Psycho (1960) | Presenting Hitchcock Podcast

Gooooood evening. In this months episode of Presenting Hitchcock, Cory and Aaron slice through the mother of all horrors as they discuss “Psycho.”

The Picture:

Picture Title: Psycho

Written by:

Screenplay by Joseph Stefano

Based on the novel by Robert Bloch

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson and Patricia Hitchcock

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Year Released: 1960

Our Favourite Trivia:

DIRECTOR CAMEO: A man wearing a cowboy hat outside Marion’s office.

Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for only $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could, to keep the ending a secret.

The movie in large part was made because Sir Alfred Hitchcock was fed up with the big-budget, star-studded movies he had recently been making, and wanted to experiment with the more efficient, sparser style of television filmmaking. He ultimately used a crew consisting mostly of television veterans and hired actors and actresses less well-known than those he usually used.

When the cast and crew began work on the first day, they had to raise their right hands and promise not to divulge one word of the story. Sir Alfred Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it.

Paramount Pictures gave Alfred Hitchcock a very small budget with which to work, because of their distaste with the source material. They also deferred most of the box-office take to Hitchcock, thinking the movie would fail. When it became a sleeper hit, Hitchcock made a fortune.

This was Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s last theatrical movie in black-and-white. It was filmed from November 30, 1959 to February 1, 1960.

Joseph Stefano was adamant about seeing a toilet on-screen to display realism. He also wanted to see it flush. Sir Alfred Hitchcock told him he had to “make it so” through his writing if he wanted to see it. Stefano wrote the scene in which Marion adds up the money, then flushes the paper down the toilet specifically so the toilet flushing was integral to the scene, and therefore irremovable. This was the first American movie (and possibly first fictional movie) ever to show a toilet flushing on-screen.

The shot of Arbogast falling backward down the stairs was a process shot of Martin Balsam sitting stationary and waving his arms, as if losing his balance, in front of a screen projecting a previously filmed dolly shot moving down the stairs.

In total, three actresses recorded Norma Bates’ dialogue. Their recordings were then mixed together until Alfred Hitchcock found the right tone of voice for each particular scene.

When Norman spies on Marion as she gets ready to shower, the painting he removes from the parlor wall is of Susannah and the Elders, in which a young woman is unknowingly watched as she bathes.

The shower scene was shot from December 17 through December 23, 1959. It features seventy-seven different camera angles, and includes fifty cuts.

The shot of the knife appearing to enter Marion’s abdomen was achieved by pressing it against her body so as to dent the skin slightly, withdrawing it rapidly, and then playing that shot backwards.

At the end of the shower scene, the first few seconds of the camera pull-back from Janet Leigh’s face is a freeze-frame. Sir Alfred Hitchcock did this because, while viewing the rushes, his wife noticed the pulse in Leigh’s neck throbbing.

Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer’s salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, “Thirty-three percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”

Bernard Herrmann wrote the main title theme before Saul Bass created the opening credit sequence. Bass animated it to the music, creating the stabbing, wrenching look in which the credits are ripped in half.

Bernard Herrmann achieved the shrieking sound of the shower scene by having a group of violinists saw the same note over and over. He called the motif “a return to pure ice water.”

In his famous interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, who was a fan of the movie, commented that the scenes with the sheriff were a letdown. Hitchcock replied: “The sheriff’s intervention comes under the heading of what we have discussed many times before: “Why don’t they go to the police?”. I’ve always replied: “They don’t go to the police because it’s dull.” Here is a perfect example of what happens when they go to the police”.

$40,000, the amount stolen by Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), is the same amount deposited in the bank by Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten ) in Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Every theater that showed this movie had a cardboard cut-out installed in the lobby of Sir Alfred Hitchcock pointing to his wristwatch with a note saying “The manager of this theatre has been instructed at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theatre any persons after the picture starts. Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes or ventilating shafts will be met by force. The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy PSYCHO more. Alfred Hitchcock”

Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh said that they did not mind being stereotyped forever because of their participation in this movie. They said in interviews they would rather be stereotyped and be remembered forever for this classic movie than not be remembered at all.

In later interviews, Alfred Hitchcock and Janet Leigh categorically stated that it was her body in the shower scene, but it wasn’t. The body belonged to a model called Marli Renfro. When you can’t see Leigh’s face in the shots, you’re looking at her body double. She only made $500 for filming what would become one of the most iconic movie scenes ever. A Dallas-born stripper who worked in Las Vegas, Renfro was one of the first Playboy Bunnies. Apart from Psycho, she only appeared in one other film: Francis Ford Coppola’s 1962 soft-porn comedy-western Tonight for Sure (1962).

This movie marked the fifth and final time that Sir Alfred Hitchcock earned an Oscar nomination for Best Director, though he never won.

Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh’s daughter, was born in 1958; right before Psycho started pre-production. Curtis would grow up to be cinema’s top Scream Queen in part because her mom was in this movie. Irwin Yablans, John Carpenter and Debra Hill, who all did the casting for Halloween (1978), admitted they chose Curtis in part because of the stunt casting aspect of her being Leigh’s daughter; and this would then tie Halloween together with Psycho in the public’s mind. Curtis would go on to star in The Fog (1980), Prom Night(1980), Terror Train (1980), and Halloween II (1981); more horror movies (of different franchises) than any other actress in Hollywood.

The Random Draw for Next Picture:

Next up, we’ll be discussing “Suspicion.”

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