What other Anthony Perkins movies should I check out? Suggest them here: forms.gle/XZVvZhfhwFzsDpRU9 Thank you so much for watching! That's a wrap on kaiielle-oween... until 2023! ✦ KL 📢 kaiielle.com/links
Perkins had a long film career but after this movie, he did the role so well, he was typecast as that sort of character. He was known to be gay and this worked against him in those homophobic times, when other gay male actors were able to lead a double life, like Rock Hudson, Raymond Burr, Montgomery Cliff, Cary Grant, and James Dean. (On the other hand, Marlon Brandon was openly bisexual and it didn't seem to hurt his career.)
"The Trial", directed by Orson Welles, based on the Franz Kafka novel! I'm not saying watch it on the channel, but as a student of film (and an Anthony Perkins fan!), definitely hit that one. Like any Orson Welles movie, I would read all about it before you watch it. (As far as Orson Welles movies to watch on the channel: "Citizen Kane"! PLEASE hit that one day!!!! That's a major one to have under your belt! PS: Can't wait to see this reaction! I'm waiting for company to leave just so I can watch it! 🤣
In response to your question..."Yes" drivers used to slide over and get out the passenger side especially if you parked...otherwise, the driver would be opening his door into traffic. The seats were called "bench" seats. Thank you for your reaction. Best wishes on your channel.
Interesting, thank you! As a kid, I crawled across the back seat to get out on the safer side but once I was pre-teen age, then my parents just told me to look behind us and wait for a space in traffic before opening the door.
@@kaiielle Auto manufacturers eventually replaced the front bench seat with individual or "bucket" seats. Also, bench seats were also suited to "necking" LOL.
Not only that, but it was a "short cut", it took less time to slide and get out the passenger side than to get out the drivers door and go around that big boat if that was the direction you were going in anyway.
The 'safety thing' ... tell me about it! Back in the 70s, my Mom's Dad opened his car-door right in front of a transit bus, which sent the door flying! Everybody remarked on his good luck ... if the bus had been 5 seconds later he'd have been leaning out to exit the car - and the bus probably would've ripped his head off (or turned it into paste)!
To elaborate a bit on the Hays Code, this was a major and important element in filmmaking from that era. Filmmakers were constantly trying to find ways to subvert the code: for example, sex in older movies is often implied through an edit of the characters kissing or embracing to one of them smoking (still fully clothed). If you ever see that in an older movie, that's what that means! Another major element of movies from that time period is that bad people could not prosper: movies were *required* to end with characters getting their comeuppance. The blood was chocolate syrup. Also, it was definitely possible for the shower scene to be more brutally graphic; it was Hitchcock's directorial decision to imply rather than show, and may viewers thought it was an exceptionally brutal movie because their imagination added more than anything he could have shown. Instead, the great historical significance of the sequence (aside from being one of the most iconic in history) is the toilet thing. It was also definitely shocking for audiences that Marion dies halfway through -- that was one of the big twists at the time, with Lila being obscured from the posters and trailers. Speaking of trailers, you should definitely check out some of the Hitchcock trailers. They're like little sketches starring Hitchcock himself. One thing to look out for in future Hitchcock films is his cameo. His appearance in this is not as pronounced as some others, but he pops up in all of his films.
Hays Code was implemented in 1932 and it took another 2 years before significant enforcement threats materialized. So, the 1930-1934 films have many many films known as "Pre-Codes".
There's a great photograph from the mid 30's that satirises this. It might be by a guy called, Schafer. It breaks as many of the rules as possible in a single shot. It shows a woman in lingerie, smoking, gun in hand, standing over a dead cop. Hilarious stuff.
I know you younger generations think of the 1960s as being a few years after the Roman Empire, but there were lots of color films that came out that decade and two or three decades before that. So Hitchcock filming "Psycho" in black and white was an artistic choice, not just because it was 1960.
Yes, it was a deliberate choice because Hitchcock though the sight of RED blood would make the scene too graphic. Modern viewers think the shower scene is sanitized, so little blood, but to the audience at the time, this was WAY over the top, so graphic for them. Filmmakers credit this movie as a game-changer, the dividing line before and after. PS - yes, color goes way back but it was incredibly expensive at first. Two movies, both 1939, Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind had great vibrant color. Buy to that world back, most photos were black-n-white as were newspapers (except the comics). So no one thought any less of a black-n-white movie. On the other hand, the rise of tv in the early '50's really cut into movie audiences but for a long time, only could show in black and white. So this pushed movie makers to take advantage of color perhaps sooner than they would have anyway.
@@johnnehrich9601 And, the other reason Hitch went with Black and White for Psycho, was: to keep the costs down. He risked his own money on the film, so that made the cost to film Psycho significant in a way that a normal 'studio-financed' picture would not be. I also understand that Hitch wanted Psycho to have the feel of a cheap exploitation flick (or at least feel closer to those sorts of films than his usual big budget technicolor style.) Using the TV crew (as opposed to a color film crew) was part of that.
@@tranya327 Yeah, he went with the crew of his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents because Paramount wouldn't take the risk on giving him the budget he'd asked for.
Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis' mother. Vera Miles, who played her sister, was in a couple of famous westerns including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (highly recommended). Norman Bates was based on the real life serial killer Ed Gein, who was also the basis for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs. Psycho II (1983) is surprisingly good.
Another western that Vera Miles was in was The Searchers , also a John Wayne movie just like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance . Vera Miles also is also currently the only surviving cast member of this movie .
@@jamesalexander5623 I rate it a lot higher than others that I think are overrated like North by Northwest, Notorious, The Birds, Strangers on a Train for example. I think it's more interesting than Rear Window too, even though that seems wildly popular in the US. Jimmy Stewart is great in it but it's not surprising at all compared to Vertigo. Vertigo has more interesting themes and great photography to display them. It's simply more complex.
@@jamesalexander5623 I found Vertigo to be a bit of a bloated mess. Love the tightness of Rear Window, the action-adventure and humor of North by Northwest, and the haunting, cinematic gorgeousness of Rebecca.
