hitchcock's making of the film version of Psycho. Although it mentions Bloch and his novel, however, Bloch himself was not a character in the movie.
Psycho is based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, which was loosely inspired by the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein
Bloch won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1959, the same year that Psycho was published. Bloch had written an earlier short story involving split personalities, "The Real Bad Friend", which appeared in the February 1957 Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, that foreshadowed the 1959 novel Psycho. However, Psycho also has thematic links to the story "Lucy Comes to Stay."
Norman Bates, the main character in Psycho, was very loosely based on two people. First was the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalized account, "The Shambles of Ed Gein". (The story can be found in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Volume 3). Second, it has been indicated by several people, including Noel Carter (wife of Lin Carter) and Chris Steinbrunner, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher of Castle of Frankenstein.
Bloch's basing of the character of Norman Bates on Ed Gein is discussed in the documentary Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, which can be found on Disc 2 of the DVD release of 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Bloch has also, however, commented that it was the situation itself - a mass murderer living undetected and unsuspected in a typical small town in middle America - rather than Gein himself who sparked Bloch's storyline. He writes: "Thus the real-life murderer was not the role model for my character Norman Bates. Ed Gein didn't own or operate a motel. Ed Gein didn't kill anyone in the shower. Ed Gein wasn't into taxidermy. Ed Gein didn't stuff his mother, keep her body in the house, dress in a drag outfit, or adopt an alternative personality. These were the functions and characteristics of Norman Bates, and Norman Bates didn't exist until I made him up. Out of my own imagination, I add, which is probably the reason so few offer to take showers with me." [19]
Though Bloch had little involvement with the film version of his novel, which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock from an adapted screenplay by Joseph Stefano, he was to become most famous as its author.
The novel is one of the first examples at full length of Bloch's use of modern urban horror relying on the horrors of interior psychology rather than the supernatural. "By the mid-1940s, I had pretty well mined the vein of ordinary supernatural themes until it had become varicose," Bloch explained to Douglas E. Winter in an interview. "I realized, as a result of what went on during World War II and of reading the more widely disseminated work in psychology, that the real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls."[20] While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach (that honor belongs to Edgar Allan Poe), Bloch's psychological approach in modern times was comparatively unique.
Bloch's agent, Harry Altshuler, received a "blind bid" for the novel – the buyer's name wasn't mentioned – of $7,500 for screen rights to the book. The bid eventually went to $9,500, which Bloch accepted. Bloch had never sold a book to Hollywood before. His contract with Simon & Schuster included no bonus for a film sale. The publisher took 15 percent according to contract, while the agent took his 10%; Bloch wound up with about $6,750 before taxes. Despite the enormous profits generated by Hitchcock's film, Bloch received no further direct compensation.
Only Hitchcock's film was based on Bloch's novel. The later films in the Psycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch's sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch's proposed script for the film Psycho II was rejected by the studio (as were many other submissions), and it was this that he subsequently adapted for his own sequel novel.
The 2012 film Hitchcock tells the story of Alfred Hitchcock's making of the film version of Psycho. Although it mentions Bloch and his novel, however, Bloch himself was not a character in the movie.
Psycho is based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, which was loosely inspired by the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein
Psycho (1960)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theatrical release poster by Macario Gómez Quibus[1]
Directed byAlfred Hitchcock
Produced by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Joseph Stefano
Based on Psycho
by Robert Bloch
Starring
Music by Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography John L. Russell
Edited by George Tomasini
Production Company: Shamley Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures[N 1]
Release date
- June 16, 1960 (DeMille Theatre)
- September 8, 1960 (United States)
Running time 109 minutes
Country United States[3]
Language English
Budget$806,947[4]
Box office$50 million[5]
Psycho is a 1960 American psychological horror film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and written by Joseph Stefano. It stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, and Martin Balsam, and was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film centers on an encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after stealing money from her employer, and the motel's owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath.
Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, in black-and-white, and by a television crew. The film initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box-office returns prompted critical reevaluation. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.
Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films[7] and praised as a major work of cinematic art by international film critics and scholars. Often ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films,[8] and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre.
After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a made-for-television spin-off, and a prequel television series set in the 2010s. In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
During a lunchtime break in a Phoenix, Arizona hotel, real-estate secretary Marion Crane and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, discuss how they cannot afford to get married because of Sam's debts. After lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client leaves a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Marion's boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, and allows her to leave work early after she complains of a headache. Once home, she decides to steal the money and drive to Fairvale, California, where Sam lives.
En route to Fairvale, Marion pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep; she is awakened by a state patrol trooper. Suspicious about her skittish behavior, he follows her as she drives away. Hoping to lose him, Marion stops at a Bakersfield, California automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 with California tags. The officer sees Marion at the car dealership and eyes her suspiciously as she abruptly drives away.
During a heavy rainstorm, Marion stops for the night at the Bates Motel. The proprietor, Norman Bates, invites her to share a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts his invitation but overhears an argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into their Gothic home, which sits perched above the motel. Instead they eat in the motel parlor, where he tells her about his life with his mother, who is mentally ill and forbids him to have an independent life.
Moved by Norman's story, Marion decides to drive back to Phoenix in the morning to return the stolen money, which she hides in a folded newspaper on the nightstand. As she showers, a shadowy figure stabs her to death with a chef's knife. After seeing blood, Norman panics and runs to Marion's room, where he discovers her body. He cleans up the crime scene, putting Marion's corpse and her possessions — including (unbeknownst to him) the stolen money — into the trunk of her car and sinking it in the swamps near the motel.
A week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about Marion's whereabouts. Private investigator Milton Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000. He sleuths local hotels and motels, and Norman's suspicious behavior and inconsistent answers arouse his suspicion. After hearing that Marion met Norman's mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses to allow it. Arbogast updates Sam and Lila about his search for Marion and promises to phone again soon. He goes to the Bates' home in search of Norman's mother; as he reaches the top of the stairs, he is murdered.
When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, Sam visits the motel. He sees a figure in the house who he assumes is Mrs. Bates, but she ignores his knocking. Lila and Sam go to the local deputy sheriff, who informs them that Mrs. Bates died in a murder-suicide ten years ago. The sheriff concludes that Arbogast lied to Sam and Lila so he could pursue Marion and the money. Convinced that some ill has befallen Arbogast, Lila and Sam make their way to the motel. Norman carries his mother from her room and hides her in the fruit cellar against her will.
At the motel, Sam distracts Norman by engaging in conversation while Lila cases the property and sneaks inside the house. After Sam grills him, Norman becomes agitated, knocks Sam out, and rushes to the house. Lila hides in the cellar, where she finds Mrs. Bates in a chair. Lila turns her around and discovers she is a mummified corpse. Lila screams as Norman runs into the cellar, holding a knife and wearing his mother's clothes and a wig. Before Norman can attack Lila, Sam—having regained consciousness—subdues him.
At the courthouse, a psychiatrist explains that Norman murdered Mrs. Bates and her lover ten years ago out of jealousy. Unable to bear the guilt, he exhumed her corpse and began to treat it as if she were still alive. He recreated his mother in his own mind as an alternate personality, dressing in her clothes and talking to himself in her voice. This "Mother" personality is jealous and possessive: whenever Norman feels attracted to a woman, "Mother" kills her. As "Mother", Norman killed two young girls before stabbing Marion and Arbogast to death. The psychiatrist says the "Mother" personality has taken permanent hold of Norman's mind. While Norman sits in a holding cell, "Mother"'s voice-over protests that the murders were Norman's doing. Marion's car is pulled out of the swamp.
Cast
Anthony Perkins' performance as Norman Bates won him considerable critical praise.
- Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
- Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
- Vera Miles as Lila Crane
- John Gavin as Sam Loomis
- Martin Balsam as Private Investigator Milton Arbogast
- John McIntire as Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers
- Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richman
- Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy
- Pat Hitchcock as Caroline
- Vaughn Taylor as George Lowery
- Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Chambers
- John Anderson as California Charlie
- Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer
- Francis De Sales as Deputy District Attorney Alan Deats (uncredited)
- George Eldredge as Police Chief James Mitchell (uncredited)
- Ted Knight as Police Guard (uncredited)
- Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, and Jeanette Nolan as the voice of Norma "Mother" Bates (uncredited). The three voices were used interchangeably, except for the last speech, which was performed by Gregg.[9]
Psycho is based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, which was loosely inspired by the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.[10] Both Gein (who lived just 40 miles (64 km) from Bloch) and the story's protagonist, Norman Bates, were solitary murderers in isolated rural locations. Each had deceased, domineering mothers, had sealed off a room in their home as a shrine to her, and dressed in women's clothes. However, unlike Bates, Gein is not strictly considered a serial killer, having been charged with murder only twice.[11]
The Psycho set on the Universal Studios Lot, featuring a Ford Custom 300 similar to that driven by Janet Leigh in the film, is now part of the studio tour at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.
Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock's long-time assistant, read Anthony Boucher's positive review of the novel in his "Criminals at Large" column and decided to show the book to her employer, even though studio readers at Paramount Pictures had already rejected its premise for a film.[12] Hitchcock acquired rights to the novel for $9,500[13] and reportedly ordered Robertson to buy up copies to preserve the novel's surprises.[12] Hitchcock, who had come to face genre competitors whose works were critically compared to his own, was seeking new material to recover from two aborted projects with Paramount, Flamingo Feather and No Bail for the Judge. He disliked stars' salary demands and trusted only a few people to choose prospective material, including Robertson.[14]
Paramount executives balked at Hitchcock's proposal and refused to provide his usual budget.[15] In response, Hitchcock offered to film Psycho quickly and cheaply in black and white using his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series crew. Paramount executives rejected this cost-conscious approach, claiming their sound stages were booked even though the industry was in a slump. Hitchcock countered he would personally finance the project and film it at Universal-International using his Shamley Productions crew if Paramount would merely distribute. In lieu of his usual $250,000 director's fee he proposed a 60% stake in the film negative. This combined offer was accepted and Hitchcock went ahead in spite of naysaying from producer Herbert Coleman and Shamley Productions executive Joan Harrison.[16]
Novel adaptation[edit]James P. Cavanagh, a writer on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series, penned the original screenplay.[17] Hitchcock felt the script dragged and read like a television short horror story,[18] an assessment shared by an assistant.[17] Though Stefano had worked on only one film before, Hitchcock agreed to meet with him; despite Stefano's inexperience, the meeting went well and he was hired.[17]
The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel, with a few notable adaptations by Hitchcock and Stefano. Stefano found the character of Norman Bates—who, in the book, is middle-aged, overweight, and more overtly unstable—unsympathetic, but became more intrigued when Hitchcock suggested casting Anthony Perkins.[18] Stefano eliminated Bates' drinking,[19] which evidently necessitated removing Bates' "becoming" the Mother personality when in a drunken stupor. Also gone is Bates' interest in spiritualism, the occult and pornography.[20] Hitchcock and Stefano elected to open the film with scenes in Marion's life and not introduce Bates at all until 20 minutes into the film, rather than open with Bates reading a history book as Bloch does.[19] Indeed, writer Joseph W. Smith notes that, "Her story occupies only two of the novel's 17 chapters. Hitchcock and Stefano expanded this to nearly half the narrative".[21]He likewise notes there is no hotel tryst between Marion and Sam in the novel. For Stefano, the conversation between Marion and Norman in the hotel parlor in which she displays a maternal sympathy towards him makes it possible for the audience to switch their sympathies towards Norman Bates after Marion's murder.[22] When Lila Crane is looking through Norman's room in the film she opens a book with a blank cover whose contents are unseen; in the novel these are "pathologically pornographic" illustrations. Stefano wanted to give the audience "indications that something was quite wrong, but it could not be spelled out or overdone."[22] In his book of interviews with Hitchcock, François Truffaut notes that the novel "cheats" by having extended conversations between Norman and "Mother" and stating what Mother is "doing" at various given moments.[23]
The first name of the female protagonist was changed from Mary to Marion, since a real Mary Crane existed in Phoenix.[24] Also changed is the novel's budding romance between Sam and Lila. Hitchcock preferred to focus the audience's attention on the solution to the mystery,[25] and Stefano thought such a relationship would make Sam Loomis seem cheap.[22] Instead of having Sam explain Norman's pathology to Lila, the film uses a psychiatrist.[26] (Stefano was in therapy dealing with his relationship with his own mother while writing the script.)[27] The novel is more violent than the film; for instance, Marion is beheaded in the shower as opposed to being stabbed to death.[17] Minor changes include changing Marion's telltale earring found after her death to a scrap of paper that failed to flush down the toilet. This provided some shock effect, since toilets were virtually never seen in American cinema in the 1960s.[28] The location of Arbogast's death was moved from the foyer to the stairwell. Stefano thought this would make it easier to conceal the truth about "Mother" without tipping that something was being hidden.[29] As Janet Leigh put it, this gave Hitchcock more options for his camera.[26]
Pre-production[edit]Paramount, whose contract guaranteed another film by Hitchcock, did not want Hitchcock to make Psycho. Paramount was expecting No Bail for the Judgestarring 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 would suffice.[13][30] They did not like "anything about it at all" and denied him his usual budget.[13][30] In response Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit.[15][31] The original Bates Motel and Bates house set buildings, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney Sr.'s The Phantom of the Opera, are still standing at Universal Studios in Universal City near Hollywood and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour.[32][33] As a further result of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white, keeping the budget under $1 million.[34] Other reasons for shooting in black and white were his desire to prevent the shower scene from being too gory and his admiration for Les Diaboliques's use of black and white.[35][36]
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.[37] 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.[38]
Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock cast 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).[39] His first choice, Leigh agreed after having only read the novel and making no inquiry into her salary.[24] Her co-star, Anthony Perkins, agreed to $40,000.[38] Both stars were experienced and proven box-office draws.[40]
Paramount did distribute the film, but four years later Hitchcock sold his stock in Shamley to Universal's parent company (MCA) and his remaining six films were made at and distributed by Universal Pictures.[31] After another four years, Paramount sold all rights to Universal.[31]
Filming[edit]The film, independently produced and financed by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue Studios,[41] the same location as his television show. Psycho was shot on a tight budget of $807,000,[42] beginning on November 11, 1959, and ending on February 1, 1960.[43][44] Filming started in the morning and finished by six p.m. or earlier on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's).[45] Nearly the whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This provided an angle of view similar to human vision, which helped to further involve the audience.[46]
Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched assistant director Hilton A. 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.[47] Another crew filmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Gormanand Fresno, California for projection when Marion drives from Phoenix. Footage of her driving into Bakersfield to trade her car is also shown. They also provided the location shots for the scene in which she is discovered sleeping in her car by the highway patrolman.[47] In one street scene shot in downtown Phoenix, Christmas decorations were discovered to be visible; rather than re-shoot the footage, Hitchcock chose to add a graphic to the opening scene marking the date as "Friday, December the Eleventh".[48]
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 such as those belonging to Marion and her sister.[47] He also found a girl who looked just like he imagined Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor.[47] The look of the Bates house was modeled on Edward Hopper's painting The House by the Railroad,[49] a fanciful portrait of the Second Empire Victorian home at 18 Conger Avenue in Haverstraw, New York.[50]
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.[51] An example of Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of eating candy corn.[52]
Throughout filming, Hitchcock created and hid various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop in Leigh's dressing room closet. Leigh took the joke well, and she wondered 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.[53]
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 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.[51] Retakes were also required for the opening scene, since Hitchcock felt that Leigh and Gavin were not passionate enough.[54] Leigh had trouble saying "Not inordinately" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes.[55]Lastly, the scene in which "Mother" is discovered required a complicated coordinating of the chair turning around, Vera Miles (as Lila Crane) 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.[56]
According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were helmed by assistant director Hilton A. Green, working with storyboard artist Saul Bass' drawings only while Hitchcock was incapacitated with the common cold. However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they did not portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs".[57] Hitchcock later re-shot the scene, though a little of the cut footage made its way into the film. Filming the murder of Arbogast proved problematic owing to the overhead camera angle necessary to hide the film's twist. A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chairlike device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.[58]
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Psycho, he can be seen through a window—wearing a Stetson hat—standing outside Marion Crane's office.[59] Wardrobe mistress Rita Riggs has said that Hitchcock chose this scene for his cameo so that he could be in a scene with his daughter (who played one of Marion's colleagues). Others have suggested that he chose this early appearance in the film in order to avoid distracting the audience.[60]
The shower scene[edit]The murder of Leigh's character in the shower is the film's pivotal scene and one of the best-known in all of cinema. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17–23, 1959, after Leigh had twice postponed the filming, firstly for a cold and then her period.[61] Seventy-seven different camera angles were used.[62] The finished scene runs three minutes and includes 50 cuts.[63] 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 their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would have been if the images were presented alone or in a wider angle, an example of the technique Hitchcock described as "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience".[64]
The shadowy figure from the shower sceneTo capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the shower head were blocked and the camera placed a sufficient distance away so that the water, while appearing to be aimed directly at the lens, actually went around and past it.[65]
The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann titled "The Murder". Hitchcock originally intended to have no music for the sequence (and all motel scenes),[66] but Herrmann insisted he try his composition. Afterward, Hitchcock agreed it vastly intensified the scene, and nearly doubled Herrmann's salary.[67][68][69] The blood in the scene is reputed to have been Bosco chocolate syrup,[70] which shows up better on black-and-white film, and has more realistic density than stage blood.[71] The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon.[72][73]
There are varying accounts whether Leigh was in the shower the entire time or a body double was used for some parts of the murder sequence and its aftermath. In an interview with Roger Ebert and in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Leigh stated she was in the scene the entire time and Hitchcock used a stand-in only for the sequence in which Norman wraps Marion's body in a shower curtain and places it in the trunk of her car.[74] The 2010 book The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith contradicts this, identifying Marli Renfro as Leigh's body double for some of the shower scene's shots.[75] Graysmith also stated that Hitchcock later acknowledged Renfro's participation in the scene.[76] Rita Riggs, who was in charge of the wardrobe, claims it was Leigh in the shower the entire time, explaining that Leigh did not wish to be nude and so she devised strategic items including pasties, moleskin, and bodystockings, to be pasted on Leigh for the scene.[77] Riggs and Leigh went through strip tease magazines that showed all the different costumes, but none of them worked because they all had tassels on them. Riggs says that this is when she and Leigh became acquainted.[78]
As you know, you could not take the camera and just show a nude woman, it had to be done impressionistically. So, it was done with little pieces of film, the head, the feet, the hand, etc. In that scene there were 78 pieces of film in about 45 seconds.
