Portrait of a Mama's Boy: Norman Bates

One of the essential Hitchcock films is the frightening psychological thriller Psycho. The film itself is extremely iconic and everyone, even those who have not seen the film, know the suspense and terror connected to Janet Leigh's famous shower scene. I watched the movie this evening on Turner Classic Movies, and even almost fifty years after the film was initially released, Psycho is still as terrifying as ever.

The film is almost two stories in one. At the beginning, secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) wants nothing more than to marry out-of-town secret boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). When her boss gives her $40,000 to put in the bank, Marion battles with her conscience and finally decides to leave with the money and join Sam so they can start their life together. Suddenly, Marion gets the feeling that she is being followed, that the her boss has turned her in and the police are on her tale. She buys a new car to throw them off her track and then, after a raining night of driving on the highway, Marion finds herself at the out of the way Bates Motel. There she meets the shy Norman (Anthony Perkins), a strange young man with an interesting relationship with his mother. There the film diverges and we are plunged into following the crimes of a deeply disturbed murderer.

Hitch's last black and white film, Psycho was shot so because black and white was inexpensive and blood looks more gory in color. Hitchcock used a variety of camera angles, lighting effects, and shifts to create the eerie atmosphere in Psycho. In order to make his audience feel like voyeurs, a 50 mm lens was used on a 33 mm camera to give it the same appearance as looking through a person's eyes. Hitch is also famous for using tons of different angles and shots to make one scene. The shower scene alone uses somewhere between 70 and 90 different shots spliced together to make the same scene, a scene lasting only 45 seconds. Another little bit of trivia, this is the first movie to have a scene where the audience actually sees a flushing toilet.

The film was #1 on AFI's 100 Thrills list and #14 on the 100 Movies. The quote "A boy's best friend is his mother" was ranked #56 on AFI's top movie quotes. Of course, this film does have those who dislike in. In fact, Walt Disney would never allow Hitch to make a film for him or use any sets at Disneyland because Hitch was the one who made "that disgusting movie" Psycho.

Still, Psycho remains incredibly popular with audiences to this day. For those of you who want to know more about the movie, you can get some more information from these sites. Filmsite.org has a great analysis and review of the movie you can read here. Another website, House of Horrors, offers up a great analysis, review, and some fun and behind the scenes facts about the movie any film buff would be interested in, which you can find here. For those of you who love this movie so much you want to memorize every word, here you can find online a complete transcript of the entire movie. Psycho is a movie that will terrify but it might also become one of your new favorites. I highly recommend watching it, with the lights on of course.