Photo: IMDB
VICTIM: Janet Leigh, the star of the film, exits dramatically at the 45-minute mark.
Ben McCann
Psycho turns 60 Alfred Hitchcock’s famous fright film broke all the rules as it started Hollywood’s fascination with serial killers and slasher movies
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t’s November 1959. Film director Alfred Hitchcock is at his commercial and critical peak after the successes of Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959). So what does he do next? A black-and-white made-for-TV movie hastily shot, with no big-name actors and a leading actress who takes a shower, and … well, we’ll come to that. Psycho (1960) remains Hitch-
cock’s most celebrated film. But it is really two films, glued together by the most iconic scene in cinema history. Part one is a run-of-the-mill morality tale. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals $40,000 from her Phoenix employee, and goes on the run. Guilt-stricken, she pulls into a deserted motel and chats with the owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).
He seems friendly enough – he makes her sandwiches and talks fondly about his mother – and Marion resolves to return the money. Part two is a whodunnit. Marion’s sister (Vera Miles) and her lover (John Gavin) investigate her disappearance, and trace her steps back to the motel. Soon, they begin to have suspicions about Norman. A few years earlier, Hitchcock had watched Henri-Georges
ColdType | Mid-July 2020 | www.coldtype.net
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