— Alfred Hitchcock, FilMagicians, Alfred Hitchcock interview on Psycho (1964), retrieved December 9, 2018A popular myth emerged that, in order for Leigh's scream in the shower to sound realistic, ice-cold water was used. Leigh denied this on numerous occasions, saying the crew was accommodating, supplying hot water throughout the week-long shoot.[79] All of the screams are Leigh's.[9]
Another myth concerns Saul Bass, the graphic designer who created many of the title sequences of Hitchcock's films and storyboarded some of Psycho's scenes, claiming he had directed the shower scene. This was refuted by several figures associated with the film, including Leigh, who 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."[80] Hilton A. Green, the assistant director, also refutes 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."[80] Roger Ebert, a longtime admirer of Hitchcock's work, summarily dismissed the rumor, stating, "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such a scene."[81]
However, commentators such as Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn have argued in favor of Bass' contribution to the scene in his capacity as visual consultant and storyboard artist.[82] Along with designing the opening credits, Bass is termed "Pictorial Consultant" in the credits. When interviewing Hitchcock in 1967, François Truffaut asked about the extent of Bass' contribution, to which Hitchcock replied that in addition to the titles, Bass had provided storyboards for the Arbogast murder (which he claimed to have rejected), but made no mention of Bass providing storyboards for the shower scene.[83] According to Bill Krohn's Hitchcock At Work, Bass' first claim to have directed the scene was in 1970, when he provided a magazine with 48 drawings used as storyboards as proof of his contribution.[84]
Krohn's analysis of the production of Psycho in his book Hitchcock at Work, while refuting Bass' claims for directing the scene, notes that these storyboards did introduce key aspects of the final scene—most notably, the fact that the killer appears as a silhouette, and details such as the close-ups of the slashing knife, Leigh's desperate outstretched arm, the shower curtain being torn off its hooks, and the transition from the hole of the drainage pipe to Marion Crane's dead eyes. Krohn notes that this final transition is highly reminiscent of the iris titles that Bass created for Vertigo.[84]
Krohn's research also notes that Hitchcock shot the scene with two cameras: one a BNC Mitchell, the other a handheld French Éclair camera which Orson Welles had used in Touch of Evil (1958). In order to create an ideal montage for the greatest emotional impact on the audience, Hitchcock shot a lot of footage of this scene which he trimmed down in the editing room. He even brought a Moviola on the set to gauge the footage required. The final sequence, which his editor George Tomasini worked on with Hitchcock's advice, however did not go far beyond the basic structural elements set up by Bass' storyboards.[84]
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. According to Patricia Hitchcock, talking in Laurent Bouzereau's "making of" documentary, Alma spotted that Leigh's character appeared to take a breath. In either case, the postmortem activity was edited out and was never seen by audiences.[17] Although Marion's eyes should be dilated after her death, the contact lenses necessary for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimation to wear them, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them.[85]
It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the shower scene never once shows a knife puncturing flesh.[86][87][88] However, a frame by frame analysis of the sequence shows one shot in which the knife appears to penetrate Leigh's abdomen, but the effect may have been created by lighting and reverse motion.[89] Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it, that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to; she would lock all the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open.[90] She never realized until she first watched the film "how vulnerable and defenseless one is".[17]
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.
— [80]Film theorist Robin Wood also discusses how the shower washes "away her guilt". He comments upon the "alienation effect" of killing off the "apparent center of the film" with which spectators had identified.[91]
The scene was the subject of Alexandre O. Philippe's 2017 documentary 78/52, the title of which references the number of cuts and set-ups, respectively, that Hitchcock used to shoot it.[92][93]
Soundtrack[edit]Score[edit]Hitchcock insisted that Bernard Herrmann write the score for Psycho despite the composer's refusal to accept a reduced fee for the film's lower budget.[94]The resulting score, according to Christopher Palmer in The Composer in Hollywood (1990) is "perhaps Herrmann's most spectacular Hitchcock achievement."[95] Hitchcock was pleased with the tension and drama the score added to the film,[96] later remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music."[97] and that "Psycho depended heavily on Herrmann's music for its tension and sense of pervading doom."[98] The singular contribution of Herrmann's score may be inferred from the unusual penultimate placement of the composer's name in the film's opening credit sequence, as it is followed only by Hitchcock's directing credit.
Herrmann used the lowered music budget to his advantage by writing for a string orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble,[94] contrary to Hitchcock's request for a jazz score.[99] He thought of the single tone color of the all-string soundtrack as a way of reflecting the black-and-white cinematography of the film.[100] The strings play con sordini (muted) for all the music other than the shower scene, creating a darker and more intense effect. Film composer Fred Steiner, in an analysis of the score to Psycho, points out that string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range in tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrumental group would have.[101]
The main title music, a tense, hurtling piece, sets the tone of impending violence, and returns three times on the soundtrack.[102][103] Though nothing shocking occurs during the first 15–20 minutes of the film, the title music remains in the audience's mind, lending tension to these early scenes.[102]Herrmann also maintains tension through the slower moments in the film through the use of ostinato.[97]
There were rumors that Herrmann had used electronic means, including amplified bird screeches to achieve the shocking effect of the music in the shower scene. The effect was achieved, however, only with violins in a "screeching, stabbing sound-motion of extraordinary viciousness."[104] The only electronic amplification employed was in the placing of the microphones close to the instruments, to get a harsher sound.[104] Besides the emotional impact, the shower scene cue ties the soundtrack to birds.[104] The association of the shower scene music with birds also telegraphs to the audience that it is Norman, the stuffed-bird collector, who is the murderer rather than his mother.[104]
Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith writes that the music for the shower scene is "probably the most famous (and most imitated) cue in film music,"[100]but Hitchcock was originally opposed to having music in this scene.[104] When Herrmann played the shower scene cue for Hitchcock, the director approved its use in the film. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to which Hitchcock replied, "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion."[105] This was one of two important disagreements Hitchcock had with Herrmann, in which Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instructions. The second one, over the score for Torn Curtain (1966), resulted in the end of their professional collaboration.[106] A survey conducted by PRS for Music, in 2009, showed that the British public consider the score from 'the shower scene' to be the scariest theme from any film.[107]
To honor the fiftieth anniversary of Psycho, in July 2010, the San Francisco Symphony[108] obtained a print of the film with the soundtrack removed, and projected it on a large screen in Davies Symphony Hall while the orchestra performed the score live. This was previously mounted by the Seattle Symphony in October 2009 as well, performing at the Benaroya Hall for two consecutive evenings.
Several CDs of the film score have been released, including:
- The 1970s recording with Bernard Herrmann conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra [Unicorn CD, 1993].[109]
- The 1997 Varèse Sarabande CD features a re-recording of the complete score performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conducted by Joel McNeely .[110][111]
- The 1998 Soundstage Records SCD 585 CD claims to feature the tracks from the original master tapes. However, it has been asserted that the release is a bootleg recording.[110]
- The 2011 Doxy Records DOY650 (Italy) 180 gram LP release of the complete original score conducted by Herrmann.
Theatre poster providing notification of "no late admission" policyPsycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the United States during the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene in which Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed, with Marion in a bra.[112] In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed would have been taboo.[113]
Another controversial issue was the gender bending element. Perkins, who was allegedly a homosexual,[114] and Hitchcock, who previously made Rope, were both experienced in the film's transgressive subject matter. The viewer is unaware of the gender dysphoria until, at the end of the movie, it is revealed that Bates is a crossdresser in the attempted murder of Lila. At the station, Sam asks why Bates was dressed that way. The police officer, ignorant of Bates' split personality, bluntly utters that Bates is a transvestite. The psychiatrist corrects him and says, "Not exactly". He explains that Bates believes that he is his own mother when he dresses in her clothes.[115]
According to the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censors in charge of enforcing the Production Code wrangled with Hitchcock because some of them insisted they could see one of Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. 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.[116] The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would re-shoot the opening with them on the set. Since board members did not show up for the re-shoot, the opening stayed.[116]
Another cause of concern for the censors was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up note paper) fully visible. No flushing toilet had appeared in mainstream film and television in the United States at that time.[117][118][119]
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. In Britain, the BBFC requested cuts to stabbing sounds and visible nude shots, and in New Zealand the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands was objected to. In Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast, and a shot of Norman's mother's corpse were removed.[120]
The most controversial move was Hitchcock's "no late admission" policy for the film, which was unusual for the time. It was not entirely original as Clouzothad done the same in France for Diabolique.[121] Hitchcock thought that if people entered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would feel cheated.[31] At first theater owners opposed the idea, claiming that they would lose business. However, after the first day, the owners enjoyed long lines of people waiting to see the film.[31]
Promotion[edit]Original trailer for PsychoHitchcock did most of the promotion on his own, forbidding Leigh and Perkins to make the usual television, radio, and print interviews for fear of them revealing the plot.[122] Even critics were not given private screenings but rather had to see the film with the general public, which, despite possibly affecting their reviews,[120] certainly preserved the secret.
