Psycho killed it at the box office
Hitchcock’s thriller first had cinema audiences screaming 60 years ago. MARION McMULLEN looks at how a low budget film became a $40m blockbuster
BOOK into the Bates Motel and you may never check out again. Psycho was the surprise sleeper hit of the summer of 1960. Film bosses did not expect it to become a box office smash when it first opened in cinemas in America on June 16, 1960, but soon people were queueing around the block to see film director Alfred Hitchcock’s big screen offering and it went on to break box office records around the world.
He shot it in black and white to help keep costs down and leading lady Janet Leigh’s costumes as embezzling secretary Marion Crane were all bought off the peg from ordinary stores instead of being specially designed for her.
Hitchcock bought the rights to Robert Bloch’s novel anonymously for only $9,000 and then bought up as many copies of the book as he could to keep the ending a secret. He also kept the end of the script a secret from the entire cast and crew until it came time to film it and then made them all swear on the first day not to reveal anything about the storyline.
A canvas chair emblazoned with the name Mrs Bates on the back was also around on set during filming and adverts later begged cinema audiences “Don’t give away the ending – it’s the only one we have.”
Psycho reportedly cost $800,000 to make and went on to earn
$40 million. It has been called one of the scariest movies of all time and Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates, said: “It is the Hamlet of horror roles and you can never quite get enough of playing Norman Bates. It’s always interesting.”
The 6ft 2ins tall actor also had the perfect alibi and once revealed: “Not many people know this, but I was in
New York rehearsing a play when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double. Actually, the first time I saw Psycho and that shower scene was at the studio. I found it really scary. I was just as frightened as anybody else.
“Working on the picture though was one of the happiest filming experiences of my life. We had fun making it – never realising the impact it would have.”
The notorious shower scene took seven days to film, but lasts only 45 seconds in the movie. Seventy different camera angles helped capture it and chocolate syrup was used in place of blood because it showed up better on camera.
Janet Leigh said filming left her with very wrinkled skin and a life-long fear of showers. “Hitch relished scaring me,” she once revealed. “When we were making Psycho, he experimented with the mother’s corpse using me as his gauge. I would return from lunch, open the door to the dressing room and propped up in my chair would be this hideous monstrosity. The horror in my scream, registered on his Richter scale, decided which dummy he’d use.”
Hitchcock initially imagined the scene played out silently without any music until he heard composer Bernard Herrmann’s nerveshredding violin score and promptly changed his mind. In fact, he liked the music so much he doubled Herrmann’s salary to $34,501 and later said: “Thirty three percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music.”
Interest in the movie quickly grew when it was released and was boosted by posters in cinema foyers warning audiences “No one... BUT NO ONE ... will be admitted to the theatre after the start of each performance of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho”.
Hitchcock also announced as part of the publicity campaign before the release: “It has been rumoured that Psycho is so terrifying that it will scare some people speechless.
“Some of my men hopefully sent their wives to a screening. The women emerged badly shaken, but still vigorously vocal.”
He made his famous trademark cameo just 10 minutes into the movie – standing outside an office wearing a Stetson – so that cinema goers would not spend the entire film waiting to spot him.
The famous Norman Bates line from Psycho “A boy’s best friend is his mother” has been called one of the great movie quotes of all time and the film went on to be nominated for four Oscars including best director for Hitchcock and best supporting actress for Janet Leigh.
Hitchcock himself received an angry letter after the movie came out from the father of a girl who said his daughter refused to have a bath after seeing the film Les Diaboliques and now would not step into a shower after watching Psycho. Hitchcock just wrote back saying: “Send her to the dry cleaners.”