Psycho Movie Review & Film Summary (1960) | Roger Ebert "It wasn't a message that stirred the audiences, nor was it a great performance...they were aroused by pure film." Advertisement So Alfred Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut about "Psycho," adding that it "belongs to filmmakers, to you and me." Hitchcock deliberately wanted "Psycho" to look like a cheap exploitation film. He shot it not with his usual expensive feature crew (which had just finished "North by Northwest") but with the crew he used for his television show. He filmed in black and white. Long passages contained no dialogue. His budget, $800,000, was cheap even by 1960 standards; the Bates Motel and mansion were built on the back lot at Universal. In its visceral feel, "Psycho" has more in common with noir quickies like " Detour " than with elegant Hitchcock thrillers like " Rear Window " or " Vertigo ." Yet no other Hitchcock film had a greater impact. "I was directing the viewers," the director told Truffaut in their book-length interview.

"You might say I was playing them, like an organ." It was the most shocking film its original audience members had ever seen. "Do not reveal the surprises!" the ads shouted, and no moviegoer could have anticipated the surprises Hitchcock had in store--the murder of Marion ( Janet Leigh ), the apparent heroine, only a third of the way into the film, and the secret of Norman's mother. "Psycho" was promoted like a William Castle exploitation thriller. "It is required that you see 'Psycho' from the very beginning!" Hitchcock decreed, explaining, "the late-comers would have been waiting to see Janet Leigh after she had disappeared from the screen action." These surprises are now widely known, and yet "Psycho" continues to work as a frightening, insinuating thriller. That's largely because of Hitchcock's artistry in two areas that are not as obvious: The setup of the Marion Crane story, and the relationship between Marion and Norman ( Anthony Perkins ). Both of these elements work because Hitchcock devotes his full attention and skill to treating them as if they will be developed for the entire picture.

Advertisement The setup involves a theme that Hitchcock used again and again: The guilt of the ordinary person trapped in a criminal situation. Marion Crane does steal $40,000, but still she fits the Hitchcock mold of an innocent to crime. We see her first during an afternoon in a shabby hotel room with her divorced lover, Sam Loomis ( John Gavin ). He cannot marry her because of his alimony payments; they must meet in secret. When the money appears, it's attached to a slimy real estate customer (Frank Albertson) who insinuates that for money like that, Marion might be for sale. So Marion's motive is love, and her victim is a creep. This is a completely adequate setup for a two-hour Hitchcock plot. It never for a moment feels like material manufactured to mislead us. And as Marion flees Phoenix on her way to Sam's home town of Fairvale, Calif., we get another favorite Hitchcock trademark, paranoia about the police. A highway patrolman (Mort Mills) wakes her from a roadside nap, questions her, and can almost see the envelope with the stolen money.

She trades in her car for one with different plates, but at the dealership she's startled to see the same patrolman parked across the street, leaning against his squad car, arms folded, staring at her. Every first-time viewer believes this setup establishes a story line the movie will follow to the end. Frightened, tired, perhaps already regretting her theft, Marion drives closer to Fairvale but is slowed by a violent rainstorm. She pulls into the Bates Motel, and begins her short, fateful association with Norman Bates. And here again Hitchcock's care with the scenes and dialog persuades us that Norman and Marion will be players for the rest of the film. Advertisement He does that during their long conversation in Norman's "parlor," where savage stuffed birds seem poised to swoop down and capture them as prey. Marion has overheard the voice of Norman's mother speaking sharply with him, and she gently suggests that Norman need not stay here in this dead end, a failing motel on a road that has been bypassed by the new interstate. She cares about Norman. She is also moved to rethink her own actions. And he is touched. So touched, he feels threatened by his feelings. And that is why he must kill her.

When Norman spies on Marion, Hitchcock said, most audience members read it as Peeping Tom behavior. Truffaut observed that the film's opening, with Marion in a bra and panties, underlines the later voyeurism. We have no idea murder is in store. Seeing the shower scene today, several things stand out. Unlike modern horror films, "Psycho" never shows the knife striking flesh. There are no wounds. There is blood, but not gallons of it. Hitchcock shot in black and white because he felt the audience could not stand so much blood in color (the 1998 Gus Van Sant remake specifically repudiates that theory). The slashing chords of Bernard Herrmann's soundtrack substitute for more grisly sound effects. The closing shots are not graphic but symbolic, as blood and water spin down the drain, and the camera cuts to a closeup, the same size, of Marion's unmoving eyeball. This remains the most effective slashing in movie history, suggesting that situation and artistry are more important than graphic details. Advertisement Perkins does an uncanny job of establishing the complex character of Norman, in a performance that has become a landmark.

Perkins shows us there is something fundamentally wrong with Norman, and yet he has a young man's likability, jamming his hands into his jeans pockets, skipping onto the porch, grinning. Only when the conversation grows personal does he stammer and evade. At first he evokes our sympathy as well as Marion's. The death of the heroine is followed by Norman's meticulous mopping-up of the death scene. Hitchcock is insidiously substituting protagonists. Marion is dead, but now (not consciously but in a deeper place) we identify with Norman--not because we could stab someone, but because, if we did, we would be consumed by fear and guilt, as he is. The sequence ends with the masterful shot of Bates pushing Marion's car (containing her body and the cash) into a swamp. The car sinks, then pauses. Norman watches intently. The car finally disappears under the surface. Analyzing our feelings, we realize we wanted that car to sink, as much as Norman did. Before Sam Loomis reappears, teamed up with Marion's sister Lila ( Vera Miles ) to search for her, "Psycho" already has a new protagonist: Norman Bates.

