Tomorrow is December 11th which is the birthday of my son Dean.
In celebration of that momentous occasion, today's Cinema Sunday post is dedicated to him.
Happy birthday, Dean!
The film I'm writing about today is Alfred Hichcock's seminal horror classic from 1960, Psycho!
....
Wait!
What?
What the hell does my son's birthday have to do with Alfred Hichcock's Psycho?
Well, that's an excellent question? My son's life and the events in Psycho both began on December 11th.
Alfred Hichcock added a very big graphic on screen at the very start of Psycho that this story begins on DECEMBER 11TH!
The reason is that Alfred Hichcock began shooting Psycho right after Christmas and in some of the city exterior shots, Christmas decorations are still up. To sidestep any questions about that, Alfred Hichcock simply opted to have Psycho begin a couple of weeks before Christmas.
Hence the very helpful graphic that this story begins on DECEMBER 11TH!
Forever linking this film to the birth my wife and I's darling baby!
Happy birthday, Dean!
A few months ago, I had an opportunity to see Psycho straight through from the beginning for the first time in a long time. There's not a lot about Psycho you probably don't know, even if you've never seen the film.
The infamous shower murder scene has been parodied and homaged in countless movies and TV shows. Of course The Simpsons did it and before that, Mel Brooks did his own take on the terrifying scene in his film High Anxiety.
Even the "surprise twist" at the end of Psycho about Norman Bates' peculiar relationship with his mother has been evoked. For example, it was the source of a weird fantasy sequence involving Howard and his mom in an episode of Big Bang Theory.
What I've been struck by before and was again when I rewatched the film is Alfred Hichcock's sheer audacity to mindfuck his audience.
1) Cast Janet Leigh, one of Hollywood's biggest and most glamorous stars, in the decidedly unglamorous role of Marion Crane, a frustrated woman in a dead end secretary job who has never done one damn reckless thing in her life. She steals $40,000 in cash from her boss.
2) Follow that character exclusively for every single inch of film, making sure the audience is totally invested in the story of Marion Crane.
3) Halfway through the movie, kill her!
What the hell? This movie is about Marion Crane, right? She's played by Janet Leigh, one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, right? She can't be dead!
OK, I get it! She'll stir and stagger to her feet, badly hurt, fatally if she doesn't get help. Marion will somehow even on the verge of death get revenge on her killer. And she'll be saved by the policemen who have been surely after her for the money she stole from her boss.
Yeah, that's it! That darn Alfred Hitchcock almost had me fooled.
Killing off Janet Leigh halfway through the movie? No way!
Except...
Marion just lays there. Still and cold as death, her blood swirling with the shower water down the drain.
OK, that's a wrap! Thank you, Janet Leigh! You can go home now.
No! Not so fast, movie watcher! We have a movie to finish.
The story of Marion Crane now becomes the story of Norman Bates, the twitchy socially inept proprietor of the Bates Motel with the hectoring mother who lives in the old dilapidated house next door.
Norman loads Marion's body into the trunk of her car and sends it sinking into the gloomy murk of a nearby swamp.
Norman's done this before.
And he'll do it again before the movie is over.
Anthony Perkins was an up and coming actor in Hollywood, working in a variety of mostly supporting roles. It was the role of Norman Bates that gained Perkins the most notoriety.
The problem was that Perkins was so damn good at playing the unhinged psychotic homicidal wack job in Psycho, he became the go to for other film and TV roles as the unhinged psychotic homicidal wack job.
The first half of the movie is exclusively focused on Janet Leigh as Marion Crane. She is in every single shot of every single scene until she dies.
It almost seems disruptive when Hitchcock shifts gears to some more conventional storytelling in the 2nd half. A private investigator named Arbogast hired by Marion's boss to get his money back, Marion's lover Sam and her sister Lila are all trying to find the missing Marion and their paths lead them to the Bates Motel.
Arbogast gets killed when he pokes his head into Bates house next door to the motel and encounters "mother".
So Norman sends another corpse ladened car into the swamp.
It's got to be crowded in there.
Sam and Lila put themselves in the line of fire as they uncover the truth about Norman's mother who is in two places at once:
- a desiccated corpse in a rocking chair.
- Norman himself in a dress and a wig.
Dressed as his mother, Norman tries to stab Lila to death but Sam intervenes to save the day.
The ending is a bit clunky as a psychiatrist tries to shove 90 minutes of plot exposition into a 5 minute epilogue. Meanwhile, Norman is sitting in a holding cell under guard while in his head "Mother" narrates what's going to happen to Norman next.
Norman states serenely into space.
Well, that was weird.
Happy birthday, Dean!
Psycho is considered one of Hitchcock's best films, praised for its slick direction, tense atmosphere, impressive camerawork, a memorable score and iconic performances.
Speaking of the score, below are the opening credits from Psycho. That driving intense score by Bernard Herrmann is powerful stuff.
Hitchcock had trouble convincing Paramount to let him make this film. They were a bit skittish given the levels of violence and "deviancy" going on in the story. Hitchcock was able to prevail by agreeing to make the film on the cheap, employing mostly the production crew from this TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Watching Psycho is an enthralling experience because you can't quite believe what happens next. Even when you know what happens next.
That's it for this week's Cinema Sunday.
And have a happy birthday tomorrow, Dean!
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