Psycho

Psycho was made in 1959-60 and released in 1960.

Trailer tagline: The picture you MUST see from the beginning - or not at all! ... for no one will be seated after the start of Alfred Hitchcock's Greatest Shocker PSYCHO!

From the review in Daily Express

“I have just seen one of the most vile and disgusting films ever made,” begins a 1960 review from the Daily Express. The film in question? Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking chiller Psycho. “In nearly half a century of film-going I cannot recall anything quite so revolting as these shots,” the reviewer continues, aghast at what is now perhaps the medium’s most famous sequence: Hitchcock’s masterful shower scene.

Reviews like this are available to view digitally at the BFI Reuben Library.

Norman Bates Quotes

She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?
I’m not capable of being fooled! Not even by a woman.
Uh-uh, Mother-m-mother, uh, what is the phrase? She isn’t quite herself today.
She might have fooled me, but she didn’t fool my mother.
Well, a son is a poor substitute for a lover.
She’s as harmless as one of those stuffed birds.
Bates: A boy’s best friend is his mother.

Cast

Anthony Perkins... Norman Bates
Vera Miles... Lila Crane
John Gavin... Sam Loomis
Janet Leigh... Marion Crane
Martin Balsam... Detective Milton Arbogast
John McIntire... Sheriff Al Chambers
Simon Oakland... Dr. Fred Richman
Frank Albertson... Tom Cassidy
Patricia Hitchcock... Caroline (as Pat Hitchcock)
Vaughn Taylor... George Lowery
Lurene Tuttle... Mrs. Chambers
John Anderson... California Charlie
Mort Mills... Highway Patrol Officer

The Murder of Marion Crane (Psycho)

Janet Leigh, shower scene hitchcock psycho shower scene Janet Leigh, Psycho, shower scene Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho

Psycho (1960) titles

Hitchcock Titles Psycho Saul Bass

The opening credits were created by Saul Bass. He also designed the titles for Vertigo and North by Northwest.

Serial Killers in Hitchcock Movies

The Lodger	The Avenger is serial killer who targets young blonde women.
Shadow of a Doubt	Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is a serial killer known as the "Merry Widow Murderer". He seduces, murders and robs wealthy widows.
Psycho	When his mother found a lover, Norman Bates murdered both of them. He then stole his mother's corpse and preserved the body. He takes her identity and acts, talks, and dresses as she would. In the final scene, the sheriff mentions the unsolved disappearances of two other young girls.
Frenzy	Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) is a fruit merchant who rapes and strangles women.

Bird Motif in Hitchcock's Films

Birds are often an ominous sign in Hitchcock's films and/or representatives of evil and horror.

The Lodger, 1926/1927
Blackmail, 1929	Alice has a canary bird twittering ominously after the murder
Sabotage, 1936	The bomb is made in a bird shop. fabrikeres i en fugleforretning. "The birds will sing at 1:45" Who Killed Cock Robin?
Young and Innocent, 1937/1938	When the two women see the body, they turn away and Hitchcock cuts to extreme close-ups of gulls and then back to the women again.
The Lady Vanishes, 1937/1938	A bird cage in the inn is seen right after the camera has entered through the window Charters calls Miss Froy «a queer sort of bird» in the restaurant at the inn When Droppo and Gilbert starts to fight there is a bird in front of the camera.
Saboteur, 1942	When Pat is begging her uncle to give up Barry, a bird is seen in the same frame.
Foreign Correspondent, 1940	Van Meer is talking a lot of birds.
To Catch a Thief, 1954/1955
Vertigo, 1957/1958	Novak wears a Hummingbird pin on her lapel.
Psycho, 1959–60/1960	Norman Bates is stuffing birds. Birds are predominant in the dialogue scene in Norman's office.
The Birds, 1962/1963	The birds are attacking.
Topaz, 1968-69/1969	Gulls are stealing the French loaf that the Cuban resistance people had hidden their cameras in. This reveals them to the Cuban militaries.
Family Plot, 1975/1976	Mrs "Rainbird" is the reason Blanche starts her investigation.

Aberrant Women Motif in Hitchcock's Movies

Alice (Blackmail)
Sylvia (Sabotage)
Lady Henrietta Flusky (Under Capricorn)
Marion Crane (Psycho)
Melanie Daniels (The Birds)
Marnie (Marnie)

Alfred Hitchcock Cameos

Foreign Correspondent

After John Jones (Joel McCrea) leaves his hotel, Hitchcock is seen wearing a coat and hat and reading a newspaper.

The Birds

As Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) enters the pet shop, Hitch is leaving with two white Sealyham terriers.

Family Plot

Hitchcock's silhouette is seen through the door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths.

Marnie

Hitchcock is entering from the left of the hotel corridor after Tippi Hedren passes by.

The Lodger

Hitchcock is sitting at a desk in the newsroom.

Torn Curtain

Hitchcock is sitting in the lobby of Hotel d'Angleterre, Copenhagen, with a baby on his knee. He shifts the child from one knee to the other.

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt: Hitchock's cameo on the train taking uncle Charlie to Santa Rosa.

The Paradine Case

Hitchcock is leaving the train at Cumberland Station, carrying a cello case. Gregory Peck is carrying the suitcase.

Psycho

Hitchcock wearing a cowboy hat can be seen through the office window when Janet Leigh is entering.

Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock is seen in a grey suit walking in the street outside Gavin Elsters company buildings.

Young and Innocent

Hitchcock is standing outside the courthouse, holding a camera.

Stage Fright

Hichcock is turning to look back at Jane Wyman in her disguise as Marlene Dietrich's maid.

The Wrong Man

Alfred Hitchcock introduces The Wrong Man in what is not a normal cameo appearence.

North by Northwest

Hitchcock too late for the bus at the end of the titles sequence.

Saboteur

Hitchcock is standing on the street outside a store, "Cut Rate Drugs".
Originally Hitchcock wanted to do a cameo with his secretary at the time, Carol Stevens, as deaf and dumb persons walking down the street. Then Hitchcock was to have made a presumably indecent proposal using sign language, resulting in the woman slapping him in the face.