The genius of Alfred Hitchcock is not more aptly illustrated than in his brilliant study of madness and suspense, Psycho. Produced in 1960 and starring Tony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam, the film was an instant success. Posters advertising the film read that no one would be admitted into the theater after the movie began and good old Alfred admonished viewers not to reveal the ending to their friends and relatives, on pain of…well…no one knows for sure.
Tony Perkins is positively brilliant as the quiet, boy-next -door psycopath, so much so that he was type-cast for many years afterwards. The film so powerfully affected me that to this day, even after the passing of more than forty years, I never get into the shower without my mind flashing, albeit instantaneously, to that moment when Janet Leigh is so brutally murdered. I even leave the curtain open just a tad, almost as if in preparation for Norman Bates in gingham paying me a cold and very sharp visit.
The genius of Hitchcock is evident in the little things as well as the obvious. The overhead camera angles are subtle but they heighten the tension, especially when Martin Balsam is climbing the stairs of the Bates’ home and is greeted with a long, sharp knife and sudden death. The strains of the violin that pierce the dismal background augur suspense and fear, and keep the audience riveted to their seats. To kill off a star in the beginning of the movie is so unexpected that no one can believe it even after it happens. I myself had seen Janet Leigh in another movie the very same week. How could a star first of all die and second of all die before the end of the film? Only Alfred Hitchcock, the master of terror and supense, would dare.
What are some of YOUR thoughts about this incredible film?