"She needs ME. It's not as if is she were a maniac, a raving thing. She just goes - a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?" "Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough." Fun Fact: Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer's salary. Up Close And Personal Fact: In order to implicate viewers as fellow voyeurs, Sir Alfred Hitchcock used a 50 mm lens on his 35 mm camera. This gives the closest approximation to the human vision. In the scenes where Norman is spying on Marion, this effect is felt. Subtle Visual Cues Fact: In the opening scene, Marion Crane is wearing a white bra and has a white purse because Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to show her as being angelic. After she has taken the money, the following scene has her in a black bra and black purse because now she has done something wrong and evil.
It was one of Hitchcock's screenwriters that coined the term "McGuffin" and Hitch used them a lot in his movies. It was an item, like a secret code or top secret papers that drove certain aspects of the plot but were eventually inconsequential. The McGuffin in this movie was the $40.000, all the characters cared about it, but in the end it really wasn't important to the main story. It just set everything off, like a good McGuffin does.
kaiielle: "I love her. I love this mom." Me: "Hah!" kaiielle: "Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be a psychopath." Me: "Hah!" Oh, kaiielle, you're so funny. Also, totally agree with you on Mr. Robot. Great show. I hope you enjoy the MCU movies as much as I did.
There's a film theory that connects Psycho and Halloween. The theory goes Sam Loomis was so effected by these events he went and learned child psychology so that he can prevent this from happening again until he gets he meets a young Michael Meyers and becomes Dr Sam Loomis in Halloween.
It's almost certainly a reference to Psycho just because the director/writer/whoever liked it though. References, including names, are common - much like Billy Loomis appeared in Scream in 1996. It's in the same genre, Jamie Lee Curtis being the daughter of Janet Leigh, and the actress Nancy Loomis(her "real" name, albeit a stage name) was also in Halloween. The character in Halloween was also older than Sam from Psycho would've been by then, albeit time is pretty flexible in movies.
I just watched Psycho for the first time since I was a kid, and am now checking out the videos from my favorite reactors. Great job! Perkins was so good in this, and I can't believe he didn't get nominated for an Oscar.
The Hays Code was wild. Even married couples in old movies could not be shown in the same bed. If you see movies in the 50's, married couples are in separate twin beds in the same room!
Hitchcock's trailer for "Psycho" was ahead of its time as well. You should watch it. He insisted that no one could enter the auditorium after the film starts and every effort was made not to spoil the surprises. My favorite Hitchcock film is"Rear Window". Hope youwatch it at some point. I enjoy your insightful reactions.
You really can't go wrong with Hitchcock. Besides Rear Window, some of my favorites are North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rebecca, Spellbound, The Lady Vanishes, and The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Oh, so many great Hitchcock films besides what's been mentioned. Rope, Lifeboat, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train, etc. One of my favourite lighter Hitchcock films, The Trouble with Harry. I'm also partial to psychological thriller as opposed to jump scares or slasher films. Besides Hitchcock, one of my favourite horror movies is The Changeling (1980).
$40,000 in 1960 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $401,091.89 today. Oh shit! Right after I looked that up and posted it in the comments, you flashed the same thing on the screen. LOL! I love that website and use it all the time. By the way, chocolate syrup was often used for fake blood in black and white films.
Kaiielle, FANTASTIC reaction, and also fantastic EDIT. It's so funny: for some reason it actually crossed my mind during the reaction whether or not this would be fun or a chore to edit this (or any movie). So when you said you were excited to edit it and rewatch it, I was so happy! You nailed it: suspense. This is a suspense movie with horror overtones. Alfred Hitchcock is known as "the master of suspense". (and he has a gigantic list of films under his belt, many of them classics). I'd say hit "Rear Window" (which is in sumptuous color), "Strangers On A Train" and "Shadow Of A Doubt" if you want more textbook Hitchcock (although there are others). But I also want to say: do not be afraid of older movies, there are fantastic movies that totally hold up from EVERY year, going back to the silent era. Great art has no expiration date, I know I don't need to tell you that. Not everything dates like fine wine, but trust me: the history of cinema is FULL of surprises. When a movie from sixty, seventy.........or even a hundred years ago (or older!) transcends time and communicates in a fresh way, it's a goosebumps-inducing thing, and all it does it reaffirm our common humanity! Yes, styles change, but you learn those styles and appreciate them. PLUS: we're living in a time when they're just pillaging the past, so you might as well know what they're ripping off half the time! I'm not saying become the black & white channel, or the old movie channel (color movies have always existed, and starting in the 1950s, half the movies are color). But there's no need to stay in the shallow end of the pool when you can go diving for pearls....and when you're such an intelligent, articulate reactor! I grew up in the 80s and I have watched old movies since I was little. Ok, I've written you a book. And I still haven't finished your post-film analysis so I may leave one more comment! THANK YOU, KAIIELLE! Do you know.....I actually choked up watching your reaction towards the end! What the hell is wrong with me? LOL. It was a beautiful thing, seeing how taken you were with the film. PS: If "Sound Of Music" is your fave movie? Wait until you see "SINGIN' IN THE RAIN"!!!!!!! (and that's in color!). Oh my god, put that on your list right now Kaiielle!!!!!!!!
Great reaction Kaiielle! I hope you will do more Hitchcock movies. They are always interesting from a movie making pov because Hitchcock always pushed boundaries technically.
