Month: February 2020

Psycho (1960 Paramount Pictures)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Written by Joseph Stefano based on the Novel by Robert Bloch

CAST: Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates), Janet Leigh (Marion Crane), John Gavin (Sam Loomis), Vera Miles (Lila Crane), Martin Balsam (Detective Milton Arbogast), Vaughn Taylor (George Lowery), Frank Albertson (Tom Cassidy), John McIntire ( Sheriff Al Chambers), Patricia Hitchcock (Caroline), John Anderson (California Charlie), Mort Mills (Highway Patrol Officer).

1hr 49min / Rated R

Part 4: The Investigation

After Marion’s disappearance, her sister arrives at Sam Loomis’ store only moments before the arrival of a private investigator. Detective Milton Arbogast is sarcastically officious to the point of rudeness. Sam demands an explanation to the questions that he’s being asked, and the answers he receives mystify him. There is no question that he is telling the truth when he denies knowing anything about Marion and the forty-thousand dollars. Sam’s innocence, along with Lila’s confusion slowly brings the abrasive Arbogast around, but he has to satisfy his own suspicions first.

Arbogast sets out checking one motel after another until he finally stumbles onto the out of the way motel run by Norman Bates. His questioning of Norman starts off slowly, but it isn’t long before Arbogast’s aggressive insistence escalates Norman’s uneasiness and causes him to stumble and give the detective an answer that contradicts one of his previous responses. He is no match for the practiced detective, and Norman’s nerves unravel undermining his concentration to the point of mentioning his mother. He then refuses to continue the conversation and let’s Arbogast know he is no longer willing to speak to him. The sometimes subtle, sometimes sudden changes in mood and personality that Perkins brings to the character of Norman Bates rises to a level that makes it difficult for the viewer not to emphasize with him.

Arbogast leaves the motel and goes to a phone booth and calls Lila. He tells her that he is sure that Marion was at the Bates Motel, but feels that something is not right. Although Norman says she left the next morning, he thinks maybe Norman’s mother knows something that could help them locate Marion. He advises Lila that he is going back to try to speak to the mother. He also tells her that he believes that Sam did not know that Marion had come to see him. He assures her that he won’t be more than a hour. Up to this point, Arbogast has annoyed the viewer almost as much as he did Sam, Lila, and Norman, but when he talks to Lila he seems a different person, kind and comforting. Like the shot of him talking to Norman as his back is reflected in the mirror, it is a reverse reflection of what we see as he grills Norman. One more clue to the paradox that is being unfolded.

Much has been written about Hitchcock’s use of mirrors in Psycho to reflect the idea of a split personality. It is a reflection of Arbogast’s back because he is an unknown, like Norman. We don’t know what to think of him at this point. Arbogast’s is the most telling because the change in his personality is shown and happens right before the second murder.

Returning to the motel, he does not see any sign of Norman. He goes into the house. He starts up the stairs slowly. When he gets to the top of the landing we are startled as Mrs. Bates appears suddenly and stabs him violently. Arbogast staggers backward down the staircase and is followed by the deranged old woman. The scene culminates in a continuation of the vicious stabbing. Like the shower scene, this comes out of nowhere and the shock sends us reeling as we watch helplessly.

Back at Sam Loomis’ store, Lila begins to worry after more than two hours passes and there is no sign of Arbogast. She is convinced that something must have happened to the detective or they would have heard from him. They go to see the Sheriff at his home in the middle of the night, and in the course of trying to convince the Sheriff and his wife that there is something amiss are informed that Mrs. Bates has been dead for ten years. They are more confused than ever as their investigation enters its final stage. They decide to see for themselves what is going on at the Bates Motel.

The next day after seeing the sheriff and his wife at church, they drive to the motel and pretend that they are a married couple wanting to rent a cabin. Lila decides that she wants to go into the house to talk to Norman’s mother. Once they are sure Norman has returned to the house, they go to cabin 1 and examine it. Finding the scrap of paper in the toilet, Lila sees as proof that Marion has been there. Sam reminds her that Norman has never denied that Marion was there. Lila believes that the figures on the paper prove that her sister was going to return the money. It is then that Lila decides to try to find and talk to the old woman. She suggests that Sam be the decoy and she go to the house.

The plan is for Sam to keep Norman busy talking. This turns out to be more difficult than expected. Sam’s questions anger and then bore him. After the ordeal with Arbogast, Norman grows impatient quickly and realizes that he’s being stalled. Hitting Sam in the head with a heavy vase, he then runs to the house.

