@@CourtReacts-zm9yvit's the same expression/smile that Marion Crane had earlier in the movie while driving listening to those imagined conversations.
Imagine how terrifying and shocking this movie was 60 yrs ago. Split personality, cross dressing, being stabbed in your shower, creepy hotels, homicidal old women, preserving corpses - this was nightmare material. Hitchcock rarely missed an opportunity.
Hitchcock didn't write it. Hitchcock never wrote anything. He was famous for FINDING great stories and transforming them into wonderful, suspenseful movies.
You have to take this in the context of the time. From the early '30's until 1969 (when it was replaced by the current letter code rating system), the highly restrictive Hays Code censored movies in all sorts of ways, including sexual content and amount of blood and gore that could be shown. All the shoot-'em-up movies had the people who died from gunshots with only neat little round holes, nary any blood. Hitchcock was always pushing the envelope. What we see today as only a little bit of blood to the audiences of the time, it was like Dexter on steroids. I don't think they had ever shown flowing blood so Hitchcock had to come up with a substance for that - they used Hershey's chocolate syrup (also used as the oil for the tin woodsman in Wizard of Oz in '39). It was unbelievable to start the movie with Sam and Marian in a hotel bedroom together, as the Hays Code was generally requiring even married couples to be seen sleeping in twin beds. This was the first time any movie showed a toilet being flushed - Hitchcock made it a required part of the story to force them to include it. But of all the censors focused on, it was the word "transsexual" in the explanation at the end. The head office thought it was some the name of some deviant sexual practice. Hitchcock had to show them the dictionary entry that it simply meant "cross-dressing."
i think that Anthony Perkin's acting job here as Norman is about the best acting I've ever seen anywhere. If you someday watch the movie "Twelve Angry Men," you'll see Martin Balsam, who played the detective Arbogast here, in a very different role.
This is the movie that changed how we watch movies. Before this movie, it was traditionally accepted for people to walk into the cinema anytime during the showing, then just stay through the next showing until they reached the point they came in. Hitchcock insisted that no one be admitted after the movie started, in order to avoid spoiling the ending. He required that any theatres showing it had to maintain strict start times, to the point that he had special stand-up advertisements made for the theatres, explaining the new policy. As a result, theatre owners found it easier to manage crowds, and concessions, so they kept the start time model.
It is true that Psycho started the practice of strict start times but it took quite a while for it to become general practice. I well remember, throughout the sixties, being shown to our seats by an usher with a flashlight.
Well into the 1970s and early 1980s when my mother took me out to an occasional movie we almost always got there late, because the previous practice you reference was her "normal." The theaters didn't usually let us stay. I never saw the first half hour of _Star Wars_ or _Mary Poppins_ until I was a full-on adult.
Wonderful commentary. Love that you were so engaged and properly surprised. Check out the Hitchcock thrillers "Rear Window" (1954) and "Shadow if a Doubt" (1943). Thanks for sharing your viewing experience.
During the 1970s, I heard audiences laugh when Ted Knight showed up on screen in the final moments, when nobody should have laughed. When the film was made, no one could have predicted this reaction ten years later. By 2024, few people younger than I am can even recognize Ted Knight, and so the final sequence plays out exactly as it did in 1960.
Hey don't forget psycho 4 . Still stars Perkins like 1-3 and we get flashbacks of Norman and his mother for the first time and it explains alot . The ending of 4 is also a great ending to the franchise
It's great to see an unspoiled reaction... Thanks! So many people already know the secret these days. It's hard to explain how deeply disturbing & shocking this movie was back then. It broke so many rules. Few people had even heard of split personalities, or cross-dressing. This movie even changed the way people went to rhe movies. Movies used to show on a continuous loop with a short break in between. Folks were lax about caring when a movie began. You just went in and watched from wherever it was. After it was over, if you wanted to, you stayed to see the beginning and left when the movie got to the place where you came in. Psycho had movie times and no one was supposed to enter the theater after the shower scene, since Leigh was the star and people would be disappointed if they paid to see her and she was already dead when they entered the movie. They also put signs in theaters asking audiences not to reveal the ending to anyone when they talked people about the movie, and ir mostly worked! People kept the secret so friends and family would see the movie for themselves. Finally, let me be the first to say that Hitchcock used chocolate syrup for the blood in the shower scene, to get the right dark color and thickness of liquid (!). And no one else has mentioned yet that Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis's mother. Anyway, thanks for the reaction!!!
"Cross dresser" made me chuckle knowing it would be blurted out by the jailer, too. MARNIE is another Hitchcock film that deals with a Mother Impact... not really a complex but, yes, 'impact'. All parents know what they do FOR a while... but MARNIE shows what parents can do TO a child. With Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery and the fateful Louise Latham.
ARBOGAST: I'll be back in an hour. COURT: Somehow, I don't think you'll be back in an hour, sir. Alas for Arbogast, this is before the later film that said one should NEVER say "I'll be right back!" Incomplete film knowledge claims another one.
I used to work for a mail-sorting firm. One day the boss brought in a machine that was supposed to do it (but it was mostly just shredding the envelopes). What made us laugh was when it was running it squeeked in a perfect imitation of the violin shrieks during the shower scene from _Psycho._ 😅
You should watch Psycho 2. It's not as good as this movie but it is a worthy sequel. At least, you'll find out what happened to everybody. Don't bother watching three and four; those are garbage.
Good of you to go back to the roots of modern film making! This was probably the most influential film score for horror until "The Exorcist" and "Jaws." Hitchcock was known for making cameos in his films, and you can see him briefly in this one, as she enters her office just a few minutes in. Like "Star Wars," this was a very low budget film made by a passionate director, and it made a ton of money around the world. Two other notable early films, I'd say, are "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and "It's A Wonderful Life." The first, for its exploration of fantasy and special effects (based on a novel from 1900), and the second for its ... consideration of alternatives. No spoilers from me! 🤐
@@CourtReacts-zm9yv I learned it from an old episode of "Petticoat Junction". They lived in the country and had to buy their underwear though mail order. The mother told them "You can buy anything you want, as long as it's white". I was confused, but some nice lady in the comments explained that back then the only reason for colored underwear was to show off for a MAN, lol, and unmarried girl's underwear shouldn't be seen by any man.
@@CourtReacts-zm9yvwhite was day to day. Anything else was “sexy” and why buy that unless a man was involved? Which had to mean marriage or you were a loose woman.
There were several good sequels starring Anthony Perkins and he directed one of them. There was also a remake, a prequel and a television series based on Norman Bates. "Crimes of Passion" was another great murder mystery, that starred Anthony Perkins.
