I have seen a lot of great films during my childhood, lots of films have stayed with me all those years like the first James Bond film "Dr. No", "The Man Who Would Be King", "On The Waterfront", "The Exorcist" etc. But I guess "Psycho" was the one film that I remembered the most, I saw it on syndicated television for the first time with my family back when we did not have cable and DVD players were still not available.
It all starts in with the would be heroine Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) who steals $40,000 from her employer to marry her boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin).She is clearly paranoid and on a frantic pace to escape, changing cars to avoid detection and at one point was pulled over by one of the policemen who was on her tail.
With the voices going through her head and her paranoia she decides to spend a night at the Bates Motel off the highway near Fairvale where Sam lived. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) the owner of the motel invites Marion for dinner but this was met with his disapproval from his mother, after the argument Norman brings Marion a sandwich in his office as they struck the most chilling conversation ever seen on film at that time.
- Norman Bates: You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.
- Marion Crane: Sometimes, we deliberately step into those traps.
- Norman Bates: I was born in mine. I don't mind it anymore.
- Marion Crane: Oh, but you should! You should mind it!
- Norman Bates: Oh, I do, [laughs] but I say I don't.
- Marion Crane: You know — if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard — the way she spoke to you...
- Norman Bates: Sometimes — when she talks to me like that — I feel I'd like to go up there, and curse her, and-and-and leave her forever! Or at least defy her! But I know I can't. She's ill.
The conversation turns even more bizarre when Norman seemed to lose himself when Marion suggested that Norman put his mother in an institution.
This conversation I think made Marion realize her fault and was resolved to return the money she stole. She thanks Norman for the dinner and returns to her room and takes a shower, the iconic shower scene is a metaphor for Marion trying to wash away her guilt of the crime she committed. It is disturbing to think watching it for the first time that Norman peeps through a hole when Marion was about to take her shower, it was obvious that Norman was turned on by Marion. The story then takes a twisted turn when a woman with a knife enters Marion's room and stabs her to death with the trademark "Psycho" theme and her screams on the background. It is the most the lasting image we will ever see of Marion in the film reminding us of her fate.
Norman is shocked to find Marion dead and disposes her body and unknowingly the $40, 0000 with the car on the swamp. We were horrified of the act that was committed but subconsciously we are also afraid for Norman who was made virtually an accomplice of the situation. Meanwhile Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) and Sam tries to put the pieces together with the help of Detective Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) to find the now missing Marion. It was interesting to see that after the murder of Marion the real story begins to find out who is the real killer (who was supposed to be Norman's mother).
To me this is the film that I am most familiar with and also the most well known of all Hitchcock films, sure some critics would argue that "Vertigo" was his best film but I think "Psycho" just overtakes it. The film was shot like an exploitation film, the star was murdered halfway into the movie and the frantic search for the killer who was supposed to be an old woman was set to shock millions of people and the next generation of film viewers. Hitchcock made a film totally unconventional but made it look natural to the public and this film has never looked back. The film itself was not expensive and only cost under a million dollars, Hitchcock used his TV crew (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) to make the film rather than the film crew that he would often use for films like "North by Northwest" and "To Catch a Thief" who would provide style and glamour to most of his films.
Hitchcock was also the one who did most of the promotion of the film forbidding it's stars to talk about the film and even preventing film critics (who can make or break a film) in watching the film and insisted for the general public to watch the film from the start to preserve it's plot. This was one of the first films that made the "No Late Admission" policy for films.
It is ironic to think that it was only Hitchcock who made the film possible, he received little support from Paramount Studios where he was at the last stages of his contract. He also received little support from his fellow producers who thought the film will not be successful. This is the reason why most people now think Hitchcock in high regard, he is a director with an instinct for the macabre and the bizarre but with a touch of humour and innocence. There were films of Hitchcock that discussed murder like "Diam M for Murder" and "Shadow of a Doubt" are a few examples but you never get turned off by the subject but instead draws you in and makes you an accomplice. This film examines the extremes of obsession and madness with a little Freudian kick that literally blows the mind of the viewer particularly the theme of mother. Never was a director in full control of the viewer's emotions than in this film, Hitchcock was always one step ahead showing his cards but not revealing the full deck.
In those years after making
"North by Northwest " I think everyone thought he has shown everything in the Suspense genre after years of directing but in "Psycho" he totally invents a whole new genre. "Vertigo" maybe his quintessential masterpiece but "Psycho" took suspense films to another level inventing the slasher genre that spawned films like "Halloween", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Scream" and other films that have been made after it's release that had a similar theme.I never cared much for the remake that Gus Van Sant did back in 98 but who did? I thought doing a remake of a film that was successful did not make sense to me.
I would also hate to think if the movie "No Bail for the Judge" was done "Psycho" may never have been made and the history of film making would never have been written the way it was now. Thank God for Alfred Hitchcock and thank God for our mothers.
Grade: A+