If you are really into the story and especially the characters, you should check out Bates Motel (2013-2017). It's a show that takes place 10-15 years before Psycho, dives into Norman and his mother's characters and their relationship. Both actors did a great job. Freddie Highmore does justice to this iconic villain
Another quality reaction. I don't remember the first time I saw this. I'm pretty sure it was on TV. I had seen The Birds before seeing this. Hitchcock does a very good job of shot composition, and camera use. Most of his stories are very good. I think my favorite Hitchcock movie is Rear Window. The scariest thing I ever saw growing up, my Dad took us to see some other movie (rated M back then, for Mature. That was before the R rating.) And, I was still pretty young. 1973. Well... okay, 12. I have no idea what the other movie was that we actually went to see. What scared the crap out of me, traumatized me, to the point of having nightmares about it for months... the preview for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It scared me so badly that, when I finally got around to watching it as a grown up, maybe around 2000, I was so anxious about it, that the actual movie (which is really quite tame by modern standards) also scared the daylights out of me. I was hyperventilating, and had the cold sweats. Panic attack! All because of the childhood trauma of seeing that preview. Since that first viewing, I have watched the movie 2 additional times. In relatively quick succession. Face those fears. And, I'm much better now. Thank you. So, yeah... the 60's was an interesting time to grow up. I'm a child of television. Most of my movie watching was on TV. And, all the movies and shows were in black and white... because the TV was an old 11" Philco black and white TV. Imagine my astonishment when, in 1974, we got our first COLOR TV! Wow! Wow! Look at that color! Amazing! (And, it was a huge TV. 20 whole inches!) And, imagine my surprise at all the black and white movies that were actually in color! Most of the movies I watched on TV were from the 30's and 40's, and some 50's. I always preferred the musicals. The dramas were also very good, but harder to watch. The contrast between the relative innocence of the old movies, and the bleakness, and harshness of the movies from the late 60's and early 70's was rather jarring. I miss the nostalgia of watching TV shows like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver. Of course, I was also a devotee of the space genre. And, I loved Lost in Space (which is much too silly to watch now) and the original Star Trek (which remains my favorite TV show.) It seems as though a lot of the younger folks have trouble watching black and white movies. But, I've always enjoyed them. And, I hate to see them colorized. As you have time, I hope that you're able to get to some of the excellent older movies. One of my favorites is called On Borrowed Time (1939 with Lionel Barrymore. Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life... if you've seen that. My favorite Christmas movie.) On Borrowed Time is... I don't know how to describe it. It's charming, if somewhat dark. It's about death. Ah, well... classic Hollywood. It was a different time. One I didn't actually grow up in, but I enjoyed vicariously through the movies. And... it was a nice escape from the very turbulent 60's and 70's. Well... I've rambled. Thank you for the reaction. I look forward to continuing with you on your journey through cinema. Take care.
even though this film seems kind of tame by todays standards of horror movies in 1960 this would have scared the crap out of people...in todays world i think we have started to become numb and conditioned to horror and gore.. its a shame really. still a true classic film.
16:05 You can thank the genius of Hitch's wife Alma Reville for that. He was concerned about killing Marion off in the middle of the film because of the audience reaction to the star going so soon. Alma told him to double down: "Don't wait until half way through, kill her after 30 minutes." In the 2012 biopic 'Hitchcock', Scarlet Johansson playing Janet Leigh appears on screen for the first time on EXACTLY 30 minutes. Also Alma was the only one to spot that Leigh swallowed during one of her 'dead' scenes. A single frame of film needed to be cut to maintain the illusion and she was the only one to see it. She was more than Hitchcock's wife, she was a cinema force to be reckoned with in her own right.
Great review and excellent editing. In every case, you retained transitions between scenes. There were a number of references to birds in this movie. A few of the more obvious ones are Crane, Phoenix, the sounds of the shower murder which Hitchcock was trying to make similar to the cawing of birds, and the small painting of a bird which falls off the wall when Norman sees Marion's murdered body. There are others. Many people consider Hitchcock to have been the greatest movie director of all time. Other directors often call him "the master." A few other good movies by him are "North by Northwest," "Rear Window," "Vertigo," "Suspicion," "Rebecca," and "The Lady Vanishes."
22:30 Yes, sliding out the other side was pretty common. Back then you had a choice for the front seats: you could get either bucket seats (where there are 2 separate seats, one for the driver and one for the passenger, like there are today) and a bench seat (which is a single seat that goes all the way across, like the back seat is). If you had a bench seat, it was no problem at all to slide across from one side to the other, and it would actually be less effort and shorter distance to do that instead of getting out on the driver side and walking around the car.
Actually, bucket seats were generally only available in "sporty" models like the Corvette or Thunderbird. Some cars did have split front seats, but they had the same flat shape as bench seats.
great reaction! love to see people try to figure out the twists and turns this film takes. audiences had never seen the star of a film (Janet Leigh) get killed in the first half hour - very shocking in 1960.
*Happy Hallowe'en 2024!* I realised how good the script of _PSYCHO_ was when I watched the scene of Arbogast talking to Norman in the office. It was so technically accomplished.
Just found your channel. Yes, PSYCHO is a great movie. Now it's time for you to watch the 1956 Black & White movie, THE BAD SEED, starring little Patty McCormack. The movie asks it's viewers not to give away the ending. I think you'll love it. It's more a Thriller than a Horror movie. 😊
Great reaction. A certain Popcorn reactor also found Bates to be attractive, lol. I'm surprised that once the movie was over and how you were singing the praises of everyone in this movie, but not one shout out to Mr. Hitchcock? Heh heh heh. I hope that you choose to watch more Hitchcock movies. I highly recommend "Rear Window", "Notorious", "Strangers on a Train" & "The Birds". Keep the reactions coming!
The actor that played Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) sure looks a lot like Andrew Garfield. If they ever did a remake, I could 100% see him playing the role. Same tone to his voice too, it's crazy how similar it is.
Andrew was the filmmakers' first choice to play Perkins in 2012's biopic Hitchcock, which was about the making of Psycho. But Andrew was committed to a run in Death of a Salesman on Broadway, so they went with James D'Arcy.
Great reaction! I hope you'll continue with Hitchock films if you want more suspense. My favorite Hitchcock film is Rear Window. Another famous Hitchock film is North by Northwest. Really, all of his films are worth watching.
I loved your reflections on how it could be made at the time - weirdly enough, though it's been a favourite of mine for many years, I only got round to reading the original Robert Bloch novel quite recently. And yes, this is one of those movies like Fight Club where people are surprised there was a book... But the original material is pretty nasty even to the modern reader and quite a few details just couldn't have been filmed in 1960. It's a tribute to Hitchcock's artistry that he not only made it successfully but made something superior. A lot of that is Tony Perkins' performance of course. And yes to more suspense movies! There's a whole world out there to be discovered.
It is interesting to see what was being done in movies in the 20s, before the restrictions you read about where instituted. Movies of the 20s had nudity and sex adjacent scenes, and then the restrictions came in and suddenly everything was super sanitized. The "Code" was the reason that Lucy and Ricki slept in separate bed, as a married couple, in "L Love Lucy".
I first became interested in this movie, as well as the Bates Motel show they did on A&E around 2016, so I’m glad you decided to watch and react to it.
This movie set the standard for movie times in theaters. Due to you had to watch it from the beginning. Before Phyco, movies in theaters were played continuously. You would just catch the movie and stay until you watched all the movie because you could come into at anytime. Played like on a loop.
