Psycho
Well, Frightening February is almost over. Our final episode of the month is about a film that has been deemed by some as “the mother of all horror films.” It’s the movie that appears at the forefront of your mind when you hear the name of its director, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock. It’s the film that not only surprised audiences in 1960, but paved the way for many other films like it. We’re talking about Psycho.
Alfred Hitchcock was known as the master of suspense, but none of his films of the 1950s were as shocking as Psycho. Up to this point, most horror films were gothic romances, and this was the film that shook up the genre, setting horror on the course that led us where we are today. The film was groundbreaking in more ways than one. It implied that a lead female character was having sex outside of marriage. It also showed a flushing toilet (though it’s often debated on whether or not it was the first to do so.) Not to mention that it also featured one of the most chilling performances in horror history.
So grab a blanket and some popcorn, and make sure to turn out the light. It’s time to get scared with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho!
Before we talk about the film, let’s learn a little bit about the book and the real-life crime that inspired the story.
In November of 1957, law enforcement found the body of Bernice Worden hanging in a shed belonging to Ed Gein. Gein was a reclusive man that lived on a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin. In his house they found various pieces of human corpses, most famously human faces hanging on the wall. Gein eventually confessed to killing two women, Mary Hogan and Bernice Worden. He also admitted to grave robbing, and dismembering bodies. Gein was sent to the Mendota Mental Health Institute where he remained until his death.
The story of how a local man in a small town managed to commit atrocities became the inspiration for many stories and films. The horrifying reality that crimes of this nature really could happen anywhere gripped newspaper readers all across the state, and even the country. One such person affected by the story was Robert Bloch.
Bloch was a writer living in Milwaukee when he first read about the Gein murders. He was fascinated as to how Gein was able to get away with his crimes for as long as he did. The story inspired him to write a novel loosely based on the true story. He pulled the few details he had about Ed Gein and developed the plot of Psycho.
Bloch’s main character was also a recluse, but how would someone with little to no friends find their victims? Bloch made the character a motel owner to give him access to out-of-town guests. He also decided that his murderer, Norman Bates, would commit the crimes in a dissociative fugue, a temporary state when a person suffers from memory loss. Bloch gave his book a couple of twists. For one, Norman Bates is not only a murderer, but he believes that his late mother is still alive and committing the murders herself. The other twist was that Bloch introduced a lead character, who many readers believed to be the hero of the story, and then he killed her off long before the story was over. It was clear that this novel was a pure shocker to the average reader in the late 1950s, and Bloch had taken a huge risk.
Psycho was published in 1959, less than two years after the discovery of Ed Gein’s farm. It was at this time that popular horror director Alfred Hitchcock was finishing up production of his most recent film, North by Northwest, and was looking for a topic for his next film. He had seen a New York Times article about a new thriller by Robert Bloch, and bought the book to read while traveling. After reading the book, Hitchcock called up Peggy Robertson, his personal assistant, and told her that they had their next subject.
Hitchcock then bought the rights to the book anonymously for $9,000.
Summary
Marion Crane is on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer so that she can run away with the man with whom she’s been having an affair. Driving on the backroads to avoid the police, she comes across the Bates Motel and decides to stay for the night. She meets Norman Bates, a seemingly harmless young man that gives her a room to use for the night. Norman has a troubling relationship with his mother, who Marion never sees.
Later on that night, Marion takes a shower before bed under the watchful eye of Norman. While showering, a dark figure with an obscured face enters the room and stabs Marion to death. Several days later, Marion’s sister and her lover arrive at the Bates Motel looking for Marion.
Making of
Alfred Hitchcock made several book-to-movie adaptations throughout his career, but when it came to Psycho, he was afraid of the audience finding out the twist ending before watching his feature.
He was so adamant that no one knew the ending that Hitchcock famously bought as many copies of the book as he could in order to keep people from reading it before seeing his movie. He also spread rumors that he was looking for someone to play the role of Mrs. Bates, and he got calls from several agents offering their clients for consideration. There were no guests allowed on the set, and screenwriter Joseph Stefano was not permitted to discuss the script with anyone.
Hitchcock even altered how the films were shown. Back then, it was customary for audiences to arrive at the theater whenever they wanted. If the film was in progress, they would sit down and stick around for the next showing so they could catch the beginning. Hitchcock knew that this could ruin the surprise, so he demanded that theaters not allow viewers in unless the film had not started yet. This eventually became the standard for movie viewing.
The first writer to try their hand at a script for Psycho was James Cavenaugh, a writer that had worked on Hitchcock’s TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. But, Hitchcock felt that the first script was too dull, and he turned to Ned Brown, an agent that he very much respected. Brown suggested Joseph Stefano, a young writer that had worked on two previous productions. But Hitchcock wasn’t impressed with Stefano’s work, and he didn’t like working with young writers. But when the two met, Stefano explained how he would frame the story.
Since the reveal of Norman Bates’ mother had to be a secret, Stefano pitched that the film’s story should focus on Marion Crane, a woman who is having an affair and is on the run after embezzling money. She’s gotten herself into a bad situation, but she’s decided to fix it by returning the money. Feeling good about her decision, she goes to take a cleansing shower, only for someone to come in and murder her. After Stefano finished, Hitchcock said, “we could get a big star to play that part,” and Stefano knew that he had landed the job.
