Remember the first time you saw Psycho

[typhooforme]

Just for the sheer orneriness of doing it, let me add this link, which you can cut and paste if you've a mind to.  It's a very good Tom Weaver article about the strong possibility that Bloch may have based the characters of Norman Bates and Mother on the creator of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine, Calvin Beck.  Bloch certainly did know about Gein, and he certainly was not far from Plainfield WI when the Gein case hit the papers (and LIFE magazine--I have a copy of of LIFE with a picture story on the "farmhouse of horror", an issue I had seen at my grandparents' house in 1957--I remember sitting on the first landing of the staircase reading it and getting creeped out!).  Norman Bates' taxidermy work and his skewed relationship with HIS mother paralleled some of the Gein case, but Weaver makes a strong suit for the psychology of it being based on Beck's too-short, too-sad life. 
http://www.bmonster.com/horror29.html

By the way, some years ago when Ed Gein died, I wrote to Bloch and said I figured he had noted the passing and wondered what his thoughts were, adding that I had always felt an uneasy sorrow for Ed Gein's lot in life that drove him to such bizarre acts.  Bloch, who was noted for his tongue-firmly-in-cheek comments, wrote back to me, "Yes, I always felt a little sorry for old Ed, too--he didn't have much joy in his life.  Of course, he wasn't very successful at bringing much joy to other people's lives, either!"

[Gary D Macabre]

Thank you Robert I was not familiar with that.  After reading his article it answers a lot of the questions that the Ed Gein parallel really doesn't satisfy. 

[Meek]

   I think I was around 12 years old when I saw "Psycho" for the first time and my friend was over to watch it with me. At the end of the movie she insisted that I walk her home and she only lived in the house on the other side of our hedge. Me Mum refuses to ever take a shower, especially if she's in a hotel room and when I'm gone from home for a few days she'll only take a bath during daylight hours.
   I happen to like the Bernard Hermann soundtrack for "Psycho" and there are variations in the screeching violins from the shower scene to the scene where Martin Balsam gets surprised on the stairs. Where Hermann goes all out with violins in a soundtrack is in the music for "Fahrenheit 451" lush strings to put emphasis on the emotionless cold people of Montag's world.

    "Meek"

[Monster Bob]

RL:  Wasn't the original Psycho novel based on the real-life story of Ed Gein?
RB:  It was based on the situation. I didn't know much about Mr. Gein personally at that time. I did know that he lived in a small town of seven hundred people. I was living about fifty miles away in a small town of twelve hundred people. I realized that the kind of situation where if you sneezed on the north side of town, on the south side they said "Gesundheit!" So, all I knew was that a man had committed several murders of a shocking nature in a very small community. He had lived there all his life and nobody ever suspected him. It was that situation which made me think there was a story there. So, I based the novel on the situation. It wasn't until later, after inventing the character of Norman Bates, that I discovered how close he was to the real-life Ed Gein.

Bah. I think Bloch was fulla beans. The Ed Gein story was national news at the time- instantly. Front page, LIFE magazine type stuff. Hundreds of reporters instantly landed in Plainfield, Wisconsin...it was national news. Ask anybody over sixty and they'll tell you about 'the guy that made lampshades out of human skin'. Plus, too many parallels in the stories- like preserving his Mom's room 'just the way it was', the fascination with taxidermy, etc.

I'm just not buying he knew very little about it, living only 50 miles away. Phooey! 

[MonsterArt]

The first couple of times I saw PSYCHO, I have to admit, I was only impressed by seeing Janet Leigh in her ample brassiere. Later on, as an acting student, I began to appreciate Anthony Perkins' superb, subtle performance as Norman. I now consider it one of the best horror performances of all time.

I got to see Perkins on Broadway in EQUUS around this time, and I was so blown away by his intensity, his passion for the role. He had replaced Anthony Hopkins, who I'm certain was wonderful, but I'll never forget what I saw Perkins do with the role of the psychiatrist trying to get through to the boy who blinded six horses one night in the stable.

A few years later, I got to play the part of that boy in a community company that played the Long Island area. The fellow playing the Perkins role was good, but I remember pretending that it was actually Perkins I was acting with, and I think it boosted my performance.



I love REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS and FRENZY. But PSYCHO is Hitch's triumph.

