Movie Review: Psycho (1960)

 Psycho (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a Phoenix office secretary whose boyfriend Sam (John Gavin) keeps visiting but doesn't think he can marry because he's got alimony to pay to an ex-wife and debts from his relatives. She wants to get married, to get out of her life. Her boss settles a real-estate deal with a rich Texan who wants to pay $40,000 in cash. The boss gives Marion the money to put in a safe deposit box for the weekend. He tells her to go home afterward. As she drives, she imagines the freedom she and Sam will have with that money. She drives out of town, struggling with her moral quandary. Her travels take her off the highway in a stormy night. She stops at the Bates Motel. Run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), the hotel has very little business since the highway moved. He offers to get some food for Marion since the nearest restaurant is ten miles away. His house is just up the hill. Marion hears Norman's mom berate him for offering food to Marion. Norman comes back with sandwiches and has an awkward conversation with Marion about his problems and her problems. She decides to go back to Phoenix in the morning and make things right. Unfortunately, the mother comes and kills her brutally in the shower (one of the most famous scenes in cinema history), shifting the story away from Marion and to the investigation of her disappearance. Norman is a dutiful son and covers up the evidence of the murder. The $40,000 (which he knows nothing about) is a powerful motivation for investigators to find Marion. Also, her sister Lila (Vera Miles) is concerned and wants to solve the mystery of her disappearance too.

The movie is a famous horror-shocker. The sudden shift from the Marion-morality tale to the messed-up relationship between Norman and his mother is jarring, though its not as effective as it was in 1960 before the secrets of the movie entered into pop culture. When viewers first see him, Norman seems very cowed and nebbish, very awkward and subservient to his mother. The investigators who come to the motel are indirect in their questions about Marion (they think he might be helping her by hiding her--only half true), ratcheting up the tension for Norman and for the viewers. Hitchcock does an interesting job balancing moments of intense terror with long bits that are very mundane and uninteresting, like Norman's clean up of the murder scene. Marion does a lot of driving in the beginning, giving her plenty of time to ruminate over possible outcomes of what she has done and possible futures she could have. The balancing act is almost perfect. The end has a long speech by a psychologist that explains what's going on with Norman in more detail than is necessary. The score by Bernard Herrmann is perfectly matched to the scenes and their emotions, enhancing the high levels of tension or providing a melancholic overtone to the mundane bits. Perkins gives a great performance, especially with a final speech (after the psychology-babble) that makes a disturbing and tragic ending.

Recommended, though it is very intense. Plenty of people stopped taking showers after seeing this film!