Rating: ****
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
A psychological thriller about a mild mannered motel manager named Norman Bates (twitchy Anthony Perkins) and his problems with women - namely his overbearing mother and the wildly alluring Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) who happens stop by one night during a storm. When Marion goes missing, her sister Lila (Vera Miles) and her boyfriend Sam (John Gavin) suspect foul play and start looking for her. Creepy and atmospheric, it's a masterpiece in terror that will give you chills every time you take a shower in a strange place.
Motivated by B-movie directors like Roger Corman and William Castle who turned out cheap, but profitable horror films, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make a movie for less than one million dollars and still maintain the level of quality and perfection that he demanded. The result is astounding. The black and white cinematography creates the perfect mood and gives the film a nightmarish quality. Bernard Herrmann's brilliant strings-only score imbues the film with a shocking sense of terror and suspense. Both Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh deliver career-defining performances, and like many of Hitchcock's blondes, Leigh is incredibly fierce and sexy. She fits the role of Marion perfectly, and while she maintains a proper and innocent facade, her face betrays an undercurrent of passion and mischief. She's a dangerous woman, but no match for the psychologically disturbed Norman Bates. Anthony Perkins is pitch-perfect as Bates, who seems timid, harmless, simple-minded, and even a bit naïve, but there's a chilling darkness just under the surface.
In addition to crafting some of the most iconic and horrific scenes in movie history, "Psycho" also pushed the envelope by being the first movie to show a flushing toilet. It's not a perfect film, but it's certainly one hell of a ride. It loses some engagement and momentum when Lila and Sam take the spotlight because neither character is particularly likable. The extended epilogue also drags on a bit too long and goes into unnecessary detail, but perhaps when the film came out, its themes were so shocking and radical that the public needed a more thorough explanation. "Psycho" remains one of Hitchcock's most recognized films, and holds up better today than many of his other classics.