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 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 Miles and not Leigh in the shower during the trailer.[31]
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 as an installment of its new movie night The CBS Friday Night Movies.[123] Three days prior to the scheduled telecast, Valerie Percy, daughter of Illinois senate candidate Charles H. Percy, 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 broadcast. As a result of the Apollo pad fire of January 27, 1967, the network washed its hands of Psycho.[124]
Shortly afterward Paramount included the film in its first syndicated package of post-1950 movies, "Portfolio I". WABC-TV in New York City was the first station in the country to air Psycho (with some scenes significantly edited), on its late-night movie series, The Best of Broadway, on June 24, 1967.[125]
Following another successful theatrical reissue in 1969, the film finally made its way to general television airing in one of Universal's syndicated programming packages for local stations in 1970. Psycho was aired for 20 years in this format, then leased to cable for two years before returning to syndication as part of the "List of a Lifetime" package.[124]
The film was re-released to cinemas on September 20 & 23, 2015, as part of the "TCM Presents" series by Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events.[126]
Reception[edit]
Janet Leigh received an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe for her performance in the film.Initial reviews of the film were thoroughly mixed.[127] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "There is not an abundance of subtlety or the lately familiar Hitchcock bent toward significant and colorful scenery in this obviously low-budget job." Crowther called the "slow buildups to sudden shocks" reliably melodramatic but contested Hitchcock's psychological points, reminiscent of Krafft-Ebing's studies, as less effective. While the film did not conclude satisfactorily for the critic, he commended the cast's performances as "fair".[128] British critic C. A. Lejeune was so offended that she not only walked out before the end but permanently resigned her post as film critic for The Observer.[129] 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."[127][130] 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."[127][131] 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."[127]
The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people had to wait for the next showing. This, along with box office numbers, led to a reconsideration of the film by critics, and it eventually received a large amount of praise. It broke box-office records in Japan and the rest of Asia, France, Britain, South America, the United States, and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period.[127]It was the most profitable black-and-white sound film ever made,[citation needed] and Hitchcock personally realized well in excess of $15 million. He then swapped his rights to Psycho and his TV anthology for 150,000 shares of MCA, making him the third largest shareholder in MCA Inc., and his own boss at Universal, in theory; however, this did not stop them from interfering with his later films.[132][133] Psycho was, by a large margin, the most profitable film of Hitchcock's career, earning over $32 million for the studio on release, and $18 million by the end of the year. Around the time of the run's end, the film had grossed $50 million in domestic theaters.
In the United Kingdom, the film shattered attendance records at the London Plaza Cinema, but nearly all British critics gave it poor reviews, 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.[134] 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 switched its 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.[134]
The Catholic Legion of Decency gave the film a B rating, meaning "morally objectionable in part".[135]
Psycho was criticized for making other filmmakers more willing to show gore; three years later, Blood Feast, considered to be the first "splatter film", was released.[136] 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 including The Nanny[137] (1965) starring Bette Davis and William Castle's Homicidal (1961) was followed by a slew of more than thirteen other splatter films.[136]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Psycho holds an approval rating of 96% out of 92 reviews counted, with an average score of 9.2/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it."[138]
Themes and style
Subversion of romance through irony[edit]In Psycho, Hitchcock subverts the romantic elements that are seen in most of his work. The film is instead ironic as it presents "clarity and fulfillment" of romance. The past is central to the film; the main characters "struggle to understand and resolve destructive personal histories" and ultimately fail.[139]Lesley Brill writes, "The inexorable forces of past sins and mistakes crush hopes for regeneration and present happiness." The crushed hope is highlighted by the death of the protagonist, Marion Crane, halfway through the film.[140] Marion is like Persephone of Greek mythology, who is abducted temporarily from the world of the living. The myth does not sustain with Marion, who dies hopelessly in her room at the Bates Motel. The room is wallpapered with floral print like Persephone's flowers, but they are only "reflected in mirrors, as images of images—twice removed from reality". In the scene of Marion's death, Brill describes the transition from the bathroom drain to Marion's lifeless eye, "Like the eye of the amorphous sea creature at the end of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, it marks the birth of death, an emblem of final hopelessness and corruption." [141]
Marion is deprived of "the humble treasures of love, marriage, home and family", which Hitchcock considers elements of human happiness. There exists among Psycho's secondary characters a lack of "familial warmth and stability", which demonstrates the unlikelihood of domestic fantasies. The film contains ironic jokes about domesticity, such as when Sam writes a letter to Marion, agreeing to marry her, only after the audience sees her buried in the swamp. Sam and Marion's sister Lila, in investigating Marion's disappearance, develop an "increasingly connubial" relationship, a development that Marion is denied.[142] Norman also suffers a similarly perverse definition of domesticity. He has "an infantile and divided personality" and lives in a mansion whose past occupies the present. Norman displays stuffed birds that are "frozen in time" and keeps childhood toys and stuffed animals in his room. He is hostile toward suggestions to move from the past, such as with Marion's suggestion to put his mother "someplace" and as a result kills Marion to preserve his past. Brill explains, "'Someplace' for Norman is where his delusions of love, home, and family are declared invalid and exposed."[143]
Light and darkness feature prominently in Psycho. The first shot after the intertitle is the sunny landscape of Phoenix before the camera enters a dark hotel room where Sam and Marion appear as bright figures. Marion is almost immediately cast in darkness; she is preceded by her shadow as she reenters the office to steal money and as she enters her bedroom. When she flees Phoenix, darkness descends on her drive. The following sunny morning is punctured by a watchful police officer with black sunglasses, and she finally arrives at the Bates Motel in near darkness.[144] Bright lights are also "the ironic equivalent of darkness" in the film, blinding instead of illuminating. Examples of brightness include the opening window shades in Sam's and Marion's hotel room, vehicle headlights at night, the neon sign at the Bates Motel, "the glaring white" of the bathroom tiles where Marion dies, and the fruit cellar's exposed light bulb shining on the corpse of Norman's mother. Such bright lights typically characterize danger and violence in Hitchcock's films.[145]
Motifs
The film often features shadows, mirrors, windows, and, less so, water. The shadows are present from the first scene where the blinds make bars on Marion and Sam as they peer out of the window. The stuffed birds' shadows loom over Marion as she eats, and Norman's mother is seen in only shadows until the end. More subtly, backlighting turns the rakes in the hardware store into talons above Lila's head.[146]
Mirrors reflect Marion as she packs, her eyes as she checks the rear-view mirror, her face in the policeman's sunglasses, and 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 a foreshadowing of the shower, and its cessation can be seen as a symbol of Marion making up her mind to return to Phoenix.[146]
There are a number of references to birds. Marion's last name is Crane and she is from Phoenix. Norman comments that Marion eats like a bird. The motel room has pictures of birds on the wall. Brigitte Peucker also suggests that Norman's hobby of stuffing birds literalizes the British slang expression for sex, "stuffing birds", bird being a British slang for a desirable woman.[147] Robert Allan suggests that Norman's mother is his original "stuffed bird", both in the sense of having preserved her body and the incestuous nature of Norman's emotional bond with her.[148]
Psychoanalytic Interpretation
Psycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller."[149] The sex and violence in the film were unlike anything previously seen in a mainstream film. "The 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."[149]
In his documentary The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Slavoj Žižek remarks that Norman Bates' mansion has three floors, paralleling the three levels of the human mind that are postulated by Freudian psychoanalysis: the top floor would be the superego, where Bates' mother lives; 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 top floor to basement as a symbol for the deep connection that psychoanalysis posits between superego and id.[150]
Recognition[edit] Award Category Name Outcome
Academy Awards (33rd)Best Director Alfred Hitchcock Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Janet Leigh Nominated
Best Cinematography, Black-and White John L. Russell Nominated
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Joseph Hurley, Robert Clatworthy, George MiloNominated
Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion PicturesAlfred HitchcockNominated
Edgar Allan Poe AwardsBest Motion PictureJoseph Stefano (screenwriter), Robert Bloch(author)Won
International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers Best Actor Anthony PerkinsWon (tie)
Golden Globe Awards (18th)Best Supporting Actress Janet Leigh Won
Writers Guild of America, East Best Written American Drama Joseph StefanoNominatedIn 1992, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In 1998, TV Guide ranked it #8 on their list of the 50 Greatest Movies on TV (and Video).[151]
Leigh asserted, "no other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising."[152] 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.[152]
Psycho has appeared on a number of lists by websites, television channels, and magazines. The shower scene was featured as number four on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments,[153] whilst the finale was ranked number four on Premiere's similar list.[154] Entertainment Weekly's book titled The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time ranked the film as #11.[71]
In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed the film as the twelfth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.[155]
American Film Institute has included Psycho in these lists:
- AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies – #18
- AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills – #1
- AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes and Villains:
- Norman Bates – #2 Villain
- AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes:
- "A boy's best friend is his mother." – #56
- AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – #4
- AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #14
Psycho has become one of the most recognizable films in cinema history, and is arguably Hitchcock's best known film.[156][157] 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 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 turn of events in 1960.[112]
The shower scene has become a pop culture touchstone and is often regarded as one of the most terrifying scenes ever filmed. Its effectiveness is often credited to the use of startling editing techniques borrowed from the Soviet montage filmmakers,[158][159] and to the iconic screeching violins in Bernard Herrmann's musical score. The scene has been frequently spoofed and referenced in popular culture, complete with the violin screeching sound effects (see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many others).[160] 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene, a documentary on its production by Alexandre O. Philippe, was released on October 13, 2017, including interviews with and analysis by Guillermo del Toro, Peter Bogdanovich, Bret Easton Ellis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Karyn Kusama, Eli Roth, Oz Perkins, Leigh Whannell, Walter Murch, Danny Elfman, Elijah Wood, Richard Stanley, and Neil Marshall.[161]
Psycho is considered by some to be the first film in the slasher film genre,[162] though some critics and film historians point to Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, a lesser-known film with similar themes of voyeurism and sexualized violence, whose release happened to precede Psycho's by a few months.[163]However, due to Peeping Tom's critical drubbing at the time and short lifespan at the box office, Psycho was the more widely known and influential film.
Psycho has been referenced in other films numerous times: examples include the 1974 musical horror film Phantom of the Paradise; 1978 horror film Halloween (which starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh's daughter, and Donald Pleasence's character was named "Sam Loomis");[164] the 1977 Mel Brooks tribute to many of Hitchcock's thrillers, High Anxiety; the 1980 Fade to Black, the 1980 Dressed to Kill; and Wes Craven's 1996 horror satire Scream.[165] Bernard Herrmann's opening theme has been sampled by rapper Busta Rhymes on his song "Gimme Some More" (1998).[166] Manuel Muñoz's 2011 novel What You See in the Dark includes a sub-plot that fictionalizes elements of the filming of Psycho, referring to Hitchcock and Leigh only as "The Director" and "The Actress".[167] In the comic book stories of Jonni Future, the house inherited by the title character is patterned after the Bates Motel.[168]
The success of the film jump-started Perkins' career, but he soon began to suffer from typecasting.[169] However, when Perkins was asked whether he would have still taken the role knowing that he would be typecast afterwards, he replied with a definite "yes".[170] As Perkins was in New York working on a Broadway stage show when the shower sequence was filmed, actresses Anne Dore and Margo Epper stepped in as his body doubles for that scene.[171]Until her death in 2004, Leigh received strange and sometimes threatening calls, letters, and even tapes detailing what the caller would like to do to Marion Crane. One letter was so "grotesque" that she passed it to the FBI. Two agents visited Leigh and told her the culprits had been located and that she should notify the FBI if she received any more letters of that type.[172]
SequelsSee also: Psycho (franchise)Three sequels were produced: Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), the last being a part-prequel television moviewritten by the original screenplay author, Joseph Stefano. Anthony Perkins returned to his role of Norman Bates in all three sequels, and also directed the third film. 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.[173] The sequels received mixed reviews and were universally considered inferior to the original.[174][175][176][177][178]
MPAA rating[edit]Psycho has been rated and re-rated several times over the years by the MPAA. Upon its initial release, the film received a certificate stating that it was "Approved" (certificate #19564) under the simple pass/fail system of the Production Code in use at that time. Later, when the MPAA switched to a voluntary letter ratings system in 1968, Psycho was one of a number of high-profile motion pictures to be retro-rated with an "M" (Mature Audiences).[179] This remained the only rating the film would receive for 16 years, and according to the guidelines of the time "M" was the equivalent of a "PG" rating.[180][181]Then, in 1984, amidst a controversy surrounding the levels of violence depicted in "PG"-rated films, the film was re-classified again to its current rating of "R".[180][181]
Home media[edit]The film has been released several times on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD and Blu-ray. MCA DiscoVision Incorporated (parent company, MCA Inc) first released Psycho on the LaserDisc format in "standard play" (5 sides) in 1979, and "extended play" (2 sides) in October 1981. MCA/Universal Home Video released a new LaserDisc version of Psycho in August 1988 (Catalog #: 11003). In May 1998, Universal Studios Home Video released a deluxe edition of Psycho as part of their Signature Collection. This THX-certified Widescreen (1.85:1) LaserDisc Deluxe Edition (Catalog #: 43105) is spread across 4 extended play sides and 1 standard play side, and includes a new documentary and isolated Bernard Herrmann score. A DVD edition was released at the same time as the LaserDisc.[182]
A version with alternate footage of Norman cleaning up after the murder and additional footage of Marion undressing and Arbogast's death has been shown on German TV and released on VHS and Blu-ray in Germany.[183][184] This footage was cut out of the film after it had been approved by the MPAA, at the insistence of the National Legion of Decency.[185]
Laurent Bouzereau produced a documentary looking at the film's production and reception for the initial DVD release. Universal released a 50th anniversary edition on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2010,[186] with Australia following with the same edition (featuring a different cover) being made available on September 1, 2010.[187] A Blu-ray in US was released on October 19, 2010 to mark the film's 50th anniversary, featuring yet another different cover.[188] The film is also included on two different Alfred Hitchcock Blu-ray boxsets from Universal.[189][190]
Psycho (1960)
Directed by...Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by...Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by...Joseph Stefano
Based onPsycho
by Robert Bloch
Starring:
- Anthony Perkins..... Norman Bates
- Vera Miles.....Lila Crane
- John Gavin....Sam Loomis
- Martin Balsam.....Det. Milton Arbogast
- Janet Leigh.....Marion Crane
Music by....Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography....John L. Russell
Edited by....George Tomasini
Production
company....Shamley Productions
Distributed by....Paramount Pictures
Release dates
- June 16, 1960 (DeMille Theatre)
- September 8, 1960 (United States)
Running time....109 minutes
Country....United States...
Language....English
Budget....$806,947...
Box office...$50 million....Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller-horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Janet Leigh. The screenplay by Joseph Stefano was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch.
The film centers on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates (Perkins), and its aftermath. When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho initially received mixed reviews, but outstanding box office returns prompted reconsideration which led to overwhelming critical acclaim and four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock.
It is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films[5] and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behavior and sexuality in American films,[6] and is widely considered to be the earliest example of the slasher film genre. After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a television film spin-off, and a TV series.
In 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot
During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, how they cannot afford to get married because of Sam's debts. After lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, and she asks if she can take the rest of the afternoon off. Returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip, deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California. She is seen by her boss on her way out of town, which makes her nervous. During the trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a state patrol officer. He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows her to drive on. Shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 that has California tags. Her transaction is all for naught - the highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership and witnesses her purchase of the newer car.