Before he penned "Psycho," Robert Bloch visited the small town where Ed Gein lived. Bloch met with a lot of town denizens who didn't want to talk about Gein or his monstrous crimes. Who would want to even remember that insanity? I have relatives in law enforcement. After all these decades, they are still appalled by Gein and his crimes.
Front seats were often straight across, not like today. Hitchcock had people get out of the car that way to avoid having to set up a different camera angle and let the scene go unbroken with unnecessary edits.
Yes, getting in and out on the passenger side when you got into a car was common in the 1960s if you were parked parallel on a busy street because it was safer than exiting the car from the left side, into traffic. 26:51 Those are good questions you ask. Always seemed strange to me that a guy (Sam) who has a hardware store 15 miles away from the Bates Motel has never met the owner (Norman) before. You run a hotel, you need hardware all the time. They're about the same age and would have been in school together at some point.
Yes, with old cars it may not have been typical to do so but you could easily exit the car on the passenger side from the drivers side. They did not commonly have center consoles or bucket seat but wonderful bench seats.
Wonderful reaction! I really love a new person “discovering” the twist in this great movie. We studied it in film class back in college in the 1970’s. If you want to know about the making of this movie, I can recommend the 2012 movie “Hitchcock”, with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, and the book that movie was made from, “Hitchcock and the making of Psycho” by Stephen Robello. The Movie "Hitchcock" is currently available for free on UA-cam. Def worth a watch for some behind the scenes stuff.
There were color films going back to around 1940s and they were common by the 1960s. Hitchcock shot Psycho in black and white by choice because he thought it made the film more eeire and ominous. Bernard Herrmann was the brilliant composer of the score and he was also emulated by many horror filmmakers of the 70s and 80s.
Hello Kaiielle yes the movie "PSYCHO" was impressive for the year it was produced 1960. The famous or infamous shower scene was shot on the 17th to the 23rd of December 1959. Containing within the most iconic corpse stare in the history of cinema. 🎥🚿
Regarding the color of the fake blood: You're right, it could be any color... and that is precisely what worked in Hitchcock's favor! In an interview he revealed that he chose to release this film in B&W partly because he would be able to show the blood onscreen -- something he would NOT be able to do if the blood was red (A restriction of the times).
I love Mr Robot. But I was so confused during the first season because it kept acting like there was going to be a twist. But unless it expected its whole audience to be gen z-ers who haven't heard of iconic films from the 90s, I was like "BUT IT COULDNT BE MORE OBVIOUS! YOU'RE DELIBERATELY BEING OBVIOUS. WE'VE ALL SEEN THE MOVIE. HIS NAME WAS ROBERT PAULSON!" Lol sorry just had to get that out. S1 was so confusing. At least they paid musical homage to it. The twists in s3-4 got me...got me sobbing.
A shot-by-shot, line-by-line color remake of Psycho was made in 1998 with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, Anne Heche as Marion, and Julianne Moore as Lila, and William H. Macy as Arbogast. But sadly, even with the great cast, the legendary Gus van Sant as director, and the legendary Christopher Doyle as cinematographer, the remake was a complete disaster primarily because of the poorly acted lead performances that completely missed the mark. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh made it look easy, but it was easier than it looked. And Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche both gave cringey, unconvincing performances that killed the movie.
The critics' consensus is that "Vertigo" (1958) is Hitchcock's best film due to its memorable filmmaking style. It has mainly romance and intrigue, not horror. The story is about a man who is afraid of heights falling in love with a woman who has amnesia.
Second Horror Movie List 1. The Attic Expeditions with Jeffrey Combs 2. Cobweb (2023) 3. Villains 4. Torment 5. 13 Eerie 6. Nightmare Cinema 7. Planet Terror 8. Devil Times Five (1974) 9. The Resurrected with Chris Sarandon 10. Mr. Frost with Jeff Goldblum 11. Triangle with Melissa George 12. No One Lives with Luke Evans 13. Shrooms 14. The Ruins 15. Session 9 16. Parents with Randy Quaid 17. Slither 18. No Vacancy part 1 19. The Last House on the Left 20. Willard with Crispin Glover 21. Freaky with Vince Vaughn 22. Road Games 23. Lights Out 24. Dolls 25. The Entity 26. The Nun part 1 27. Demonic 28. Demonic Toys 2 29. The Omen 2 30. Carrie 31. White Noise 2 32. The Autopsy of Jane Doe 33. Curtains 34. Krampus 35. The Pact part 1 and 2 36. Idle Hands 37. Wolf Creek 1 38. Wolf Creek 2 39. Piggy 40. Mirrors part 1 41. Mirrors part 2 42. The Roost from Ti West 43. The Innkeepers from Ti West 44. X from Ti West 45. Pearl 46. Maxxine 47. Barbarian 48. Lord of Illusions 49. House on Haunted Hill 50. Wolfen 51. Day of the Dead 52. Goodnight Mommy 53. The Wailing 54. We Are What We Are 55. Lake Mungo 56. Honeymoon (2014) 57. The Canal 58. The Bay 59. Grave Encounters 60. The Old Dark House (1932) 61. The Taking of Deborah Logan 62. Trollhunter 63. Housebound 64. American Mary 65. Absentia 66. Better Watch Out 67. Hell Night 68. The Burning 69. Creepshow 2 70. Barbarian 71. Terrifier 72. Terrifier 2 73. Requiem for a Scream 74. Look Away 75. No Escape 76. Open 24 Hours 77. Patchwork 78. The Folks (2022) 79. Steel Trap (2007) 80. Pledge (2018) 81. There's No Such Thing as Vampires (2020) 82. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) 83. Haunted Trail (2022) 84. Bad Things (2023) 85. Vampire Bats with Lucy Lawless
KL: "I love this mom!" Us: .. oh, do you now..? KL: "Aw-ho.. this is so *cute*! Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be a psychopath..!" Us: *lookin' at the film title* .. nahhh.. I experienced '70s cars, which is about when I think the got the largest and "boat-iest". They were *absurdly* long for simply being cars with a '73 Cadillac Deville, a *2-door* car, mind you, having a length of 230". That's more than 20" longer than every generation of Toyota Sienna, a modern minivan, which clock in at 201-207". The car Marion purchased for trade-in, and trunk her body was placed in, is apparently a 1957 Ford Custom 300, which apparently is 201", as long as modern minivans.
