Without a doubt, Hitchcock's best.

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2001)

Many of Alfred Hitchcock's movies are considered classics, but "Psycho" is easily his best. But the reason for that isn't Hitchcock, it's the cast and story.
Hitchcock is the kind of director who succeeds best when his movies deal strictly with person to person situations, and "Psycho" does this best. I have seen many, many Hitchcock movies and my peak of interest in all of these movies is when there is an intriguing situation between two or more people, such as the one-sided murder plot and its resulting conflict in "Strangers On a Train," and the attempts of Barry Kane in "Saboteur" to clear his name of sabotage. However, in the case of these two movies and many other Hitchcock films, the person to person situation is almost destroyed by an overly large climax that is ridiculously corny. The merry-go-around scene in "Strangers On a Train" is an embarassment, and the Statue of Liberty scene in "Saboteur" is a few steps too far. Other bad climaxes include the hilariously bad fall Jimmy Stewart has at the end of "Rear Window," and the lackluster mountain climax in "North by Northwest." "Psycho," however, avoids these kinds of climaxes. "Psycho" stays on a person to person level throughout the entire movie and does not include a terribly corny ending (unless you count Norman being able to perfectly imitate an old lady's voice). Considering the odd set-up, a man assuming the role of his mother, the story of "Psycho" is executed rather realistically. Also (and I don't mean to slam Hitchcock) "Psycho" contains far more realistically portrayed characters than any other Hitchcock film. In other Hitchcock films, only one or two characters have any depth, while in "Psycho" there are five characters (Norman, Marion, Lila, Arbogast, and Sam) that have depth (though John Gavin's performance is a little stiff). Even supporting characters like Al Chambers and the detective at the end are very believable. Pat Hitchcock, however, as Marion's friend at work, does her part in destroying depth (as she did in "Strangers On a Train"). But most of the scenes in "Psycho" are very well-acted, especially the questioning scene between Arbogast and Norman and their light-weight argument outside. As usual, "Psycho" contains the Hitchcock knack for irony ("The first customer of the day is always the most troubled," and "Insect or man, death should always be painless), but, for the most part the realistic performances save the movie from too-much corniness and truly make it one of the finest movies ever made (one of my top five). 5 stars out of 5. The underrated "Psycho II," (released in 1983) contains excellent performances all around and contains no irony whatsoever. Although "Psycho II" is generally liked, straying away from Hitchcock didn't sit well with some.