PSYCHO. 1960. DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK. BASED ON THE BOOK OF THE SAME NAME BY ROBERT BLOCH. SCREENPLAY BY JOSEPH STEFANO. MUSIC BY BERNARD HERRMANN. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY JOHN L. RUSSELL.
STARRING ANTHONY PERKINS, JANET
LEIGH, VERA MILES, JOHN GAVIN, MORT MILLS, JOHN ANDERSON AND MARTIN
BALSAM.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Most people are pretty clear about what
their own favourite Hitchcock films are. Ask any Alfred Hitchcock fan
for their Top Three favourite films and they'll rattle 'em off for
you at the drop of a hat. My personal faves would be ROPE, PSYCHO,
FRENZY, VERTIGO, THE BIRDS and
REAR WINDOW. I
sometimes change the order but the films remain the same.
I also love
his first film, silent movie THE LODGER, and,
to be honest, pretty much everything of his I've ever seen. He was a genius. Wanna
argue with me? Yeah, didn't think so, haha.
I've
only ever watched PSYCHO a
few times in my life, believe it or not. I find
it too genuinely frightening to watch too frequently. The first time I saw it, I
was a greenhorn school-leaver, crazy about films but afraid of my own
shadow. After a tough week of studying for exams, I'd stay up till
all hours on Friday nights to watch the late film.
The
rest of the family would be in bed and I'd thankfully have the place
to myself. One Friday night the late film was PSYCHO, a psychological horror-thriller loosely based on the crimes of Wisconsin murderer and
grave-robber Ed Gein. He
had a deceased Mumsie who'd dominated him in life, he kept her room
intact as a shrine to her and he minced about in her clobber. Sound
like anyone else we know...?
PSYCHO
changed the way I thought about films forever. It changed my life.
Hardly a day's gone by since that first viewing that I haven't
thought about it. Weird, huh...?
Clearly, other people hold the same
views on the subject because in 1992 the film was selected for
preservation in the National Film Registry because the US Library of
Congress deemed it 'culturally, historically or
aesthetically significant.' This
is, of course, a huge honour for the film that is considered to have
kicked off the 'slasher' genre.
It was
simultaneously the best but also the most frightening movie I'd ever
seen in my life. When the climax came, by which I mean the grisly
scene in the fruit cellar with a certain Mother, I literally ran from
the TV room up to my bedroom, where I crawled under the covers and
lay awake and shivering for the rest of the night. I was
traumatised for weeks afterwards. I was too afraid
to stay up for the film's dénoument
and the bit where they explain
things and wrap everything up. I didn't find out how it all ended for
many years.
Years
later, I read the superb novel on which the film is based. It filled
in any gaps that were remaining, plus it had an advantage over the
film in that I could always put it away for a bit if I got scared
reading it. I own two copies of the book now. The covers are amazing.
One has a bloody hand on it with the fingers splayed out against the
glass of a shower stall. The other one features the lovely Janet Leigh in
a pointy 'Fifties-style brassiére
and an underslip. I
think I like that one best.
Although I
frequently wanted to, I could never bring myself to watch the film
again until recently, but as I said I've probably thought about it
every day since. That's one hell of an impact for a film to have. I
think the Great Director (the greatest who ever lived, I might add)
would be pleased to hear that. Or maybe he'd
just accept it as his rightful due, haha.
The
film is shot in black-and-white and has a fantastic, instantly
recognisable score by Bernard Herrmann and a few much-parodied
scenes. In THE SIMPSONS, for
example, Baby Maggie hits Homer over the head in a spoof of the
famous shower scene, and remember when Sideshow Bob is writing one of
his I'm Coming To Kill You letters
to Bart Simpson?
His surroundings are modelled on the creepy office adorned with stuffed birds at the Bates Motel. Coincidentally, that brilliant episode in which The Simpsons re-locate to Terror Lake to get away from Sideshow Bob (based on CAPE FEAR) is on SKY ONE as I type this.