According to Stefano, Hitchcock did not discuss characters and their motivations. Whenever he would ask about that, Hitchcock would only tell him that it was up to the writer. He had complete faith in Stefano. At one point, Hitchcock and his wife Alma went on a vacation, and he asked Stefano to write a scene while he was gone. When he returned, he took the scene home and came back the next day to tell Stefano, “Alma loved it.” Because Hitchcock famously consulted his wife about every project, this truly meant that Stefano was on the right track for Psycho.
There are several themes explored in Psycho, but one of the biggest throughlines is the theme of mothers. Mothers are mentioned by several characters in the first act of the film before the introduction of Norman Bates. Once his character is on screen, there are several mentions and allusions to his mother, who is seemingly watching from her window in the house.
Although Hitchcock had made several films in color during the 40s and 50s, he knew that Psycho had to be a black and white picture because of the amount of gore. He also decided that the film would be a small production that cost less than a million dollars. At this point in his career, Hitchcock was a household name and would have been able to secure much more funding, but he insisted. He also used the same crew that would film episodes of his TV series. When asked why he wanted to do this, Hitchcock reportedly referenced another studio that was making low budget films at the time, that he considered to be low quality. But, those movies were doing very well at the box office. He wanted to see what would happen if someone made a better low budget film.
Because Hitchcock was at the end of his deal with Paramount, they agreed to distribute Psycho. But the studio had little faith in the film, thinking that a low budget movie wouldn’t do well. In order to make the movie, Hitchcock used his company Shamley Productions to fund the picture.
Although Psycho is a Paramount Picture, it was filmed almost exclusively on the Universal backlot. Hitchcock hated filming on location because it wasn’t a controlled environment. One scene that takes place in a used car lot is one of the only moments in the film shot on location.
The opening scene is a wide panning shot of Phoenix, Arizona, and the exterior was a real hotel. This film is all about subverting the expectations of the audience, and the opening scene was a huge part of that. The passion between Marion and Sam was meant to tell the audience that there would be a major romance plot in the film. The hope was that when Norman Bates appears later on, audiences would assume that there would be a sort-of love triangle between the characters.
The house and the motel were both built on the backlot. The most important feature of the sets was that the house had to be taller than the motel, looming over it, and there had to be steps from the house to the motel at the bottom.
The Shower scene is the most famous moment in Psycho for several reasons. It tapped into the fear that we are never truly alone or safe. It also was a major surprise that the film's biggest star was dying only a third of the way through the film.
Janet Leigh’s performance and Hitchcock’s camerawork make the scene believable, but it’s the music written by Bernard Hermann that made the scene iconic. The piercing sound of the strings mirror the sound of a shrill scream, and the music pierces our ears just before Marion/Janet Leigh screams herself. The music is so famous that even people who haven’t seen the film can mimic the theme. It has become synonymous with terror.
As the scene comes to a close, the camera zooms in on the still eye of Janet Leigh to emphasize the nothingness behind her eyes. This was an elegant way to show the audience that she had truly died without showing the body. Leigh was originally supposed to wear contact lenses to show the unmoving eyes, but lenses at that time weren’t advanced enough. She would’ve had to wear them for several weeks to get used to the lenses, and they didn’t want to spend the time. So, she had to act the scene without them. When the camera zooms in, that’s Janet Leigh’s actual face and eye that she had to keep still for the entire shot.
The casting in Psycho was a major part of its success.
Joseph Stefano felt that the Norman Bates that is portrayed in the novel was not likable enough. So he changed the character from an older man to a young one that seemed vulnerable and sad. This was because once Marion is killed, the movie shifts its focus to Norman, and the audience needed to feel empathy toward his character.
Once Stefano described the film version of Norman Bates, Hitchcock immediately suggested that Anthony Perkins play the part. Fortunately, Perkins was available and Norman Bates would be the role that defined his acting career.
Before the script had been written, Alfred Hitchcock sent the book to actress Janet Leigh, asking her to consider playing the role of Marion. Leigh wanted to say yes before even reading the book simply because she wanted to work with Hitchcock. It never bothered her that her character’s story ended abruptly, and she was intrigued with how he was going to make the film work.
Hitchcock wanted Leigh because he needed a big name to draw in audiences and make them feel safe. He knew that audiences would believe that the film would not kill her character. This made the infamous shower scene so much more shocking.
Hitchcock told Janet Leigh that when she saw his camera move, she needed to move with it. It was a direction that he often gave to his actors. This meant that she would constantly find motivation for her character to move at specific points in the movie to keep the shot dynamic.
About halfway into the movie, the audience is introduced to Marion’s sister, Lila, played by Vera Miles.
Miles was meant to be in Hitchcock’s film Vertigo, but she had gotten pregnant. So because she was contracted to make another film with the director, she was cast as Lila.
It’s difficult to come into a movie that has just lost its (seemingly) main character, and make the audience care about your role in the story. Hitchcock knew that Miles could make the part work.
