The story describes a girl who stole public funds and stayed in a motel during her escape, but was killed by a schizophrenic madman in the bathroom. Her sister and boyfriend joined the police investigation, and finally revealed the truth about the madman under the gradual investigation.
The story comes from a novel based on true events: a woman came to a motel after stealing money; she was murdered in the hotel's bathtub, which is the famous shower scene in film history. The owner of the inn doesn't seem to be looking normal. Was he plotting for money and murder, or something else, or was his mysterious mother behind the scenes?
One sentence comment
A new- and altogether different- screen excitement!!!
* No One ... BUT NO ONE ... Will Be Admitted To The Theatre After The Start Of Each Performance Of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
It Is _Required_ That You See Psycho From The Very Beginning!
Don't give away the ending - it's the only one we have!
The screen's master of suspense moves his camera into the icy blackness of the unexplained!
Electrifying shocker! (Australia Release)
The master of suspense moves his cameras into the icy blackness of the unexplored! (window card)
Exploring the blackness of the subconscious man!
It's Back! (1965 reissue)
See the version TV didn't dare show! (1968 re-release)
Hitchcock's other films are no more impactful than this one.
—Chicago Sun-
Times The Psycho is not unique in the wit of storytelling; its originality is in the construction of the narrative.
——Observing
that The Psycho is recognized as Hitchcock's best film, as well as the most imitated and influential film.
——BBC Film Review
Behind the Scenes
About the film
"Psycho" is Hitchcock's most iconic classic, an unprecedentedly successful horror film with bold skills and stunning graphics, even after decades of murder and murder. The bloody scenes still terrified the audience.
The Mother of Modern Horror was made on a low budget and on a short filming basis, based on Robert Bloch's novel, written by Joseph Stefano and written by Hitchcock as The skilled montage techniques manipulate the audience's emotions with ease, thus completing a purely cinematic expression in a complete sense. Hitchcock abandoned some of the well-known routines in his previous films, and really did stimulate the audience entirely through the visuals, not the plot. The "bathroom murder" scene in the film has become a classic scene in film history. It lasted 48 seconds and consisted of 78 fast-switching shots. Although there was no bloody scene of a knife piercing the human body, its terrifying effect was due to montage. , scene scheduling, rhythm, lighting and sound techniques have reached an incomparable state. Hitchcock's requirements for this scene are: "slashing, slashing with a knife, the knife is like tearing the screen and rushing out of the movie." This "realistic horror" leaves the audience endless imagination. As Hitchcock thought: "The most tense is not those disgusting ways of dying, but the atmosphere brewing before death." The name of the
director
"Hitchcock" can be described as synonymous with suspense and thriller, representing the The spirit of a cinematic technique; it was this world-renowned master of horror who invented the film genre "the thriller genre".
Hitchcock directed and produced 59 films and more than 300 serials throughout his life, most of which focus on the dark side of human nature such as tension, anxiety, voyeurism, fear, etc., and skillfully integrate sexy, suspenseful and humorous into one. . The ultimate goal of Hitchcock's films is to show the deepest horror and the most abnormal thoughts of human nature, so unlike modern horror films, Hitchcock's films can be called thrillers, all horrors are between people and people. There is and happens in between, there is no disgusting picture such as distortion and blood flow, and it is completely won by the exquisite plot arrangement and the excellent performance of the actors.
Hitchcock was born in London in 1889 to an ordinary family who operated vegetable wholesales. He entered the film industry in 1920. After working in subtitle design, art director, editing, etc., he directed his first suspenseful film "The Mailman" in 1926. Established a position in the British film industry. "The Assassin's House" in 1934 and "The Thirty-nine Steps" in 1936 gave Hitchcock international fame. In 1940, the first Hollywood work "Butterfly Dream" won the Academy Award for Best Work, followed by the spy drama "Overseas Commissioner", the psychological suspense film "Cliff" and the psychoanalysis film "Doctor Edward". In 1946, Hitchcock shot the concluding work of this period, "Beauty's Plan".
In the 1950s, Hitchcock went hand in hand in terms of artistry and entertainment, and continued to experiment with photography techniques, shooting "Phone Murder", "Rear Window", "To Catch a Thief", "Vertigo", "Northwest". North" and a series of excellent works. In 1960, Hitchcock challenged the new horror, with bizarre themes, unexpected storylines, and low-budget black-and-white production to shoot a "Psychopath" that terrified the world, thus making the film Hitch A milestone in Kirk's film career. At that time, the directors of the French New Wave were more or less influenced by Hitchcock, and the masters of the New Wave gave him the highest evaluation: he is the film.
Hitchcock was recognized during his lifetime as one of the greatest film directors of all time, winning a special Oscar in 1968 and the Director Guild of America Griffith Award in the same year. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to film art, in 1979, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1980 and died in Los Angeles on April 29 of the same year.
The actor
"Psycho" has produced two global stars, one man and one woman, Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins.