This is one of the most audacious substitutions in Hitchcock's long practice of leading and manipulating us. The rest of the film is effective melodrama, and there are two effective shocks. The private eye Arbogast ( Martin Balsam ) is murdered, in a shot that uses back-projection to seem to follow him down the stairs. And the secret of Norman's mother is revealed. Advertisement For thoughtful viewers, however, an equal surprise is still waiting. That is the mystery of why Hitchcock marred the ending of a masterpiece with a sequence that is grotesquely out of place. After the murders have been solved, there is an inexplicable scene during which a long-winded psychiatrist ( Simon Oakland ) lectures the assembled survivors on the causes of Norman's psychopathic behavior. This is an anticlimax taken almost to the point of parody. If I were bold enough to reedit Hitchcock's film, I would include only the doctor's first explanation of Norman's dual personality: "Norman Bates no longer exists. He only half existed to begin with.

And now, the other half has taken over, probably for all time." Then I would cut out everything else the psychiatrist says, and cut to the shots of Norman wrapped in the blanket while his mother's voice speaks ("It's sad when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son..."). Those edits, I submit, would have made "Psycho" very nearly perfect. I have never encountered a single convincing defense of the psychiatric blather; Truffaut tactfully avoids it in his famous interview. What makes "Psycho" immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers. Advertisement 8 unnerving facts about that 'Psycho' shower scene | HLNtv.com 8 unnerving facts about that 'Psycho' shower scene By Fri October 31, 2014 youtube.com “My suspense work comes out of creating nightmares for the audience. And I play with an audience.

I make them gasp and surprise them and shock them.” – Alfred Hitchcock It has been called one of the finest cinematic moments in American filmmaking. The shower scene from the 1960 film "Psycho" forever changed Hollywood filmmaking. The movie was groundbreaking in several technical ways, but also startled audiences as becoming the first major film to kill off the protagonist -- in 30 minutes no less. “What made this scene even more shocking was that this victim of unspeakable horror was the star of the film itself," wrote Philip Skerry, author of the book “Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene.” “She can’t be dead,” I thought, but my eyes told me a different story. In a little more than a minute of screen time – an eternity of emotional time – the Olympia audience had been launched into a new cinematic universe.” Here are eight things you might not have known about the 1960 movie.

First-time viewers thought the film would be about Marion Crane According to the book “Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene,” author Philip Skerry says that Hitchcock said in an interview that the movie’s careful plot and character development plodded along “to lead an audience completely up the garden path. They [viewers] thought the story was about a girl who stole $40,000. This was deliberate." Via youtube.com Janet Leigh said that upon seeing the shower scene so many times, she has interpreted it as a baptism of sorts. "There's a light, almost an ethereal light, a heavenly light on Marion," she told the New York Times in a 1995 interview. "It was like she was being purified. Cleansed. The water -- it was like she was being baptized. She was cleaning not only her body but also the inner dirt. And this made the attack even more horrible." 2. The iconic music for the scene is from a song called 'The Murder' [video:""] Hitchcock enlisted composer Bernard Herrmann to write the film's score, but originally wanted the shower scene to be without music.

Herrmann defied him and once he heard the piercing strings and screeching climax, Hitchcock gladly accepted it. He also nearly doubled Herrmann's pay. David Raksin, a colleague of the composer, is quoted as saying : "Remarkable composer that he was, [Herrmann] was that despite a rudimentary sense of melody, which he sought to remedy by repeating short phrases in sequences -- meaning that he would state a brief musical phrase and then repeat it, and repeat it again and again in other positions." The shower scene's music was voted in 2009 as "scariest movie theme of all time" in a PRS for Music survey. It beat the theme from "The Omen". 3. Leigh said she even stopped taking showers for a while Via youtube.com "I stopped taking showers and I take baths, only baths," she told the Times . She said then that even staying at a friend's house or in a hotel was unsettling to her. "I make sure the doors and windows of the house are locked," she said, "and I leave the bathroom door open and shower curtain open. I'm always facing the door, watching, no matter where the shower head is." 4.

Hitchcock hired a nudist as Leigh’s body double for part of the scene Via youtube.com “He [Hitchcock] needed a brief rearview scene of Janet Leigh in a shower, he explained, with no distracting shoulder straps or bathing suit or bra. So he had hired a professional model [Marli Renfro, a member of a traveling Los Angeles nudist organization] accustomed to posing nude for art classes. She was so business-like nonchalant about her bareness during the preparation and shooting of the scene that all snickering, covert peeks and grins totally disappeared among the crew.” -- excerpt from "The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower" By Robert Graysmit 5. The nudist was briefly a Playboy bunny -- with her own shower scene in a way Via Playboy ​Coincidentally, Renfro -- in the shower no less -- was featured on the cover of the September 1960 issue of Playboy magazine while "Psycho" was being shown at the movies. Another Leigh double -- a lighting stand-in -- was actually murdered by a handyman in 1988, according to press reports.

He reportedly thought he was killing Renfro, who is still alive and lives in the Mojave desert. "Everyone confused them -- even a murderer," Graysmith said in his book. 6. The shower scene caused trouble for American parents Via youtube.com The scene was a rousing success at the box office, but caused trouble for American households. An angry father once sent Hitchcock a letter saying that his daughter had refused to take a bath after seeing the 1955 movie, "Diabolique," and after seeing "Psycho," defied his orders to shower. Hitchcock replied to the man with a letter saying, "Send her to the dry cleaners," according to IMDb. 7. Camera tricks: You actually never see the ‘stabbing’ in full motion Via youtube.com If you look carefully, you never actually see the knife penetrating the skin, which would have been a big no-no at the time and riled up censors from the Production Code, the board charged with overseeing movie content guidelines. Although the scene is still terrifying, it's a far cry from the blood and gore seen today in horror movies. 8.

Eye experts scolded Hitchcock about Leigh's eyes after death Via youtube.com The director also got notes from ophthalmologists saying that Leigh's pupils were not dilated after her character's death, as would be the case with a fatally injured victim. Hitchcock rectified this by using belladonna eye drops, at their suggestion, in his other films. Bonus: At the end of the scene, the camera zooms out on a still image, because his wife noticed the throbbing pulse in Leigh's neck, according to IMDb. Via Getty Images (That's a wrap, folks!) BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Psycho actress Janet Leigh dies Psycho actress Janet Leigh dies Janet Leigh, pictured in 2003, was the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis Actress Janet Leigh, best known for her role in classic thriller Psycho, has died at the age of 77. Leigh died peacefully at her Beverly Hills home on Sunday, according to a spokeswoman for her daughter, Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis. Leigh also starred in acclaimed movies in the 1940s, 50s and 60s including The Manchurian Candidate and Touch of Evil.