Hitchcock didn't think it was working, & was thinking of turning it into a 2-parter for his TV show, then he heard it with composer Bernard Herrmann's score, & he double Herrmann's salary & said he saved it Herrmann only used string instruments, & called it "a black & white score"
Everyone has to remember when this movie was made. For it's time, such a classic. I'm 66 and have seen this movie over 100 times and won't deny that I'll see it again!
Court, I always enjoy your reactions so much. I started watching you when you were watching Star Trek. Glad you are hitting some of these classic movies. This movie is based on a novel by the great fantasy and Science Fiction writer, Robert Bloch. Joseph Stefano adopted the screenplay. Hitchcock is a great Director. Marion was played by Jamie Lee Curtis’s mom Janet Lee.
Wonderful reaction! May I suggest 'Psycho II' (1983), a brilliant sequel which begins 22 years after this with Norman being released from the nuthouse.
I suspect 90% of all audiences forget the name of the movie. They are so wrapped up in the characters and the tale, always looking for who was doing this without remembering the title: psycho. This is such a consistent "error" by audiences and I bet Hitch was forever proud - IF he was even aware. But, here, 64 years later, audiences are still puzzled from the shower-scene forward about the killer. Some guess it's Norman, but are hedging their bets with Mother-as-the-KIller. And for rewatching... this seems to be infinitely rewatchable. Knowing the ending lets audiences step thru the whole film's process and STILL be wrapped up in the tale. One other thing - this is a popular film-festival movie. If audiences ever have the chance to see it on the big screen in a jammed theatre, the power of the audience will make the film=-watching experience sooo much greater, soooo much powerful. Most folks walk out of the theater amazed - "It's like I've never seen it before!" That's the power of the Big Screen Theater experience.
Loved your reaction to this classic Alfred Hitchcock film. You are correct by saying that the action, cinematography, score, script, are unmatched. as a result of your "spot on" comments, I have subscribed to your channel.
While it wasn't •psychosis• on Marion's part, your guess at about the 10:20 mark was correct: When Marion was driving at night, what we're hearing, is her playing the imaginary conversations in her head, of what others are saying about her. (Or, in the case of Lowry, Cassidy and Caroline, what they would be saying about her when Monday morning arrives. Marion is driving and playing these imaginary conversations in her head, on Saturday night, so that Monday morning is still more than 24 hours in her future.) We know they're imaginary (not real) conversations, for a couple of reasons: 1) She smiles at various points. If these were real conversations, then there would have been nothing to react to, and no reason for her to smile. 2) The movie primes us (earlier) with the fact that Marion imagines future conversations (so that the viewer will have no misunderstanding). Marion imagines the conversation between her and Sam, when she arrives unexpectedly at Sam's town with the money. That conversation hasn't happened yet (and obviously never does happen.) 3) The way the film plays with Marion's facial reactions to her imaginary future conversations, is part of how the film plays with the audience: We can't quite be sure WHO is the psycho that the film title refers to. Because the first half of the film focuses on Marion, and because she takes a certain primitive glee in having gotten away with something, it's natural for us to conclude that the psycho... is her.
Welcome to the world of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense in Cinema circles. He began his career as a director during the silent film era. He directed the first British film that used sound on film technology with the film Blackmail in 1929. He moved to America in 1939. His first American movie Rebecca 1940, won the Oscar for Best Picture. Film students all over the world study his work. Some highly recommended Hitchcock films…. 1963 The Birds 1960 Psycho (you just watched this one) 1959 North by Northwest (Spy’s, sophistication, suspense, laughs, this movie is just fun.) 1958 Vertigo (On many top film lists.) 1955 The Trouble With Harry (Inconvenient corpse. Understated Black Comedy) 1955 To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock on vacation at the French Riviera. Lots of fun.) 1954 Rear Window (one of Hitchcock’s best Movies!) 1953 Dial M for Murder (A man’s plot to murder his wife goes awry…) 1951 Strangers on a Train (Tennis player runs into a Sociopath on a train, murderous consequences) 1948 Rope (Experimental film by Hitchcock of filming a play in long continuous film reel length takes.) 1946 Notorious (Spy love Triangle. awesome movie) 1943 Shadow of a Doubt (Young woman discovers her beloved uncle’s secret and endangers herself.) 1940 Rebecca (Adaptation of the Daphne DuMaurier novel. Must see.)
This was really good!! Do more classic movies!! Alfred Hitchcock is an EXCELLENT place to start. These are some of his best: "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" and "Strangers on a Train" and "Dial M for Murder" and "Rebecca" and "Shadow of a Doubt" and "Notorious" and "The Birds."
Court the first clue that this was about split personality wasn't in the story. It was the opening credits with the SPLIT screen! Also you should watch another thriller.....THE SIXTH SENSE with Bruce Willis. Great story and acting.
I think most of us got faked out by the whole Norman vs his mother thing the first time we saw this. I certainly did! I really enjoyed this reaction, Court! I rate it like you rated the movie: 10 out of 10! 👍👍
I totally agree with you. The story, writing, acting, cinematography, and score are all outstanding. The amazing thing is that the film was done on the cheap! Many, if not all, of Hitchcock's films were experiments in filmmaking in one way or another. In "Psycho," the killing of Marion, the protagonist, disorients the viewer by eliminating someone the film spent some time investing itself in, disrupting the classical model of narration. The film sustains its momentum by transitioning the viewers' interest to Norman before settling on Lila and Sam. The thematic elements present in Psycho are classic Hitchcock cinema: psychotic behavior, voyeurism and motherhood. These themes are also explored in Hitchcock's Rear Window, Notorious, Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt. Indeed, "Shadow of a Doubt" may be regarded as an early "Psycho" precursor. In "Psycho" these themes are explored in greater depth. Hitchcock's studio, Paramount, refused to fund "Psycho" because it had no faith in the source material. So, the film was an experiment in its production. "Psycho" is based on a 1959 novel by Robert Bloch of the same name. Today, both the novel and the film are considered masterpieces of the horror genre. Paramount also would not agree to distribute the film without major concessions from Hitchcock. These included Hitchcock personally financing the project himself while foregoing his usual director’s fee. For his part, Hitchcock retained 60% ownership of the film. Hitchcock mortgaged his own house to finance the film and shot it using his tv crew. Hitchcock had a popular weekly tv anthology series at the time. Clearly, he had a lot of confidence in his tv crew. This low-budget film quickly made millions and made Hitchcock a lot of money. The music for "Psycho" was by Bernard Herrmann, regarded as one of the greatest composers for film. Because the film was low-budget, Herrmann scored it for strings only as opposed to full orchestra. So, the effect in tone-color is also rather b&w. I think if you look at the score, say, of the shower scene, the notes resemble a slash! The dialogue in the film is also fantastic. I love how when Marion is eating, Norman drops a hint that his mother is like his stuffed birds. "She's has harmless as one of those stuffed birds." Marion's last name is "Crane," like a bird. This film is chock-full of all sorts of allusions and symbolism. Circa 1960, just about every car had bench seats. The gear shift was on the steering wheel column so that wouldn't have hindered you. Most cars were manual transmission, too, and without power steering or aircon. Also, by this time, seats were primarily vinyl and fairly slippery. So, it was especially easy to slide across them. The ignition, lights, and wiper knobs were on the dash. It was no problem to just slide across and exit the car on the other side if you wanted to. It could also be safer, if you were parking on the street. You could slide across and get out curbside instead of in the street. Or even because it was quicker to get where you wanted to go rather than walk around the car. Maybe the ground was muddy, too. Lots of reasons to do this. Ah, the younger generation. They don't know so much. They should go to old car shows and check out these beautiful old cars. By the way, if there's ever an EMP, I believe these old cars would still work, the new ones for sure wouldn't. Oh, by the way, that $40,000 would today be over $400,000. So not chump-change.