Janet Lee, born in 1927, signed with MGM in 1947, played a number of youthful teenage roles, and began acting in 1951 after marrying fellow actor Tony Curtis ("As Fire"). Mature woman character. Later, she became a first-line actress due to her outstanding performance in Orson Welles' "Gone with the Wind" and Hitchcock's "Psycho", especially "Psycho" which won her the Golden Globe Award that year. Nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. In 1999, Janet Lee was awarded "Commander of Arts and Letters", the highest honor awarded to an artist by the French government. Janet Lee once said that when filming the classic scene of being killed in the shower, Hitchcock edited 70 different angles to express the horror before death, and when she finished watching the scene in the theater, she was shocked. Feeling horrified, she hasn't dared to shower since. It is reported that Lee was paid only $25,000 in the film, and has since switched to taking a bath in a bathtub. In addition, the horror expression in the film was also named the most classic death scene in history by the British film magazine "TotalFilm".
"Psycho" also took Anthony Perkins to fame and made his character Norman Bates a household name. The famous American actor Anthony Perkins (1932-1992) was born in New York. He was keen on acting as early as his college days. Once on Broadway, he was spotted by the great director William Wheeler. Cooper co-starred in "Friendly Persuasion," which was nominated for six Academy Awards. After that, he played a young man with a dual personality in Hitchcock's "Psycho", which established his status in the film industry and has been in the film industry for 30 years. On both sides of the Atlantic, he starred in "The Lonely Man", "Green House", "The Trial", "War in Paris" and more.
soundtrack
The film's soundtrack also plays a big role, and Bernard Herrmann's piercing strings for "The Psycho" also contribute indelibly to the film's tension. In the scene of being killed in the bathroom, all the knives seemed to cut into Maria's body, but in fact, none of the knives were cut. Its excellent effect completely relied on sharp and fast editing and multi-angle shots. In addition, the biggest contributor was Bernard. Herman's soundtrack is extremely shrill, the repeated shrill sound of the violin can almost cut a person's flesh open. Hitchcock originally intended not to use additional acoustics for this passage, but changed his mind immediately after listening to Herman.
Trivia
Hitchcock used a pseudonym to buy the rights to the novel for just $9,000.
·After "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo", two high-cost color films, Hitchcock led his TV production team to shoot this black and white horror film at a very low cost. According to Hitchcock himself, he didn't want the film to be too bloody and violent (the well-known bathroom scene), and wanted to see if a low-budget black-and-white movie would sell.
Hitchcock's "Psycho" cost only $800,000 and made $15 million soon after its first release.
Interestingly, Hitchcock was creating suspense himself when he was shooting the film. He asked all the production staff to swear to keep the plot and the ending of the story strictly confidential and never reveal any details. In addition, he deliberately hired the role of "mother" and announced the list of several candidates. In fact, there is no scene of "mother" in the script.
The climax of the bathroom killing scene was only 45 seconds, but Hitchcock took almost 7 days to shoot, with as many as 60 camera shifts.
Janet Lee recalled that in the filming of "Psycho", Hitchcock simply used Janet as a test object in order to make the corpse in the experimental drama scary enough. Sometimes Li pushes the door into the dressing room after lunch and finds a terrifying "zombie" sitting in her chair. Janet Lee said: "Hitchcock would decide which dummy to use for the corpse based on the level of fear I had every time I screamed."
Hitchcock paid Anthony Perkins $40,000, which is exactly the amount of money Maria stole from the company.
Hitchcock favored blond women, he once said: "Blonde women are the best to be murdered! Imagine the bright red blood running down her snow-white skin, how beautiful it is against the shiny blond!" This film Janet Lee, who was killed in , was of course also blonde.
Great dialogueNorman
Bates' Mother: No! I tell you no! I won't have you bringing someyoung girl in for supper! By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap,erotic fashion of young men with cheap, erotic minds!
Norman Bates' mother: "No! I said no! I won't allow you to bring a young girl to dinner! By candlelight, I think the immature psychology of young people only creates immature pornography!"
Norman Bates : Mother, please...!
Norman
Bates' Mother: And then what? After supper? Music? Whispers? Norman Bates' Mother:
" And then what? Good music after dinner? Love words?"
Norman Bates: Mother, she's just a stranger. She's hungry, and it's raining out
! It's raining again!"
Norman Bates' Mother: "Mother, she's just a stranger"! As if men don'tdesire strangers! As if... ohh, I refuse to speak of disgusting things, because they disgust me! You understand, boy? Go on, go tell her she'll not be appeasing her ugly appetite with MY food... or my son! Or do Ihave tell her because you don't have the guts! Huh, boy? You have the guts, boy?
Norman Bates Mother: "'Mother, she's just a stranger!' Maybe men don't have any desire for strangers! Maybe... oh, I don't want to talk about this disgusting thing, I feel sick! You know what, kid Go, go tell her that the food I'm making doesn't whet her appetite... oh boy, or tell her myself, because you don't have the guts! How about it, kid? Do you have the guts, kid?"
Norman Bates: Shut up! Shut up!
Norman Bates: "Shut up! Shut up!"
It
was pouring rain outside when Norman walked from his house to the hotel office to greet Maria. But in the next shot, his coat is dry, not a drop of water, as he stands in the hotel office.
In the scene where Norman carries Maria's body, Maria's car cover is dry and wet.
Maria tore a bar of soap in the shower and threw the wrapping paper in the tub, but Norman didn't see the wrapping paper when he cleaned the tub.
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