A Boy's Best Friend is His Mother.

Psycho (1960 Version)

I know I promised you monkeys, but I felt like going bananas instead. HardeeharHar. I have never seen either of the Psycho movies so I really wanted to have this battle. I can tell you right now...if you have never seen or heard anything about this movie (which I HIGHLY doubt) go watch it right now. Stop reading this because I will ruin it for you and GO. For those of us still around, here's what I thought:

What Rocked

I was not expecting to enjoy this movie. For one thing, I am not a horror buff. You may have picked up on my aversion to blood and violence from my review of The Departed. Secondly, I have seen so many older movies that have been RAVED about time and time again and then I see them and walk away thinking, that was it? So my expectations were low.
Oh. My. God. This movie was fantastic! It was so much more risque than I thought was allowed (I didn't realize Hitchcock intentionally made the movie in black and white even though colored films were being made at that time). The suspense was incredible. I finally got to see where infamous "EEE EEE EEE EEE EEE" music that has been used and reused in movies and television shows was born. I'm rambling... let me start from the beginning.
This was a classic tale of why good girls should stay good-- and avoid spooky motels. We have Marion who, other than fornicating with her boyfriend in sleazy motels whenever she can, is a wholesome girl. Then she decides to steal from her job and runaway. Dun dun dun. Hitchcock did a great job of capturing that feeling of guilt and adrenaline during Marion's flee from Phoenix. She sees her boss, she gets followed by a cop, all these little things that put guilty little knots in your stomach.
Then we meet Norman. He is a perfectly standup guy at first. Adorably innocent even. But things get weirder and weirder--his mother screaming up at the house, stuffed birds all over his parlor, and that conversation about mental institutions...yeah, he's a creeper. But if I had not known the ending before seeing the film--damn Universal Studios Alfred Hitchock Show wrecking my life-- I would never have been able to see it coming. Never.
Proof that I would have been scared shitless-- I jumped like a rabbit when the "mother" killed the private investigator. Didn't know that was gonna happen. And that MUSIC. Ugh. Slayed me. Pun intended.
The gore was not over the top. Thank you Mr. Hitchcock for knowing that horror movies don't need to be graphic to scare the pants of someone.

What Blew

The music was a major factor in the success of this film. At the same time, however, it was a bit much at times. During those crucial scenes--the murders, the discoveries, etc.-- sure, blast us away. But there were just normal scenes where the music seemed a bit overpowering. There was no subtlety used in this movie; it was EEE EEE EEE or nothing.

What Others Thought

• Psycho was nominated for 4 gold guys-- but best actor wasn't one of them! That image (shown above) deserves an Oscar on its own!
• Rave reviews from RottenTomatoes. They gave it a 98% and bowed down in awe: "Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it." Doesn't get much better than that.
  
• I love this quote from Mary Elizabeth Williams from Salon.com: "All those who still get a chill every time they step into a hotel shower, say aye. That, you see, is the power of Psycho." I know I won't be showering carelessly for a while.
  
• Not everyone seems to be as enamored as us though. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times writes:"[Hitchcock's] denouement falls quite flat for us. But the acting is fair." I bet he still freaks out in the shower at motels though.

The world loves their Hitchcock. The American Film Institute (AFI) puts it at the very top of it's 100 Years...100 Thrills list. This is one classic film that I feel deserves its limelight.


What Else You Should Know

There are dozens of fun little trivia notes about this movie on IMDB. Go read them! Some of my favorites are:

• "The blood was Bosco chocolate syrup."

• "The stabbing scene in the shower is reported to have taken seven days to shoot using 70 different camera angles but only lasts 45 seconds in the movie."

• "In the novel, the character of "Marion" was "Mary" Crane. The name was changed because the studio legal department found that two real people named Mary Crane lived in Phoenix, Arizona."

• "Marion's white 1957 Ford sedan is the same car (owned by Universal) that the Cleaver family drove on "Leave It to Beaver" (1957)."

• And all of the ones about how Hitchcock tried to keep it a secret. He was the man.

The reviews of the remake are not so good. But I am an avid Vince Vaughn fan. Let's see how the big, burly man did as a mother-obsessed psycho.