Hey Sweetness, I love watching your reactions, great job!! Please you must now watch Psycho II....With is a very well done perfect sequel to the original film, that a lot of people don't talk about enough! Please watch the perfect sequel to the original, you won't be disappointed, I promise!!😊👍🏾
Is this your first Hitchcock film? Welcome aboard. Hitchcock was one of the 20th Century's greatest directors. There are other movies like "Vertigo" "Rear Window" "North by Northwest" that Alfred Hitchcock directed. If you like mystery films, you could do a lot worse. Enjoyed your reaction.
If you remember the Mary Tyler Moore show, the courthouse cop who opened the door to let the other cop bring Norman a blanket played Ted Baxter in the show. John Gavin was later named Ambassador to Mexico by Reagan. Vera Miles is a looker. Excellent narration.
Vera Miles's hair looks different in this film. That's because she was wearing a wig, her head had been shaved for her previous film 'Five Branded Women' which she had just completed.
Wow, excellent reaction to Psycho! This is the first reaction of yours I've seen, looking forward to more! The way the actors deliver their lines in this (esp Marion and Norman) is so refreshing (I love the convo in the room with the birds). Of course it's natural that acting evolved into a more naturalistic style, but the classic style is great for a change of pace and just hits different. And that score by Bernard Herrmann is just incredible. I think you'll also really love Hitchcock's color classics like Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958). Have you seen It's a Wonderful Life (1946) at Christmas? It helps to be familiar with Jimmy Stewart's most famous performance. (And be careful about spoilers! Hitchcock movies usually have great twists like this one.) Once again, I REALLY enjoyed this. Subscribed!
Great video, always love your commentary and your beauty! So have you seen other Hitchcock movies? This one was recorded at what is now Universal Studios, but a lot of his other movies were recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live! Like The Birds, well, technically that's BODEGA BAY, not San Francisco Bay 🙂 But it's really close to the San Francisco Bay. The restaurant in that movie is still there, although they have remodeled the facade. But if you go to their gift shop it has a replica of how it looked when the movie was recorded. Also Vertigo, Rear Window and others took place and were recorded in San Francisco. 🙂 The other movie I'd love to see you "react" to is In the Heat of the Night. That's a really good movie, and they made a TV series based on it too. It was originally a book. The movie has Sydney Poitier as the main character! He's a detective from Philadelphia, Virgil Tibbs. He takes the train to visit his grandmother, in a racist small town in the south. They have a murder in the town, and one of the police drives around looking for suspicious characters, and finds Tibbs there, and arrests him for Waiting for a Train While Black. 😞The sheriff is very racist to him, calls him the n-word etc., and feels very stupid when it turns out that Tibbs is a police officer himself. Tibbs ends up helping them with their murder, and it solves it, but it's not who we think it is throughout most of the movie. 🙂 A couple famous scenes from that movie, one is where the sheriff tells him, "Virgil, that's a funny name for a [n-word] boy from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?" And Tibbs raises his voice and says "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!!" And another one is where they drive out to a rich, white, racist plantation owner. The owner says Tibbs must like the kind of orchids he does because they need caring and feeding "just like the negro man". And Tibbs asks him if their person of interest was ever in the greenhouse, and the white plantation owner slaps him for asking that, and Tibbs slaps him back much harder, and the white plantation owner cries from how hard he was slapped, and says, "there was a time when I could have had you shot!" and Tibbs storms out in anger. It's a really good movie....only like three or four people on RUclips have reacted to it. 🙂
I assume this is your first Hitchcock? Hope you watch more. You will find that while they all have the master's touches, they vary greatly in the type of story. I'm sure commenters will be glad to tell you the ones they hope you will watch. My favorites are the 1936 The Lady Vanishes, and the early '50's Dial M For Murder.
I’ve seen this movie at least 50 times over my life and for the first time I noticed the diegetic rain in the background during the motel scenes with Marion and Norman sound just like a shower running… 🔪 👱🏻♀️🚿
This film had a relatively small budget, and while all the sets they needed were built, they had to make the film cheaply, and so much of what happens that Marion Crane doesn't see happen is only her thinking about what happened. Quick, cheap, and very dramatic. Oddly, the later part of the film has everyone's points of view, except the Mother's.
This movie, the silence of the lambs and Texas chainsaw massacre.p Were all based on one little dude… his name was Ed Gein, and technically he only killed two people, but what he did with their bodies and the bodies that he dug up from the cemetery…...
A real masterpiece honestly. Great observations throughout your reaction. My friend Dorothy's dad did the brilliant music for this film. I taught it in my film class and it always brought up great discussions about telling a story visually and with one of the best screenplays of the genre ever.
The year 1939 is often referred to as “The Golden Year of Hollywood”. Some of the greatest films of all time were released in 1939. Look up the ten Oscar nominees for Best Picture that year. Take your pick! It’s hard to go wrong.
But Robert Bloch, the author of the book on which the film is based, did not. Because Hitchcock's agents utilized other representatives so that Bloch's agent would not know that it was Hitchcock who was interested in the property. Hollywood.
Most houses in Phoenix were less than $10k; $40k was a large house with probably half going to furnishings and a planned decade of upkeep. But after 1969 with the new economy, the demand for a 2-income family exploded.
@@longfootbuddy The worth of money changes every day . Sadly usually downward . Sorry that you dont know the difference between money and wealth or what an analogy is . Good luck . You're gonna need it .