[typhooforme]

Another Perkins fan here, Frank.  Just recently picked up a dvd of DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS--it came to mind one day and I remembered it as powerful and wanted to see it again.  Perkins, Burl Ives, and Sophia Loren--interesting cast, some diametric going on there!  I wish I could have seen Perkins on stage--I envy you that.  Judging by his intensity on film, he must have been--well, exhausting!--in person!  Glad we have him on film, though.  I wonder if you (and other Perkins fans out there) have ever seen FEAR STRIKES OUT or PHAEDRA?  A little before and a little after his PSYCHO performance.  Great stuff. INTENSE stuff!  But first in my heart? Norman, poor Norman, always.

[ProfGriffin]

Ah yes, the Hamlet of Horror...

I'm not going to bore you all with more stories of Ed Gein.  Main reason for that is that I'm pretty sure you all know all about Mr. Gein.  
Yeah, you know...a quiet older, nerdy handyman type from Wisconsin who was arrested in 1957 for his peculiar 'habits'.  We all know him don't you?  
He was the grave robber, cannibal, necrophiliac and transvestite who dressed in women's clothes AND skins and danced in moonlight wearing female body parts!  You know all about that, right?   Belts made of nipple skin, soupbowls out of heads....and then there's the horrors that hid in the shoebox under his bed...we all know about that right?
Admitted to killing at least two women, obsessed with his domineering mother, made furniture and eating utensils out of body parts plundered from graves and was the inspiration behind both Robert Bloch's Norman Bates from Psycho AND Thomas Harris' Jame Gumb from Silence of the Lambs...and Hooper's Cannibal family in Texas....you know all that right?

So much has also been written about Psycho...and so much study by film students that there's not much more to tell...most people know it all...but it's still remains a chilling good time. And a damn good movie.  Yes, there's not much left to say about it, but we can still gush with glee and share our mutual Monster memories of watching PSYCHO.

Remember the Van Sandt remake?   Yeah, most people don't and that's ok...someone thought that was a good idea.  Shot for shot...moment for moment...but it appeared hollow and bleak. No offense to Vince Vahn, but he was simply wrong type for the role.  Too big, too threatening, too menacing when he didn't need to be.

Ah, the music....remember the Bernard Herman MUSIC? Oh man.   Re-used and redone for Re-Animator.
Yeah, it's the same theme.

BUT of the soundtrack, my favorite piece is Madhouse.

I love that I know the color of the dress Mrs. Bates was buried in....Perriwinkle Blue.

I love that there are two moments in the film when you 'see' mother in the face of Norman Bates...and he's not dressed...

I love the triple superimposed image at the end...Norman, his mother's skull face and the chain pulling the car out of the bog.
The chain seems to be coming right out of his heart as he looks up.

I love the toilet flush.  Joseph Stefano was adamant about seeing a toilet on-screen to display realism. He also wanted to see it flush. Hitchcock told him he had to "make it so" through his writing if he wanted to see it. Stefano wrote the scene in which Marion adds up the money, then flushes the paper down the toilet specifically so the toilet flushing was integral to the scene and therefore irremovable.

Alfred Hitchcock wanted a very distinct sound for the knife plunging into Janet Leigh's body for the now-famous shower murder.  Hitchcock had a sound technician set up a table with many different kinds of melons lined up.  Hitchcock closed his eyes and listened while the tech walked up and down the table stabbing each of the melons with a butcher's knife.  After all the melons had been stabbed, Hitchcock opened his eyes and calmly said, Casaba.

Rumor was....
Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for only US$9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret.

The film only cost US$800,000 to make and has earned more than US$40 million. Alfred Hitchcock used the crew from his TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955) to save time and money. In 1962 he exchanged the rights to the film and his TV series for a huge block of MCA's stock, becoming its third-largest stockholder).

There is a rumor that the this film was not passed for release because it was claimed that Janet Leigh's nipple was visible during the shower scene. The nipple wasn't in the film at all, but the cinematography and score are so well performed here, it caused the release board originally to think that there was a nipple visible and send the film back for re-editing. The production team went through the shower sequence cut by cut to illustrate that there was not. Hitchcock made no changes (none were needed), but merely sent it back, assuming that they either wouldn't bother to watch it, or would realize their mistake. (Janet Leigh wore a moleskin suit to hide her true nakedness in that shower scene)

MY first time watching it....television.  The 1970's.
It was just so amazingly compelling.  
The shots of the house after the storm passes...dripping water and scrolling clouds is an image that was BURNED into my mind.
I can smell the wet ground....and feel the cool night in that shot.