One of Hitchcock's best films...a masterpiece!!! score: 9 (out of 10)

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 1998)

No one on Earth has captured the art of "horror" or "suspense" on film better than Alfred Hitchcock. His three best films that come to my mind are "Vertigo" (1958), "North by Northwest" (1959) and this one...his all-time greatest masterpiece, although some people think "Lifeboat" (1944) is his finest film to date. I can remember when I first saw this film...my friend's mother refused to let her son watch such a stupid, slasher film. I laughed. This is not a typical "slasher" film, but a story about embezzlement, greed, adultery, and murder...all of the ingredients that make up a Hitchcock movie. The "Friday the 13th" movies are what make up a typical "slasher" movie simply because there is no plot other than the constant "slashing" of people. This Hitchcock movie has a plot, of which I am not going to go into a lot of detail. After devising a scheme to embezzle her boss out of a chunk of money, Marion Crane winds up fleeing town, and her job, for her lover (John Gavin). During a terrible rain storm, she finds vacancy in the Bates Motel, which is run by the shy and innocent Norman Bates. What I found so interesting about this movie is the pace, the tone, the timing, the music, the house where Norman lives, and the confines of a simple motel room, and of course, the shower...all of which lead to murder and mayhem in a stylish, provocative manner. Roger Ebert's review of the movie is correct...at the end...the shrink's description of Norman is dull and overblown. If Hitch could have tightened that scene up just a bit...the film could have been totally flawless.