Yes, lots of people exited cars back then by sliding over and getting out on the passenger side, but I've always thought that Arbogast did it, because that's the way Hitchcock had the scene set up. Hitchcock planned every scene of every movie before he started filming. He even said that filming the movie was the most boring part. He liked the planning stages. He also told actors that they could do the job for which they were hired, which was to act, but they had to understand that the viewpoint of his camera was the most important thing. In regards to Arbogast, I figured that the camera was stationary and was positioned so close to the car, that the only way he could get out, was to slide over and exit the other side. I know that I could be full of beans here, but I just wanted to suggest this possibility.
Weird trivia: this is the first American movie to ever show a toilet. Weirder trivia: Catch-22 (1970) is the first American movie to show someone sitting on a toilet...in a scene with Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam - both also in Psycho.
Audiences were shocked not just because it was the main character killed so early in the movie but also because Janet Leigh was the big name actor in the film.
Psycho has a 6-minute long trailer, and it is pretty memorable too, showing director Hitchcock giving a "tour" of the motel and the house, concluding with him opening the shower curtain that reveals Vera Miles screaming. Vera Miles plays Lila in the movie. Search "psycho trailer" should get you to the trailer. Vera Miles also stars in the 1956 Hitchcock film "The Wrong Man".
Alfred Hitchcock has a deep lode to mine. He is the master of suspense. Try Rear Window. Or really any of his many films. Rope was another one I liked although it was what TV people would call a bottle episode.
First reactor I've seen pick up on Norman's inability to say "bathroom." Has there been a murder there before or is it just part of the Norman persona's repression?
A lot of famous family members of the film cast. As has been noted, Janet Leigh is the mother of Jamie Leigh Curtis. Jamie’s father is Tony Curtis (The Boston Strangler, Some Like It Hot). Jamie is also the godmother of the Gyllenhaals: Jake and Maggie. Detective Arbogast, played by Martin Balsam (12 Angry Men) is the father of Talia Balsam (Mad Men, Homeland) who was the first wife of George Clooney (Gravity, Ocean’s 11), making Martin his father-in-law. There are more… it’s a deep rabbit hole.
George Clooney's aunt, Rosemary Clooney did her last movie appearance in "Airplane!" after a long career in musical comedy....she was the large lady with the big glasses dancing to disco music in the dive bar where Elaine and Ted first met, shown during a flashback.
@@billolsen4360 Cool. I love trivia like that. My favorite cameo in “Airplane!” was Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver on “Leave It To Beaver”) as the ‘Jive Lady’.
@@kaiielle it's really great. Even though I kind of lost interest in S2-3, the final season had me back. I probably should rewatch the whole series again I'm sure I'll like it even more
I think the getting out on the passenger side was because there was no console, you could slide across an in a city get out on the sidewalk instead of into traffic on the driver's side.
So much work goes into filming a B/W movie, as it is lit completely different than a color one. As far a wardrobe, you had to make sure that the color of the clothes would film well in B/W...sometime they actually clashed, but the tones of grays worked perfectly on film. The quick cuts and film angles made the shower scene infamous. Some people claim to have seen some nudity during that scene, when in actuality, there were none. Also it was chocolate syrup that was used for the blood in the shower.
amazing as always! Hitchcock is the master of suspense which very clear from this movie, but yes by todays standards it is not really that scary, but it is a awesome piece of cinematic history, and worth watching so happy to see your inputs on the movie :D
The no phone call, usually at motels and hotels at that time, you needed to call to the office, to get long distance because there was a change for long distance calls, if she called in the area code no problem, but the motel office would have to connect you to long distance, so they knew to charge you for the call.
What I really enjoyed and appreciated in this film was the recap at the end explaining exactly the sequence of events. 👍❤😱🎥 One doesn't find that sort of conclusion in films often. Imagine Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining" getting a detailed recap explanation like this at the end of the film 😆 LOL. Explaining that "There are NO GHOSTS or ANYTHING supernatural or paranormal in Kubrick's film.... Would be saved YEARS of film analysis. ❤ ✌ For the record .. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining" , besides being a theatrical masterpiece , was in factual truth of reality ... A psychological thriller.... Not simply a mediocre ghost story as Stephen King had portrayed in his book.
Very good reaction, BTW, did you know there's a "Psycho 2" and "Psycho 3"? You should react to them, since they're underrated movies, ESPECIALLY in the horror genre.
What other Anthony Perkins movies should I check out? Suggest them here: forms.gle/XZVvZhfhwFzsDpRU9
Thank you so much for watching! That's a wrap on kaiielle-oween... until 2023! ✦ KL
📢 kaiielle.com/links
Play It As It Lays!
Psycho II
Psycho II definitely!!
Perkins had a long film career but after this movie, he did the role so well, he was typecast as that sort of character.
He was known to be gay and this worked against him in those homophobic times, when other gay male actors were able to lead a double life, like Rock Hudson, Raymond Burr, Montgomery Cliff, Cary Grant, and James Dean. (On the other hand, Marlon Brandon was openly bisexual and it didn't seem to hurt his career.)
"The Trial", directed by Orson Welles, based on the Franz Kafka novel! I'm not saying watch it on the channel, but as a student of film (and an Anthony Perkins fan!), definitely hit that one. Like any Orson Welles movie, I would read all about it before you watch it. (As far as Orson Welles movies to watch on the channel: "Citizen Kane"! PLEASE hit that one day!!!! That's a major one to have under your belt! PS: Can't wait to see this reaction! I'm waiting for company to leave just so I can watch it! 🤣
In response to your question..."Yes" drivers used to slide over and get out the passenger side especially if you parked...otherwise, the driver would be opening his door into traffic. The seats were called "bench" seats. Thank you for your reaction. Best wishes on your channel.
Interesting, thank you! As a kid, I crawled across the back seat to get out on the safer side but once I was pre-teen age, then my parents just told me to look behind us and wait for a space in traffic before opening the door.
@@kaiielle Auto manufacturers eventually replaced the front bench seat with individual or "bucket" seats. Also, bench seats were also suited to "necking" LOL.
