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My recent viewing of the film Hitchcock motivated me to finally sit and down and watch the master's 1960 masterpiece Psycho, the groundbreaking psychological thriller/murder mystery that completely re-defined the career of the amazing Alfred Hitchcock, crowning him the King of Cinematic Suspense.
This is the story of Marian Crane (Janet Leigh), a Phoenix-based secretary who steals $40,000 from her boss' client in order to be able to marry her hunky but empty-headed fiancee (John Gavin) and skips town. An exhausted Marian makes the fatalistic decision of pulling off the road and getting a room at the Bates Hotel, run by the outwardly charming Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who runs the hotel while taking care of his invalid mother.
The story is so not what makes this film work, but the way Hitchcock chooses to tell the story...he takes Joseph Stefano's screenplay and drapes it in such a dark and chilling atmosphere. It starts from jump with the opening credits flashed across the screen accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's flawless musical score (which was robbed of an Oscar) to the off-screen narration during Marian's journey where she has been found out to the unraveling of Marian's guilt about what she has done while relaxing in her hotel to the private investigator getting too close to the truth and, of course, Marian's fatal shower. It's not the story itself that is so riveting but the way Hitchcock chooses to tell it...there is cinematic artistry everywhere here...that shot of the blood going down the drain morphing into Janet Leigh's comotose eye is bone-chilling.
We had seen nothing like this before and though we've seen many imitators, this was the original and no one does it better than Hitch did. Everything take second place to Hitchcock's artistry here...Hitchcock makes sure the actors serve the vision of the story he wants to tell...Leigh is a revelation as Marian Crane, a surprisingly complex performance that earned her an Oscar nomination and Anthony Perkins was robbed of an Oscar for his raw nerve of a performance as Norman Bates, the most sympathetic and heartbreaking villain in cinema history. A cinematic textbook on the art of creating onscreen suspense that should be required viewing of all film students...breathtaking.
My recent viewing of the film Hitchcock motivated me to finally sit and down and watch the master's 1960 masterpiece Psycho, the groundbreaking psychological thriller/murder mystery that completely re-defined the career of the amazing Alfred Hitchcock, crowning him the King of Cinematic Suspense.
This is the story of Marian Crane (Janet Leigh), a Phoenix-based secretary who steals $40,000 from her boss' client in order to be able to marry her hunky but empty-headed fiancee (John Gavin) and skips town. An exhausted Marian makes the fatalistic decision of pulling off the road and getting a room at the Bates Hotel, run by the outwardly charming Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who runs the hotel while taking care of his invalid mother.
The story is so not what makes this film work, but the way Hitchcock chooses to tell the story...he takes Joseph Stefano's screenplay and drapes it in such a dark and chilling atmosphere. It starts from jump with the opening credits flashed across the screen accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's flawless musical score (which was robbed of an Oscar) to the off-screen narration during Marian's journey where she has been found out to the unraveling of Marian's guilt about what she has done while relaxing in her hotel to the private investigator getting too close to the truth and, of course, Marian's fatal shower. It's not the story itself that is so riveting but the way Hitchcock chooses to tell it...there is cinematic artistry everywhere here...that shot of the blood going down the drain morphing into Janet Leigh's comotose eye is bone-chilling.
We had seen nothing like this before and though we've seen many imitators, this was the original and no one does it better than Hitch did. Everything take second place to Hitchcock's artistry here...Hitchcock makes sure the actors serve the vision of the story he wants to tell...Leigh is a revelation as Marian Crane, a surprisingly complex performance that earned her an Oscar nomination and Anthony Perkins was robbed of an Oscar for his raw nerve of a performance as Norman Bates, the most sympathetic and heartbreaking villain in cinema history. A cinematic textbook on the art of creating onscreen suspense that should be required viewing of all film students...breathtaking.