Lila has been investigating the house. She goes up the stairs to the mother’s room, but finds it empty except for her own reflections in the mirrors that startle her. She is only further confused by what she finds in the empty room. She then heads down stairs and is in the entryway just as Norman is coming up the stairs, and she runs and hides behind the stair case. She sees him come in as she hides in the little stairwell that leads down to the fruit cellar doors. Bates looks in that direction, but chooses to run up the stairs. Of course, he thinks, she’s gone to mother’s room.

Meanwhile, Lila goes down the stairs, unable to resist the lure of the beckoning doors of the fruit cellar. Coming through the door, she immediately sees Norman’s mother sitting with her back to the door as if asleep in the chair. Saying, “Mrs. Bates,” she walks toward her. Then she gently touches the woman’s shoulder, but instead of a response the chair slowly turns to reveal a hideous cadaver and Lila screams. Her up swung hand hits a hanging light as Norman bursts through the door wearing a wig and his mother’s clothes and is closely followed by Sam. Sam grabs and restrains him.

Denouement

This is the only place Psycho falters. It is a scene that has been inserted solely to explain what happened. Aside from being unnecessary, it is clumsy and serves only to pull the audience out of the spell that the film has so carefully cast. The explanation that the psychiatrist gives is overblown and his presentation is both hammy and stagey. All this is moot, because Hitchcock only included it because he had to due to executive pressure. In spite of bringing the incredible flow of the narrative to a jolting halt, it is not enough to ruin the film. Even the noted Hitchcock scholar, Donald Spoto only has this to say about this scene in his excellent, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock:

“The verbal explanation offered later by the psychiatrist at the courthouse adds nothing more…(than what is seen in the last shot as Sam restrains Norman)…The attempt to provide neat psychoanalytic maps to the contours of Norman’s twisted mind seems jejune.”

Donald Spoto
The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures

Spoto calls it boring. He was being kind. I would like to see a director’s cut with the scene eradicated from the film. Then the film would end like this…

and finally…

The Film Score

No other film score has had such an impact on its audience.  It is impossible to imagine Psycho without Bernard Herrmann’s score. The two are joined as with no other film and score.  The ‘all strings’ choice that Herrmann made was so perfect for the subject and theme of the film that it is as important as all of the other elements combined. Though partly necessitated by budget limitations: he created a score for what is essentially a low budget black and white film that transcends its limitations in part due to the magnificent score.   Herrmann called it a ‘black and white’ score which is perfect, because the sound so reflects what is happening on the screen that just hearing the music takes the listener back to the scenes as they flash in the mind as if projected on the air.  In this case, the freedom Hitchcock gave the composer did have a immense impact on the finished film.  Herrmann has said that director’s don’t know music and that Hitchcock wanted a ‘jazz score’ with no music in the famous shower scene but Herrmann knew better and had written a piece for that key scene instinctively.  When Hitchcock finally admitted that the scene did need music, Herrmann had just what the director desired.  Hitchcock reinforced the importance of this when he doubled Herrmann’s fee for the film. See Note by Note: Bernard Herrmann (F&TVR Archives/September) for more on Herrmann’s film scores.

F&TVR is proud to have as a contributor, John Harbourne whose art speaks for itself, below he explains how he works:

“When I’m approaching a new drawing I’ll watch the film a few times, make sketches, read the source novel and research online, looking for that angle that will give me the essence of the story.“ John Harbourne from his site: https://johnharbourneartist.com

Facts, Rumors & Hearsay

Alfred Hitchcock doubled Barnard Herrmann’s salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, “Thirty-three percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”

Bernard Herrmann has said, “Alfred Hitchcock only finishes a picture 60 percent, I have to finish it for him.” 

The shower scene made Janet Leigh realize how vulnerable a woman was in a shower. To the end of her life, she always took baths.

Hitchcock received an angry letter from a man whose daughter stopped taking baths after seeing Diabolique (1955), and now was refusing to take showers after seeing Psycho. Hitchcock responded with a letter saying, “Send her to the dry cleaners.”

To enhance the voyeuristic feel of the film Hitchcock used a 50 mm lens on his 35 mm camera which most closely approximates human vision. In the scenes where Norman is spying on Marion, this effect is realized.

NEXT: VERTIGO