Driving on, a sudden rainstorm causes Marion to take a wrong turn, and she decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where the proprietor, a young Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts, but then hears an argument between Norman and a woman she presumes is his mother. Instead of dining at his home behind the motel, they eat in the motel parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother, Norma, who is mentally ill. Returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money. She prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her from a peephole. As she is showering, a female figure suddenly appears and stabs her to death with a butcher knife. Norman appears moments after the attacker flees and believes his mother to be responsible for the murder. He meticulously cleans up the crime scene, putting Marion's corpse and her possessions — including the embezzled money — into the trunk of her car and sinking it in the swamps near the motel.
A week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the whereabouts of her sister. A private detective named Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer. He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Norman's behavior arouses his suspicions. After hearing that Marion had met with Norman's mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast calls Lila and Sam, informing them of what he has discovered and saying he intends to speak with Norman's mother. He goes to the Bates' home in search of her; as he reaches the top of the stairs, a figure suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders him. When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff, who informs them that Norma Bates has been dead for ten years, following the murder–suicide of her and her lover. Concerned, Lila and Sam make their way to the motel. Meanwhile, Norman takes his unwilling mother from her room, telling her he needs to hide her for a while and ignoring her objections.
At the motel, Lila and Sam meet Norman. Sam distracts him by striking up a conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house. When Norman eventually realizes this, he knocks Sam out and rushes to the house. Lila sees Norman approaching and attempts to hide by going down steps that lead to a cellar. There she finds a seated female figure and is shocked to discover that it is the skeletal remains of Norman's mother. Lila's scream alerts Norman, who runs to the cellar brandishing a butcher knife while dressed in his mother's clothes and a wig. He tries to attack Lila but is subdued by Sam.
Sitting in a detention room at the local courthouse, Norman is now permanently trapped in the persona of his mother, whose personality he had adopted after murdering her and her lover out of jealousy ten years prior. Guilty over her death, and wanting to erase it, he exhumed her corpse and began to treat it as if she were alive again. Whenever he became sexually attracted to any other woman, the abusive Norma would take full control of his mind and kill the woman. In this state, Norman had killed two missing girls prior to Marion, as well as Arbogast. While Norman sits in the room, Norma's voice is heard protesting that the murders were Norman's doing and that she "wouldn't even harm a fly." As the film ends, Marion's car is pulled out from the swamp.
Cast
- Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
- Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
- Vera Miles as Lila Crane
- John Gavin as Sam Loomis
- Martin Balsam as Milton Arbogast
- John McIntire as Al Chambers
- Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richmond
- Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy
- Pat Hitchcock as Caroline
- Vaughn Taylor as George Lowery
- Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Chambers
- John Anderson as California Charlie
- Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer
- Virginia Gregg, Jeanette Nolan, and Paul Jasmin (uncredited) as voice of Norma Bates
- Ted Knight (uncredited) as a policeman guarding Norman Bates
Until her death, Leigh continued to receive strange and sometimes threatening calls, letters, and even tapes detailing what they would like to do to Marion Crane. One letter was so "grotesque" that she passed it along to the FBI, two of whose agents visited Leigh and told her the culprits had been located and that she should notify the FBI if she received any more letters of that type.[9]
Norman's mother was voiced by Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, and Jeanette Nolan, who also provided some screams for Lila's discovery of the mother's corpse. The three voices were thoroughly mixed, except for the last speech, which is all Gregg's.[10]
As Perkins was in New York working on a Broadway stage show when the shower sequence was filmed, actresses Anne Dore and Margo Epper stepped in as his body doubles for that scene.[11]
ProductionDevelopmentPsycho is based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name, which was loosely inspired by the case of convicted Wisconsin murderer and grave robber Ed Gein.[12] Both Gein, who lived just 40 miles from Bloch, and the story's protagonist, Norman Bates, were solitary murderers in isolated rural locations. Each had deceased domineering mothers, sealed off a room in their home as a shrine to her, and dressed in women's clothes. However, unlike Bates, Gein is not strictly considered a serial killer, having been charged with murder only twice.[13]
The Psycho set on the Universal lot, featuring a Ford Custom 300 similar to that driven by Janet Leigh in the film.Peggy Robertson, Hitchcock's long-time assistant, read Anthony Boucher's positive review of the Bloch novel and decided to show the book to him, even though studio readers at Paramount Pictures had already rejected its premise for a film. Hitchcock acquired rights to the novel for $9,500[14] and reportedly ordered Robertson to buy up copies to preserve the novel's surprises.[15] Hitchcock, who had come to face genre competitors whose works were critically compared to his own, was seeking new material to recover from two aborted projects with Paramount, Flamingo Feather and No Bail for the Judge. He disliked stars' salary demands and trusted only a few people to choose prospective material, including Robertson.[16]
Paramount executives balked at Hitchcock's proposal and refused to provide his usual budget.[17] In response, Hitchcock offered to film Psycho quickly and inexpensively in black and white using his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series crew. Paramount executives rejected this cost-conscious approach, claiming their sound stages were booked even though the industry was in a slump. Hitchcock countered he would personally finance the project and film it at Universal-International using his Shamley Productions crew if Paramount would merely distribute. In lieu of his usual $250,000 director's fee he proposed a 60% stake in the film negative. This combined offer was accepted and Hitchcock went ahead in spite of naysaying from producer Herbert Coleman and Shamley Productions executive Joan Harrison.[18]
Novel adaptationJames P. Cavanagh, a writer on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series, penned the original screenplay.[19] Hitchcock felt the script dragged and read like a television short horror story,[20] an assessment shared by an assistant.[19] Though Stefano had worked on only one film before, Hitchcock agreed to meet with him; despite Stefano's inexperience the meeting went well and he was hired.[19]
The screenplay is relatively faithful to the novel, with a few notable adaptations by Hitchcock and Stefano. Stefano found the character of Norman Bates — who, in the book, is middle-aged, overweight, and more overtly unstable — unsympathetic, but became more intrigued when Hitchcock suggested casting Anthony Perkins.[20] Stefano eliminated Bates' drinking,[21] which evidently necessitated removing Bates' "becoming" the Mother personality when in a drunken stupor. Also gone is Bates' interest in spiritualism, the occult and pornography.[22] Hitchcock and Stefano elected to open the film with scenes in Marion's life and not introduce Bates at all until 20 minutes into the film, rather than open with Bates reading a history book as Bloch does.[21] Indeed, writer Joseph W. Smith notes that, "Her story occupies only two of the novel's 17 chapters. Hitchcock and Stefano expanded this to nearly half the narrative".[23] He likewise notes there is no hotel tryst between Marion and Sam in the novel. For Stefano, the conversation between Marion and Norman in the hotel parlor in which she displays a maternal sympathy towards him makes it possible for the audience to switch their sympathies towards Norman Bates after Marion's murder.[24] When Lila Crane is looking through Norman's room in the film she opens a book with a blank cover whose contents are unseen; in the novel these are "pathologically pornographic" illustrations. Stefano wanted to give the audience "indications that something was quite wrong, but it could not be spelled out or overdone."[24] In his book of interviews with Hitchcock, François Truffaut notes that the novel "cheats" by having extended conversations between Norman and "Mother" and stating what Mother is "doing" at various given moments.[25] For obvious reasons, these were omitted from the film.
The first name of the female protagonist was changed from Mary to Marion, since a real Mary Crane existed in Phoenix.[26] Also changed is the novel's budding romance between Sam and Lila. Hitchcock preferred to focus the audience's attention on the solution to the mystery, and Stefano thought such a relationship would make Sam Loomis seem cheap.Instead of having Sam explain Norman's pathology to Lila, the film uses a psychiatrist. (Stefano was in therapy dealing with his relationship with his own mother at the time of writing the film.) The novel is more violent than the film; for instance, Crane is beheaded in the shower as opposed to being stabbed to death. Minor changes include changing Marion's telltale earring found after her death to a scrap of paper that failed to flush down the toilet. This provided some shock effect, since toilets were virtually never seen in American cinema in the 1960s. The location of Arbogast's death was moved from the foyer to the stairwell. Stefano thought this would make it easier to conceal the truth about "Mother" without tipping that something was being hidden. As Janet Leigh put it, this gave Hitchcock more options for his camera.
Pre-production 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 would suffice. They did not like "anything about it at all" and denied him his usual budget. In response Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios under the Revue television unit. The original Bates Motel and Bates house set buildings, which were constructed on the same stage as Lon Chaney Sr.'s The Phantom of the Opera, are still standing at Universal Studios in Universal City near Hollywood and are a regular attraction on the studio's tour.[34][35] As a further result of cost cutting, Hitchcock chose to film Psycho in black and white, keeping the budget under $1,000,000.[36] Other reasons for shooting in black and white were his desire to prevent the shower scene from being too gory and his admiration for Les Diaboliques's use of black and white.[37][38]
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.[39] 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.[40]
Through the strength of his reputation, Hitchcock cast 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).[41] His first choice, Leigh agreed after having only read the novel and making no inquiry into her salary.[26] Her co-star, Anthony Perkins, agreed to $40,000.[40] 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 Pictures.[33] After another four years, Paramount sold all rights to Universal.[33]
FilmingThe film, independently produced and financed by Hitchcock, was shot at Revue Studios,[42] the same location as his television show. Psycho was shot on a tight budget of $806,947.55,[43] beginning on November 11, 1959 and ending on February 1, 1960.[44][45] Filming started in the morning and finished by six or earlier on Thursdays (when Hitchcock and his wife would dine at Chasen's).[46] Nearly the whole film was shot with 50 mm lenses on 35 mm cameras. This trick closely mimicked normal human vision, which helped to further involve the audience.[47]
Before shooting began in November, Hitchcock dispatched assistant director Hilton A. 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.[48] Another crew filmed day and night footage on Highway 99 between Gorman and Fresno, California for projection when Marion drives from Phoenix. Footage of her driving into Bakersfield to trade her car is also shown. They also provided the location shots for the scene in which she is discovered sleeping in her car by the highway patrolman.[48] In one street scene shot in downtown Phoenix, Christmas decorations were discovered to be visible; rather than re-shoot the footage, Hitchcock chose to add a graphic to the opening scene marking the date as "Friday, December the Eleventh".[49]
Edward Hopper's The House by the Railroad, used as inspiration for the look of the Bates house.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 such as those belonging to Marion and her sister.[48] He also found a girl who looked just like he imagined Marion and photographed her whole wardrobe, which would enable Hitchcock to demand realistic looks from Helen Colvig, the wardrobe supervisor.[48] The look of the Bates house was modeled on Edward Hopper's painting The House by the Railroad,[50] a fanciful portrait of the Second Empire Victorian home at 18 Conger Avenue in Haverstraw, NY.[51]
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.[52] An example of Perkins' improvisation is Norman's habit of eating candy corn.[53]
Throughout filming, Hitchcock created and hid various versions of the "Mother corpse" prop in Leigh's dressing room closet. Leigh took the joke well, and she wondered 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.[54]
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.[52] Retakes were also required for the opening scene, since Hitchcock felt that Leigh and Gavin were not passionate enough.[55] Leigh had trouble saying "Not inordinately" for the real estate office scene, requiring additional retakes.[56] Lastly, the scene in which the mother is discovered required complicated coordination of the chair turning around, 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.[57]
According to Hitchcock, a series of shots with Arbogast going up the stairs in the Bates house before he is stabbed were helmed by assistant director Hilton A. Green, working with storyboard artist Saul Bass' drawings only while Hitchcock was incapacitated with the common cold. However, upon viewing the dailies of the shots, Hitchcock was forced to scrap them. He claimed they were "no good" because they did not portray "an innocent person but a sinister man who was going up those stairs".[58] Hitchcock later re-shot the scene, though a little of the cut footage made its way into the film. Filming the murder of Arbogast proved problematic owing to the overhead camera angle necessary to hide the film's twist. A camera track constructed on pulleys alongside the stairway together with a chairlike device had to be constructed and thoroughly tested over a period of weeks.[59]
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In Psycho, he can be seen through a window – wearing a Stetson hat – standing outside Marion Crane's office.[60] Wardrobe mistress Rita Riggs has said that Hitchcock chose this scene for his cameo so that he could be in a scene with his daughter (who played one of Marion's colleagues). Others have suggested that he chose this early appearance in the film in order to avoid distracting the audience.[61]
The shower sceneThe murder of Leigh's character in the shower is the film's pivotal scene and one of the best-known in all of cinema. As such, it spawned numerous myths and legends. It was shot from December 17–23, 1959, and features 77 different camera angles.[62] The scene "runs 3 minutes and includes 50 cuts."[63][inconsistent] 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 their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would have been if the images were presented alone or in a wider angle, an example of the technique Hitchcock described as "transferring the menace from the screen into the mind of the audience".[64]
The shadowy figure from the shower scene.In order to capture the straight-on shot of the shower head, the camera had to be equipped with a long lens. The inner holes on the shower head were blocked and the camera placed a sufficient distance away so that the water, while appearing to be aimed directly at the lens, actually went around and past it.[65]
The soundtrack of screeching violins, violas, and cellos was an original all-strings piece by composer Bernard Herrmann titled "The Murder". Hitchcock originally intended to have no music for the sequence (and all motel scenes),[66] but Herrmann insisted he try his composition. Afterward, Hitchcock agreed it vastly intensified the scene, and nearly doubled Herrmann's salary.[67][68][69] The blood in the scene is reputed to have been Bosco chocolate syrup,[70] which shows up better on black-and-white film, and has more realistic density than stage blood.[71] The sound of the knife entering flesh was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon.[72][73]
There are varying accounts whether Leigh was in the shower the entire time or a body double was used for some parts of the murder sequence and its aftermath. In an interview with Roger Ebert and in the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, Leigh stated she was in the scene the entire time and Hitchcock only used a stand-in for the sequence in which Norman wraps Marion's body in a shower curtain and places it in the trunk of her car.[74] The 2010 book The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower by Robert Graysmith contradicts this, identifying Marli Renfro as Leigh's body double for some of the shower scene's shots.[75]
A popular myth emerged that, in order for Leigh's scream in the shower to sound realistic, ice-cold water was used. Leigh denied this on numerous occasions, saying the crew was very accommodating, supplying hot water throughout the week-long shoot.[76] All of the screams are Leigh's.[10]
Another myth concerns Saul Bass, the graphic designer who created many of the title sequences of Hitchcock's films and storyboarded some of Psycho 's scenes, claiming he had directed the shower scene. This was refuted by several figures associated with the film, including Leigh, who 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."[77] Hilton A. Green, the assistant director, also refutes 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."[77] Roger Ebert, a longtime admirer of Hitchcock's work, summarily dismissed the rumor, stating, "It seems unlikely that a perfectionist with an ego like Hitchcock's would let someone else direct such a scene."[78]
However, commentators such as Stephen Rebello and Bill Krohn have argued in favor of Bass' contribution to the scene in his capacity as visual consultant and storyboard artist.[79] Along with designing the opening credits, Bass is termed "Pictorial Consultant" in the credits. When interviewing Hitchcock in 1967, François Truffaut asked about the extent of Bass' contribution, to which Hitchcock replied that in addition to the titles, Bass had provided storyboards for the Arbogast murder (which he claimed to have rejected), but made no mention of Bass providing storyboards for the shower scene.[80] According to Bill Krohn's Hitchcock At Work, Bass' first claim to have directed the scene was in 1970, when he provided a magazine with 48 drawings used as storyboards as proof of his contribution.[81]
Krohn's analysis of the production of Psycho in his book Hitchcock at Work, while refuting Bass' claims for directing the scene, notes that these storyboards did introduce key aspects of the final scene—most notably, the fact that the killer appears as a silhouette, and details such as the close-ups of the slashing knife, Leigh's desperate outstretched arm, the shower curtain being torn down, and the transition from the hole of the drainage pipe to Marion Crane's dead eyes. Krohn notes that this final transition is highly reminiscent of the iris titles that Bass created for Vertigo.[81]
Krohn's research also notes that Hitchcock shot the scene with two cameras: one a BNC Mitchell, the other a handheld camera called an Éclair which Orson Welles had used in Touch of Evil (1958). In order to create an ideal montage for the greatest emotional impact on the audience, Hitchcock shot a lot of footage of this scene which he trimmed down in the editing room. He even brought a Moviola on the set to gauge the footage required. The final sequence, which his editor George Tomasini worked on with Hitchcock's advice, however did not go far beyond the basic structural elements set up by Bass' storyboards.[81]
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. According to Patricia Hitchcock, talking in Laurent Bouzereau's "making of" documentary, Alma spotted that Leigh's character appeared to take a breath. In either case, the postmortem activity was edited out and was never seen by audiences.[19] Although Marion's eyes should be dilated after her death, the contact lenses necessary for this effect would have required six weeks of acclimatization to wear them, so Hitchcock decided to forgo them.[82]
It is often claimed that, despite its graphic nature, the "shower scene" never once shows a knife puncturing flesh.[83][84][85] However, a frame by frame analysis of the sequence shows one shot in which the knife appears to penetrate Leigh's abdomen, but the effect may have been created by lighting and reverse motion.[86] Leigh herself was so affected by this scene when she saw it, that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to; she would lock all the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open.[87] She never realized until she first watched the film "how vulnerable and defenseless one is".[19]
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.[77]
Film theorist Robin Wood also discusses how the shower washes "away her guilt". He comments upon the "alienation effect" of killing off the "apparent center of the film" with which spectators had identified.[88]
SoundtrackScoreHitchcock insisted that Bernard Herrmann write the score for Psycho despite the composer's refusal to accept a reduced fee for the film's lower budget.[89] The resulting score, according to Christopher Palmer in The Composer in Hollywood (1990) is "perhaps Herrmann's most spectacular Hitchcock achievement."[90] Hitchcock was pleased with the tension and drama the score added to the film,[91] later remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music."[92] The singular contribution of Herrmann's score may be inferred from the unusual penultimate placement of the composer's name in the film's opening credit sequence, as it is followed only by Hitchcock's directing credit.