If/when you rewatch this film, I wonder what you'll think about Norman's bringing-supper-tray-down comment, "What is the word? My mother isn't herself today." By the way, MARNIE is another film that deal with mothers and their impact on a child, even years later.
This film is often included in late summer and autumn film festivals (Halloween!), and if you have a chance to see it on the big screen in a packed-house theater, most people swear "It's like I'd never seen it before!" Knowing the film is clearly not the same as knowing the impact, the power of a big-screen showing.
Hey, Courtney! I'm glad that you were viscerally affected by the black-and-white cinematography, the pacing and the characterization. There are some reactors who are incapable of immersing themselves into the styles of different film eras. The movie is an adaptation of the horror novel "Psycho" written by Robert Bloch who wrote several "Star Trek" episodes. The novel, in turn, is inspired by the true-crime Wisconsin case of Ed Gein who made skin suits out of his female victims in an attempt to impersonate his domineering mother. Ed Gein also is the inspiration for Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter, the brilliant and colorful psychopathic cannibal from "The Silence of the Lambs" because he cooked up and ate some of his victims' bits. You didn't acknowledge the Hitchcock cameo! He inserted himself into all his movies the way Stan Lee did with Marvel films. He was standing outside Marion's office as she rushed back to work after her tryst. The other secretary who worked with Marion was Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia! Janet Leigh was a well-known actress. Hitchcock starts the movie with her story allowing the audience to believe the film is about her. Suddenly, she is shockingly killed in a scene that made people terrified to take showers for decades! Murder was not often explicitly shown and having a top-billed actress die within the first twenty minutes was wholly unexpected! The first "Scream" used the same trick as a tribute to "Psycho". Norman's mental illness, the transvestism, the toilet use, the explicit murder, a heroine engaged in larceny and adultery were all shocking! The scene with the shrink explaining things at the end is included to reassure the rattled audience unfamiliar with tropes that are commonplace now. In the age of torture-porn, this movie seems very tame. In actuality, it was cutting-edge and hugely influential as well as a master class in misdirection and suspense. Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis' mother. Tony Curtis is her father. Jamie Lee Curtis is the heroine of "Halloween". The blood circling the drain transitioning to the close-up of Marion's eye is an artful way of showing her life draining away. The Bernard Herrmann score is iconic. Hitchcock used him frequently. Anthony Perkins left such an indelible impression, he forever became associated with Norman Bates. As with all typecasting, it was a blessing and a curse. There are sequels but none are directed by Hitch. I've never seen them but have heard that "Psycho II" is an intriguing follow-up. Gus Van Sant re-made "Psycho" shot-for-shot in color in 1998 but the original was somehow superior despite excellent casting that included Viggo Mortensen in the John Gavin role. "Hitchcock" was a 2012 film starring Anthony Hopkins as the director which chronicled the making of "Psycho" and its impact on his marriage and career. Scarlett Johansson played Janet Leigh. "Bates Motel" was a popular cable series airing on A&E for 5 seasons beginning in 2013 which told the story of young Norman and his mother.
Your posts are always so fun to read! I had no idea she was Jamie Lee Curtis' mother! I will need to check out Psycho II and may even check out Halloween since I have never seen that one either. Now I need to go back and see Hitchcock's cameo!
That final shot of Anthony Perkins smiling with the mother´s skull and the car... one of the best shots in cinema history.
It is so good!
Holy sht it's creepy! Like, this man's fkn crazy!
@@CourtReacts-zm9yvit's the same expression/smile that Marion Crane had earlier in the movie while driving listening to those imagined conversations.
It's the same expression/smile that Marion Crane had earlier in the movie while driving listening to those imagined conversations.
That scene creeped me out when I first saw this as a kid.
One of the best Psycho reactions ever.
And one of the shortest.
Imagine how terrifying and shocking this movie was 60 yrs ago. Split personality, cross dressing, being stabbed in your shower, creepy hotels, homicidal old women, preserving corpses - this was nightmare material. Hitchcock rarely missed an opportunity.
Oh, I can only imagine! Even today, it makes you cautious.
Hitchcock didn't write it. Hitchcock never wrote anything. He was famous for FINDING great stories and transforming them into wonderful, suspenseful movies.
I still wonder who's watching me in my hotel room.
You have to take this in the context of the time. From the early '30's until 1969 (when it was replaced by the current letter code rating system), the highly restrictive Hays Code censored movies in all sorts of ways, including sexual content and amount of blood and gore that could be shown. All the shoot-'em-up movies had the people who died from gunshots with only neat little round holes, nary any blood.
Hitchcock was always pushing the envelope. What we see today as only a little bit of blood to the audiences of the time, it was like Dexter on steroids. I don't think they had ever shown flowing blood so Hitchcock had to come up with a substance for that - they used Hershey's chocolate syrup (also used as the oil for the tin woodsman in Wizard of Oz in '39).
It was unbelievable to start the movie with Sam and Marian in a hotel bedroom together, as the Hays Code was generally requiring even married couples to be seen sleeping in twin beds. This was the first time any movie showed a toilet being flushed - Hitchcock made it a required part of the story to force them to include it.
But of all the censors focused on, it was the word "transsexual" in the explanation at the end. The head office thought it was some the name of some deviant sexual practice. Hitchcock had to show them the dictionary entry that it simply meant "cross-dressing."
Is movie is gonna qualify for social security soon.
i think that Anthony Perkin's acting job here as Norman is about the best acting I've ever seen anywhere.
If you someday watch the movie "Twelve Angry Men," you'll see Martin Balsam, who played the detective Arbogast here, in a very different role.
His performance in Psycho 2, audacious as the movie was, was excellent. It really is a great sequel
Excellent, thoughtful review.
This is the movie that changed how we watch movies. Before this movie, it was traditionally accepted for people to walk into the cinema anytime during the showing, then just stay through the next showing until they reached the point they came in. Hitchcock insisted that no one be admitted after the movie started, in order to avoid spoiling the ending. He required that any theatres showing it had to maintain strict start times, to the point that he had special stand-up advertisements made for the theatres, explaining the new policy. As a result, theatre owners found it easier to manage crowds, and concessions, so they kept the start time model.
It is true that Psycho started the practice of strict start times but it took quite a while for it to become general practice. I well remember, throughout the sixties, being shown to our seats by an usher with a flashlight.
Well into the 1970s and early 1980s when my mother took me out to an occasional movie we almost always got there late, because the previous practice you reference was her "normal." The theaters didn't usually let us stay. I never saw the first half hour of _Star Wars_ or _Mary Poppins_ until I was a full-on adult.
