"Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly . . . . "

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2007)

In the opening, scene, rather risqué for its time, Marion Crane (beautiful Janet Leigh) and boyfriend Sam are about to end a lunchtime rendez-vous in a no-tell motel. After the bra-and-slip clad Leigh does some final cuddling with her shirtless man (didn't I tell you, risqué?)we learn that she is tired of being his lover "on the down-low", as we would say today, and is getting anxious for him to make an honest woman out of her (in other words, marriage). But Sam is in tight financial times due to his ex-wife and doesn't want to marry Marion when he can't offer her a very comfortable lifestyle.
Shortly after returning to her office, Marion is trusted with $40,000.00 cash given to her boss by a client, which she is supposed to deposit at his bank for him. After getting permission to leave the office early . . . well, she has the money there in her car with her, she and her man need it to start a real life together . . . you see where this is going. Marion is by no means a thief by nature or a hardened person, but this is more temptation than she can withstand. She heads to Phoenix to her boyfriend, imagining all kinds of conversations in her mind: Her man's reaction when he sees her unexpectedly, her boss's reaction when he realizes that both she and the money he had given her are missing, not to mention the irate client " . . . I'll track her down, never you doubt it. I'll get that money, and if any of it's missing, I'll replace it with her fine, soft flesh." Yikes! But Marion is in for a change of plan. You see, she's pulled off onto a back road and ended up at the Bates Motel, where she meets its proprietor, Norman, and (sort of) his Mother . . . .
What can I say? Simply one of the most genuinely scary films ever made and perhaps Hitchock's masterpiece. The shower scene is a classic example of "what you don't see is scarier than what you do". And Bernard Hermann's music? Please. The man was brilliant.
Perhaps what chilled me the most, though, is the final shot. The look on the great Anthony Perkins' face is absolute genius. And, as another reviewer pointed out, if you look carefully, you'll see Mother's skull superimposed over her son's face before the final shot of Marion's car being pulled from the swamp.
With all due respect to the equally great Sir Anthony Hopkins and his brilliant performance as Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates should have been named the greatest villain of all time.
A final note - AVOID the remake. Nothing is on par with the original movie and the director added a couple of unnecessary and gratuitous touches (in the motel scene, Sam is completely nude, and in the "peeping" scene, Norman masturbates as he secretly watches Marion get undressed before taking her fateful shower - did we need to see THAT to understand that Marion had become the object of his repressed desire? I don't think so). The original, however, is a MUST SEE, whether you are a horror aficionado or not. Best watched on Halloween night, but friggin' creepy any day of the year. Cheers.