Herrmann used the lowered music budget to his advantage by writing for a string orchestra rather than a full symphonic ensemble,[89] contrary to Hitchcock's request for a jazz score.[93] He thought of the single tone color of the all-string soundtrack as a way of reflecting the black-and-white cinematography of the film.[94] The strings play con sordini (with a muting device placed across the bridge) for all the music other than the shower scene, creating a darker and more intense effect. Hollywood composer Fred Steiner, in an analysis of the score to Psycho, points out that string instruments gave Herrmann access to a wider range in tone, dynamics, and instrumental special effects than any other single instrumental group would have.[95]
The main title music, a tense, hurtling piece, sets the tone of impending violence, and returns three times on the soundtrack.[96][97] Though nothing shocking occurs during the first 15–20 minutes of the film, the title music remains in the audience's mind, lending tension to these early scenes.[96] Herrmann also maintains tension through the slower moments in the film through the use of ostinato.[92]
There were rumors that Herrmann had used electronic means, including amplified bird screeches to achieve the shocking effect of the music in the shower scene. The effect was achieved, however, only with violins in a "screeching, stabbing sound-motion of extraordinary viciousness."[98] The only electronic amplification employed was in the placing of the microphones close to the instruments, to get a harsher sound.[98] Besides the emotional impact, the shower scene cue ties the soundtrack to birds.[98] The association of the shower scene music with birds also telegraphs to the audience that it is Norman, the stuffed-bird collector, who is the murderer rather than his mother.[98]
Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith writes that the music for the shower scene is "probably the most famous (and most imitated) cue in film music,"[94] but Hitchcock was originally opposed to having music in this scene.[98] When Herrmann played the shower scene cue for Hitchcock, the director approved its use in the film. Herrmann reminded Hitchcock of his instructions not to score this scene, to which Hitchcock replied, "Improper suggestion, my boy, improper suggestion."[99] This was one of two important disagreements Hitchcock had with Herrmann, in which Herrmann ignored Hitchcock's instructions. The second one, over the score for Torn Curtain (1966), resulted in the end of their professional collaboration.[100] A survey conducted by PRS for Music, in 2009, showed that the British public consider the score from 'the shower scene' to be the scariest theme from any film.[101]
To honor the fiftieth anniversary of Psycho, in July 2010, the San Francisco Symphony[102] obtained a print of the film with the soundtrack removed, and projected it on a large screen in Davies Symphony Hall while the orchestra performed the score live. This was previously mounted by the Seattle Symphony in October 2009 as well, performing at the Benaroya Hall for two consecutive evenings. These performances are part of John Goberman's offering of films with great music performed by live orchestras: A Symphonic Night at the Movies, these special events range from "Alexander Nevsky" to "Singin in the Rain" to "Hitchcock!".
RecordingsSeveral CDs of the film soundtrack have been released, including:
- The 1970s soundtrack recording with Bernard Herrmann conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra [Unicorn CD, 1993].[103]
- The 1997 Varèse Sarabande CD features a re-recording of the complete score performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and conducted by Joel McNeely .[103][104]
- The 1998 Soundstage Records SCD 585 CD claims to feature the tracks from the original master tapes. However, it has been asserted that the release is a bootleg recording.[103]
- The 2011 Doxy Records DOY650 (Italy) 180 gram LP release of the complete original 1960 score conducted by Herrmann.
All pieces by Bernard Herrmann.
- "Prelude; The City; Marion and Sam; Temptation" – 6:15
- "Flight; The Patrol Car; The Car Lot; The Package; The Rainstorm" – 7:21
- "Hotel Room; The Window; The Parlour; The Madhouse; The Peephole" – 8:52
- "The Bathroom; The Murder; The Body; The Office; The Curtain; The Water; The Car; The Swamp" – 6:58
- "The Search; The Shadow; Phone Booth; The Porch; The Stairs; The Knife" – 5:41
- "The Search; The First Floor; Cabin 10; Cabin 1" – 6:18
- "The Hill; The Bedroom; The Toys; The Cellar; Discovery; Finale" – 5:00
Theatre poster providing notification of "no late admission" policyPsycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the United States during the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene in which Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed, with Marion in a bra.[105] In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed would be taboo.[106]
According to the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censors in charge of enforcing the Production Code wrangled with Hitchcock because some of them insisted they could see one of Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. 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.[107] The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would re-shoot the opening with them on the set. Since they did not show up for the re-shoot, the opening stayed.[107]
Another cause of concern for the censors was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up note paper) fully visible. No flushing toilet had appeared in mainstream film and television in the United States at that time.[108][109][110]
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. In Britain, the BBFC requested cuts to stabbing sounds and visible nude shots, and in New Zealand the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands was objected to. In Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast, and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed.[111]
The most controversial move was Hitchcock's "no late admission" policy for the film, which was unusual for the time. It was not entirely original as Clouzot had done the same in France for Diabolique.[112] Hitchcock thought that if people entered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would feel cheated.[33] At first theater owners opposed the idea, claiming that they would lose business. However, after the first day, the owners enjoyed long lines of people waiting to see the film.[33]
PromotionHitchcock did most of the promotion on his own, forbidding Leigh and Perkins to make the usual television, radio, and print interviews for fear of their revealing the plot.[113] Even critics were not given private screenings but rather had to see the film with the general public, which, despite possibly affecting their reviews,[111] certainly preserved the secret.
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 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 Miles and not Leigh in the shower during the trailer.[33]
ReleaseThe 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 earlier, Valerie Percy, daughter of Illinois senate candidate Charles H. Percy, 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,[114] and shortly afterward Paramount included the film in its first syndicated package of post-1950 movies, "Portfolio I". WABC-TV in New York City was the first station in the country to air Psycho (with some scenes significantly edited), on its late-night movie series, The Best of Broadway, on June 24, 1967.[115] Following another successful theatrical reissue in 1969, the film finally made its way to general television airing 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.[114]
The film was re-released on September 20 & 23, 2015, as part of the "TCM Presents" series by Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events.[116]
ReceptionInitial reviews of the film were thoroughly mixed.[117] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote, "There is not an abundance of subtlety or the lately familiar Hitchcock bent toward significant and colorful scenery in this obviously low-budget job." Crowther called the "slow buildups to sudden shocks" reliably melodramatic but contested Hitchcock's psychological points, reminiscent of Krafft-Ebing's studies, as less effective. While the film did not conclude satisfactorily for the critic, he commended the cast's performances as "fair".[118] British critic C. A. Lejeune was so offended that she not only walked out before the end but permanently resigned her post as film critic for The Observer.[119] 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."[117][120] 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."[117][121] 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."[117]
The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people had to wait for the next showing. This, along with box office numbers, led to a reconsideration of the film by critics, and it eventually received a very large amount of praise. It broke box-office records in Japan and the rest of Asia, France, Britain, South America, the United States, and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period.[117] It was the most profitable black-and-white sound film ever made,[citation needed] and Hitchcock personally realized well in excess of $15 million (about $120m today). He then swapped his rights to Psycho and his TV anthology for 150,000 shares of MCA, making him the third largest shareholder in MCA Inc. and his own boss at Universal, in theory; however, this did not stop them from interfering with his later films.[122][123] Psycho was, by a large margin, the most profitable film of Hitchcock's career, earning over $12 million for the studio on release, and $15 million by the end of the year. Hitchcock's second most profitable was Family Plot ($7,541,000), and third place was a tie between Torn Curtain (1966) and Frenzy (1972), each earning $6,500,000. Around the time of the run's end, the film had grossed $32 million in domestic theaters.[2]
In the United Kingdom, the film 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.[124] 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 switched its 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.[124]
Psycho was initially criticized for making other filmmakers more willing to show gore; three years later, Blood Feast, considered to be the first "splatter film", was released.[125] 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 including The Nanny[126] (1965) starring Bette Davis and William Castle's Homicidal (1961) was followed by a slew of more than thirteen other splatter films.[125]
On the review aggregator website, RottenTomatoes.com, Psycho holds a 'Certified: Fresh' score of 96%, with the critics consensus reading: "Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it".[127]
InterpretationsSubversion of romance through ironyIn Psycho, Hitchcock subverts the romantic elements that are seen in most of his work. The film is instead ironic as it presents "clarity and fulfillment" of romance. The past is central to the film; the main characters "struggle to understand and resolve destructive personal histories" and ultimately fail.[128] Lesley Brill writes, "The inexorable forces of past sins and mistakes crush hopes for regeneration and present happiness." The crushed hope is highlighted by the death of the protagonist, Marion Crane, halfway through the film.[129] Marion is like Persephone of Greek mythology, who is abducted temporarily from the world of the living. The myth does not sustain with Marion, who dies hopelessly in her room at the Bates Motel. The room is wallpapered with floral print like Persephone's flowers, but they are only "reflected in mirrors, as images of images—twice removed from reality". In the scene of Marion's death, Brill describes the transition from the bathroom drain to Marion's lifeless eye, "Like the eye of the amorphous sea creature at the end of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, it marks the birth of death, an emblem of final hopelessness and corruption." Unlike heroines in Hitchcock's other films, she does not reestablish her innocence or discover love.[130]
Marion is deprived of "the humble treasures of love, marriage, home and family", which Hitchcock considers elements of human happiness. There exists among Psycho 's secondary characters a lack of "familial warmth and stability", which demonstrates the unlikelihood of domestic fantasies. The film contains ironic jokes about domesticity, such as when Sam writes a letter to Marion, agreeing to marry her, only after the audience sees her buried in the swamp. Sam and Marion's sister Lila, in investigating Marion's disappearance, develop an "increasingly connubial" relationship, a development that Marion is denied.[131] Norman also suffers a similarly perverse definition of domesticity. He has "an infantile and divided personality" and lives in a mansion whose past occupies the present. Norman displays stuffed birds that are "frozen in time" and keeps childhood toys and stuffed animals in his room. He is hostile toward suggestions to move from the past, such as with Marion's suggestion to put his mother "someplace" and as a result kills Marion to preserve his past. Brill explains, "'Someplace' for Norman is where his delusions of love, home, and family are declared invalid and exposed."[132]
Light and darkness feature prominently in Psycho. The first shot after the intertitle is the sunny landscape of Phoenix before the camera enters a dark hotel room where Sam and Marion appear as bright figures. Marion is almost immediately cast in darkness; she is preceded by her shadow as she reenters the office to steal money and as she enters her bedroom. When she flees Phoenix, darkness descends on her drive. The following sunny morning is punctured by a watchful police officer with black sunglasses, and she finally arrives at the Bates Motel in near darkness.[133] Bright lights are also "the ironic equivalent of darkness" in the film, blinding instead of illuminating. Examples of brightness include the opening window shades in Sam's and Marion's hotel room, vehicle headlights at night, the neon sign at the Bates Motel, "the glaring white" of the bathroom tiles where Marion dies, and the fruit cellar's exposed light bulb shining on the corpse of Norman's mother. Such bright lights typically characterize danger and violence in Hitchcock's films.[134]
MotifsThe 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 of the window. The stuffed birds' shadows loom over Marion as she eats, and Norman's 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.[135]
Mirrors reflect Marion as she packs, her eyes as she checks the rear-view mirror, her face in the policeman's sunglasses, and 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 a foreshadowing of the shower, and its cessation can be seen as a symbol of Marion making up her mind to return to Phoenix.[135]
There are a number of references to birds. Marion's last name is Crane and she is from Phoenix. Norman comments that Marion eats like a bird. The motel room has pictures of birds on the wall. Brigitte Peucker also suggests that Norman's hobby of stuffing birds literalizes the British slang expression for sex, "stuffing birds", bird being a British slang for a desirable woman.[136] Robert Allan suggests that Norman's mother is his original "stuffed bird", both in the sense of having preserved her body and the incestuous nature of Norman's emotional bond with her.[137]
Psychoanalytic interpretationPsycho has been called "the first psychoanalytical thriller."[138] The sex and violence in the film were unlike anything previously seen in a mainstream film. "The 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."[138]
In his documentary The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Slavoj Žižek remarks that Norman Bates' mansion has three floors, paralleling the three levels of the human mind that are postulated by Freudian psychoanalysis: the top floor would be the superego, where Bates' mother lives; 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 top floor to basement as a symbol for the deep connection that psychoanalysis posits between superego and id.[139]
Psycho (1959) is a suspense novel by Robert Bloch. The story was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film of the same name. Bloch later wrote two sequels, which are unrelated to any of the film-sequels.