Wonderful commentary. Love that you were so engaged and properly surprised. Check out the Hitchcock thrillers "Rear Window" (1954) and "Shadow if a Doubt" (1943). Thanks for sharing your viewing experience.
Twists? You want twists? 'The Maltese falcon'.
Its the stuff that twists are made of.
During the 1970s, I heard audiences laugh when Ted Knight showed up on screen in the final moments, when nobody should have laughed. When the film was made, no one could have predicted this reaction ten years later. By 2024, few people younger than I am can even recognize Ted Knight, and so the final sequence plays out exactly as it did in 1960.
It was years before I recognized him in the movie.
"Is it him or is it the mom?"
Yes.
Love your comments, and final thoughts! The first two sequels, Psycho 2 (1983) and Psycho 3 (1986), are pretty cool as well. Give them a chance.
Hey don't forget psycho 4 . Still stars Perkins like 1-3 and we get flashbacks of Norman and his mother for the first time and it explains alot . The ending of 4 is also a great ending to the franchise
It's great to see an unspoiled reaction... Thanks! So many people already know the secret these days.
It's hard to explain how deeply disturbing & shocking this movie was back then. It broke so many rules. Few people had even heard of split personalities, or cross-dressing.
This movie even changed the way people went to rhe movies. Movies used to show on a continuous loop with a short break in between. Folks were lax about caring when a movie began. You just went in and watched from wherever it was. After it was over, if you wanted to, you stayed to see the beginning and left when the movie got to the place where you came in.
Psycho had movie times and no one was supposed to enter the theater after the shower scene, since Leigh was the star and people would be disappointed if they paid to see her and she was already dead when they entered the movie.
They also put signs in theaters asking audiences not to reveal the ending to anyone when they talked people about the movie, and ir mostly worked! People kept the secret so friends and family would see the movie for themselves.
Finally, let me be the first to say that Hitchcock used chocolate syrup for the blood in the shower scene, to get the right dark color and thickness of liquid (!).
And no one else has mentioned yet that Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis's mother.
Anyway, thanks for the reaction!!!
"Cross dresser" made me chuckle knowing it would be blurted out by the jailer, too. MARNIE is another Hitchcock film that deals with a Mother Impact... not really a complex but, yes, 'impact'. All parents know what they do FOR a while... but MARNIE shows what parents can do TO a child. With Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery and the fateful Louise Latham.
Really entertaining commentary, loved your reaction!
ARBOGAST: I'll be back in an hour.
COURT: Somehow, I don't think you'll be back in an hour, sir.
Alas for Arbogast, this is before the later film that said one should NEVER say "I'll be right back!" Incomplete film knowledge claims another one.
Anthony Perkins was such an amazing actor. One of my favorite actors of all time. May he R.I.P.
I used to work for a mail-sorting firm. One day the boss brought in a machine that was supposed to do it (but it was mostly just shredding the envelopes). What made us laugh was when it was running it squeeked in a perfect imitation of the violin shrieks during the shower scene from _Psycho._ 😅
👗 🧓🏼 🔪 Norman's mother
💛💛✌️
Some other great Hitchcock films include Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959).
So great that you knew nothing going on and had a thoroughly fresh reaction. One of the great movies of all time.
Pay attention to the license plate as it goes in the swape its normans initials
You should watch Psycho 2. It's not as good as this movie but it is a worthy sequel. At least, you'll find out what happened to everybody.
Don't bother watching three and four; those are garbage.
Good of you to go back to the roots of modern film making! This was probably the most influential film score for horror until "The Exorcist" and "Jaws." Hitchcock was known for making cameos in his films, and you can see him briefly in this one, as she enters her office just a few minutes in. Like "Star Wars," this was a very low budget film made by a passionate director, and it made a ton of money around the world. Two other notable early films, I'd say, are "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and "It's A Wonderful Life." The first, for its exploration of fantasy and special effects (based on a novel from 1900), and the second for its ... consideration of alternatives. No spoilers from me! 🤐
I love watching first reactions to this! 64 years later and it’s still shocking.
“My mother is, how shall I put it… Not herself at the moment.”
I love your reactions!!!
You can tell she is breaking bad when she goes home and changes into her black underwear. Unmarried women were only supposed to wear white.
Oh wow! In terms of underwear, I never knew that.
@@CourtReacts-zm9yv I learned it from an old episode of "Petticoat Junction". They lived in the country and had to buy their underwear though mail order. The mother told them "You can buy anything you want, as long as it's white". I was confused, but some nice lady in the comments explained that back then the only reason for colored underwear was to show off for a MAN, lol, and unmarried girl's underwear shouldn't be seen by any man.
@@CourtReacts-zm9yvwhite was day to day. Anything else was “sexy” and why buy that unless a man was involved? Which had to mean marriage or you were a loose woman.
Great reaction To a great movie.
Awesome reaction. I love that all these years later, new audiences are finding and appreciating the genius of this movie. 💗
There were several good sequels starring Anthony Perkins and he directed one of them. There was also a remake, a prequel and a television series based on Norman Bates. "Crimes of Passion" was another great murder mystery, that starred Anthony Perkins.
Hitchcock didn't think it was working, & was thinking of turning it into a 2-parter for his TV show,
then he heard it with composer Bernard Herrmann's score,
& he double Herrmann's salary & said he saved it
Herrmann only used string instruments, & called it "a black & white score"
🫵🏻👏👏👏👏👍🏼👍🏼
Everyone has to remember when this movie was made. For it's time, such a classic. I'm 66 and have seen this movie over 100 times and won't deny that I'll see it again!
⛄'🔪
Court, I always enjoy your reactions so much. I started watching you when you were watching Star Trek. Glad you are hitting some of these classic movies.
This movie is based on a novel by the great fantasy and Science Fiction writer, Robert Bloch. Joseph Stefano adopted the screenplay. Hitchcock is a great Director. Marion was played by Jamie Lee Curtis’s mom Janet Lee.
Oh she reacts to Star Trek?? I gotta start watching those!
Yes, the conversations between her boss, colleague and Mr Cassidy were all in her head, just like when you hear Sam's voice as she's leaving.
Excellent reaction!
Thanks for the reaction. Do more Alfred Hitchcock please.
Yes! You might like Rear Window, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, among others. (They are all in color)
Wonderful reaction! May I suggest 'Psycho II' (1983), a brilliant sequel which begins 22 years after this with Norman being released from the nuthouse.
I also recommend a watch of Psycho II. It lives up!