Her Oscar-nominated role as the victim of a shower stabbing in Hitchcock's Psycho became iconic in the film world. Her husband Robert Brandt and daughters Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis were at her side when she died, the spokeswoman said. She had been suffering from vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, for a year. Her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 thriller, Psycho, saw her play office worker Marion Crane who was stabbed in the shower by cross-dressing madman Norman Bates. Janet Leigh: Obituary "Perhaps more than any other actor, Leigh is not only associated with one film, she's associated with one scene," said Ian Freer, associate editor of film magazine Empire. Nevertheless he described her career as "varied, successful and diverse", noting that Leigh ranked among the top 100 stars of all time in a 1995 Empire readers' survey. The Psycho scene was compiled in 70-odd takes of two and three seconds each, for which Leigh spent seven days in the shower. Although it was rumoured at the time that she was nude, she wore a flesh-coloured moleskin.

The scene shocked audiences at the time because of its brutality, and was shot in black and white to make the scenes involving blood less distressing. Oscar nomination But it earned the actress an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress and a place in cinematic history. It is notable for never showing the killer's blade touching Leigh's body, while the stabbing noises were created by plunging a knife into a melon. Leigh admitted the chilling scene "scared the hell" out of her when she first saw the finished version. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis followed in her mother's on-screen footsteps "Making it and seeing it are two different things," she said. "That staccato music and the knife flashing. You'd swear it's going into the body." She often said she had not been able to take a shower since the movie, saying: It's not a hype, not something I thought would be good for publicity, honest to gosh it's true." Born Jeanette Helen Morrison, Leigh began a film career after silver screen idol Norma Shearer spotted Leigh's photograph on the front desk of the ski resort where her father worked.

That led to a screen test in the late 1940s, with her most memorable appearance to come in her shocking, screaming demise at the Bates Motel in Psycho in 1960. 'Scream queen' But her big screen pulling power faded later in the 1960s, with TV roles mixed with supporting movie parts in the 1970s. Her "scream queen" status also led to cameo roles in Jamie Lee Curtis' 1998 horror sequel Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and A Fate Totally Worse Than Death in 2000. "She was aware that she was a horror icon and had fun with it," said Empire's Ian Freer. She will probably always be known for the Manchurian Candidate and having an unfortunate shower Nev Pierce, Total Film magazine Leigh's scene from Psycho was named the best death in screen history by Total Film magazine in May. "She will probably always be known for the Manchurian Candidate and having an unfortunate shower," said Nev Pierce, Total Film's reviews editor. He added: "But it would not be fair to say that the scene's success was just because of Hitchcock.

Other Hitchcock actresses, such as Tippi Hedren, did not go on to become such big stars as Leigh." BBC Radio 4 critic Quentin Cooper said Leigh was expert at playing characters "of dubious morality". "A lot of people only remember her from Psycho's shower scene, rather than the sexy, independent and slightly criminal character she played from the first scene of the movie," he said. There was always a sense with Janet Leigh that there was more going on than met the eye Quentin Cooper, film critic ""She had a great face, a slightly cheeky look, and she tended to wear very clinging costumes." Cooper said her role alongside Charlton Heston in 1958 thriller Touch of Evil helped it become arguably Orson Welles' greatest movie. "There was always a sense with Janet Leigh that there was more going on than met the eye," he said.

"Thanks to Psycho she was perhaps cinema's most famous victim, but she deserves to be remembered as a much more dynamic and subtle actress than that." Psycho (1960) Psycho (1960) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) Background Alfred Hitchcock's powerful, complex psychological thriller, Psycho (1960) is the "mother" of all modern horror suspense films - it single-handedly ushered in an era of inferior screen 'slashers' with blood-letting and graphic, shocking killings (e.g., Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978) , Motel Hell (1980), and DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980) - with another transvestite killer and shower scene). While this was Hitchcock's first real horror film, he was mistakenly labeled as a horror film director ever since. The nightmarish, disturbing film's themes of corruptibility, confused identities, voyeurism, human vulnerabilities and victimization, the deadly effects of money, Oedipal murder, and dark past histories are realistically revealed.

Its themes were revealed through repeated uses of motifs, such as birds, eyes, hands, and mirrors. The low-budget ($800,000), brilliantly-edited, stark black and white film came after Hitchcock's earlier glossy Technicolor hits Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959) , and would have been more suited for as an extended episode for his own b/w TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In fact, the film crew was from the TV show, including cinematographer John L. Russell. The master of suspense skillfully manipulates and guides the audience into identifying with the main character, luckless victim Marion (a Phoenix real-estate secretary), and then with that character's murderer - a crazy and timid taxidermist named Norman (a brilliant typecasting performance by Anthony Perkins). Hitchcock's techniques voyeuristically implicate the audience with the universal, dark evil forces and secrets present in the film.

Psycho also broke all film conventions by displaying its leading female protagonist having a lunchtime affair in her sexy white undergarments in the first scene; also by photographing a toilet bowl - and flush - in a bathroom (a first in an American film), and killing off its major 'star' Janet Leigh a third of the way into the film (in a shocking, brilliantly-edited shower murder scene accompanied by screeching violins). The 90-odd shot shower scene was meticulously storyboarded by Saul Bass, but directed by Hitchcock himself. [A satirical parody of scenes from various Hitchcock films, including some from Psycho, were included in Mel Brooks' comedy High Anxiety (1978). The shower scene itself has been referenced, spoofed and parodied in numerous films, including Brian De Palma's The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Dressed to Kill (1980), Squirm (1976), Victor Zimmerman's low-budget Fade to Black (1980), Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse (1981), John De Bello's Killer Tomatoes Strike Back!