Contents
PlotNorman Bates is a middle-aged bachelor who is dominated by his mother, a mean-tempered, puritanical old woman who forbids him to have a life outside of her. They run a small motel together in the town of Fairvale, but business has floundered since the state relocated the highway. In the middle of a heated argument between them, a customer arrives, a young woman named Mary Crane.
Mary is on the run after impulsively stealing $40,000 from a client of the real estate company where she works. She stole the money so her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, could pay off his debts and they could get married. Mary arrives at the Bates Motel after accidentally turning off the main highway. Exhausted, she accepts Bates' invitation to have dinner with him at his house, an invitation that sends Mrs. Bates into a rage; she screams, "I'll kill the bitch!", which Mary overhears.
During dinner, Mary gently suggests that Bates put his mother in a mental institution, but he vehemently denies that there is anything wrong with her; "We all go a little mad sometimes", he states. Mary says goodnight and returns to her room, resolving to return the money so she will not end up like Bates. Moments later in the shower, however, a figure resembling an old woman surprises her with a butcher knife, and beheads her.
Bates, who had passed out drunk after dinner, returns to the motel and finds Mary's corpse. He is instantly convinced his mother is the murderer. He briefly considers letting her go to prison, but changes his mind after having a nightmare in which she sinks in quicksand, only to turn into him as she goes under. His mother comes to comfort him, and he decides to dispose of Mary's body and go on with life as usual.
Meanwhile, Mary's sister, Lila, tells Sam of her sister's disappearance. They are soon joined by Milton Arbogast, a private investigator hired by Mary's boss to retrieve the money. Sam and Lila agree to let Arbogast lead the search for Mary. Arbogast eventually meets up with Bates, who says that Mary had left after one night; when he asks to talk with his mother, Bates refuses. This arouses Arbogast's suspicion, and he calls Lila and tells her that he is going to try to talk to Mrs. Bates. When he enters the house, the same mysterious figure who killed Mary ambushes him and kills him with a razor.
Sam and Lila go to Fairvale to look for Arbogast, and meet with the town sheriff, who tells them that Mrs. Bates has been dead for years, having committed suicide by poisoning her lover and herself. The young Norman had a nervous breakdown after finding them and was sent for a time to a mental institution. Sam and Lila go to the motel to investigate. Sam distracts Bates while Lila goes to get the sheriff—but she actually proceeds up to the house to investigate on her own. During a conversation with Sam, Bates says that his mother had only pretended to be dead, and had communicated with him while he was in the institution. Bates then tells Sam that Lila tricked him and went up to the house and that his mother was waiting for her. Bates then knocks Sam unconscious with a bottle. At the house, Lila is horrified to discover Mrs. Bates' mummified corpse in the fruit cellar. As she screams, a figure rushes into the room with a knife—Norman Bates, dressed in his mother's clothes. Sam enters the room and subdues him before he can harm Lila.
At the police station, Sam talks to a psychiatrist who had examined Bates, and learns that, years before, Bates had murdered his mother and her lover. Bates and his mother had lived together in a state of total codependence ever since his father's death. When his mother took a lover, Bates went over the edge with jealousy and poisoned them both, forging a suicide note in his mother's handwriting. To suppress the guilt of matricide, he developed a split personality in which his mother became an alternate self, which abused and dominated him as Mrs. Bates had done in life. He stole her corpse and preserved it and, whenever the illusion was threatened, would dress in her clothes and speak to himself in her voice. The "Mother" personality killed Mary because "she" was jealous of Norman feeling affection for another woman.
Bates is found insane, and put in a mental institution for life. Days later, the "Mother" personality completely takes over Bates' mind; he virtually becomes his mother.
Allusions
In November 1957 — two years before Psycho was first published — Ed Gein was arrested in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin for the murders of two women. When police searched his home, they found furniture, silverware, and even clothing made of human skin and body parts. Psychiatrists examining him theorized that he was trying to make a "woman suit" to wear so he could pretend to be his dead mother, whom neighbors described as a puritan who dominated her son.
At the time of Gein's arrest, Bloch was living 35 miles (56 km) away from Plainfield in Weyauwega. Though Bloch did not look into the details of the Gein case at that time, it gave him an idea, and he began writing with "the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life." Bloch was surprised years later when he "discovered how closely the imaginary character I'd created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation."[1]
SequelsMain articles: Psycho II (novel) and Psycho HouseBloch wrote two sequels, Psycho II (1982) and Psycho House (1990); neither was related to the film sequels. In the novel Psycho II, Bates escapes the asylum disguised as a nun and makes his way to Hollywood. Universal Pictures allegedly did not want to film it because of its social commentary on splatter films.[citation needed] In the novel Psycho House, murders begin again when the Bates Motel is reopened as a tourist attraction.
AdaptationsFilmMain articles: Psycho (1960 film), Psycho II (film), Psycho III, Psycho IV: The Beginning and Psycho (1998 film)
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)
Bates Motel Set at Universal Studios, Hollywood, CaliforniaBloch's novel was adapted in 1960 into the feature film by director Alfred Hitchcock. It was written by Joseph Stefano and starred Anthony Perkins as Bates and Janet Leigh in an Academy Award-nominated performance as Marion Crane (changed from "Mary" for the film, as there was a Mary Crane in Phoenix at that time). Hitchcock helped devise a promotional and marketing scheme for his film that insisted that critics would not get advance screenings, and that no one would be admitted into the theater after the film began. The promotional scheme also exhorted audiences not to reveal the twist ending. Twenty-three years after the release of Hitchcock's film and three years after the director's death came the first of three sequels, all featuring Perkins.
After Psycho III there was also a television pilot named Bates Motel, in which Bates briefly appears played by another actor. It is not in continuity with the final sequel Psycho IV: The Beginning. Gus Van Sant directed a 1998 remake of the original film in which virtually every camera angle and line of dialogue was duplicated from the original. It starred Vince Vaughn as Bates and Anne Heche as Marion Crane. It was reviled by critics and performed poorly at the box office.
The Hitchcock version of the film is rated number one on the American Film Institute's list of one hundred most thrilling films.
Contents
PlotNorman Bates is a middle-aged bachelor who is dominated by his mother, a mean-tempered, puritanical old woman who forbids him to have a life outside of her. They run a small motel together in the town of Fairvale, but business has floundered since the state relocated the highway. In the middle of a heated argument between them, a customer arrives, a young woman named Mary Crane.
Mary is on the run after impulsively stealing $40,000 from a client of the real estate company where she works. She stole the money so her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, could pay off his debts and they could get married. Mary arrives at the Bates Motel after accidentally turning off the main highway. Exhausted, she accepts Bates' invitation to have dinner with him at his house, an invitation that sends Mrs. Bates into a rage; she screams, "I'll kill the bitch!", which Mary overhears.
During dinner, Mary gently suggests that Bates put his mother in a mental institution, but he vehemently denies that there is anything wrong with her; "We all go a little mad sometimes", he states. Mary says goodnight and returns to her room, resolving to return the money so she will not end up like Bates. Moments later in the shower, however, a figure resembling an old woman surprises her with a butcher knife, and beheads her.
Bates, who had passed out drunk after dinner, returns to the motel and finds Mary's corpse. He is instantly convinced his mother is the murderer. He briefly considers letting her go to prison, but changes his mind after having a nightmare in which she sinks in quicksand, only to turn into him as she goes under. His mother comes to comfort him, and he decides to dispose of Mary's body and go on with life as usual.
Meanwhile, Mary's sister, Lila, tells Sam of her sister's disappearance. They are soon joined by Milton Arbogast, a private investigator hired by Mary's boss to retrieve the money. Sam and Lila agree to let Arbogast lead the search for Mary. Arbogast eventually meets up with Bates, who says that Mary had left after one night; when he asks to talk with his mother, Bates refuses. This arouses Arbogast's suspicion, and he calls Lila and tells her that he is going to try to talk to Mrs. Bates. When he enters the house, the same mysterious figure who killed Mary ambushes him and kills him with a razor.
Sam and Lila go to Fairvale to look for Arbogast, and meet with the town sheriff, who tells them that Mrs. Bates has been dead for years, having committed suicide by poisoning her lover and herself. The young Norman had a nervous breakdown after finding them and was sent for a time to a mental institution. Sam and Lila go to the motel to investigate. Sam distracts Bates while Lila goes to get the sheriff—but she actually proceeds up to the house to investigate on her own. During a conversation with Sam, Bates says that his mother had only pretended to be dead, and had communicated with him while he was in the institution. Bates then tells Sam that Lila tricked him and went up to the house and that his mother was waiting for her. Bates then knocks Sam unconscious with a bottle. At the house, Lila is horrified to discover Mrs. Bates' mummified corpse in the fruit cellar. As she screams, a figure rushes into the room with a knife—Norman Bates, dressed in his mother's clothes. Sam enters the room and subdues him before he can harm Lila.
At the police station, Sam talks to a psychiatrist who had examined Bates, and learns that, years before, Bates had murdered his mother and her lover. Bates and his mother had lived together in a state of total codependence ever since his father's death. When his mother took a lover, Bates went over the edge with jealousy and poisoned them both, forging a suicide note in his mother's handwriting. To suppress the guilt of matricide, he developed a split personality in which his mother became an alternate self, which abused and dominated him as Mrs. Bates had done in life. He stole her corpse and preserved it and, whenever the illusion was threatened, would dress in her clothes and speak to himself in her voice. The "Mother" personality killed Mary because "she" was jealous of Norman feeling affection for another woman.
Bates is found insane, and put in a mental institution for life. Days later, the "Mother" personality completely takes over Bates' mind; he virtually becomes his mother.
Allusions
In November 1957 — two years before Psycho was first published — Ed Gein was arrested in his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin for the murders of two women. When police searched his home, they found furniture, silverware, and even clothing made of human skin and body parts. Psychiatrists examining him theorized that he was trying to make a "woman suit" to wear so he could pretend to be his dead mother, whom neighbors described as a puritan who dominated her son.
At the time of Gein's arrest, Bloch was living 35 miles (56 km) away from Plainfield in Weyauwega. Though Bloch did not look into the details of the Gein case at that time, it gave him an idea, and he began writing with "the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life." Bloch was surprised years later when he "discovered how closely the imaginary character I'd created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation."[1]
SequelsMain articles: Psycho II (novel) and Psycho HouseBloch wrote two sequels, Psycho II (1982) and Psycho House (1990); neither was related to the film sequels. In the novel Psycho II, Bates escapes the asylum disguised as a nun and makes his way to Hollywood. Universal Pictures allegedly did not want to film it because of its social commentary on splatter films.[citation needed] In the novel Psycho House, murders begin again when the Bates Motel is reopened as a tourist attraction.
AdaptationsFilmMain articles: Psycho (1960 film), Psycho II (film), Psycho III, Psycho IV: The Beginning and Psycho (1998 film)
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2010)
Bates Motel Set at Universal Studios, Hollywood, CaliforniaBloch's novel was adapted in 1960 into the feature film by director Alfred Hitchcock. It was written by Joseph Stefano and starred Anthony Perkins as Bates and Janet Leigh in an Academy Award-nominated performance as Marion Crane (changed from "Mary" for the film, as there was a Mary Crane in Phoenix at that time). Hitchcock helped devise a promotional and marketing scheme for his film that insisted that critics would not get advance screenings, and that no one would be admitted into the theater after the film began. The promotional scheme also exhorted audiences not to reveal the twist ending. Twenty-three years after the release of Hitchcock's film and three years after the director's death came the first of three sequels, all featuring Perkins.
After Psycho III there was also a television pilot named Bates Motel, in which Bates briefly appears played by another actor. It is not in continuity with the final sequel Psycho IV: The Beginning. Gus Van Sant directed a 1998 remake of the original film in which virtually every camera angle and line of dialogue was duplicated from the original. It starred Vince Vaughn as Bates and Anne Heche as Marion Crane. It was reviled by critics and performed poorly at the box office.
The Hitchcock version of the film is rated number one on the American Film Institute's list of one hundred most thrilling films.
By TOM WEAVER
Fans of vintage horror films tend not to be drawn to the exploits of real-life serial killers; for our "fixes" of macabre mayhem, we turn instead to the silver screen and the (generally bloodless) bloodbaths harmlessly play-acted on Hollywood sound stages. And yet the name Ed Gein is familiar to most horror fans: We know that the shiftless, middle-aged Wisconsin ne'er-do-well was responsible for a string of grisly backwoods killings and mutilations (not always in that order), and the reason we know is because Robert Bloch reportedly used him as the model for the character of Norman Bates in the novel Psycho.
