Hithcock masterpiece in his most accomplished and perfect movie

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2007)

This famous film with known story tells about Marion Crane(Janet Leigh),she works in a Phoenix(Arizona)office,when his employer trusts her a money.Seeing the opportunity to take the cash and beginning a new life along with her fiancée Sam(John Gavin).Larcenous Marion leaves Phoenix and heads with her car toward California where her lover with debts is owner a store.When is caught in a storm and pursued by a policeman,she leaves the highway and enter to Bates hotel.The hotel with twelve rooms (and 12 showers) is managed by a strange young who seems to be submitted by his overbearing mother,she's leaving into a creaky mansion nearly to hotel.Then,rare thing start to happen.Later a detective named Arbogast(Martin Balsam),her sister(Vera Miles) and Sam(John Gavin) are looking for to Marion,asking help to sheriff(John McIntire).
Psycho was not only Hitchcock's biggest successful movie,but was a phenomenon in its own right.The picture is a magnum opus of the terror genre and its immediate impact and its future influence was enormous and cannot be over emphasised.It's the quinta-essential shocker that initiated an authentic sub-genre about psycho-killers continuing until nowadays.The shower images is one of the most studied ,copied and analysed sequences in cinema history and has obtained a notoriety what exceeds of the movie itself.Terrific performance by Anthony Perkins in an immortal role as Norman Bates and sensational Janet Leigh with Oscar nomination included that was the only one of her career.Inventive and superbly constructed plot,filled with delicious black humor, by Joseph Stefano based on Robert Bloch's novel.The highlight film is,of course,the shower scene,it was made 70 cameras to shot the 45 seconds of footage and the creepy sound effects were realized by stabbing a knife into a melon.Magnificent main titles by Saul Bass,he's usual on Hitcock films.Excellent black and white-Hitch thought it would be gory in colour- cinematography by John Russell.Bernard Herrmann'legendary musical score copied and endlessly imitated aids to create a thrilling atmosphere.Film is directed with exquisite taste and intelligence by the master Hitchcock who makes an impeccable control of every scene and maneuvers your emotions, infusing with a deliciously macabre wit,it makes ¨Psycho¨far superior to the several movies what tried duplicate,these are the following: PsychoII(1983)Richard Franklin,PsychoIII(1986)Anthony Perkins and for cable television:PsychoIV(1990)Mick Garris.Psycho'Hitchcock belongs his best period in the 5os and 60s when he produced his finest work,perfecting the art of suspense in a series of masterpieces,Dial M,Rear widow,Vertigo,North by Nortwest,Birds and specially Psycho what are still studied and copied today.Rating: Indispensable and essential classic movie.