I suspect 90% of all audiences forget the name of the movie. They are so wrapped up in the characters and the tale, always looking for who was doing this without remembering the title: psycho. This is such a consistent "error" by audiences and I bet Hitch was forever proud - IF he was even aware. But, here, 64 years later, audiences are still puzzled from the shower-scene forward about the killer. Some guess it's Norman, but are hedging their bets with Mother-as-the-KIller. And for rewatching... this seems to be infinitely rewatchable. Knowing the ending lets audiences step thru the whole film's process and STILL be wrapped up in the tale. One other thing - this is a popular film-festival movie. If audiences ever have the chance to see it on the big screen in a jammed theatre, the power of the audience will make the film=-watching experience sooo much greater, soooo much powerful. Most folks walk out of the theater amazed - "It's like I've never seen it before!" That's the power of the Big Screen Theater experience.
Variety, 2023: 'Psycho is the best movie ever made.'
$ 40, 000 in 1960 was a HELL of a LOT of M O N E Y .
bout ten times as much
Beautifully insightful commentary. Bravo, Court!
Loved your reaction to this classic Alfred Hitchcock film. You are correct by saying that the action, cinematography, score, script, are unmatched. as a result of your "spot on" comments, I have subscribed to your channel.
Alfred Hitchcock one of the GOATS of directing… 🇬🇧🔥❤️xx
The dark haired secretary is Alfred Hitchcock's daughter
Alfred Hitchcock made movies thrilling and fun like no other
I like your reactions. Another good Hitchcock is Rear Window.😁
While it wasn't •psychosis• on Marion's part, your guess at about the 10:20 mark was correct: When Marion was driving at night, what we're hearing, is her playing the imaginary conversations in her head, of what others are saying about her. (Or, in the case of Lowry, Cassidy and Caroline, what they would be saying about her when Monday morning arrives. Marion is driving and playing these imaginary conversations in her head, on Saturday night, so that Monday morning is still more than 24 hours in her future.) We know they're imaginary (not real) conversations, for a couple of reasons:
1) She smiles at various points. If these were real conversations, then there would have been nothing to react to, and no reason for her to smile.
2) The movie primes us (earlier) with the fact that Marion imagines future conversations (so that the viewer will have no misunderstanding). Marion imagines the conversation between her and Sam, when she arrives unexpectedly at Sam's town with the money. That conversation hasn't happened yet (and obviously never does happen.)
3) The way the film plays with Marion's facial reactions to her imaginary future conversations, is part of how the film plays with the audience: We can't quite be sure WHO is the psycho that the film title refers to. Because the first half of the film focuses on Marion, and because she takes a certain primitive glee in having gotten away with something, it's natural for us to conclude that the psycho... is her.
It's simply a person 'talking to himself'.
If you want to see the original psychological thriller now, you have to watch Fritz Lang's movie M from 1931. Creeps you out.
The girlnin movie so beutiful
Welcome to the world of Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock is known as the Master of Suspense in Cinema circles. He began his career as a director during the silent film era. He directed the first British film that used sound on film technology with the film Blackmail in 1929. He moved to America in 1939. His first American movie Rebecca 1940, won the Oscar for Best Picture. Film students all over the world study his work. Some highly recommended Hitchcock films….
1963 The Birds
1960 Psycho (you just watched this one)
1959 North by Northwest (Spy’s, sophistication, suspense, laughs, this movie is just fun.)
1958 Vertigo (On many top film lists.)
1955 The Trouble With Harry (Inconvenient corpse. Understated Black Comedy)
1955 To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock on vacation at the French Riviera. Lots of fun.)
1954 Rear Window (one of Hitchcock’s best Movies!)
1953 Dial M for Murder (A man’s plot to murder his wife goes awry…)
1951 Strangers on a Train (Tennis player runs into a Sociopath on a train, murderous consequences)
1948 Rope (Experimental film by Hitchcock of filming a play in long continuous film reel length takes.)
1946 Notorious (Spy love Triangle. awesome movie)
1943 Shadow of a Doubt (Young woman discovers her beloved uncle’s secret and endangers herself.)
1940 Rebecca (Adaptation of the Daphne DuMaurier novel. Must see.)
Of those Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt.
Hi, hey another Hitchcock movie Rear Window, you'll like this one to.
I just discovered your channel today. May I recommend another Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rear Window. This one's in color, and it's great.
This was really good!! Do more classic movies!!
Alfred Hitchcock is an EXCELLENT place to start.
These are some of his best:
"Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" and "Strangers on a Train" and "Dial M for Murder" and "Rebecca" and "Shadow of a Doubt" and "Notorious" and "The Birds."
Court the first clue that this was about split personality wasn't in the story. It was the opening credits with the
SPLIT screen! Also you should watch another thriller.....THE SIXTH SENSE with Bruce Willis. Great story and acting.
Yay! Fun reaction. Psycho is Great. You might like North By Northwest, Dial 'M' for Murder or Vertigo three Hitchock films.
Very Good Movie, A Classic, but the best part is when and how you said" he's a Crossdresser" I Laughed so hard😂😂😂😂
I think most of us got faked out by the whole Norman vs his mother thing the first time we saw this. I certainly did! I really enjoyed this reaction, Court! I rate it like you rated the movie: 10 out of 10! 👍👍
There are clues. When Norman walks upstairs, he sways his hips a little too much...
Enjoyed your reaction. Hope you watch more Hitchcock movies. There are so many great ones !
Good point you made about that little psychotic look on her face when she was driving. Never thought of that.
I totally agree with you. The story, writing, acting, cinematography, and score are all outstanding. The amazing thing is that the film was done on the cheap!
Many, if not all, of Hitchcock's films were experiments in filmmaking in one way or another.
In "Psycho," the killing of Marion, the protagonist, disorients the viewer by eliminating someone the film spent some time investing itself in, disrupting the classical model of narration. The film sustains its momentum by transitioning the viewers' interest to Norman before settling on Lila and Sam.
The thematic elements present in Psycho are classic Hitchcock cinema: psychotic behavior, voyeurism and motherhood. These themes are also explored in Hitchcock's Rear Window, Notorious, Vertigo and Shadow of a Doubt. Indeed, "Shadow of a Doubt" may be regarded as an early "Psycho" precursor. In "Psycho" these themes are explored in greater depth.
Hitchcock's studio, Paramount, refused to fund "Psycho" because it had no faith in the source material. So, the film was an experiment in its production. "Psycho" is based on a 1959 novel by Robert Bloch of the same name. Today, both the novel and the film are considered masterpieces of the horror genre. Paramount also would not agree to distribute the film without major concessions from Hitchcock. These included Hitchcock personally financing the project himself while foregoing his usual director’s fee. For his part, Hitchcock retained 60% ownership of the film. Hitchcock mortgaged his own house to finance the film and shot it using his tv crew. Hitchcock had a popular weekly tv anthology series at the time. Clearly, he had a lot of confidence in his tv crew. This low-budget film quickly made millions and made Hitchcock a lot of money.
