‘Psycho' Turns 60

Sixty years ago today saw the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s "Psycho,” a movie that, needless to say, shocked mainstream audiences to their core. “Psycho” is considered by some to be the first film in the “slasher” genre, although a good case could be made for Michael Powell's “Peeping Tom,” which was released just a few months before “Psycho” in 1960. However, more so in Hitchcock’s film than Powell’s, the act of preying and being preyed upon is emphasized to the nth degree.

Hitchcock had just come out of releasing his 1958 masterpiece, “Vertigo,” and followed that one up with his most successful movie, 1959’s “North By Northwest.” Soon after, he acquired rights to Robert Bloch’s novel, “Psycho,” and, according to Stephen Rebello’s book, reportedly ordered his assistant to buy up all copies to preserve the novel's surprises. However, despite all that, funding for “Psycho” was almost impossible to find. The execs over at Paramount were too afraid of the film, even with Hitchcock offering to shoot “Psycho” quickly and cheaply in black and white by using the crew from his television series. In response, Hitchcock financed the film's creation through his own Shamley Productions, shooting at Universal Studios. He also chose to film in black and white because it would keep the film’s budget under $1 million.

"Psycho" was unprecedented in its depiction of not just violence, with the famous shower scene, but sexuality as well. For example, in the film we see two lovers sharing, oh my gosh, the same bed, with the woman wearing just a bra, something that was undeniably taboo back in the day. And, of course, it was the first movie to show a toilet flushing. Timid minds were warped, a sexual revolution was just around the corner as well, and suffice to say, conservative-minded folk were freaking out.

Sure there's the incredibly realized "shower scene," and Bernard Hermann's iconic, screeching score, but Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is so much more than that. Hitchcock had no pity for his main characters, introducing them and then killing them off. Anyone was a target. Traditional plotting was thrown out of the window. An anything-goes atmosphere can be the most frightening narrative imaginable.

Seeing the shower scene today, several things stand out, most have been tackled in Alexandre O. Philippe’s excellent documentary “78/52.” Although a visceral and shocking sequence, Hitchcock never actually shows Norman Bates’ knife stabbing flesh. There are no wounds either. Through the masterful editing of Hitchcock regular George Tomasini, there is nary a moment to blink, the brutality of the slashing cuts are more than enough to make us wince. Its no wonder why analyzing and remaking the shower scene is such a common assignment in film schools, Hitchcock and Tomasini proved how artful editing was more effective than just showing the gory and graphic details.

The end result is that Hitchcock created one of the most recognizable films in cinema history, most notably due to the shower scene, which, unexpectedly, resulted in killing off the main character of the story, Marion Crane, just 47 minutes into the film. Bloch’s novel did the same, repeatedly introduced sympathetic protagonists, only to then kill them off. Hitchcock played around with that, throwing traditional plotting out of the window, leaving his audiences uncertain and anxious about the rest of the film.

“Psycho” finished at #3 on my list of the greatest horror movies of all-time.