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Psycho A Peek Into Alfred Hitchocks Barrier Breaking MovieAlfred Hitchcocks Psycho, is probably the esteemed directors most famous film, but while it is now hailed as one of his best, the critics were not too enthused about Hitchcocks low-budget excursion into the genre of horror at the time of its June 1960 release. Whether or not Psycho qualifies as a horror film is a matter open to debate, but the films macabre elements and the violent way in which those elements were presented was regarded as a step down for the portly English director who, in previous efforts, relied on subtlety and suggestion to convey the more unpleasant aspects of his films. While the justly famous shower scene is tasteful by todays standards, in 1960, the amount of blood exposited by the victim was considered gratuitous.
The most important characteristic of Psycho is the superb black and white cinematography of John L. Russell, the same cinematographer who handled the camera work on Hitchcocks generally mediocre television anthology program. Brooding shadows are expertly captured by Russells lens, and his work was deservedly nominated for an
Oscar. The scenes in which the protagonist, the notorious Norman Bates, dispenses death to his victims are strikingly photographed; Russells talents are better represented in less heralded moments. These include the scenes in which Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) drives along the road at night while the voices of her co-workers, as well as her victim, are heard questioning her whereabouts and wondering what fate has befallen both Crane and the money she was responsible for depositing. Perhaps the films eeriest moment, especially for those who have seen the film before, is when Crane reaches what will be her final destination on a dark, rain splattered night. The wipers clear the rain from the windshield of her car, and suddenly the neon sign bearing the legend, Bates Motel -- vacancy, becomes visible.
While the look of the film is important, equal attention must be paid to its sound, particularly the music score by Bernard Herrmann. From the opening moments when the titles (expertly designed by Saul Bass) are slashed away, the composer masterfully conveys the sense of a knife eagerly ripping into human flesh. The Psycho score is music to carve meat by, and the film would suffer as horribly as Normans victims without it.
Hitchcocks characteristic touches of black humor are very evident in Psycho, most notably in Normans hobby -- taxidermy. Norman likes to stuff things. Birds. Mrs. Bates? Perhaps. The stuffed birds that adorn the walls of Normans office were prophetic, for the master of suspense would, in his next film, offer these members of the animal kingdom an opportunity to stuff themselves by snacking on human heads in 1963 The Birds, Hitchcocks last film of special merit. Birds have often been used by Hitchcock to symbolize good (In Foreign Correspondent, the kidnapped dignitary played by Albert Basserman, is extremely fond of birds, and, in one early scene, suggests that even on the eve of a world war, there is still hope for mankind when people still take time to feed them). In Psycho, those ever watchful yet dead eyes seem to represent Normans voyeurism, his only mode of sexual expression, not only before the murder of Marion Crane when he watches her undress through a peephole, but throughout the film. When not cutting loose with a kitchen knife, Norman is passive, watching, and seemingly waiting for the kill.
The film deteriorates a little at the end, not as badly as Mrs. Bates whose hollow-eyed corpse hogs a well deserved close-up at the films climax, but enough to prevent Psycho from achieving perfection. A lengthy denouement in which a psychologist (Simon Oakland) attempts to explain the motives behind Normans behavior is filled with a lot of sophomoric psychology that would be embarrassing if it wasnt so dull. Rigormortis sets in at this point, and the scene seems longer than the 108 minute running time of the entire picture. Fortunately, there is a payoff in the final moments when Anthony Perkins returns to the screen for a brief but brilliant moment as both mother and son.
Psycho is an important film, not only in Hitchcocks filmography, but also in film history. For Hitchcock, Psycho is unique and a source of controversy. After a string of big budget, colorful, and often glamorous films (To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest), Hitchcock opted to make Psycho on a minuscule budget, filming almost entirely on the backlot of Universal Studios, using the same crew that worked on his then current television series. (At one point, it is even rumored that the film, having shocked the original distributor, Paramount, almost became a two-part episode of that NBC program.)
Psychos reverberations were felt throughout Hollywood. The films graphic, for 1960, depictions of violence broke a taboo or two, and after John Carpenters 1978 production of Halloween, which owed a debt to Hitchcock's style, Psycho was unjustly implicated in the wave of splatter films, such as the Friday the 13th series, that followed in the wake of Halloweens box office success. Earlier, in 1961, William Castle, often dubbed the poor mans Hitchcock, offered a blatant rip-off of Psycho in the form of Homicidal, a creepy little thriller that was actually quite good, if not deserving of Time magazines ten best list, an honor denied Psycho one year earlier.
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