Psychose

This famous film with known story tells about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) , she works in a Phoenix (Arizona) office, when his employer trusts her some money . Seeing the opportunity to take the cash and beginning a new life along with her fiancé Sam (John Gavin) . Larcenous Marion leaves Phoenix and heads with her car towards California where her lover with debts is owner a store . When is caught in a storm and pursued by a policeman , she leaves the highway and enters Bates hotel . The hotel with twelve rooms (and 12 showers) is managed by a strange young (Anthony Perkins) who seems to be submitted by his overbearing mother , she's living at a creaky mansion nearly hotel. Then, rare things start to happen . Later on , a detective named Arbogast (Martin Balsam) , her sister (Vera Miles) and Sam (John Gavin) are looking for Marion , asking for help a stubborn sheriff (John McIntire).

¨Psycho¨ was not only Hitchcock's biggest successful movie , but was a phenomenon in its own right . The picture is a magnum opus in the terror genre and its immediate impact and its future influence was enormous and cannot be over emphasised . It's the quinta-essential shocker that created an authentic sub-genre about psycho-killers and continuing until nowadays . The shower image is one of the most studied , copied and analysed sequences in cinema history and has obtained a notoriety what exceeds of the movie itself . Terrific performance by Anthony Perkins in an immortal role as Norman Bates and sensational Janet Leigh with Oscar nomination included that was the only one in her long career. Inventive and superbly constructed plot , filled with delicious black humor by writer Joseph Stefano based on Robert Bloch's novel. The highlight of the film is , of course , the shower scene , it was made with 70 cameras to shot the 45 seconds of footage and the creepy sound effects were realized by stabbing a knife into a melon . Magnificent credit titles by Saul Bass , he's usual on Hitchcock films .

Excellent black and white cinematography by cameraman John Russell , as Hitch thought it would be very gory in colour . Bernard Herrmann's legendary musical score copied and endlessly imitated , aids to create a thrilling atmosphere . Film is directed with exquisite taste and intelligence by master Hitchcock who makes an impeccable control of every scene and maneuvers your emotions , infusing with a deliciously macabre wit , it makes ¨Psycho¨ far superior to the several movies what tried duplicate , or imitate it ; these are the following ones : ¨Psycho II¨ (1983) by Richard Franklin , ¨Psycho III¨ (1986) by Anthony Perkins himself and for cable television : ¨Psycho IV¨ (1990) by Mick Garris. Hitchcock's Psycho belongs to his best period in the 5os and 60s when he produced his finest works , perfecting the art of suspense in a series of masterpieces : ¨Dial M¨, ¨Rear window¨, ¨Vertigo¨, ¨North by Nortwest¨, ¨Birds¨ and specially ¨Psycho¨ , all of them are still studied and copied today . Rating : Indispensable and essential classic movie.

An opportunity presents that can't be ignored, to escape from a world that's been making you bored, with dollars galore you ride out of town, pestered by a copper, who keeps hanging around; you seek to find shelter, somewhere to hide, the motel of Bates is the one that you've spied, there's a curious fella who's friendly, polite, you pay him for a room, and will stay for a night; after taking the key you retire to room, then into the bath for a showery flume, but before you're all clean you get into a lather, as the curtain is shred, by a psychotic slasher.

Still a wonderful piece of filmmaking all these years later.

Robert Bloch wrote the original work, Joseph Stefano adapted it into a tight screenplay but it was Alfred Hitchcock with the extraordinary complicity of Bernard Herrmann who transformed this lurid tale into a classic, horror masterpiece. The score propels us into the moment before the moment arrives provoking the sort of anticipation that verges on the unbearable. The fact that the key scenes have become iconic film moments: copied, imitated, emulated and parodied, have not diminished its impact, not really. The anticipation, underlined by Herrmann's strings, creates a sort of craving for the moment to arrive. That doesn't happen very often. No amount of planning can produce it or re-produce it - otherwise how do you explain the Gus Van Sant version - so, the only possible explanation is an accident, a miraculous film accident and those do happen. Everything falls into place so perfectly that even the things that one may argue are below the smart standard of the film, are needed, the film without every frame is not quite the film. Try to turn away after the climax during Simon Oakland's long explanation. You can't. I couldn't. Partly because you know you'll soon be confronting those eyes, that fly, the car...

I saw this movie as a teenager when it was first released in the 1960's. The promotional hype for the film ensured you did not have a clue what it was about and people who had seen the movie were asked not to reveal the ending. You went to see it anticipating something scary and thats what you got. Even 30 years later I still remember sitting in a dark theatre with my heart pumping and everyone, and I mean everyone, screaming their lungs out.

The movie set a new and very high standard in horror movies which I don't believe has ever been equaled. The characters were great, the direction perfect and the music, which I thought was absolutely fantastic, made this a classic.

I still get scared when I see it on TV.

No matter how many times one sits through this Hitchcock classic, Anthony Perkins always manages to surprise you. It is a sensational performance - for which he didn't even get an Oscar nomination - I have no way of knowing how much preparation he dedicated to the creation of Norman Bates, maybe no more than usual, but the details of his performance are astonishing. Never a false move and if you follow the film looking into his eyes, you'll be amazed as I was. The madness and the tenderness, the danger and the cravings. A mamma's boy with hellish implications and yet we see, we feel connected to the human being, we are not horrified by him but of his circumstances. In short, we kind of understand him. That alone puts him miles and miles away from other cinematic monsters. From Richard Attenborough as the real life Christie in "10 Rillington Place" to the hideous, unredeemable Christian Bale in "American Psycho". Here Hitchcock and Herrman create an universe that Anthony Perkins inhabits with the same kind of electricity, nerve and shyness that Norman Bates projects throughout the film. Janet Leigh falls for it if not him. She, like us, sees the boy trying to escape his dutiful son's trap. He is in my list of the 10 most riveting characters ever to be captured on film.