His surroundings are modelled on the creepy office adorned with stuffed birds at the Bates Motel. Coincidentally, that brilliant episode in which The Simpsons re-locate to Terror Lake to get away from Sideshow Bob (based on CAPE FEAR) is on SKY ONE as I type this.
And, of
course, the relationship between Principal Seymour Skinner and his
domineering (s)mother Agnes is hilariously based on that between
Norman Bates and his dearest Mumsie.
'But Mother, that sailor suit doesn't
fit me anymore...!'
The
Bates Motel, which has itself become synonymous with any spooky,
evil-looking, dark or
out-of-the-way establishment, is the
setting for what many consider to be Hitchcock's cinematic
masterpiece. It's run by social misfit Norman Bates, who lives there
alone with his bad-tempered and controlling invalid mother. He has no
life outside of the two M's (Motel and Mother), and he has one or two
rather curious habits, which you'll see for yourself when you watch
the movie.
Poor Marion
Crane, a pretty blonde secretary from Phoenix, Arizona played by
Janet Leigh, finds herself over-nighting at the Bates Motel in
Fairvale after she does an ill-advised runner with forty thousand
dollars belonging to a wealthy client of her boss's. She does it so
that she and her lover, hardware store owner Sam Loomis from
Fairvale, can be together at last. It proves to be the worst- and
pretty much the last- decision she ever makes.
You see,
sometimes people who check into the Bates Motel don't ever leave it,
and I'll tell you this for nothing. It's not because of the fluffy
towels, the comfy, louse-free pillows, the quality of the mattresses
and the five-star reviews on TripAdvisor. Poor tired and confused
Marion, all mixed up about what she's done, hasn't a notion of an
idea of what she's let herself in for when she gratefully turns off
her car engine outside the Bates Motel and steps out into the rain.
Anyway,
Marion's disappearance brings a steady stream of unwanted traffic
through the doors of Norman's motel. Marion's sister Lila is
desperate to find her missing sibling, whether she's guilty of
stealing the money or not. She just wants her Big Sis back safe and sound. She involves Marion's boyfriend in
Fairvale, the aforementioned local hardware store owner Sam Loomis.
A private
investigator called Milton Arbogast (what a brilliant name!), hired
by Marion's boss, is also as keen as mustard to track down the missing
woman. Who can tell them what happened to poor misguided Marion
Crane? Can Norman Bates? Can his housebound elderly mother, whose
silhouette we've clearly seen at one of the upstairs windows? You'll
see, dear readers, you'll see...
Anthony
Perkins is fantastic as messed-up psychopath Norman Bates. There are
three excellent sequels in which he's a lot older. The original film
is the only one in which he appears as a really young man and he's
actually as cute as a button, standing around all lanky and lean and
constantly munching casually on candy. From what I've heard, the
candy-chewing was Anthony Perkins's own idea. He's so good, so
natural and so realistic in the role that it's no wonder he became a
little bit typecast afterwards...!
Janet
Leigh and her equally famous horror actress daughter Jamie Lee Curtis
of HALLOWEEN fame are
so alike that I actually shed a few tears watching the lovely Ms.
Leigh do a superb job of acting in her biggest ever role. She was a
fantastic actress and a beautiful and gracious lady to boot.
Audiences at
the time of the film's release were shocked that Hitchcock did
something rather wickedly naughty and possibly unprecedented to his
leading lady before the film was even half over, but that's Mr.
Hitchcock for you. He liked to shock and he normally got the result
he was after.
Hitchcock
urged the audiences of the day not to spoil the film for other viewers by
revealing the film's gruesome secrets to them, that's how big a deal
PSYCHO was in its day.
I hope I'm not giving away too much by telling you that Janet Leigh
eschewed showers forever after acting in the film.
I can't
say I blame her. As she said herself, that's probably one of the
places where we're at our most vulnerable. Most open to a visit from
a knife-wielding maniac, haha. I'd say Ms. Leigh wasn't the only
person who decided to take baths instead after watching the movie.
Facing the bathroom door, of course, with the shower curtains
wide-open, and the
poker close at hand for the purposes of self-defence...!
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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