Incomparable

Rating: 9/10 (5 August 2005)

The plot of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film "Psycho" is by now the stuff of legend; Marion Crane (Leigh), a secretary in Phoenix is desperate to marry her boyfriend Sam (Gavin), only Sam is still paying off debts from his previous marriage. One Friday a man comes into her real estate office with $40,000 in cash to purchase a house for his daughter. Instead of taking the money to the bank as her boss directed, Marion packs her bags and leaves town with the money, presumably to give to Sam so they can finally make a life together. After driving for a day and a half, she ends up stopping at a motel only 10 miles from Sam's home. The Bates Motel, operated by one Norman Bates (Perkins) is a creepy place shrouded with mystery, particularly the mystery that is Norman's mother, a driving force that looms over the property and controls Norman himself. When Marion does not show up for work on Monday, her sister Lila (Miles) comes looking for her as well as a detective, Arbogast (Balsam) hired by Marion's employer. Unfortunately they all find that as one mystery begins to unravel, another one, more quizzical and shocking is ready to take its place, and none of them are safe from the danger of the Bates Motel.
I'm pretty sure that there isn't much more to say about this film that hasn't already been said; "Psycho" being one of the most studied and analyzed films in film history. (I myself took a class in college that examined parts of the film frame by frame, and have read books analyzing the film) However, I have to wonder if the sensation of the film and the fact that it is an instant classic, regardless if someone has seen it or not (truthfully, I have heard people say, "Oh, that is such a classic." And then later admit that they haven't yet seen the film at all.), sometimes waters down its mastery and the impact this film had (and continues to have) on the film industry as a whole. If you ever get the opportunity to see the art exhibit "24 Hour Psycho", wherein the artist slows the film down to make the running time span an entire day, or if you were to read the excellent book Shower Scene in Hitchcock's Psycho: Creating Cinematic Suspense and Terror by Philip J. Skerry, you can see how incredibly impeccable each frame of the film is. If you were to lay out any scene in the film and look at it frame by frame, you would have some incredibly compelling photographs, and that was exactly how Hitchcock intended his presentation to be.
Aside from being a work of art, it is well known that "Psycho" changed the way that moviegoers attended the cinema. Because of the big event that occurs halfway through the film, Hitchcock could not have people continuing their normal practice of strolling into the theater whenever they felt like it. If any of these people came to see a Janet Leigh picture, they would be pretty confused at that point. So Hitchcock, ever the showman (and his own greatest publicist) announced that no one would be admitted into the theater after the movie began. This was HUGE for its time. Besides changing the attendance factor, it was one of the greatest publicity stunts of its time. If people weren't going to go to the film before, they sure were going to check it out now. I'm sure that "Psycho" doesn't have as much of an impact to people who grew up on slasher films or other horror films, but despite the fact it was released 45 years ago, its secrets are now the stuff of general film knowledge, and personally, the fact that I have studied it clinically, when I went to see it at the classic movie house two weeks ago, I still found that my heart was racing and the hair was standing up on my arms during the very last scene of the film. Even more of a testimony to its impact is the fact that a friend that I attended the film with, who isn't much of a film fan, much less a classic film buff not only said that he was so tense during the film that he was on pins and needles, but that he wanted to see it again, and soon. Why does this film have such a forceful impact nearly five decades after it was first released? I'm sure that one of the several hundred books written about this film and Hitchcock's filmography could give you several reasons at length. But a simple answer may sum it up best for now: It's simply a damn good movie. 9/10
--Shelly