John Gavin played Sam Loomis, the man with which Marion was having an affair before she left town.
Gavin would go on to play Julius Caesar in Sparticus, which also premiered in 1960. He had many TV and film roles, and would make an appearance on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour a couple years later.
Music
For the second time this month, we’re bringing up Bernard Herrmann, a renowned film composer of Hollywood’s golden age. Herrmann composed nearly a hundred films over the course of his career, like Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver. He wrote the soundtrack to a lot of Hitchcock’s films, like Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, and of course, Psycho.
By the time that Psycho was released, Hitchcock and Herrmann had worked together for several years. Although Hitchcock was famous for managing every aspect of his movie, he left the score open for Herrmann to work on independently.
Because the film was low budget, there wasn’t a lot of money for music. Herrmann had a limited range of instruments available to him. He embraced this challenge and attempted to write a “black and white score for a black and white movie.” He heavily utilized the string section, placing mutes on the strings that made them sound dry and cold in comparison to strings in other classic Hollywood scores.
From the moment that the film begins, Bernard Herrmann alerts the audience that they are watching a true thriller. The music hardly lets the viewer take a breath, even in seemingly mild scenes. But the moment that makes all movie lovers cringe, the part of the score that can turn your blood cold, is the infamous music during Marion’s shower sequence. It’s a harsh and unsettling sound, and it was unlike any film music that came before it. It made the scene infinitely more terrifying because it was (in some ways) scarier than the movie itself.
Unbelievably, Hitchcock actually didn’t want any music for the shower scene. He thought the sound of Marion’s scream and her struggling would be more effective. But, Herrmann disagreed and wrote music for the scene anyway. Later on, Hitchcock approached Herrmann and told him that the scene wasn’t working and that he might need music afterall. Herrmann happily offered the music that he had secretly written, and Hitchcock agreed that it fit the scene perfectly.
Reception and Legacy
Psycho was intriguing to so many people when it came out. One major reason for this was Hitchcock’s plot to have moviegoers not arrive late and to not spoil the surprise!
The approximate budget was $806,000 and it ended up with a box office gross of $32 million. It was Hitchcock’s highest grossing film at the time.
Janet Leigh in her book Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller that Hitchcock did not have her and Perkins do the usual promotional publicity for the film. Hitchcock however, did possibly the most public relations for this film. She believed that there were two reasons for this. First was that it ensured that the ending was not leaked. The second reason is that she believed he was putting 110 percent of himself into the film because he wanted it to succeed and prove Paramount wrong in their assessment of its box office worth.
According to Janet Leigh the critics had about 60% negative to 40% positive when it first came out.
“What makes ‘Psycho’ immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers.” Roger Ebert
The fear of police came directly from Alfred Hitchcock himself, who was terrified of law enforcement. As a child, his father took him to the police station for acting out, and they pretended to arrest him as punishment. He told the story often as an adult and was not shy about his uneasiness around police.
Psycho inspired many films for years to come. For example, the 1996 film Scream used Alfred Hitchcock’s trick of casting an A-list actor and promoting the film as if she were the lead. Because Scream was a parody of the horror genre, it made sense for the film to reference one of the most famous thrillers of all time. The trick worked just as well in 1996 as it did in 1960.
Fun Facts
Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter appears in the movie! She plays Caroline, a coworker of Marion. She often wanted to take part in Hitchcock’s movies, but he would only cast her if she was exactly right for the part.
Because the film was in black and white, Hitchcock was able to use chocolate syrup to simulate blood instead of red corn syrup.
In the beginning of his filmmaking career, Hitchcock would make cameo appearances in his movies because they needed more people in crowd shots. After a while, audiences came to expect to see a Hitchcock cameo in his movies, and he always delivered. In Psycho, the cameo is very early on, whe Marion is at work. If you look out the front window, you can see his profile as he stands on the sidewalk.
Norman munches on Kandy Korn throughout the film which makes him appear bird-like. Norman references birds as he does taxidermy as a hobby.
Hitchcock liked to scare Janet Leigh and so she never knew what would be in her dressing room. To her it seemed as though he was testing out the look of mother. She enjoyed it and would often play games with him and Anthony Perkins.
When we discuss the history of the horror film genre, Psycho is almost always part of the conversation. Although there had already been several Alfred Hitchcock movies by 1960, none of them were like Psycho. This was a defining moment not just for horror, but for cinema in general. It was a movie that seemingly broke all the rules.
When big-name filmmakers were all embracing color as the future, Hitchcock opted for black and white. Although he had the means for a big-budget film, he intentionally made his movie as low-budget as possible. And most shockingly of all, he hired a well-known actress and made her appear as the film’s heroine, only to kill her a third of the way through the story.
Psycho masterfully conveys some of mankind’s biggest fears. It was a fierce reminder that no one is ever truly safe, and that people may not be what they seem. Its very loose ties to a real story reminds us that horror can be found anywhere, although it’s best to experience it in the form of a good story. So if you’re interested in learning about horror cinema, make sure you give Psycho a good visit. We just mean the movie, of course, because if you ever happen to come across any creepy roadside motels with a large house and someone watching from an upstairs window, it’s best to keep driving.