Shamley Productions
Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, Vera Miles, John McIntire
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is the clerk at a real estate company in Phoenix who has been a faithful employee for 10 years. But she’s in a relationship with a recently divorced man from San Francisco. Stealing a moment whenever he is in town on business, they want to get married, but he has so many bills he cannot give her any kind of life. A coincidence gives her the opportunity to steal $40,000.00 and she decides to run away with it. Since she was supposed to deposit the 40k on Friday night, nobody is going to miss it until Monday. This will give her a chance to get away with it and make the drive to San Francisco. But on the way, sleepy and simply worn out, she decides to stop at an out of the way motel run by a gentle but mysterious man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who is under a lot of stress from a very angry invalid mother. Poor Marion has no idea what she’s dealing with.
Everyone knows the story of Psycho, but sometimes I love to pull out classic movies that my daughter has never seen. The main reason for choosing Psycho is not the story, because as I’ve said, the story is well known now. When Psycho was released, Hitchcock pulled out all the stops. As you will see in the preview Hitchcock doesn’t give away anything of the story, but merely introduces you to the famous set at Universal Studios where this was filmed. At the time this was shown, it was customary to come to the theater any time at all and watch the movie from the middle somewhere, and then stay until you got back to the place where you came in. This was an annoying way to watch some films, but it was the custom. No one paid any attention to when the movie actually started. A couple films restricted anyone from entering the theater during the final half hour, or before the final scene, but Hitchcock went all the way to require the theater to not admit anyone after the movie started. He realized that you have to watch it from the beginning to get the impact of the story. But this requirement in itself created a great deal of publicity to see what it was all about.
Psycho was shocking for its day. Plus the style and techniques of Hitchcock in this film is unbelievable. Any lover of film can appreciate the spectacular way he told the story. Every camera shot and angle was planned to the minutest detail. The famous shower scene was choreographed in hundreds of individual shots and is legendary in itself. This is a great film to be enjoyed in the magically restored “Collector’s Edition” and is something that is great to see again if it’s been years since you’ve seen it, and certainly not to be missed if you’ve never had the privilege.
One of the most fantastic horror/suspense films ever and one that changed the face of cinema forever. Classic Hitchcock and perhaps his greatest film.
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