Psycho
[A] masterpiece...the most morally unsettling film ever made.
-- Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Psycho
Part of our Throwback Thursday series in partnership with Eat|See|Hear.
For details, visit: Laemmle.com/TBT.
In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was already famous as the screen's master of suspense (and perhaps the best-known film director in the world) when he released Psycho and forever changed the shape and tone of the screen thriller. From its first scene, in which an unmarried couple balances pleasure and guilt in a lunchtime liaison in a cheap hotel (hardly a common moment in a major studio film in 1960), Psycho announced that it was taking the audience to places it had never been before, and on that score what followed would hardly disappoint. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is unhappy in her job at a Phoenix, Arizona real estate office and frustrated in her romance with hardware store manager Sam Loomis (John Gavin). One afternoon, Marion is given $40,000 in cash to be deposited in the bank. Minutes later, impulse has taken over and Marion takes off with the cash, hoping to leave Phoenix for good and start a new life with her purloined nest egg. Thirty-six hours later, paranoia and exhaustion have started to set in, and Marion decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where nervous but personable innkeeper Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) cheerfully mentions that she's the first guest in weeks before regaling her with curious stories about his mother. There's hardly a film fan alive who doesn't know what happens next, but while the shower scene is justifiably the film's most famous sequence, there are dozens of memorable bits throughout this film. (All Movie Guide)
"Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece blends a brutal manipulation of audience identification and an incredibly dense, allusive visual style to create the most morally unsettling film ever made." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
"Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece blends a brutal manipulation of audience identification and an incredibly dense, allusive visual style to create the most morally unsettling film ever made." (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
Genre
Horror,
Thriller/Suspense,
Throwback Thursdays
Runtime
109
Language
English
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Cast
Martin Balsam
Awards:
Nominee, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Academy Awards
Nominee, Best Director, Academy Awards
Nominee, Best Cinematography, Academy Awards
Nominee, Best Production Design, Academy Awards
MOREPlayed at
Playhouse 7 4.18.09 - 4.18.09
Lumiere Music Hall 4.18.09 - 4.18.09
Town Center 5 4.18.09 - 4.18.09
Royal 10.02.10 - 10.02.10
NoHo 7 4.05.18 - 4.05.18
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