Not only that, but it was a "short cut", it took less time to slide and get out the passenger side than to get out the drivers door and go around that big boat if that was the direction you were going in anyway.
@@mikell5087 Totally makes sense!
The 'safety thing' ... tell me about it! Back in the 70s, my Mom's Dad opened his car-door right in front of a transit bus, which sent the door flying! Everybody remarked on his good luck ... if the bus had been 5 seconds later he'd have been leaning out to exit the car - and the bus probably would've ripped his head off (or turned it into paste)!
Rear Window is a great Hitchcock movie. Very suspenseful.
I believe I remember reading that chocolate syrup was used in Psycho for blood in the shower scene.
I've read the same thing.
Yeah, Hitch did that because it showed up better in black-and-white than stage blood would have.
To elaborate a bit on the Hays Code, this was a major and important element in filmmaking from that era. Filmmakers were constantly trying to find ways to subvert the code: for example, sex in older movies is often implied through an edit of the characters kissing or embracing to one of them smoking (still fully clothed). If you ever see that in an older movie, that's what that means! Another major element of movies from that time period is that bad people could not prosper: movies were *required* to end with characters getting their comeuppance.
The blood was chocolate syrup. Also, it was definitely possible for the shower scene to be more brutally graphic; it was Hitchcock's directorial decision to imply rather than show, and may viewers thought it was an exceptionally brutal movie because their imagination added more than anything he could have shown. Instead, the great historical significance of the sequence (aside from being one of the most iconic in history) is the toilet thing.
It was also definitely shocking for audiences that Marion dies halfway through -- that was one of the big twists at the time, with Lila being obscured from the posters and trailers. Speaking of trailers, you should definitely check out some of the Hitchcock trailers. They're like little sketches starring Hitchcock himself.
One thing to look out for in future Hitchcock films is his cameo. His appearance in this is not as pronounced as some others, but he pops up in all of his films.
Hays Code was implemented in 1932 and it took another 2 years before significant enforcement threats materialized. So, the 1930-1934 films have many many films known as "Pre-Codes".
Most reactors who aren't spoiled for the "twist" of her dying are shocked now. Some even expect her to be badly injured but not dead.
There's a great photograph from the mid 30's that satirises this. It might be by a guy called, Schafer. It breaks as many of the rules as possible in a single shot.
It shows a woman in lingerie, smoking, gun in hand, standing over a dead cop. Hilarious stuff.
there's an old vampire movie pre-code (i think) with lesbian scenes!
I know you younger generations think of the 1960s as being a few years after the Roman Empire, but there were lots of color films that came out that decade and two or three decades before that. So Hitchcock filming "Psycho" in black and white was an artistic choice, not just because it was 1960.
Good to know!
Yes, it was a deliberate choice because Hitchcock though the sight of RED blood would make the scene too graphic.
Modern viewers think the shower scene is sanitized, so little blood, but to the audience at the time, this was WAY over the top, so graphic for them. Filmmakers credit this movie as a game-changer, the dividing line before and after.
PS - yes, color goes way back but it was incredibly expensive at first. Two movies, both 1939, Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind had great vibrant color.
Buy to that world back, most photos were black-n-white as were newspapers (except the comics). So no one thought any less of a black-n-white movie.
On the other hand, the rise of tv in the early '50's really cut into movie audiences but for a long time, only could show in black and white. So this pushed movie makers to take advantage of color perhaps sooner than they would have anyway.
@@johnnehrich9601 And, the other reason Hitch went with Black and White for Psycho, was: to keep the costs down. He risked his own money on the film, so that made the cost to film Psycho significant in a way that a normal 'studio-financed' picture would not be. I also understand that Hitch wanted Psycho to have the feel of a cheap exploitation flick (or at least feel closer to those sorts of films than his usual big budget technicolor style.) Using the TV crew (as opposed to a color film crew) was part of that.
@@tranya327 Yeah, he went with the crew of his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents because Paramount wouldn't take the risk on giving him the budget he'd asked for.
Janet Leigh is Jamie Lee Curtis' mother. Vera Miles, who played her sister, was in a couple of famous westerns including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (highly recommended). Norman Bates was based on the real life serial killer Ed Gein, who was also the basis for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs. Psycho II (1983) is surprisingly good.
Another western that Vera Miles was in was The Searchers , also a John Wayne movie just like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance . Vera Miles also is also currently the only surviving cast member of this movie .
Liberty Valance is a great flick!
Hitchcock is the master of suspense and mystery. I'd recommend Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder and much more from him
Agree on Vertigo, unfortunately it won't win any UA-cam poll even though it's considered one of the more interesting Hitchcock films.
@@joebloggs396 I don't rate "Vertigo" very high on the Hitch List .... The best thing about it is the Bernard Herrmann Score!
@@jamesalexander5623 I rate it a lot higher than others that I think are overrated like North by Northwest, Notorious, The Birds, Strangers on a Train for example. I think it's more interesting than Rear Window too, even though that seems wildly popular in the US. Jimmy Stewart is great in it but it's not surprising at all compared to Vertigo. Vertigo has more interesting themes and great photography to display them. It's simply more complex.
@@jamesalexander5623 I found Vertigo to be a bit of a bloated mess. Love the tightness of Rear Window, the action-adventure and humor of North by Northwest, and the haunting, cinematic gorgeousness of Rebecca.
@@catherinelw9365 I love Rebecca .... Mrs. Danvers is a Chill Pill and after all it did win Best Picture!
"She needs ME. It's not as if is she were a maniac, a raving thing. She just goes - a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?"
"Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough."
Fun Fact: Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer's salary.
Up Close And Personal Fact: In order to implicate viewers as fellow voyeurs, Sir Alfred Hitchcock used a 50 mm lens on his 35 mm camera. This gives the closest approximation to the human vision. In the scenes where Norman is spying on Marion, this effect is felt.
Subtle Visual Cues Fact: In the opening scene, Marion Crane is wearing a white bra and has a white purse because Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to show her as being angelic. After she has taken the money, the following scene has her in a black bra and black purse because now she has done something wrong and evil.
When you saw Norman carrying the tray of sandwiches, and you said 'cute, i hope he doesn't turn out to be a psychopath ', i couldn't resist smiling.😋
LOL one of my favourite moments in the reaction tbh. Thanks for watching!
There are countless reasons why Hitchcock is known as the master of suspense!
