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Psycho (1960) best movie ever made
Alfred Hitchcocks powerful, complex psychological thriller, Psycho (1960) is the "mother" of all modern horror suspense films - it single-handedly ushered in an era of inferior screen slashers with blood-letting and graphic, shocking killings (e.g., Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Motel Hell (1980), and DePalmas Dressed to Kill (1980) - with another transvestite killer and shower scene). While this was Hitchcocks first real horror film, he was mistakenly labeled as a horror film director ever since.
The nightmarish, disturbing films themes of corruptibility, confused identities, voyeurism, human vulnerabilities and victimization, the deadly effects of money, Oedipal murder, and dark past histories are realistically revealed. Its themes were revealed through repeated uses of motifs, such as birds, eyes, hands, and mirrors.
The low-budget ($800,000), brilliantly-edited, stark black and white film came after Hitchcocks earlier glossy Technicolor hits Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959), and would have been more suited for as an extended episode for his own b/w TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In fact, the film crew was from the TV show, including cinematographer John L. Russell.
The master of suspense skillfully manipulates and guides the audience into identifying with the main character, luckless victim Marion (a Phoenix real-estate secretary), and then with that characters murderer - a crazy and timid taxidermist named Norman (a brilliant typecasting performance by Anthony Perkins). Hitchcocks techniques voyeuristically implicate the audience with the universal, dark evil forces and secrets present in the film.
Psycho also broke all film conventions by displaying its leading female protagonist having a lunchtime affair in her sexy white undergarments in the first scene; also by photographing a toilet bowl - and flush - in a bathroom (a first in an American film), and killing off its major star Janet Leigh a third of the way into the film (in a shocking, brilliantly-edited shower murder scene accompanied by screeching violins). The 90-odd shot shower scene was meticulously storyboarded by Saul Bass, but directed by Hitchcock himself.
[A satirical parody of scenes from various Hitchcock films, including some from Psycho, were included in Mel Brooks comedy High Anxiety (1978). The shower scene itself has been referenced, spoofed and parodied in numerous films, including Brian De Palmas The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Dressed to Kill (1980), Squirm (1976), Victor Zimmermans low-budget Fade to Black (1980), Tobe Hoopers The Funhouse (1981), John De Bellos Killer Tomatoes Strike Back! (1990), Martin Walz The Killer Condom (1997, Ger.), Wes Cravens Scream 2 (1997), Scott Spiegels From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999), and the animated Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), in which Bugs acts out with the films black-and-white footage and a can of Hersheys chocolate syrup poured down the drain.]
In this film, Hitchcocks gimmicky device, termed a MacGuffin (the thing or device that motivates the characters, or propels the plot and action), is the stolen $40,000 from the realtors office. Marion Crane becomes a secondary MacGuffin after her murder.
The films screenplay by Joseph Stefano was adapted from a novel of the same name by author Robert Bloch. Remarkably, Blochs 1959 novel was based on legendary real-life, Plainfield, Wisconsin psychotic serial killer Edward Gein, whose murderous character also inspired the mother-obsessed farmer in Deranged (1974), the Leatherface character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and serial killer Jame Gumb ("Buffalo Bill") in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Bloch became a major horror screenwriter during the 60s decade and beyond, responsible for such suspenseful horror films and chillers as The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) - an update of the 1919 classic, Strait Jacket (1964), The Night Walker (1964), The Skull (1965), The Psychopath (1966), The Deadly Bees (1967), The Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), Asylum (1972), the short feature Mannikin (1977), and The Amazing Captain Nemo (1977).]
Like many of Hitchcocks films, Psycho is so very layered and complex that multiple viewings are necessary to capture all of its subtlety. Symbolic imagery involving stuffed birds and reflecting mirrors are ever-present. Although its one of the most frightening films ever made, it has all the elements of very dark, black comedy. This film wasnt clearly understood by its critics when released. Hitchcock admitted that Henri-Georges Clouzots influential thriller Les Diaboliques (1955, Fr.) inspired his film.
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks
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