But, apart from their respective homicidal streaks, similarities between the two are elusive, to say the least. Bloch wrote in his 1993 autobiography Once Around the Bloch that he "knew very little of the details concerning [the Gein] case and virtually nothing about Gein himself" when he wrote his 1959 page-turner. The author claims to have created Norman "from whole cloth," basing his story on no person, "living or dead, involved in the Gein affair" (italics mine). And, true to Bloch's disclaimers, there's precious little resemblance between the grinning, gregarious small-town loafer Gein and the Norman Bates described in Bloch's novel: a plump, bespectacled, 40-year-old motel clerk who relishes his books, basks in gruesome fantasies, and squirms under the ruthless domination of his ever-present, nagging mother.
Noël Carter, wife of renowned fantasy-SF writer Linwood Carter (1930-88), says that "Norman" can be traced to a far more likely sounding source of inspiration. "I heard about this from Lin," offers Mrs. Carter (an author herself). "Lin and I met at the end of 1962 and were married in '63, and I became very involved with science fiction and fantasy, and with all Lin's cronies. Among his cronies were Chris Steinbrunner from [New York City's] WOR-TV, a wonderful, dear friend, and an awful lot of people who had been around in the '50s. They were all older than I, and among the people in the group that sort of ebbed and flowed with time was Robert Bloch. And Bloch was fascinated by [Castle of Frankenstein magazine publisher-editor] Calvin Thomas Beck. Calvin was also in that group, on the fringes of it, with his mother constantly in tow.
"When I met Lin, we saw all the Hitchcock retrospectives and were avid Hitchcock fans. I told him how much I liked Psycho, and he told me the story that, when Robert Bloch was part of this group, Bloch got the idea for Psycho and he based it on two characters. One was the Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, who killed women and hung up their eviscerated bodies. Ed Gein is the one everybody knows about. But Norman was also based on Calvin Thomas Beck and his mother.
"Chris Steinbrunner [author of two renowned film books and the Edgar-winning The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection] later confirmed this, so it wasn't just from Lin. This was common knowledge, but it wasn't discussed a great deal because Calvin was part of the group and it might hurt his feelings. Calvin's mother was a noisy, dominating little Greek woman who followed him most everywhere. She told me herself that she went to his college classes, she monitored classes at college with Calvin. As she told me this, I thought to myself, 'He must want to kill her!,' but he was completely dominated by her."
John Cocchi, one of America's top film researchers, an author and expert-in-residence for American Movie Classics, is less certain about the long-whispered "Beck-Bates" connection. "Chris Steinbrunner used to invite me to the very elaborate Halloween parties that Noël and Lin gave out in Queens, and I met Calvin there. Calvin and I became friendly, even though the mother was always with him. And, yes, I heard the [Psycho] rumor, people were always saying that about Calvin. He and his mother had a very close relationship which he didn't care for, but he just couldn't get rid of her. I guess he was too polite to tell her off, to say, "I'm a grown man, I'm middle-aged. Don't follow me around!" But she didn't have any kind of a life aside from him, so I guess she had nothing else to do!"
Writer James H. Burns first met Beck in the "Hospitality Suite" of a 1976 Lunacon; Burns walked in and saw a man on the phone with the hotel operator, imitating Orson Welles and asking to be connected with the Diamond Exchange in South Africa ("That was my introduction to Calvin Beck!"). Burns also questions the persistent rumor. "It sort of smacks of something that may have started as a funny joke, and became a rumor, and then was around so long and seemed to have so much going for it that it became accepted as truth," says the Esquire/American Film/Preview/Starlog scribe. "There could have been grudges back in the '60s that continued for a long time, or even resentment that Calvin was the only person of that fan group who was publishing a successful magazine. He may have been the only fan ever to publish a national magazine, at least, one that lasted that many years. Maybe secretly people resented that -- fandom can be an envious place. And any negative thing you could say about Calvin would stick in people's minds. The [Psycho rumor] is the kind of story that has such resonance to it, such bizarre juice, that over 30 years of thinking about it, you could start accepting it as fact without even realizing that you first heard it as a rumor."
Mrs. Carter sticks to her guns. "I was told that Robert Bloch admitted it, but he was a little reluctant [because] he was afraid of a lawsuit or something! It was common knowledge, and it was not something that people surmised.
"Lin and I used to give what was quite a celebrated Halloween party every year, starting in 1964 maybe," Carter continues. "For about 12 years, we gave a big, big party. People came from all over, it was well known in fandom and a lot of people from fandom were part of the group, science fiction and fantasy writers and artists. And Calvin always used to angle for an invitation. I had never invited him because of his mother, because his mother went with him everywhere. For instance, she went to all of the cons, whatever con he went to, she was there too. What happened finally was, Calvin called me up and asked why he was never invited to the party. I said, "Well, frankly, Calvin, it's because of your mother. I'd love to have you come, but we're all grown-ups here, and we don't invite our parents to parties!" He said he understood, and he would like to come, and he would make sure his mother
didn't.
"So he came to the party, and she called up virtually every hour on the hour. She called up to check that he was there. She called up several times. I'd say, "Mrs. Beck, he is with a group of friends. They're upstairs, they're in the library, looking at books. No, I'm not gonna call him to the phone. Yes, he will get home safely." This is the kind of woman she was! I presume she was like that throughout his life, and this is what Robert Bloch observed. The whole Mother business in Psycho comes from Calvin's mother. August Derleth wrote about Ed Gein in the book Wisconsin Murders [1968]; I read it years ago, and nothing about Gein made me think of Norman and Mother. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that [what Lin Carter, Steinbrunner and, allegedly, Bloch] said was true. As a writer myself, I know that one thing will stick in your mind, and that will be a jumping-off point. Calvin Thomas Beck's mother was the jumping-off point for Psycho."
"His mother was a clinging, demanding woman, and for years the two of them lived as if there was no one else in the world." Dr. Richmond (Simon Oakland)
Adding weight to the argument, Beck even resembled the fictional Norman. "Calvin was overweight, very greasy-looking, with a full, fat-cheeked face," says Carter. "He had black, wavy hair that was very unattractive, and a mustache. And he did wear glasses. Calvin was always overweight, and unhealthy looking."
"But he was wall-eyed," says Cocchi, adding a detail not found in the Bloch book. "One eye was straight, and the other one looked over to the side. So he never looked directly at you. I think that was a defect he was born with; he told me once that he had like 30 percent impaired vision, I guess like a black spot. When he looked at people, he couldn't see them correctly unless he moved his head and looked at them with his other eye. (In which case, the bad eye was now looking off to the side!) He didn't explain why he never tried to have it fixed; maybe it couldn't have been."
"I was with Calvin and a friend at a convention in New York," reminisces Ted Bohus, Jersey-based filmmaker and editor-publisher of SPFX magazine. "Calvin was saying something and I was totally ignoring him. My friend said, "Ted! Calvin's talking to you.' I said, "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know -- 'cause he was lookin'at you!" One eye went one direction and one eye went the other direction [laughs]! We were hysterical. But, fortunately, Calvin had a pretty good sense of humor about those things."
Bohus first met Beck in the late 1960s; introduced by a mutual friend, they discovered they not only shared an interest in movies and magazines but that they lived five blocks from one another in North Bergen, New Jersey. Despite their proximity, however, Bohus entered the Beck house (9008 Palisade Avenue) but once. "I had heard that people had a lot of trouble trying to get in to see Calvin," says Bohus. "A lot of times they would go to the door if they were supposed to give him an article or something, and he'd open the door a crack and put his hand out and grab the article and just slam the door in their face. One time he asked me to bring to his house something he needed for the magazine. I go over to the house and he opens the door a crack, and I say, "Well, can I come in?" He looks behind him, like he's worried that something's gonna descend on him, but then he says okay. As I walk in this house, out of one of the adjoining rooms I hear this 'voice' [Bohus makes bird-like shrieking noises]. A horrible, screeching voice! It would yell his name, and then start ranting and raving. I got in for a little while (the place, of course, was all stacked up with crazy shit), but with her ranting and raving so much, I felt embarrassed. I didn't know if she was gonna come out and stick a knife in my back or not! It was that scary. I said, 'Look, Calvin, maybe we'll get together some other time.' And it was a shame, because he seemed to like certain people, like myself, who [shared his interests]. He really seemed like he wanted to get out and do stuff. Boy, it was very strange."
"I think that we're all in our private traps -- clamped in them -- and none of us can ever get out." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
"Mr. X" (a CoF staffer speaking on condition of confidentiality) recalls the one time Beck complained to him about the mother: "He said, 'You have to understand my mother. I'm the only son she has, and I have to live with it.' It was kind of an emotional outburst; he was unhappy about something his mother did, and he said to me, 'She never allows me to have any friends.' That's the only time I ever saw him become emotional. One time his mother got so emotional that [CoF associate editor] Bhob Stewart, who was working there at Beck's house, got so upset he couldn't work any further. He just dropped everything and walked out of the house and took the bus back home. Beck had to call him and reassure him it wasn't gonna happen again." Stewart quit the magazine after a subsequent North Bergen visit ended with Helen Beck raising a shoe over her head and physically threatening him.
"My mother -- what is the phrase? -- she isn't quite herself today." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
Noël Carter remembers one of her stranger encounters: "When I was very new in Lin's group, I did not know that you were supposed to avoid the mother like the plague. We were all at dinner, at a steak house in New York, and Calvin and his mother were there. Everybody rudely just jumped for seats, and I ended up at the end of this long table with Calvin's mother, because everybody else was smart enough to avoid her. She said to me [in a heavy Greek accent], 'So, tell me, dahling, vot you theenk Greek men?' (That's the way she spoke.) I did not want to talk with her [laughs]. I figured, 'If I'm rude, she will ignore me, and I can continue with the conversation at the other end of the table.' So I said, 'Well, frankly, from my experience in college, I think Greek men are dreadful.' She looked at me and she said, 'You're absolutely right!' and, to her, this made us soulmates [laughs]! She then told me about her relationship with her husband, including some of the intimate details, such as the fact that they never slept together after Calvin was born. (You can see what a burden that put on Calvin.) She made her entire life around Calvin. She hated the father; the father was hated and reviled. They lived together but they had no relationship. Her whole life went into Calvin, and Calvin's education: 'I even went to college with Calvin. I monitored all his courses with him.'
"Then she went on to say that her husband (who was no longer living) had been ill for many years. Well, I later found out that the story was that the father had evidently had a stroke or something, and he had been upstairs in the bedroom for years. And no one ever saw him. So, you see, this was another aspect of Calvin's story that Robert Bloch picked up on. The father disappeared up there to the bedroom, and nobody was quite sure when he died. All of a sudden, he just wasn't around any more. I mean [laughs], they could have kept him a prisoner, for all anyone knew! One could really embroider this, I'm just giving you the bare bones, which is that he was up there, a stroke or heart attack victim, cared for, but never seen by anyone after a certain point. Ironically, many, many years later (this was after I divorced Lin), Calvin's mother became ill and bedridden, and she retired to the upstairs, where she was taken care of but never seen. Then, ironically, he became ill, and was bedridden for a long period of time. It's sort of like a generational thing, goodness knows what was going on in that house. I would not particularly like to think about the psycho-dynamics of it, Psycho being the operative word!"
"But she's harmless. She's as harmless as one of these stuffed birds." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
John Cocchi also got the impression that Helen Beck had hated her husband, Calvin's dad. "Well, I think she didn't like too many people. When Calvin and his mother were with us, and one of us had to speak to her (we always avoided her, we always thought she was odd), she would always tell us about her life. But never about her relationship with Calvin, that was never spoken of. She was always saying, 'I was a great concert pianist, but when I married my husband, he forced me to give it up.' She said she had been living almost on the dole since then. We didn't know whether or not to believe her, I didn't really believe her, but I never contradicted her. We always took her with a grain of salt.""She would always have stories to tell," laughs CoF contributor Charles Collins, who first met the Becks (again through Steinbrunner) back in the '50s when father, mother and son lived in Elmhurst, Queens. "Oh, she said she had worked for the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover had gotten down on his hands and knees to thank her for the work she did. She was very anti-Communist at the time, and she always felt there were Communists pursuing her [laughs]! Then we'd hear about all the other great things that she did, and what an artist she was in the old country."
Collins continues, "After Psycho came out, the [Calvin-Norman] rumor was very prevalent among the science-fiction crowd. I met Robert Bloch on a couple occasions, like when he was guest of honor at the first World Fantasy Convention, but I did not feel that I knew him well enough to ask. But the rumor was always there, and I always wondered about it myself. Calvin's mother was extremely possessive and controlling, and quite mad. She had the classic delusions of grandeur and delusions of persecution. So our relationship with Calvin ran in cycles. We would go over there, we'd visit him, we'd go out with him, but every time we went out, his mother always came with us. Always, right up until she got so elderly that she couldn't. But whenever she felt that we were getting close to Calvin, she would break up the relationship in very bizarre ways. We'd be friendly with Calvin for a while, and then the mother would intervene and we wouldn't see him any more. Then a few years would pass and everything would be all right again."
In preparing his 1975 book Heroes of the Horrors, Beck contacted New York-based movie producer Richard Gordon and asked to speak with him about his experiences with Bela Lugosi. "This must have been in the early 1970s. I was at my old office at 120 West 57th Street," says the veteran filmmaker. "He called me and asked me if he could come up to interview me. It was, I think, the first interview I ever did for a genre magazine. He came up, and his mother, whom I had heard about from Bill Everson and other people, came along with him. He came into my office and sat down, and she stood in the corner behind his chair. Didn't say a word throughout the entire interview, just kept her eye on him. I also remember that she was dressed all in black. He was dressed very informally, but she was dressed completely in black, rather like Mrs. Danvers always was in Rebecca. He must have been in my office for about a half-hour or so. And when he finished, he got up and thanked me and he and she walked out. She was silent throughout the entire session. I was reminded of Norman Bates and his mother in Psycho -- the whole ambience of having him and his mother in my office was very reminiscent of Psycho. That's the thought that's crossed my mind any time I've thought of him, down through the years."