(1990), Martin Walz' The Killer Condom (1997, Ger.), Wes Craven's Scream 2 (1997), Scott Spiegel's From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999), and the animated Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), in which Bugs acts out with the film's black-and-white footage and a can of Hershey's chocolate syrup poured down the drain.] In this film, Hitchcock's gimmicky device, termed a MacGuffin (the thing or device that motivates the characters, or propels the plot and action), is the stolen $40,000 from the realtor's office. Marion Crane becomes a secondary MacGuffin after her murder. The film's screenplay by Joseph Stefano was adapted from a novel of the same name by author Robert Bloch.

Remarkably, Bloch's 1959 novel was based on legendary real-life, Plainfield, Wisconsin psychotic serial killer Edward Gein, whose murderous character also inspired the mother-obsessed farmer in Deranged (1974), the Leatherface character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and serial killer Jame Gumb ("Buffalo Bill") in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) .

[Bloch became a major horror screenwriter during the 60s decade and beyond, responsible for such suspenseful horror films and chillers as The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) - an update of the 1919 classic, Strait Jacket (1964), The Night Walker (1964), The Skull (1965), The Psychopath (1966), The Deadly Bees (1967), The Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), Asylum (1972), the short feature Mannikin (1977), and The Amazing Captain Nemo (1977).] Like many of Hitchcock's films, Psycho is so very layered and complex that multiple viewings are necessary to capture all of its subtlety. Symbolic imagery involving stuffed birds and reflecting mirrors are ever-present. Although it's one of the most frightening films ever made, it has all the elements of very dark, black comedy. This film wasn't clearly understood by its critics when released.

Hitchcock admitted that Henri-Georges Clouzot's influential thriller Les Diaboliques (1955, Fr.) inspired his film. This taut masterpiece was followed by three feature film sequels (none directed by Hitchcock) and other imitations or TV films: Title TV pilot film, with Bud Cort as Bates Motel manager Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) Mick Garris Made for Cable-TV film, with Anthony Perkins as Norman, Henry Thomas as a young Norman, and Olivia Hussey as Norma Bates Psycho (1998) Gus Van Sant An almost 'scene-by-scene' (actually 'shot-by-shot') remake (or replication) of the original classic, that only generated interest for the original film The film's four Academy Award nominations failed to win Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Janet Leigh with her sole career nomination), Best Director (Alfred Hitchcock with the last of his five losing nominations), Best B/W Cinematography, and Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration. Bernard Herrmann's famous and memorable score with shrieking, harpie-like piercing violins was un-nominated.

When the film was originally aired in theaters in mid-1960, Hitchcock insisted in a publicity gimmick (a la P.T. Barnum) that no one would be seated after the film had started - the decree was enforced by uniformed Pinkerton guards. Audiences assumed that something horrible would happen in the first few minutes. Violence is present for about two minutes total in only two shocking, grisly murder scenes, the first about a third of the way through, and the second when a Phoenix detective named Arbogast is stabbed at the top of a flight of stairs and topples backwards down the staircase. The remainder of the horror and suspense is created in the mind of the audience, although the tale does include such taboo topics as transvestism, implied incest, and hints of necrophilia. The Story The bleak, monochrome film is made more effective by Bernard Herrmann's sparse, but driving, recognizable score, first played under the frantic credits (by industry pioneer Saul Bass) - shown with abstract, gray horizontal and vertical lines that streak back and forth, violently splitting apart the screens and causing them to disappear. The frenetic lines appear as prison bars or vertical city buildings.

[These criss-crossing patterns, like mirror-images, are correlated to the split, schizophrenic personality of a major protagonist.] The film opens with the aerial-view camera sweeping left to right along the urban skyline of "PHOENIX, ARIZONA" where some new construction is in progress. [The numerous references to birds in the film begins here, with the city of 'Phoenix'.] The specific date and time are emphasized in titles in the middle of the screen: FRIDAY, DECEMBER THE ELEVENTH TWO FORTY-THREE P.M The shot pans across many skyscraper buildings, and after a series of numerous dissolves, randomly chooses to descend and penetrate deeper into one of many windows in a cheaper, high-rise hotel building - the window's venetian blinds narrowly conceal the dingy interior. There, the camera pauses at the half-open window - and then voyeuristically intrudes into the foreground darkness of the drab room. The camera takes a moment to adjust to the black interior - and then pans to the right where a post-coital, semi-nude couple have just completed a seedy, lunch-time tryst.

Attractive, single 30-ish secretary, Marion (spelled not with an A but an O - signifying emptiness) Crane (Janet Leigh), wearing only a prominent white bra and slip and reclining back on a double bed, is with her shirtless lover/fiancee Sam Loomis (John Gavin) who stands over her. In the background is a bathroom (the first of three bedrooms with bathrooms in the background). Sam speaks the first line of dialogue, referring to the uneaten lunch food on the stand - on many levels, she has lost her appetite for their ungratifying relationship and mutual poverty. As he kisses her and they embrace on the bed, they discuss their "cheap" relationship and impoverishment, and their many unresolved issues: Sam: You never did eat your lunch, did you? Marion: I'd better get back to the office. These extended lunch hours give my boss excess acid. Sam: Why don't you call your boss and tell him you're taking the rest of the afternoon off? (It's) Friday anyway - and hot. Marion: What do I do with my free afternoon? Walk you to the airport? Sam: Well, you could laze around here a while longer.

Marion (foreshadowing a future hotel visit): Hmm. Checking out time is 3 pm. Hotels of this sort aren't interested in you when you come in, but when your time is up. Oh Sam, I hate having to be with you in a place like this. Sam: I've heard of married couples who deliberately spend an occasional night in a cheap hotel. Marion: When you're married, you can do a lot of things deliberately. Sam: You sure talk like a girl who's been married. Marion: Sam, this is the last time. Sam: For what? Marion: For this, meeting you in secret so we can be secretive. You come down here on business trips. We steal lunch hours. I wish you wouldn't even come. Sam: All right, what do we do instead? Write each other lurid love letters? It's a hot, Friday afternoon [although December, it undoubtedly looks like a summer day] and they are obviously in the midst of a "secretive" affair in Room No. 514. She loves Sam but they can only furtively see each other during his business trips.

