Not Just Any Mama's Boy

Rating: 9/10 (7 January 2017)

I was eleven years old when "Psycho" was first shown at theaters in 1960. My mother absolutely prohibited me from seeing it, so, naturally, I was soon headed by bus to the Ritz Theatre in downtown Elizabeth, New Jersey by myself so that there would be no witnesses. I was so shocked after the first half hour that I don't think that I had a clue as to what followed, even if I could understand it at the time, and I couldn't.
From the opening pan shot of 1959 downtown Phoenix and the subsequent zoom into the intimate hotel room of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin), this movie never fails to maintain my interest even after many viewings over the past 57 years. It's just that good. No viewing, however, will ever have the same, terrifying impact of the first.
As talented as Alfred Hitchcock is as a director, and this movie ranks among the best of his many brilliant works, I do not believe that "Psycho" would have the same shocking effect without Bernard Hermann's extremely tense score, which consists solely of nerve-racking string instruments.
In addition to the outstanding direction, musical score, and photography by John L. Russell, I thought that the performances of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins were exceptionally good. In the case of Leigh, I have followed her career from her earliest films of the late 1940's (The Romance of Rosy Ridge, Act of Violence, etc.), and I believe that this is among her best work. The handling of the resolution of Marion's inner conflict at a critical moment while she dines with Norman is especially effective, and her entire portrayal is Oscar worthy, even if she does only appear for less than thirty minutes. Apparently, Perkins' acting career fell victim to his own success here as his depiction of Norman Bates was so iconic that he could not easily be identified by audiences as anyone else. In his small but notable role, Frank Albertson as the fat cat who actually owned the $40,000 was quite memorable, and he seemed to relish his role as he flirted with Marion, a much younger woman. Pat Hitchcock, the director's daughter, as Marion's colleague at the real estate office was also very amusing, as she was in her father's "Strangers on a Train".
The one major flaw for me, as well as for other reviewers here, is Simon Oakland's awkward monologue at the end, which I found not only unnecessary but harmful to the film as a whole. While I didn't understand a word of it at the age of eleven, it still annoys me as a senior citizen today. Norman seated in the padded cell with the very creepy voice-over and the haunting, subtle superimposition over his image doesn't require Oakland's tedious explanation at all. What makes it even worse is the psychiatrist's odd gleefulness as he confirms Marion's horrible fate to Sam and Lila. As this is such an impressive film overall, I never allowed this awkward ending to ruin the rest of it for me.