Very few directors knew how to play an audience like Alfred Hitchcock. The best example is in his masterpiece of suspense, "North by Northwest." Cary Grant (after being pursued by spies thinking he's someone else) is waiting to meet with someone on a remote road at a bus stop. A man comes up to him and they both watch a bi-plane crop-dusting the corn that is seen all around them. The second man turns to Cary Grant and says, "That's funny. That plane's dusting crops where there ain't no crops." Click, start your stopwatches, ladies and gentlemen. Hitchcock stretches moments of suspense in this film into long, tedious, and perfectly crafted scenes. For his follow up, an adaptation of the Robert Bloch novel "Psycho", he tried a different approach.
Because I am trying to avoid spoilers, I will not summarize the plot of this film, other than providing a brief synopsis. The story revolves around Marion Crane's theft of $40,000, a hotel run by Norman Bates, and her relationship with a divorcee named Sam Loomis. Marion steals money from her employer, a real estate agent who just closed a deal on a purchase. Crane decides to steal the money and make a run for it, flirting the possibility of a new life with Sam. Interestingly enough, the two main protagonists of the Psycho story paint a picture of who they are, before really revealing anything about themselves.
Janet Leigh as Marion Crane in "Psycho."
The role of Marion is exquisitely played by Leigh, painting a portrait of a woman who is desperate to get what she wants, but is unsure of it the entire time. The narrations she hears in her head tell us what she thinks is going to happen or what she'd like to happen in the world she's just left. To me, there are only two moments in the film in which Marion is certain of herself: They're the scenes the beginning of the film and about half way through when she is done having dinner with Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Crane decides exactly what she's going to do with the money and then follows a symbolic cleansing. Again, I'm trying to avoid spoilers for those who have not seen it. The rest of the film, like I said above, she's extremely unsure, having come into this money. Then meets Norman, a young man who thinks he's set exactly on what he wants, but realizes that she's trapped, because of him.
Norman lives in a home above the Bates Motel, up on a hill overlooking the facility. He says that he lives with his mother, taking care of her because she's ill. Anthony Perkins' painting, is one of certainty (a juxtaposition to Marion who is very uncertain). All this is before he talks about his mother, Norma. Perkins is a young man trapped. The scene in the motel office parlor in which he's talking to Marion after his mother wouldn't allow the pair to have dinner in the Bates' home is chilling because even though Norman is disrespected by his mother and he's okay with that. Perkins is so straight and convincing as Norman Bates that I forgot I was watching actors on screen. I held on to his every word, every sentence as if were an important direction I had to follow. Very rarely do performances like that occur and Hitchcock was right on the money to have young Perkins play Bates.
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Norman lives with his mother, Norma Bates atop a hill overlooking the Bates Motel.
Ol' Hitch, is also at the top of his game here, using the crew from his television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" to shoot the film. "Psycho" was shot on a very small and tight budget, something Hollywood was puzzled over, especially after the success that the large budgeted "North by Northwest" had been. Never once does an angle feel out of place or cinematic, in relation to the film. We don't question Hitchcock's choices because they fit the style of the picture so perfectly well. scene in which Norman carries his mother from her bedroom upstairs down to the fruit cellar is shot from above, looking down as if the audience's eyes were directly on the ceiling give us the omniscient view and symbolism that the audience is seeing everything, yet seeing nothing. Although we are hearing Norman and his mother speak, something which the other characters in the film are not, we can't see them because of this obstruction in our field of view.
Another fascinating aspect of the film that I picked up on this time around is the way Hitchock has extremely important moments in the film connected to food. At the beginning of the film, Sam and Marion had just finished a steamy affair in a two-bit hotel room when Sam points out that she didn't even finish her lunch. Marion is uncertain in the next couple of minutes in the film. Marion then goes on to have dinner in the parlor of the Bates Motel and is then has a better understanding of what she must do after her conversation with Norman. Later, Norman is seen eating a bag of candy and he is then questioned, uncertain of what to say or how to act. Very sly there, Mr. Hitchcock.
I can't praise "Psycho" enough. It has stood the test of time even though it was made 53 years ago. It taps into the very things that make us nervous, like many of Hitchcock's films do: death in a familiar and comfortable environment, food, voyeurism, and the usage of music to tell another half of the story (a rule which Hitchcock loved to break). Bernard Herrmann's score for the film works just as well without it as it does with it. The three note melody for Norman Bates lets the audience know that we're dealing with a young man who isn't in a normal relationship with his mother. What's going on? It all lies in Herrmann's music. The drama begins instantly with furious strings and patterns of lines traveling across the opening credits. I can think of only a handful of films that I can describe as perfect and "Psycho" is damn near close except for a few things. In the third act of the film, when Norman runs out of the motel parlor, he briefly pauses then looks back in a very melodramatic and soap opera-like fashion (also, half of the events in the third act could have been avoided had he just locked the doors to his home in the motel). Watch this film when you have time to really sit and pay attention to it, not because the story is complicated, it's far from that. But to appreciate the sheer beauty and mastery of "Psycho." A film that is so good, it's picked apart at the seem of every element to discover hidden symbolism and new details not noticed before. They sure don't make movies like this anymore
9.5/10
Rated R
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Joseph Stefano
Based on the novel by Robert Bloch
Runtime - 109 minutes
Suggested edition: If you can afford it, "Psycho" is included in the Alfred Hitchcock: Masterpiece Collection, a box set I highly recommend. If not the standard Universal DVD is available for $8.99 on Amazon.
8.6 of 10 stars on IMDb
96% on Rotten Tomatoes
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