Sam has flown in from a small town in California to see Marion - and "steal lunch hours." As she rises to dress and cover up her ample breasts, they discuss further difficulties in their fitful relationship (characterized as more sexual than intimate). Sam secretly enjoys the illicitness of their sleazy, "lurid" affair and suggests seeing her the next week - and even assents to having "lunch - in public." In a semi-ultimatum to Sam, Marion tells him that "this is the last time" - she will deny him further sexual couplings in "secretive" meetings. She expresses her frustration about their private love trysts and her real desire for marriage - she wants chastity, respectability, and public meetings in the place she shares with her sister (where a framed picture of her dead "Mother" morally disapproves, presides, and judges them). [Of course, there's another morally-disapproving, judgmental 'dead Mother' in the film, but that comes later.

One unanswered question in the film: Did Marion spend years nursing her invalid mother - selfless dedication that contributed to her fate as an old maid?] He agrees to see her under the new terms of 'respectability,' although he reminds her how "a lot of sweating out," "patience," and "hard work" would be prerequisites in a respectable relationship [Marion's sister later tellingly asserts: "Patience doesn't run in my family"]: Marion: Oh, we can see each other. We can even have dinner, but respectably. In my house, with my mother's picture on the mantel, and my sister helping me broil a big steak for three. Sam: And after the steak, do we send sister to the movies, turn Momma's picture to the wall? Marion: Sam! Sam: (begrudgingly) All right. Marion, whenever it's possible I want to see you and under any circumstances, even respectability. Marion: You make respectability sound disrespectful. Sam: Oh no, I'm all for it. But it requires patience, temperance, with a lot of sweating out. Otherwise though, it's just hard work.

But if I could see you and touch you, you know, simply as this, I won't mind. (He nibbles at her neck.) Sam, a small-town (Fairvale, California) hardware store proprietor, is also frustrated and self-pitying because of his money worries - he is a financial martyr, burdened by his father's debts and the alimony he must pay to his ex-wife. She proposes marriage directly (she is still a spinster and stuck in the same job after ten years) - and poignantly describes her willingness to share a life of cash-strapped hardship with him. But annoyingly, he balks at the thought, refusing because he doesn't want her to live in poverty and because he believes he must first pay off his debts over the next couple years. She threatens to leave him and thinks she may find "somebody available" to take his place and end her fears of being a fallen woman: Sam: I'm tired of sweating for people who aren't there. I sweat to pay off my father's debts and he's in his grave.

(Sam has walked in front of a fan with spinning blades.) I sweat to pay my ex-wife's alimony and she's living on the other side of the world somewhere. Marion: I pay too. They also pay who meet in hotel rooms. [This line evokes the famous last line of Milton's sonnet, On His Blindness: "They also serve who only stand and wait."] Sam: A couple years and my debts will be paid off. If she remarries, the alimony stops. Marion: I haven't even been married once yet. Sam: Yeah, but when you do, you'll swing. Marion: Oh Sam, let's get married! (They kiss and embrace.) Sam: Yeah. And live with me in a storeroom behind a hardware store in Fairvale? We'll have lots of laughs. I'll tell you what. When I send my ex-wife her alimony, you can lick the stamps. Marion: I'll lick the stamps. Sam: Marion, you want to cut this off, go out and find yourself somebody available? Marion: I'm thinking of it. Sam: How could you even think a thing like that?

Unhappy and unfulfilled in her unsanctified relationship, Marion rejects his idea to take the afternoon off and rushes back to her storefront real estate office - she is anxious about being late. [Director Hitchcock, wearing a ten-gallon hat, makes his cameo appearance on the Phoenix sidewalk facing away from the window of the realty office.] She is relieved that her boss Mr. George Lowery (Vaughn Taylor) is not back from lunch, but she suffers from a headache (brought on by her perennial problems with Sam). [Behind her in the office is a framed picture of a barren, desert scene]: Headaches are like resolutions. You forget them as soon as they stop hurting. She listens to her recently-married co-worker Caroline (Patricia Hitchcock, Hitchcock's real-life daughter) chatter about her interfering, nagging mother, who had suggested that her doctor prescribe tranquilizers for her wedding day to protect her (from the anguish of losing her virginity and having sex?) - her mother's nosiness angered her proprietary groom/husband Teddy. [Scenes of frigid winter are displayed behind her.] Caroline offers Marion a tranquilizer rather than an aspirin for her headache.

My mother's doctor gave them to me the day of my wedding. Teddy was furious when he found out I'd taken tranquilizers. Mirrors are ever-present throughout the film - Marion checks out her appearance and applies lipstick using a small compact mirror from her purse. Mr. Lowery arrives shortly afterwards with an important, wealthy (and inebriated) millionaire - a cowboy-hatted customer named Mr. Tom Cassidy (Frank Albertson). He is an oil-lease man who is sweating from the heat and complaining about the weather: "Wow! It's as hot as fresh milk." The salty oilman suggests that Lowery should "air-condition...up" his employees, because he "can afford it today." Mr. Cassidy has just proudly bought a house on Harris Street for his "sweet little girl" - his 18 year old, soon-to-be-married daughter ("baby"): Tomorrow's the day my sweet little girl - (He leers over at Marion) - Oh, oh, not you - my daughter, a baby. And tomorrow she stands her sweet self up there and gets married away from me. I want you to take a look at my baby.