Fans of vintage horror films tend not to be drawn to the exploits of real-life serial killers; for our "fixes" of macabre mayhem, we turn instead to the silver screen and the (generally bloodless) bloodbaths harmlessly play-acted on Hollywood sound stages. And yet the name Ed Gein is familiar to most horror fans: We know that the shiftless, middle-aged Wisconsin ne'er-do-well was responsible for a string of grisly backwoods killings and mutilations (not always in that order), and the reason we know is because Robert Bloch reportedly used him as the model for the character of Norman Bates in the novel Psycho.
But, apart from their respective homicidal streaks, similarities between the two are elusive, to say the least. Bloch wrote in his 1993 autobiography Once Around the Bloch that he "knew very little of the details concerning [the Gein] case and virtually nothing about Gein himself" when he wrote his 1959 page-turner. The author claims to have created Norman "from whole cloth," basing his story on no person, "living or dead, involved in the Gein affair" (italics mine). And, true to Bloch's disclaimers, there's precious little resemblance between the grinning, gregarious small-town loafer Gein and the Norman Bates described in Bloch's novel: a plump, bespectacled, 40-year-old motel clerk who relishes his books, basks in gruesome fantasies, and squirms under the ruthless domination of his ever-present, nagging mother.
Noël Carter, wife of renowned fantasy-SF writer Linwood Carter (1930-88), says that "Norman" can be traced to a far more likely sounding source of inspiration. "I heard about this from Lin," offers Mrs. Carter (an author herself). "Lin and I met at the end of 1962 and were married in '63, and I became very involved with science fiction and fantasy, and with all Lin's cronies. Among his cronies were Chris Steinbrunner from [New York City's] WOR-TV, a wonderful, dear friend, and an awful lot of people who had been around in the '50s. They were all older than I, and among the people in the group that sort of ebbed and flowed with time was Robert Bloch. And Bloch was fascinated by [Castle of Frankenstein magazine publisher-editor] Calvin Thomas Beck. Calvin was also in that group, on the fringes of it, with his mother constantly in tow.
"When I met Lin, we saw all the Hitchcock retrospectives and were avid Hitchcock fans. I told him how much I liked Psycho, and he told me the story that, when Robert Bloch was part of this group, Bloch got the idea for Psycho and he based it on two characters. One was the Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, who killed women and hung up their eviscerated bodies. Ed Gein is the one everybody knows about. But Norman was also based on Calvin Thomas Beck and his mother.
"Chris Steinbrunner [author of two renowned film books and the Edgar-winning The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection] later confirmed this, so it wasn't just from Lin. This was common knowledge, but it wasn't discussed a great deal because Calvin was part of the group and it might hurt his feelings. Calvin's mother was a noisy, dominating little Greek woman who followed him most everywhere. She told me herself that she went to his college classes, she monitored classes at college with Calvin. As she told me this, I thought to myself, 'He must want to kill her!,' but he was completely dominated by her."
John Cocchi, one of America's top film researchers, an author and expert-in-residence for American Movie Classics, is less certain about the long-whispered "Beck-Bates" connection. "Chris Steinbrunner used to invite me to the very elaborate Halloween parties that Noël and Lin gave out in Queens, and I met Calvin there. Calvin and I became friendly, even though the mother was always with him. And, yes, I heard the [Psycho] rumor, people were always saying that about Calvin. He and his mother had a very close relationship which he didn't care for, but he just couldn't get rid of her. I guess he was too polite to tell her off, to say, "I'm a grown man, I'm middle-aged. Don't follow me around!" But she didn't have any kind of a life aside from him, so I guess she had nothing else to do!"
Writer James H. Burns first met Beck in the "Hospitality Suite" of a 1976 Lunacon; Burns walked in and saw a man on the phone with the hotel operator, imitating Orson Welles and asking to be connected with the Diamond Exchange in South Africa ("That was my introduction to Calvin Beck!"). Burns also questions the persistent rumor. "It sort of smacks of something that may have started as a funny joke, and became a rumor, and then was around so long and seemed to have so much going for it that it became accepted as truth," says the Esquire/American Film/Preview/Starlog scribe. "There could have been grudges back in the '60s that continued for a long time, or even resentment that Calvin was the only person of that fan group who was publishing a successful magazine. He may have been the only fan ever to publish a national magazine, at least, one that lasted that many years. Maybe secretly people resented that -- fandom can be an envious place. And any negative thing you could say about Calvin would stick in people's minds. The [Psycho rumor] is the kind of story that has such resonance to it, such bizarre juice, that over 30 years of thinking about it, you could start accepting it as fact without even realizing that you first heard it as a rumor."
Mrs. Carter sticks to her guns. "I was told that Robert Bloch admitted it, but he was a little reluctant [because] he was afraid of a lawsuit or something! It was common knowledge, and it was not something that people surmised.
"Lin and I used to give what was quite a celebrated Halloween party every year, starting in 1964 maybe," Carter continues. "For about 12 years, we gave a big, big party. People came from all over, it was well known in fandom and a lot of people from fandom were part of the group, science fiction and fantasy writers and artists. And Calvin always used to angle for an invitation. I had never invited him because of his mother, because his mother went with him everywhere. For instance, she went to all of the cons, whatever con he went to, she was there too. What happened finally was, Calvin called me up and asked why he was never invited to the party. I said, "Well, frankly, Calvin, it's because of your mother. I'd love to have you come, but we're all grown-ups here, and we don't invite our parents to parties!" He said he understood, and he would like to come, and he would make sure his mother
didn't.
"So he came to the party, and she called up virtually every hour on the hour. She called up to check that he was there. She called up several times. I'd say, "Mrs. Beck, he is with a group of friends. They're upstairs, they're in the library, looking at books. No, I'm not gonna call him to the phone. Yes, he will get home safely." This is the kind of woman she was! I presume she was like that throughout his life, and this is what Robert Bloch observed. The whole Mother business in Psycho comes from Calvin's mother. August Derleth wrote about Ed Gein in the book Wisconsin Murders [1968]; I read it years ago, and nothing about Gein made me think of Norman and Mother. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that [what Lin Carter, Steinbrunner and, allegedly, Bloch] said was true. As a writer myself, I know that one thing will stick in your mind, and that will be a jumping-off point. Calvin Thomas Beck's mother was the jumping-off point for Psycho."
"His mother was a clinging, demanding woman, and for years the two of them lived as if there was no one else in the world." Dr. Richmond (Simon Oakland)
Adding weight to the argument, Beck even resembled the fictional Norman. "Calvin was overweight, very greasy-looking, with a full, fat-cheeked face," says Carter. "He had black, wavy hair that was very unattractive, and a mustache. And he did wear glasses. Calvin was always overweight, and unhealthy looking."
"But he was wall-eyed," says Cocchi, adding a detail not found in the Bloch book. "One eye was straight, and the other one looked over to the side. So he never looked directly at you. I think that was a defect he was born with; he told me once that he had like 30 percent impaired vision, I guess like a black spot. When he looked at people, he couldn't see them correctly unless he moved his head and looked at them with his other eye. (In which case, the bad eye was now looking off to the side!) He didn't explain why he never tried to have it fixed; maybe it couldn't have been."
"I was with Calvin and a friend at a convention in New York," reminisces Ted Bohus, Jersey-based filmmaker and editor-publisher of SPFX magazine. "Calvin was saying something and I was totally ignoring him. My friend said, "Ted! Calvin's talking to you.' I said, "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know -- 'cause he was lookin'at you!" One eye went one direction and one eye went the other direction [laughs]! We were hysterical. But, fortunately, Calvin had a pretty good sense of humor about those things."
Bohus first met Beck in the late 1960s; introduced by a mutual friend, they discovered they not only shared an interest in movies and magazines but that they lived five blocks from one another in North Bergen, New Jersey. Despite their proximity, however, Bohus entered the Beck house (9008 Palisade Avenue) but once. "I had heard that people had a lot of trouble trying to get in to see Calvin," says Bohus. "A lot of times they would go to the door if they were supposed to give him an article or something, and he'd open the door a crack and put his hand out and grab the article and just slam the door in their face. One time he asked me to bring to his house something he needed for the magazine. I go over to the house and he opens the door a crack, and I say, "Well, can I come in?" He looks behind him, like he's worried that something's gonna descend on him, but then he says okay. As I walk in this house, out of one of the adjoining rooms I hear this 'voice' [Bohus makes bird-like shrieking noises]. A horrible, screeching voice! It would yell his name, and then start ranting and raving. I got in for a little while (the place, of course, was all stacked up with crazy shit), but with her ranting and raving so much, I felt embarrassed. I didn't know if she was gonna come out and stick a knife in my back or not! It was that scary. I said, 'Look, Calvin, maybe we'll get together some other time.' And it was a shame, because he seemed to like certain people, like myself, who [shared his interests]. He really seemed like he wanted to get out and do stuff. Boy, it was very strange."
"I think that we're all in our private traps -- clamped in them -- and none of us can ever get out." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
"Mr. X" (a CoF staffer speaking on condition of confidentiality) recalls the one time Beck complained to him about the mother: "He said, 'You have to understand my mother. I'm the only son she has, and I have to live with it.' It was kind of an emotional outburst; he was unhappy about something his mother did, and he said to me, 'She never allows me to have any friends.' That's the only time I ever saw him become emotional. One time his mother got so emotional that [CoF associate editor] Bhob Stewart, who was working there at Beck's house, got so upset he couldn't work any further. He just dropped everything and walked out of the house and took the bus back home. Beck had to call him and reassure him it wasn't gonna happen again." Stewart quit the magazine after a subsequent North Bergen visit ended with Helen Beck raising a shoe over her head and physically threatening him.
"My mother -- what is the phrase? -- she isn't quite herself today." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
Noël Carter remembers one of her stranger encounters: "When I was very new in Lin's group, I did not know that you were supposed to avoid the mother like the plague. We were all at dinner, at a steak house in New York, and Calvin and his mother were there. Everybody rudely just jumped for seats, and I ended up at the end of this long table with Calvin's mother, because everybody else was smart enough to avoid her. She said to me [in a heavy Greek accent], 'So, tell me, dahling, vot you theenk Greek men?' (That's the way she spoke.) I did not want to talk with her [laughs]. I figured, 'If I'm rude, she will ignore me, and I can continue with the conversation at the other end of the table.' So I said, 'Well, frankly, from my experience in college, I think Greek men are dreadful.' She looked at me and she said, 'You're absolutely right!' and, to her, this made us soulmates [laughs]! She then told me about her relationship with her husband, including some of the intimate details, such as the fact that they never slept together after Calvin was born. (You can see what a burden that put on Calvin.) She made her entire life around Calvin. She hated the father; the father was hated and reviled. They lived together but they had no relationship. Her whole life went into Calvin, and Calvin's education: 'I even went to college with Calvin. I monitored all his courses with him.'
"Then she went on to say that her husband (who was no longer living) had been ill for many years. Well, I later found out that the story was that the father had evidently had a stroke or something, and he had been upstairs in the bedroom for years. And no one ever saw him. So, you see, this was another aspect of Calvin's story that Robert Bloch picked up on. The father disappeared up there to the bedroom, and nobody was quite sure when he died. All of a sudden, he just wasn't around any more. I mean [laughs], they could have kept him a prisoner, for all anyone knew! One could really embroider this, I'm just giving you the bare bones, which is that he was up there, a stroke or heart attack victim, cared for, but never seen by anyone after a certain point. Ironically, many, many years later (this was after I divorced Lin), Calvin's mother became ill and bedridden, and she retired to the upstairs, where she was taken care of but never seen. Then, ironically, he became ill, and was bedridden for a long period of time. It's sort of like a generational thing, goodness knows what was going on in that house. I would not particularly like to think about the psycho-dynamics of it, Psycho being the operative word!"
"But she's harmless. She's as harmless as one of these stuffed birds." Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins)
John Cocchi also got the impression that Helen Beck had hated her husband, Calvin's dad. "Well, I think she didn't like too many people. When Calvin and his mother were with us, and one of us had to speak to her (we always avoided her, we always thought she was odd), she would always tell us about her life. But never about her relationship with Calvin, that was never spoken of. She was always saying, 'I was a great concert pianist, but when I married my husband, he forced me to give it up.' She said she had been living almost on the dole since then. We didn't know whether or not to believe her, I didn't really believe her, but I never contradicted her. We always took her with a grain of salt.""She would always have stories to tell," laughs CoF contributor Charles Collins, who first met the Becks (again through Steinbrunner) back in the '50s when father, mother and son lived in Elmhurst, Queens. "Oh, she said she had worked for the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover had gotten down on his hands and knees to thank her for the work she did. She was very anti-Communist at the time, and she always felt there were Communists pursuing her [laughs]! Then we'd hear about all the other great things that she did, and what an artist she was in the old country."
Collins continues, "After Psycho came out, the [Calvin-Norman] rumor was very prevalent among the science-fiction crowd. I met Robert Bloch on a couple occasions, like when he was guest of honor at the first World Fantasy Convention, but I did not feel that I knew him well enough to ask. But the rumor was always there, and I always wondered about it myself. Calvin's mother was extremely possessive and controlling, and quite mad. She had the classic delusions of grandeur and delusions of persecution. So our relationship with Calvin ran in cycles. We would go over there, we'd visit him, we'd go out with him, but every time we went out, his mother always came with us. Always, right up until she got so elderly that she couldn't. But whenever she felt that we were getting close to Calvin, she would break up the relationship in very bizarre ways. We'd be friendly with Calvin for a while, and then the mother would intervene and we wouldn't see him any more. Then a few years would pass and everything would be all right again."
In preparing his 1975 book Heroes of the Horrors, Beck contacted New York-based movie producer Richard Gordon and asked to speak with him about his experiences with Bela Lugosi. "This must have been in the early 1970s. I was at my old office at 120 West 57th Street," says the veteran filmmaker. "He called me and asked me if he could come up to interview me. It was, I think, the first interview I ever did for a genre magazine. He came up, and his mother, whom I had heard about from Bill Everson and other people, came along with him. He came into my office and sat down, and she stood in the corner behind his chair. Didn't say a word throughout the entire interview, just kept her eye on him. I also remember that she was dressed all in black. He was dressed very informally, but she was dressed completely in black, rather like Mrs. Danvers always was in Rebecca. He must have been in my office for about a half-hour or so. And when he finished, he got up and thanked me and he and she walked out. She was silent throughout the entire session. I was reminded of Norman Bates and his mother in Psycho -- the whole ambience of having him and his mother in my office was very reminiscent of Psycho. That's the thought that's crossed my mind any time I've thought of him, down through the years."
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