Psycho
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this 1960 film thriller based on a novel by Robert Bloch is remembered for its depiction of on-screen violence and for its celebrated "shower scene." Shot on a shoestring budget of $800,000 by the crew of Hitchcock's television show, this black-and-white classic was a carefully crafted work of cinema that also upped the ante on movie mayhem. The staggering box-office success of Psycho —it has earned $40 million to date—inspired, and continues to encourage, a host of imitators who are still pushing the envelope on filmic bloodshed, but rarely with the artistry displayed by Hitchcock. Psycho is the first classic black-and-white film since Selznick's The Prisoner of Zenda that underwent a later, full-color, shot-for-shot remake of its original script.
Mystery/fantasy/science-fiction writer Bloch based his 1959 novel Psycho very loosely on the real-life case of murderer Ed Gein. The book tells the story of a lonely, mother-fixated motelkeeper named Norman Bates. Norman and his mom are the sole proprietors of the Bates Motel, a now-seedy establishment patronized by Mary Crane, a young office worker who has impulsively stolen $40,000 of her boss's money. After a chat with Norman in which he discusses his apparently unbalanced mother ("I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times") Mary resolves to return the loot before anyone knows it's missing. But Mary is fated never to leave the Bates Motel alive, cut down in her shower by a butcher knife wielded by someone with "the face of a crazy old woman." Mary's sister initiates an investigation into her disappearance, which, after more murder and mystery, eventually reveals that Norman killed his mother as a youth and has now become a homicidal split personality of Norman/Mother.
It was screenwriter Joseph Stefano who came up with the inspiration to begin the story with the secretary (now Marion) instead of Norman and his mother. By telling the story from Marion's point of view, and engaging audience sympathy for her, the film could shock the audience by disposing of her before the film was barely half over. To add to this impact, Hitchcock cast well-known actress Janet Leigh in the role. To attract sympathy for Norman, the director chose Anthony Perkins, portrayer of sensitive men in such 1950s films as Friendly Persuasion and Fear Strikes Out. After the release of Psycho, public perception of Perkins was irrevocably altered, leading to a career of "weird" roles, climaxed by his reprises of Norman Bates in several much-belated sequels.
Shooting on Psycho proceeded rapidly, but a week was lavished on one sequence: the shower murder. Working from a storyboard by title designer Saul Bass, Hitchcock shot the death scene from many different angles which, when edited into a rapid montage—and underscored by the piercing strings of Bernard Herrmann's music—had the desired effect of shocking the audience on a primal level. Hitchcock's clever ad campaign, coupled with the stricture against seating anyone after the film had begun, was tongue-in-cheek: "Don't give away the ending—it's the only one we have!" The director always claimed that the film was a black-humored joke, not to be taken seriously, but there was no denying its impact on the moviegoers who flocked to the film in great numbers and subsequently swore off taking showers. (Among those claiming still to be afraid of showers: Janet Leigh.) Psycho proved to be the capstone of Hitchcock's career, earning him one of his few Oscar nominations.
Compared to the host of horrors which have followed in its wake, from the Friday the 13th series to Scream and its imitators, Psycho was most circumspect in its handling of gore. Hitchcock had been offered the opportunity by his technicians to show a knife actually entering Marion's torso, but had chosen instead to achieve his effects through sheer montage. The monochromatic cinematography he used not only suited the eerie, haunted house mood but also avoided a Technicolor blood bath: The blood seen spattering in the shower sequence was actually chocolate syrup. One proof of Psycho's impact on popular culture came in the 1990s when acquitted murder suspect O. J. Simpson jokingly surprised a TV interviewer by pouncing from behind a door, making stabbing motions, all the while imitating Bernard Herrmann's high-pitched violins.
Further Reading:
Bloch, Robert. Psycho. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1959.
Bogdanovich, Peter. Who the Devil Made It? New York, Ballantine, 1998.
Gottlieb, Sidney, editor. Hitchcock on Hitchcock. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997.
Leigh, Janet. Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. New York, Harmony Books, 1995.
Smith, Steven C. A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991.
Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Boston, Little, Brown, 1983.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock. New York, Pantheon (Random House), 1978.
Truffaut, François Hitchcock. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1984.
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