Eighteen years old, and she never had an unhappy day in any one of those years. Flirting with Marion, he sits on her desk, and sensing that Marion is unhappy and feeling deprived with his talk of marriage, gloats about his wealth and his easing of life's pains through buy-offs: You know what I do about unhappiness? I buy it off. Are, uh, are you unhappy? Marion answers that she isn't "inordinately" unhappy - although she is uncomfortably reminded of her unmarried status and other deprivations. Then, the vulgar client takes out the $40,000 in cold, hard cash for the house purchase for his "respectable" married daughter as a wedding present, and boastfully waves and flops it around in front of his audience. He domineeringly explains how virile the money makes him: Now, that's, that's not buying happiness. That's just buying off unhappiness. I never carry more than I can afford to lose.

He tosses the money on Marion's desk, but the money is not for her - but for Cassidy's daughter's wedding dowry (although she is challenged and tempted by the money earmarked for a bride's house - she feels more entitled to it than the pampered daughter). It is an awkward, discomfiting sight for Marion who has just left her impecunious lover/partner whom she is unable to marry for lack of money. Caroline is astonished by Cassidy's brash proposition: "I declare!" Cassidy even brags about how he doesn't rightfully 'declare' his illicitly-obtained money to the government - an obvious illegality: "I don't. That's how I get to keep it." Lowery is worried about so much cash out in the open: "A cash transaction of this size is most irregular," but Cassidy assures him: "Aw, so what. It's my private money.

Now it's yours." [His transference of the 'dirty' private funds to Lowery suggests that Marion's boss may keep the cash transaction undeclared.] The loud-mouthed Cassidy embarrasses the real estate boss by exposing the presence of something else hidden away and unrevealed - a bottle in the desk in his office. He persuades Lowery to take him into the inner air-conditioned office for a drink. Lowery instructs Marion to put the large amount of cash in a bank's safe deposit box over the weekend: "I don't even want it in the office over the weekend. Put it in the safe deposit box in the bank." Caroline is jealous that Cassidy flirted with her colleague [Her 'respectable' marriage must be somewhat desperate and unfulfilling.]: He was flirting with you. I guess he must have noticed my wedding ring. Both women touch and handle the naughty, filthy money, and then Marion puts it into an envelope, wraps it up and sticks it in her purse. She is granted permission to go straight home after the bank deposit because of her headache.

Although she expects to be "in bed" all weekend, Cassidy thinks she needs an escape and propositions her with an invitation: What you need is a weekend in Las Vegas, the playground of the world! As she leaves, Marion refuses tranquilizers a second time from her co-worker: "You can't buy off unhappiness with pills." [But obviously, can't her unhappiness be bought off with money?] As she leaves the office, her shadow follows after her. In the next scene, Marion's shadow precedes her. In a moment of weakness and impulse, she has been tempted to bring the money home to her small bedroom instead of to the bank. (Her sister is away for the weekend in Tucson to "do some buying.") Again in partial undress wearing only a black bra and slip [after the theft, her underclothes turn black - signifying her darkness], Marion repeatedly and apprehensively eyes the money in a fat envelope lying on the bed (where she told Lowery and Cassidy she would spend the weekend). The camera zooms in and cuts back and forth to the envelope more than once. Next to it is her packed suitcase, ready for a trip.

[Behind her in this second bedroom in the film is another bathroom - this one with the shower head particularly noticeable. Also, more mirrors and windows and pictures looking down from the wall - two of her as a baby, another of her deceased parents. She has redirected the money intended by Cassidy for his "baby" to her own maternal instincts - her wish to be married to Sam, have respectable sex and raise a family.] She stares long and hard at herself in the dresser mirror. Although she appears casually indifferent and secure in the presence of the money, she nervously finishes packing and closes her full suitcase. She sits down on the bed, stares with desire at the money, and tries to stop herself from doing something she knows is shameful and wrong - something that is not "respectable." But she can't control her sinful, obsessive-compulsive behavior. Because her suitcase is already full and shut, she stuffs the envelope in her purse (with other important papers) and then leaves. While driving out of Phoenix toward Fairvale, California in her black car, Marion stares straight ahead and trance-like while imagining that she is on her way to elope with Sam with the large sum of cash with which to finance her elopement and marriage.

She hears a conversation with a startled Sam who is surprised to see her in Fairvale - with pilfered money for their salvation. His startled, echoing voice speaks in her head. With an uneasy reaction to her appearance, he would undoubtedly reject her solution to their problem: Marion, what in the world, what are you doing up here? Of course I'm glad to see you. I always am. What is it, Marion? Their conversation is cut short and interrupted. Significantly, she cannot finish talking with him. While waiting at a stoplight, her boss (and Cassidy) pass by in the cross-walk in front of her. He at first smiles and nods when recognizing her, and leaves the frame of the windshield. Likewise, she smiles - nervously. But then he stops, turns and furrows his brow at her. Mr. Lowery is puzzled and concerned to see her in her car when she was supposed to be home sick. Likewise, her face turns frozen after realizing that she has been caught. Bernard Herrmann's jarring music begins to play, slashing at her. She pulls away, gulps hard, and looks back - her conscience already gnawing away.

Unnerved but still drifting along irrationally, Marion drives her dark-toned car toward Fairvale from Phoenix and it turns to dusk and nighttime. She repeatedly looks into her rear-view mirror - symbolically checking out her own inner thoughts. She blinks her tired eyes and tries to avoid the glare of headlights of oncoming cars - spotlighting her crime. Marion Crane | Psycho Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Unhappy in her relationship with her boyfriend, a divorcee named Sam Loomis ( John Gavin ), Marion rejects his idea to take the afternoon off and rushes back to her storefront real estate office. Her boss, Mr. Lowery, arrives shortly afterward with Tom Cassidy ( Frank Albertson ), a wealthy customer who gives her $40,000 to put in the bank for him. However, instead of going to the bank, Marion impulsively goes on the run with the money. She turns off the main road without realizing it, and arrives at the Bates Motel and checks in with the proprietor, Norman Bates ( Anthony Perkins ), who shyly invites her to have dinner with him.