The music for "Psycho" was by Bernard Herrmann, regarded as one of the greatest composers for film. Because the film was low-budget, Herrmann scored it for strings only as opposed to full orchestra. So, the effect in tone-color is also rather b&w. I think if you look at the score, say, of the shower scene, the notes resemble a slash!
The dialogue in the film is also fantastic. I love how when Marion is eating, Norman drops a hint that his mother is like his stuffed birds. "She's has harmless as one of those stuffed birds." Marion's last name is "Crane," like a bird. This film is chock-full of all sorts of allusions and symbolism.
Circa 1960, just about every car had bench seats. The gear shift was on the steering wheel column so that wouldn't have hindered you. Most cars were manual transmission, too, and without power steering or aircon. Also, by this time, seats were primarily vinyl and fairly slippery. So, it was especially easy to slide across them. The ignition, lights, and wiper knobs were on the dash. It was no problem to just slide across and exit the car on the other side if you wanted to. It could also be safer, if you were parking on the street. You could slide across and get out curbside instead of in the street. Or even because it was quicker to get where you wanted to go rather than walk around the car. Maybe the ground was muddy, too. Lots of reasons to do this. Ah, the younger generation. They don't know so much. They should go to old car shows and check out these beautiful old cars. By the way, if there's ever an EMP, I believe these old cars would still work, the new ones for sure wouldn't.
Oh, by the way, that $40,000 would today be over $400,000. So not chump-change.
Hey Sweetness, I love watching your reactions, great job!! Please you must now watch Psycho II....With is a very well done perfect sequel to the original film, that a lot of people don't talk about enough! Please watch the perfect sequel to the original, you won't be disappointed, I promise!!😊👍🏾
Very good reaction. BTW, did you know that there is a "Psycho 2" and "Psycho 3"? You should react to them, since they are underrated movies.
Is this your first Hitchcock film? Welcome aboard. Hitchcock was one of the 20th Century's greatest directors. There are other movies like "Vertigo" "Rear Window" "North by Northwest" that Alfred Hitchcock directed. If you like mystery films, you could do a lot worse. Enjoyed your reaction.
Thanks, Courtney! 😱 I hope you'll react to PSYCHO II (1983); it's so good and very few reacters get around to it.
If you remember the Mary Tyler Moore show, the courthouse cop who opened the door to let the other cop bring Norman a blanket played Ted Baxter in the show. John Gavin was later named Ambassador to Mexico by Reagan. Vera Miles is a looker. Excellent narration.
Vera played a 19-year-old girl just 4 years before this in The Searchers!
Vera Miles's hair looks different in this film. That's because she was wearing a wig, her head had been shaved for her previous film 'Five Branded Women' which she had just completed.
Great reaction. Glad someone immediately recognised and appreciates the good writing.
Wow, excellent reaction to Psycho! This is the first reaction of yours I've seen, looking forward to more!
The way the actors deliver their lines in this (esp Marion and Norman) is so refreshing (I love the convo in the room with the birds). Of course it's natural that acting evolved into a more naturalistic style, but the classic style is great for a change of pace and just hits different. And that score by Bernard Herrmann is just incredible.
I think you'll also really love Hitchcock's color classics like Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958). Have you seen It's a Wonderful Life (1946) at Christmas? It helps to be familiar with Jimmy Stewart's most famous performance. (And be careful about spoilers! Hitchcock movies usually have great twists like this one.)
Once again, I REALLY enjoyed this. Subscribed!
Great video, always love your commentary and your beauty! So have you seen other Hitchcock movies? This one was recorded at what is now Universal Studios, but a lot of his other movies were recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live! Like The Birds, well, technically that's BODEGA BAY, not San Francisco Bay 🙂 But it's really close to the San Francisco Bay. The restaurant in that movie is still there, although they have remodeled the facade. But if you go to their gift shop it has a replica of how it looked when the movie was recorded. Also Vertigo, Rear Window and others took place and were recorded in San Francisco. 🙂
The other movie I'd love to see you "react" to is In the Heat of the Night. That's a really good movie, and they made a TV series based on it too. It was originally a book. The movie has Sydney Poitier as the main character! He's a detective from Philadelphia, Virgil Tibbs. He takes the train to visit his grandmother, in a racist small town in the south. They have a murder in the town, and one of the police drives around looking for suspicious characters, and finds Tibbs there, and arrests him for Waiting for a Train While Black. 😞The sheriff is very racist to him, calls him the n-word etc., and feels very stupid when it turns out that Tibbs is a police officer himself. Tibbs ends up helping them with their murder, and it solves it, but it's not who we think it is throughout most of the movie. 🙂 A couple famous scenes from that movie, one is where the sheriff tells him, "Virgil, that's a funny name for a [n-word] boy from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?" And Tibbs raises his voice and says "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!!" And another one is where they drive out to a rich, white, racist plantation owner. The owner says Tibbs must like the kind of orchids he does because they need caring and feeding "just like the negro man". And Tibbs asks him if their person of interest was ever in the greenhouse, and the white plantation owner slaps him for asking that, and Tibbs slaps him back much harder, and the white plantation owner cries from how hard he was slapped, and says, "there was a time when I could have had you shot!" and Tibbs storms out in anger.
It's a really good movie....only like three or four people on RUclips have reacted to it. 🙂
So glad you didn't know the twist ending!
I assume this is your first Hitchcock? Hope you watch more. You will find that while they all have the master's touches, they vary greatly in the type of story. I'm sure commenters will be glad to tell you the ones they hope you will watch. My favorites are the 1936 The Lady Vanishes, and the early '50's Dial M For Murder.
40,000 in 1960 was about 424,000 today.
I’ve seen this movie at least 50 times over my life and for the first time I noticed the diegetic rain in the background during the motel scenes with Marion and Norman sound just like a shower running… 🔪 👱🏻♀️🚿
Great reaction.
Would love to see you give some other older movies a chance, maybe another Hitchcock movie?
This film had a relatively small budget, and while all the sets they needed were built, they had to make the film cheaply, and so much of what happens that Marion Crane doesn't see happen is only her thinking about what happened. Quick, cheap, and very dramatic.
Oddly, the later part of the film has everyone's points of view, except the Mother's.
