In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock signed an agreement with Universal Studios that allowed him to make any movie he wanted as long as the budget was less than $ 3 million. He still owed Paramount Pictures a movie under contract, so, inspired by the box office success of dissident B-movie producer / director Roger Corman, he decided to make a very low-budget black-and-white movie using the television crew that worked in your movie. popular Alfred Hitchcock Presents series.
Psycho: 50th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray is very impressive both in terms of picture and sound quality as well as a feast of bonus material. Video is presented in 1080p / VC-1 streaming with lossless DTS-HD 5.1 master audio soundtrack, both radically improving on the previous DVD version. Equally improved is the print quality, the blacks are extremely deep, and all the flaws that marred the DVD release are gone, leaving a pristine, pristine picture as good as any modern release, which is quite remarkable for a film that has half a century old. .
It’s hard to imagine now how much of an impact Psycho must have had on its early audiences, the marketing campaign that turned down movie tickets after the show began, and Hitch’s personalized appeal not to reveal the surprise ending really paid dividends. These days the name Norman Bates is synonymous with serial murder, matricide and schizophrenia, but in 1960 the public was completely duped by Anthony Perkins, the motel owner, stuttering and charming.
Considered by many to be Hitchcock’s archetypal thriller, Psycho actually bears little resemblance to any of the director’s earlier suspenseful traits that had big budgets, lavish Technicolor photographs of tourist spots, and grand interiors, glamorous men and women in common. as a designer who, while courting danger, the public knew they would live to tell the tale; Marion Crane’s fate would be completely different.
In casting Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, Hitchcock played a very clever trick on his audience, he knew they would totally sympathize with Marion’s doomed romantic interludes with a married man who couldn’t afford to leave his wife and fully support her dubious decision. to go. with $ 40,000 of your business funds instead of depositing them in the bank. Even though I have seen the movie countless times, I am still captivated by the setting and I totally believe that this will be Marion’s story and is a testament to Leigh and Perkins’ portrayal that it is still a shock when you realize it is not. it is. about her, it’s actually about him.
This fundamental turning point is brought home by the unforgettable Shower Scene, a montage of 50 individual takes, intricately cut out with the surprising sounds of Bernard Herrmann’s string motif, creating one of the most iconic moments in film history. From here on, the audience that has placed all their emotional support on Marion now transfers these feelings to Norman, believing him to be an innocent and intimidated son of a mother who is simply trying to cover up his jealous crimes of passion.
It’s fair to say that Psycho is somewhat uneven and I don’t enjoy the scenes with Marion’s sister (Vera Miles) and her boyfriend (John Gavin), although the moment Miles discovers Mrs. Bates’s mummified skeleton in the basement it is visually stunning; however, for the most part, his scenes feel prescribed and a bit stiff. In the same way, the scene change at the end with the psychoanalyst might have felt necessary in 1960, but by today’s standard it seems like a hackneyed and prosaic explanation of Norman’s condition. These minor criticisms do not detract from the overall power the film still has to captivate and scandalize modern audiences.
I was delighted to find among the many extras the documentary ‘Making Of’ from the US Collector’s Edition DVD.This full-length feature film, written and directed by Laurent Bouzereau is packed with interviews with the cast, including Janet’s daughter Leigh and Hitchcock, Patricia, along with contributions from screenwriter Joseph Stefano. I hope this series will appear in subsequent Universal releases as I have yet to see them improved and much of the key creative and technical staff who regularly worked with Hitchcock are no longer alive to comment. I can’t conceive of Psycho looking any better than this hidef presentation and I hope Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, and Marnie will follow without unnecessary pause.