It was one of Hitchcock's screenwriters that coined the term "McGuffin" and Hitch used them a lot in his movies. It was an item, like a secret code or top secret papers that drove certain aspects of the plot but were eventually inconsequential. The McGuffin in this movie was the $40.000, all the characters cared about it, but in the end it really wasn't important to the main story. It just set everything off, like a good McGuffin does.
My friend Dorothy's dad composed the music for this film.
kaiielle: "I love her. I love this mom."
Me: "Hah!"
kaiielle: "Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be a psychopath."
Me: "Hah!"
Oh, kaiielle, you're so funny.
Also, totally agree with you on Mr. Robot. Great show. I hope you enjoy the MCU movies as much as I did.
Lol
There is a reason that Hitchcock is referred to as the master of suspense.
😎
There's a film theory that connects Psycho and Halloween. The theory goes Sam Loomis was so effected by these events he went and learned child psychology so that he can prevent this from happening again until he gets he meets a young Michael Meyers and becomes Dr Sam Loomis in Halloween.
Ooh I love that theory!
It's almost certainly a reference to Psycho just because the director/writer/whoever liked it though. References, including names, are common - much like Billy Loomis appeared in Scream in 1996.
It's in the same genre, Jamie Lee Curtis being the daughter of Janet Leigh, and the actress Nancy Loomis(her "real" name, albeit a stage name) was also in Halloween.
The character in Halloween was also older than Sam from Psycho would've been by then, albeit time is pretty flexible in movies.
I just watched Psycho for the first time since I was a kid, and am now checking out the videos from my favorite reactors. Great job! Perkins was so good in this, and I can't believe he didn't get nominated for an Oscar.
The Hays Code was wild. Even married couples in old movies could not be shown in the same bed. If you see movies in the 50's, married couples are in separate twin beds in the same room!
Hitchcock's trailer for "Psycho" was ahead of its time as well. You should watch it. He insisted that no one could enter the auditorium after the film starts and every effort was made not to spoil the surprises. My favorite Hitchcock film is"Rear Window". Hope youwatch it at some point. I enjoy your insightful reactions.
The struggle to make Psycho is documented very well in the 2012 biopic ‘Hitchcock’. Worth a watch.
You really can't go wrong with Hitchcock. Besides Rear Window, some of my favorites are North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rebecca, Spellbound, The Lady Vanishes, and The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Oh, so many great Hitchcock films besides what's been mentioned. Rope, Lifeboat, Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train, etc. One of my favourite lighter Hitchcock films, The Trouble with Harry.
I'm also partial to psychological thriller as opposed to jump scares or slasher films. Besides Hitchcock, one of my favourite horror movies is The Changeling (1980).
“Hopefully, he doesn’t turn out to be a psychopath”. 🤣🤣🤣
$40,000 in 1960 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $401,091.89 today. Oh shit! Right after I looked that up and posted it in the comments, you flashed the same thing on the screen. LOL! I love that website and use it all the time. By the way, chocolate syrup was often used for fake blood in black and white films.
So subtle, subtle innuendo maybe? "I'll lick the *stamps*", and looking down at his (feet?) before he can leave, "you need to put your shoes on"
Kaiielle, FANTASTIC reaction, and also fantastic EDIT. It's so funny: for some reason it actually crossed my mind during the reaction whether or not this would be fun or a chore to edit this (or any movie). So when you said you were excited to edit it and rewatch it, I was so happy! You nailed it: suspense. This is a suspense movie with horror overtones. Alfred Hitchcock is known as "the master of suspense". (and he has a gigantic list of films under his belt, many of them classics). I'd say hit "Rear Window" (which is in sumptuous color), "Strangers On A Train" and "Shadow Of A Doubt" if you want more textbook Hitchcock (although there are others). But I also want to say: do not be afraid of older movies, there are fantastic movies that totally hold up from EVERY year, going back to the silent era. Great art has no expiration date, I know I don't need to tell you that. Not everything dates like fine wine, but trust me: the history of cinema is FULL of surprises. When a movie from sixty, seventy.........or even a hundred years ago (or older!) transcends time and communicates in a fresh way, it's a goosebumps-inducing thing, and all it does it reaffirm our common humanity! Yes, styles change, but you learn those styles and appreciate them. PLUS: we're living in a time when they're just pillaging the past, so you might as well know what they're ripping off half the time! I'm not saying become the black & white channel, or the old movie channel (color movies have always existed, and starting in the 1950s, half the movies are color). But there's no need to stay in the shallow end of the pool when you can go diving for pearls....and when you're such an intelligent, articulate reactor! I grew up in the 80s and I have watched old movies since I was little. Ok, I've written you a book. And I still haven't finished your post-film analysis so I may leave one more comment! THANK YOU, KAIIELLE! Do you know.....I actually choked up watching your reaction towards the end! What the hell is wrong with me? LOL. It was a beautiful thing, seeing how taken you were with the film. PS: If "Sound Of Music" is your fave movie? Wait until you see "SINGIN' IN THE RAIN"!!!!!!! (and that's in color!). Oh my god, put that on your list right now Kaiielle!!!!!!!!
Great reaction Kaiielle! I hope you will do more Hitchcock movies. They are always interesting from a movie making pov because Hitchcock always pushed boundaries technically.
I definitely want to do more soon!
If you are really into the story and especially the characters, you should check out Bates Motel (2013-2017). It's a show that takes place 10-15 years before Psycho, dives into Norman and his mother's characters and their relationship. Both actors did a great job. Freddie Highmore does justice to this iconic villain
My father knew a woman who went to see this in theaters; her hair literally fell out cause of the fright
Another quality reaction. I don't remember the first time I saw this. I'm pretty sure it was on TV. I had seen The Birds before seeing this. Hitchcock does a very good job of shot composition, and camera use. Most of his stories are very good. I think my favorite Hitchcock movie is Rear Window.
The scariest thing I ever saw growing up, my Dad took us to see some other movie (rated M back then, for Mature. That was before the R rating.) And, I was still pretty young. 1973. Well... okay, 12. I have no idea what the other movie was that we actually went to see. What scared the crap out of me, traumatized me, to the point of having nightmares about it for months... the preview for Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It scared me so badly that, when I finally got around to watching it as a grown up, maybe around 2000, I was so anxious about it, that the actual movie (which is really quite tame by modern standards) also scared the daylights out of me. I was hyperventilating, and had the cold sweats. Panic attack! All because of the childhood trauma of seeing that preview. Since that first viewing, I have watched the movie 2 additional times. In relatively quick succession. Face those fears. And, I'm much better now. Thank you.
