The Bottom Line: This film is one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and is a must-see for anyone interested in film history, Hitchcock, or horror.
Psycho is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best and most famous films. Although it is usually considered to be a black comedy and a horror movie, it also qualifies as a mystery. There is considerable suspense throughout, and Anthony Perkins' character (Norman Bates) has become one of the most infamous villains in film history.
There are spoilers in the following paragraphs, but it would be difficult to discuss the film properly without giving much away.
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a calculating young woman who embezzles a large sum of cash from her employer, then leaves town to escape the crime. She spends the night at a desolated motel run by nervous, talkative Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Norman is controlled by a shrewish mother, heard but never seen.
Soon, private investigator Arbogast (Martin Balsam) seeks Marion to recover the money. Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) and Dana Andrews clone John Gavin also search for Marion, with all leads intersecting at the Bates Motel.
Psycho features a terrific score by Bernard Herrmann, unusual for its complete reliance upon strings. The film is most famous for its shower scene, which took a week to film, and used a body double for Perkins. Martin Balsam's tumble down the stairs was an illusion created by a filmed backdrop.
Hitchcock broke innumerable taboos with his first entry in the horror genre. The film's lead abruptly changes from Leigh to Perkins, with early scenes of a foolish rich braggart and a suspicious policeman proving to be red herrings. The film opens with an unmarried couple in a sleazy motel room. Later, we see a toilet flushing, Janet Leigh naked in a shower, and hear casual use of the word transvestite. Anatomy of a Murder and Suddenly, Last Summer (both from 1959) were also instrumental in helping to break down the restrictive Hollywood production code.
The early 1960s was Hollywood's 'Golden Age' of black comedies. Films like The Little Shop of Horrors, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Manchurian Candidate and Dr. Strangelove had to be seen to be believed.
Hitchcock makes his own contribution to the cynical genre. When the car stops submerging halfway in the swamp, we see Norman's nervous indecision. There's also the shop customer who doesn't want her garden insects to suffer from poison. Norman makes endless double-meaning references to his mental condition and relationship with his mother.
All this adds to the pleasure of seeing the film again, when you already know all the 'surprises'. However, repeated viewings make the psychiatrist's closing explanations more annoying. He seems to know everything, even that the bodies were buried in the swamp. While this ties up all the loose ends, it also insults the intelligence of the viewer, whom Hitchcock feels is in need of "Cliff's Notes" to understand the film.
Psycho was a major change from recent Hitchcock films, which were big budget technicolor films featuring major stars such as James Stewart and Cary Grant. Psycho, in contrast, was a low budget movie filmed on the Universal back lot using crew from Hitchcock's television series. However, it became one of the biggest grossing films of the year, making a fortune for Hitchcock who had a large share of the profits.
Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Leigh), Best B & W Cinematography (John L. Russell) and Best Art Direction. It failed to win any Oscars, which were largely swept by Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960).
Psycho changed the career of Anthony Perkins, who would forever after be closely identified with the twitchy, split-personality Norman Bates. Perkins had previously made a mark in Friendly Persuasion, Fear Strikes Out and On The Beach, as sort of a Timothy Hutton of the 1950s. Perkins eventually returned to the Bates role in three sequels, which relied heavily upon black comedy. Psycho was profitably remade in color in 1998 by Gus Van Sant.
Random trivia: Hitchcock tested the shock value of the mummified remains of Mother by placing them in Janet Leigh's dressing room, strategically placed to be seen when she first turned on the light. John Gavin, who plays Leigh's uninteresting boyfriend, later became the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Leigh's daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, would subsequently star in her own hit slasher film, Halloween (1978). (90/100)
Leigh is on the lam with stolen money and makes the mistake of checking into the Bates Motel, run by Perkins... and his mother. Hitchcock's horror fil...More at HotMovieSale.com
Credited with inventing the genre of the modern horror film PSYCHO has had its share of sequels and imitators none of which diminishes the achievement...More at Family Video
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