After wrapping the remaining money inside a newspaper, Marion overhears a heated argument between Norman and his "mother" about letting Marion into the house. During dinner, Marion listens to Norman's tale of being trapped by his obligation to his mentally ill mother, and realizes that she, too, is stuck in a "private trap", and can only escape it by taking responsibility for stealing the money. She gently suggests to Norman that he put his mother in a mental hospital , which he heatedly refuses to do. She bids him goodnight, and returns to her room. There, she undresses while Norman watches through a peephole hidden in the wall of his office. Resolving to make amends to her employer, Marion makes a few calculations based on how much the escapade has cost her. She then takes a shower. Suddenly, a mysterious figure enters the bathroom — shadowy through the shower curtain — and stabs Marion to death (in the novel, her head is cut off). Believing his mother has committed the murder, Norman hides the body in a tar pit.

Creation and filming Edit Janet Leigh , who portrayed Marion in the original film, has said that when he cast her, Hitchcock gave her the following charter: "I hired you because you are a talented actress! I will only direct you if A: you attempt to take more than your share of the pie, B: you don't take enough, or C: if you are having trouble motivating the necessary timed movement." According to Leigh, wardrobe worn by her character Marion Crane was not custom made for her, but rather purchased "off the rack" from ordinary clothing stores. Hitchcock wanted female viewers to identify with the character by having her wear clothes that an ordinary secretary could afford. Contrary to a widely told tale, Hitchcock did not arrange for the water to suddenly go ice-cold during the shower scene to elicit an effective scream from Leigh. This urban legend appears to have originated with Universal Tour guides as they passed the "Psycho" house, one of the most popular attractions on the lot. Leigh said that the crew took great care to keep the water warm, and filming of the scene took an entire week.

Hitchcock tested the shock value of Mother's corpse by placing it in Leigh's dressing room and listening to how loud she screamed when she discovered it there. The trailer was shot after completing the movie, and because Leigh wasn't available anymore, Hitchcock used costar Vera Miles in the shower sequence in the trailer. Leigh wore moleskin adhesive patches covering her nipples when she acted out the shower scene. However, after the warm water of the shower washed off the moleskin, Hitchcock still did one more take. The take was used in the finished film. Appearances in the rest of the series Edit Psycho's first sequel, 1983's Psycho II , starts off with a flashback to the shower scene. Vera Miles returns as Marion's sister, Lila Crane , now Lila Loomis, who is on a crusade to keep Norman committed. The film introduces Mary Loomis ( Meg Tilly ), Lila's daughter with Sam and Marion's niece.

Both are killed in the film; Lila is stabbed while in Norman's fruit cellar by a woman who looks like him in his "Mother" guise (later revealed to be Emma Spool , played by Claudia Bryar ), and Mary is shot by a policeman when she attempts to stab Norman, thinking he killed Lila and the other victims in the film. In the second sequel, 1986's Psycho III , the shower scene appears again in a flashback again, this time when Norman sees a woman (Maureen Coyle, played by Diana Scarwid ) that reminds him of Marion. Marion makes no appearance in the final sequel, 1990's made-for-TV Showtime film Psycho IV: The Beginning . She is merely referred to a few times as "the girl he killed in the shower." Psycho (1960) - The Shower Scene: shot by shot - The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki Psycho (1960) - The Shower Scene: shot by shot Introduction The Shower Scene Starting with Marion entering the bathroom, each distinct shot is film is described below. Notes are in italics. Shot 1 MOTEL ROOM, LOOKING THROUGH TO THE BATHROOM.

Marion enters the bathroom, holding the shredded paper in her right hand, and turns towards the unseen toilet. 9 frames BATHROOM, LOOKING DOWN, STATIC CLOSE-UP OF TOILET BOWL. Marion drops the paper in the toilet bowl and then flushes the toilet. 29 frames Both Stefano and Hitchcock were keen to break a cinema taboo and not only have the sound of a flushing toiet, but to also show it flushing on screen. Shot 3 BATHROOM, MEDIUM SHOT OF MARION. Marion bends down, then moves towards the bathroom door and closes it. She walks towards the shower and begins removing her bathrobe. 71 frames Shot 4 BATHROOM, LOOKING DOWN TO THE FLOOR. Marion removes her bathrobe, leaving it on the toilet, then kicks off her slippers and steps over the edge of the bathtub into the shower. The camera, still angled down, follows her bare legs. Once inside the shower, Marion pulls the shower curtain across. In quite a few of the shots, there is something making a straight diagonal line (cutting?) across the screen. In this shot, it's the edge of the bathtub.

Shot 5 BATHROOM, LOOKING TOWARDS THE SHOWER. Blurred behind the shower curtain, Marion moves forwards the front of the shower. Shot 6 INTERIOR SHOWER, STATIC MEDIUM SHOT, LOOKING TOWARDS BACK WALL. SHOWER HEAD AT TOP OF FRAME. Marion rises into the frame. Looking down, her hands busy themselves. Stooping down slightly, she turns the water on. Rising, she looks up towards the shower head and waits expectantly for the water. She seems almost joyous as the water sprays onto her upturned face. She begins to wash her neck. Shot 7 INTERIOR SHOWER, MARION'S POV LOOKING UP, STATIC CLOSE-UP OF SHOWER HEAD. We see the spray from the shower head through Marion's eyes. To avoid spraying water directly towards the camera, a special shower head was constructed to spray the water around it, either side of the lens. Shot 8 AS SHOT 6 Marion continues to wash her face. Her mouth is open and she appears to be happy. Shot 9 INTERIOR SHOWER SIDE, STATIC MEDIUM SHOT, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL.

