Hitchcock's Finest: Psycho

Psycho (1960)

Ree-Ree-Ree-Ree!!!!

It was the sound that got me in Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece of horror and suspense in stark black and white. Bernard Herrmann’s string section with that strident passage that is so unforgettable.

Just as sexpot Janet Leigh had captured my undivided attention, there came that music! Ree-Ree-Ree-Ree!!!!

The Bernard Herrmann score, together with Hitchcock's masterful direction and editing made Psycho an unbeatable combination. This score would be a textbook example of how music should be used to set up the action as it moves from anticipation to anxiety to relief to sheer terror.

For those of you who haven't yet seen Psycho, the movie initially concerns embezzler Marion Crane stealing $40,000 from her Phoenix real estate agency. Fleeing, she gets as far as the Bates Motel, an out of the way place with 12 rooms, 12 vacancies. The clerk, Norman Bates, signs her into a room. Later as she undresses, we see Norman doing his voyeur thing, peering intently through a peephole in the next room -- and Janet Leigh is well worth watching. Janet is brutally murdered as she takes a shower, as is a detective, Martin Balsam, sent to find her by her boyfriend, John Gavin. Finally, John Gavin goes looking for her himself, what he finds will send chills up your backbone like it did mine.

Even today I still jump when I see the shower scene and a couple other scenes, and I have seen this movie at least twenty times! I remember the shot of the water swirling down the drain, finally resolving into the dead-fish eye of Janet Leigh plastered across the entire screen. Hitchcock was like that, with tedious attention to detail. That's what made him a tremendous director.

I don't know about you, I've seen Vertigo, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, Marnie, North by Northwest, none of these do it for me like Psycho. I was maybe ten years old when I first saw it on TV. I couldn't sleep for weeks! I could see Norman Bates in every shadow!

And speaking of Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins did an excellent job as a mama's boy with a mean streak. And how he acted out the ending with the voice over. His eyes glowed like coals! What acting! Unfortunately, Perkins was typecast after Psycho and never had a decent role again, to my knowledge.

Psycho also dealt with dark themes such as psychosis and transvestitism back when to even mention such topics could still confound an audience.

The supporting cast was not anything special, although the psychiatrist was well played by Simon Oakland. He came in at the end and described Norman's condition, thereby tying up all the loose ends. But Hitchcock, pro that he was, had one last surprise; a master stroke. He turned the camera back on Norman, but – I’ll let you watch that for yourself.

Bring along someone you trust when you watch Psycho for the first time. You won't want to be alone!

Five stars.

More Hitchcock -

Notorious
Rear Window
Vertigo
Marnie
Frenzy