This movie, the silence of the lambs and Texas chainsaw massacre.p Were all based on one little dude… his name was Ed Gein, and technically he only killed two people, but what he did with their bodies and the bodies that he dug up from the cemetery…...
Okay, alright. My bedroom at my mom's house stills looks the same when i was teen.
Okay, alright. My bedroom at my mom's house stills looks the same when i was teen.
A real masterpiece honestly. Great observations throughout your reaction. My friend Dorothy's dad did the brilliant music for this film. I taught it in my film class and it always brought up great discussions about telling a story visually and with one of the best screenplays of the genre ever.
The year 1939 is often referred to as “The Golden Year of Hollywood”. Some of the greatest films of all time were released in 1939.
Look up the ten Oscar nominees for Best Picture that year. Take your pick! It’s hard to go wrong.
I just looked it up. I have only seen The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. I will definitely need to watch the others 😁
@@CourtReacts-zm9yv Any of the ten nominees for Best Picture were worthy of winning the Oscar.
"Son of Frankenstein" was another 1939 classic.
Only Angels Have Wings (Cary Grant, dir. Howard Hawks) is another great one from that year.
Hitchcock is one of the greatest directors ever.
Yeah, this is one of the greats. Loved your reaction!
Marion is Jamie Lee Curtis’s mom.
Great movie, but my favorite Hitchcock film is “ Rear Window”
Edge of your seat thriller !
And the dark side of Perry Mason (or Ironside, if you prefer)!
Great reaction. A joy to watch. Thank you!
Robert Bloch was the Stephen King of his time. After writing "Psycho" he went on to write a couple of screenplays for the original Star Trek series.
He also wrote a couple of "Psycho" sequel novels: "Psycho II" (which had nothing to do with the movie of the same name), and "Psycho House."
you should check out psycho 4 the beginning too
The older I get, the more the shower scene disturbs me. No wonder Janet Leigh spent the rest of her life avoiding showers without locking the door.
Hitchcock made a TON on this film. This movie was so ahead of it's time and really was patient zero for psychologically thrillers and slashers.
But Robert Bloch, the author of the book on which the film is based, did not. Because Hitchcock's agents utilized other representatives so that Bloch's agent would not know that it was Hitchcock who was interested in the property. Hollywood.
Shes so beutiful
There's different types of sick... That was a perfect observation
Psycho 2 (1983)
Psycho 3 (1986)
Psycho 4 The Beginning (1990)
I thought psycho 2 was great
watch the 2nd one its GOOOD
$40,000 in 1960 is equal to $417,341.50 in 2024.
I can see why everyone wanted to get that back.
Half a mil!
@@longfootbuddy ?
$40,000 in a world where a hershey bar is a nickel is not equal to $40k in today's world where one costs $2
Most houses in Phoenix were less than $10k; $40k was a large house with probably half going to furnishings and a planned decade of upkeep. But after 1969 with the new economy, the demand for a 2-income family exploded.
@@longfootbuddy The worth of money changes every day . Sadly usually downward . Sorry that you dont know the difference between money and wealth or what an analogy is . Good luck . You're gonna need it .
Anthony Perkins was terrific and this was a great movie.
He did a few hilarious TV commercials highlighting this movie in later life...
He was wonderful! He looked so innocent 😅
He looked innocent, scared, creepy, nervous, crazy, harmless, dangerous, concerned for his "mother", etc.
@@TylerD288 LOL yes!
More Hitchcock!
💚🫡👍👍💖
If/when you rewatch this film, I wonder what you'll think about Norman's bringing-supper-tray-down comment, "What is the word? My mother isn't herself today." By the way, MARNIE is another film that deal with mothers and their impact on a child, even years later.
This film is often included in late summer and autumn film festivals (Halloween!), and if you have a chance to see it on the big screen in a packed-house theater, most people swear "It's like I'd never seen it before!" Knowing the film is clearly not the same as knowing the impact, the power of a big-screen showing.
Hey, Courtney! I'm glad that you were viscerally affected by the black-and-white cinematography, the pacing and the characterization. There are some reactors who are incapable of immersing themselves into the styles of different film eras.
The movie is an adaptation of the horror novel "Psycho" written by Robert Bloch who wrote several "Star Trek" episodes. The novel, in turn, is inspired by the true-crime Wisconsin case of Ed Gein who made skin suits out of his female victims in an attempt to impersonate his domineering mother. Ed Gein also is the inspiration for Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter, the brilliant and colorful psychopathic cannibal from "The Silence of the Lambs" because he cooked up and ate some of his victims' bits.
You didn't acknowledge the Hitchcock cameo! He inserted himself into all his movies the way Stan Lee did with Marvel films. He was standing outside Marion's office as she rushed back to work after her tryst.
The other secretary who worked with Marion was Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia!
Janet Leigh was a well-known actress. Hitchcock starts the movie with her story allowing the audience to believe the film is about her. Suddenly, she is shockingly killed in a scene that made people terrified to take showers for decades! Murder was not often explicitly shown and having a top-billed actress die within the first twenty minutes was wholly unexpected! The first "Scream" used the same trick as a tribute to "Psycho".
Norman's mental illness, the transvestism, the toilet use, the explicit murder, a heroine engaged in larceny and adultery were all shocking! The scene with the shrink explaining things at the end is included to reassure the rattled audience unfamiliar with tropes that are commonplace now. In the age of torture-porn, this movie seems very tame. In actuality, it was cutting-edge and hugely influential as well as a master class in misdirection and suspense.
Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis' mother. Tony Curtis is her father. Jamie Lee Curtis is the heroine of "Halloween".
The blood circling the drain transitioning to the close-up of Marion's eye is an artful way of showing her life draining away.
The Bernard Herrmann score is iconic. Hitchcock used him frequently.
Anthony Perkins left such an indelible impression, he forever became associated with Norman Bates. As with all typecasting, it was a blessing and a curse.
There are sequels but none are directed by Hitch. I've never seen them but have heard that "Psycho II" is an intriguing follow-up.
Gus Van Sant re-made "Psycho" shot-for-shot in color in 1998 but the original was somehow superior despite excellent casting that included Viggo Mortensen in the John Gavin role.
"Hitchcock" was a 2012 film starring Anthony Hopkins as the director which chronicled the making of "Psycho" and its impact on his marriage and career. Scarlett Johansson played Janet Leigh.
"Bates Motel" was a popular cable series airing on A&E for 5 seasons beginning in 2013 which told the story of young Norman and his mother.
Your posts are always so fun to read! I had no idea she was Jamie Lee Curtis' mother! I will need to check out Psycho II and may even check out Halloween since I have never seen that one either. Now I need to go back and see Hitchcock's cameo!