Marion washes her left arm, enjoying the sensation of the water on her skin. Arching her head back in pleasure, she turns her body towards us whilst washing her right shoulder. Shot 10 INTERIOR SHOWER, STATIC MEDIUM SHOT CLOSER THAN PREVIOUS, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL. Marion turns so that her back is towards the spray, then leans her head back so her hair becomes wet. She continues to scrub her arms, shoulders and neck. Shot 11 INTERIOR SHOWER, STATIC CLOSE-UP SIDE OF SHOWER HEAD. The shower sprays down onto Marion (who is out of shot). This is the second shot which doesn't have an actor (or part of an actor) in shot. Shot 12 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS FRONT OF SHOWER AND THE SHOWER CURTAIN. The camera continues to move anti-clockwise around Marion. Her eyes closed and mouth wide open, she continues to enjoy the shower, moving her head first towards the spray then away. Shot 13 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS SHOWER CURTAIN AND BATHROOM DOOR (CLOSED).

Marion is facing us, with her back to the shower curtain and the closed bathroom door beyond. Engrossed in the shower, she closes her eyes. Although we cannot see clearly through the shower curtain, we can see the door opening and the vague outline of a figure in the doorway. The figure moves slowly and purposely towards the shower. With her back towards the shower curtain, Marion is unaware. The camera begins to zoom in and track slightly to the left. This movement forwards towards the curtain seems to mimic/mirror that of the intruder. Marion ducks down and right, so that she drops out of the frame. Our focus now is the intruder who is so close to the curtain that their shadow falls onto it. The intruder moves to the side to grasp the edge of the curtain. The curtain is pulled back to reveal the manic face of Mother and her right arm is raised with a knife pointing down and towards the unseen Marion. With the lamp on the wall behind her, Mother's face is in dark shadow -- only her eyes and her toothy grin are dicernable. Hitchcock had not intended to use Anthony Perkins in the shower scene and the actor was in New York during the filming.

Stuntwoman Margo Epper , a 24 year old actress and body double with a stocky physique, played the role of Mother throughout the shower scene. Due to the bright studio lights, keeping Mother's face in shadow proved difficult. In the end, make-up was used to darken Epper's face. Up to this point, there has been only naturalistic sounds. At the moment Mother pulls aside the curtain, Bernard Herrmann 's iconic score starts. Shot 14 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL, HEAD SHOT OF MARION. Too late, Marion turns quickly to her right. Her mouth, still open, is now beginning to form the shape of a scream. Shot 15 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL, BLURRED HEAD SHOT OF MARION CLOSER THAN PREVIOUS. As she screams, it's obvious that the water running down her face is making it difficult for Marion to see clearly. Shot 16 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL, IN FOCUS CLOSE-UP OF MARION'S MOUTH. Marion's mouth is wide open as she screams. Water runs from her top lip and teeth.

Shot 17 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING UP, BELOW MARION'S POV. Mother's right arm arches back and she swing the knife towards us. Silhoutted by the lights of the bathroom, she appears to be wearing an old-fashioned dress. The knife cuts through the spray of the shower. Shot 18 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL, SIMILAR ANGLE TO SHOT 9. Marion's left arm stretches out to try and ward off the knife, which cuts briefly into frame from the top-right. Marion moves to her right, with her back against the wall. Shot 19 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS THE OPEN DOOR, MARION'S POV. Head on and silhouetted, Mother raises the knife for another swing. Shot 20 INTERIOR SHOWER, WAIST HEIGHT. Marion struggles against Mother. In the confusion of the attack, it's not particular obvious where the camera is. The curtain and Marion's body form two almost parallel lines on either side of the frame, with the cold white tiles in the centre. Shot 21 BATHROOM CEILING, LOOKING DOWN INTO BATHTUB.

Marion has grabbed the knife arm but is unable to stop Mother bringing the knife down again. Marion's right arm is across her chest, trying to protect herself. Up to this point, Marion's nudity has been implied. This high shot is the first to explicitly show her nude body. The left nipple appears to be visible in at least 1 of the frames, which means that this is more likely to be Leigh's body double Marli Renfro . This is reinforced by the careful composition which avoids showing Marion's head or face. The shower curtain pole cuts across the left hand of the frame in the opposite direction to Marion's body in the previous shot. Shots 21 thru 25 create a rhythm in the editing, alternately jumping from ceiling shot to scream. Shot 22 INTERIOR SHOWER, HEAD SHOT OF MARION. Still screaming, Marion thrases from side to side. Shot 23 BATHROOM CEILING, LOOKING DOWN INTO BATHTUB, OUT OF FOCUS. Still grasping the knife arm and with her right arm across her body, Marion struggles against Mother. Unlike the previous shot, we can see Marion's head and it does appear to be Janet Leigh in shot.

The shot was unfocused partly to ensure the viewer would not be able to see the flesh coloured moleskin worn by Leigh. Shot 24 INTERIOR SHOWER, HEAD SHOT, SIMILAR FRAMING TO SHOT 22. Still screaming, Marion continues her struggle against Mother. Shot 25 BATHROOM CEILING, LOOKING DOWN INTO BATHTUB, OUT OF FOCUS. Still grappling with Morther, Marion stuggles to stop the knife. Even more defocused than the previous overhead shots. Shot 26 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS THE OPEN DOOR, MARION'S POV. Head on and silhouetted, Mother raises the knife for another swing. This shot mirrors shot 19 and breaks the rhythm established in the previous 5 shots. Shot 27 INTERIOR SHOWER, HEAD SHOT, SIMILAR FRAMING TO SHOT 22. Marion flails -- she no longer has hold of Mother's arm and her right arm isn't covering her chest. She is totally exposed to the attack.

Shot 28 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS THE OPEN DOOR, TIGHT HEAD SHOT, MARION'S POV. The blank face of Mother, as she slashes down again with the knife. Shot 29 INTERIOR SHOWER, TIGHT HEAD SHOT, LOOKING TOWARDS SIDE WALL, OUT OF FOCUS. Marion's head thrashes across the screen, her back is pressed against the wall. Shot 30 INTERIOR SHOWER, LOOKING TOWARDS THE OPEN DOOR, MARION'S POV, OUT OF FOCUS. The knife cuts through the curtain of water.

Question: Which actress played the victim in the shower scene in the 1960 film "Psycho"?
Answer: (Janet) LEIGH