Psycho (film)

• Release Date: 1960
• Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock
• Writer(s): Joseph Stefano
• Principal Actors and Roles: John Gavin (Sam Loomis); Janet Leigh (Marion Crane); Vera Miles (Lila Crane); Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates); Frank Albertson (Tom Cassidy); Martin Balsam (Milton Arbogast)
• Book / Story Film Based On: Psycho by Robert Bloch

Psycho is a classic American horror film, in which a psychopath murders a woman at the Bates Motel. Its characters, setting, and music have become icons in movie culture, leading to many imitations and parodies.

The movie was a box office hit and a financial success; however, it received mixed reviews when it was released. Some critics felt it used sex and violence for shock value and that it was an inferior film. Others said that it was skillfully done and the actors were excellent. The film was censored or banned in several countries, including Great Britain.

Psycho is considered to be one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s most successful films. Hitchcock, who had previously done many successful suspense films in Technicolor, chose to make Psycho in black and white. He thought audiences would not be able to handle the bloody scenes if they were done in color.

The famous shower scene took seven days to film and the camera was set up seventy-eight separate times for different shots. The film itself took two months to make, plus a few additional weeks of later shooting. It was made on a budget, using the film crew from Hitchcock’s television show, and was shot in Universal Studios’ backlot.

Hitchcock did not reveal the name of the movie, nor of the book it was based on, so that none of the story’s secrets would be revealed ahead of time. He asked critics and audiences not to reveal the story’s twists, and theaters were not allowed to let anyone enter after the movie started.

Plot

In a hotel room, Marion Crane tells her lover, Sam Loomis, she will no longer meet him in hotels. He says he cannot afford to marry her because he is paying alimony. Marion returns to work, where she is given forty thousand dollars to deposit. Instead, she keeps the money and starts driving. On the second evening a rainstorm hits, and she pulls into the rundown Bates Motel.

A young man, Norman Bates, checks her in and offers her dinner later, but Marion soon hears an old woman yelling from his house that she will not allow it. Norman brings Marion sandwiches and says that he wishes he could run away. However, he becomes defensive when Marion suggests that he make a life away from his mother.

When Marion undresses in her room, Norman watches through a peephole. Later, as she showers, a female figure enters and stabs her repeatedly. A short time afterward, Norman’s voice is heard, yelling at his mother about all the blood. He puts Marion’s body into her car and sinks it in the swamp.

Marion’s sister Lila, Sam Loomis, and a detective named Arbogast search for Marion. Arbogast sneaks into the Bates’ house, where a woman stabs him, and Norman sinks him in the swamp.

After the sheriff reveals that Norman’s mother died more than ten years ago, Lila and Sam check into the motel. Lila slips into the house where she discovers the skeleton of an old woman, and is attacked by a woman wielding a knife. Sam struggles with the woman, who is revealed to be Norman, dressed in a wig and gown.

Later, a psychiatrist explains that Norman killed his mother, and that he has a split personality. The mother part of his personality killed any woman he was attracted to, and now that part of his personality has taken over. As Norman sits in his cell, his mother thinks that she will not let Norman accuse her of these crimes, nor will she even kill a fly that lands on her hand.

Significance

Psycho was made for $810,000 and had made fifty million dollars worldwide by 2004. Paramount did not expect Psycho to be a success, so they agreed to distribute it while Hitchcock financed it himself for sixty per cent of the profits. By 1961, it was ranked second biggest moneymaker of all black and white Hollywood films and made the most money of all Hitchcock films.

Hitchcock gave credit to the movie’s score, saying that a third of the effect of the movie was due to the soundtrack. Hitchcock was ready to give up on the film and cut it to a one-hour television show, until he saw it with the music. Composer Bernard Herrmann used only strings, and the horrifying, shrieking noise of the shower scene was produced by a single note played on violins.

Psycho was nominated for many awards, including four Academy Award nominations. Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for best director, Janet Leigh for best supporting actress, George Milo, Robert Clatworthy, and Joseph Hurley for best black-and-white art direction, and John L. Russell for best black-and-white cinematography. Anthony Perkins also won a best actor award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers, and Janet Leigh won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress. The Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America was given to writers Joseph Stefano and Robert Bloch for best motion picture.

Psycho was selected for the National Film Registry in 1992. The National Film Registry chooses films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to be preserved in the Library of Congress. In 1998 the American Film Institute (AFI) included Psycho on AFI’s 100 Years . . . 100 Movies, its list of the greatest American films of all time. It was ranked eighteenth; in 2007 when the list was updated, it had risen to fourteenth. AFI also ranked Psycho number one on AFI’s 100 Years . . . 100 Thrills, a 2001 list of the most thrilling American films of all time. A quote from the film, "A boy’s best friend is his mother," is included on AFI’s list of the one hundred top film quotes of all time. The musical score is ranked fourth for greatest film scores, and Norman Bates is rated second for greatest villains. Psycho is also included on the 2002 National Society of Film Critics’ list of one hundred essential films.

Psycho spawned sequels, imitations, and parodies. Anthony Perkins appeared as Norman Bates in three Universal sequels, Psycho II (1982), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), a cable television movie. In 1998, Psycho was remade using the original score and an updated version of the original screenplay. Psycho is considered the genesis for later slasher films, including the Halloween series, in some of which Janet Leigh’s daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, starred.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Golden Globe (1960) Best Supporting Actress: Janet Leigh

Nominated

• Academy Award (1960) Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Academy Award (1960) Best Supporting Actress: Janet Leigh
• Academy Award (1960) Best Cinematography (Black-and-White)
• Academy Award (1960) Best Art Direction-Set Direction (Black-and-White)

Bibliography

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Konow, David. Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred-year History of Classic Horror Films. New York: St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.

Leigh, Janet, and Christopher Nickens. Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. New York: Harmony, 1995. Print.

Penner, Jonathan, Paul Duncan, and Steven Jay Schneider. Horror Cinema. Köln: Taschen, 2012. Print.

Rebello, Stephen. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Berkeley: Soft Skull, 2013. Print.

Rigby, Jonathan. American Gothic: Sixty Years of Horror Cinema. London: Reynolds, 2007. Print.

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die. Rev. ed. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.