So, yeah... the 60's was an interesting time to grow up. I'm a child of television. Most of my movie watching was on TV. And, all the movies and shows were in black and white... because the TV was an old 11" Philco black and white TV. Imagine my astonishment when, in 1974, we got our first COLOR TV! Wow! Wow! Look at that color! Amazing! (And, it was a huge TV. 20 whole inches!) And, imagine my surprise at all the black and white movies that were actually in color! Most of the movies I watched on TV were from the 30's and 40's, and some 50's. I always preferred the musicals. The dramas were also very good, but harder to watch. The contrast between the relative innocence of the old movies, and the bleakness, and harshness of the movies from the late 60's and early 70's was rather jarring. I miss the nostalgia of watching TV shows like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver. Of course, I was also a devotee of the space genre. And, I loved Lost in Space (which is much too silly to watch now) and the original Star Trek (which remains my favorite TV show.)
It seems as though a lot of the younger folks have trouble watching black and white movies. But, I've always enjoyed them. And, I hate to see them colorized. As you have time, I hope that you're able to get to some of the excellent older movies. One of my favorites is called On Borrowed Time (1939 with Lionel Barrymore. Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life... if you've seen that. My favorite Christmas movie.) On Borrowed Time is... I don't know how to describe it. It's charming, if somewhat dark. It's about death.
Ah, well... classic Hollywood. It was a different time. One I didn't actually grow up in, but I enjoyed vicariously through the movies. And... it was a nice escape from the very turbulent 60's and 70's.
Well... I've rambled. Thank you for the reaction. I look forward to continuing with you on your journey through cinema. Take care.
Kind Hearts and Coronets from 1949 is also still a funny dark comedy, complete with one actor playing multiple roles.
The shower scene and the twist ending were on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
WOW!
even though this film seems kind of tame by todays standards of horror movies in 1960 this would have scared the crap out of people...in todays world i think we have started to become numb and conditioned to horror and gore.. its a shame really. still a true classic film.
I had a smile on my face the entire reaction, very enjoyable!
Thanks so much for watching and for this comment!
Yeah, it's in black and white, but that was more of an aesthetic choice because of the blood. Hitchcock had done nine films in color prior to this.
For the shower scene, they tested out a bunch of substances to mimic blood in black and white. They landed on chocolate syrup.
The other lady that works in the Phoenix office is Alfred Hitchcock's Daughter, Patricia!
Isn't she also in Strangers on a Train?
16:05 You can thank the genius of Hitch's wife Alma Reville for that. He was concerned about killing Marion off in the middle of the film because of the audience reaction to the star going so soon. Alma told him to double down: "Don't wait until half way through, kill her after 30 minutes." In the 2012 biopic 'Hitchcock', Scarlet Johansson playing Janet Leigh appears on screen for the first time on EXACTLY 30 minutes. Also Alma was the only one to spot that Leigh swallowed during one of her 'dead' scenes. A single frame of film needed to be cut to maintain the illusion and she was the only one to see it. She was more than Hitchcock's wife, she was a cinema force to be reckoned with in her own right.
This movie has nothing to do with reality.
Alma was an unsung hero in making Hitchcock films, but hated the limelight.
@@haps2019 Movies are entertainment. But, having watched people die, many do have a swallowing reflex shortly after death.
Great review and excellent editing. In every case, you retained transitions between scenes.
There were a number of references to birds in this movie. A few of the more obvious ones are Crane, Phoenix, the sounds of the shower murder which Hitchcock was trying to make similar to the cawing of birds, and the small painting of a bird which falls off the wall when Norman sees Marion's murdered body. There are others.
Many people consider Hitchcock to have been the greatest movie director of all time. Other directors often call him "the master." A few other good movies by him are "North by Northwest," "Rear Window," "Vertigo," "Suspicion," "Rebecca," and "The Lady Vanishes."
Thank you! I try to include something from every scene in my reactions even if I don't have anything to say about it in the moment.
22:30 Yes, sliding out the other side was pretty common. Back then you had a choice for the front seats: you could get either bucket seats (where there are 2 separate seats, one for the driver and one for the passenger, like there are today) and a bench seat (which is a single seat that goes all the way across, like the back seat is). If you had a bench seat, it was no problem at all to slide across from one side to the other, and it would actually be less effort and shorter distance to do that instead of getting out on the driver side and walking around the car.
I kind of wish bench seats were still a thing in the front seat! And thank you!
Think about Bench Seats for a moment ... You never had to open your Driver's side door and step into traffic!
Actually, bucket seats were generally only available in "sporty" models like the Corvette or Thunderbird. Some cars did have split front seats, but they had the same flat shape as bench seats.
great reaction! love to see people try to figure out the twists and turns this film takes. audiences had never seen the star of a film (Janet Leigh) get killed in the first half hour - very shocking in 1960.
As Alfred Hitchcock said, "Doing the expected is boring"
@@billolsen4360 yep. he loved putting the average everyday guy in not-so-average situations.
*Happy Hallowe'en 2024!* I realised how good the script of _PSYCHO_ was when I watched the scene of Arbogast talking to Norman in the office. It was so technically accomplished.
The cop followed her because he knew she was up to something. He was doing his job.
Totally agree in hindsight. During the first watch, I just couldn't believe that anything was bad about Marion, despite the fact she stole $40,000. 😂
Just found your channel. Yes, PSYCHO is a great movie. Now it's time for you to watch the 1956 Black & White movie, THE BAD SEED, starring little Patty McCormack. The movie asks it's viewers not to give away the ending. I think you'll love it. It's more a Thriller than a Horror movie.
😊
This movie could have absolutely been filmed in color, but the black and white was a stylistic and budgetary decision
Great reaction. A certain Popcorn reactor also found Bates to be attractive, lol.
I'm surprised that once the movie was over and how you were singing the praises of everyone in this movie, but not one shout out to Mr. Hitchcock? Heh heh heh.
I hope that you choose to watch more Hitchcock movies.
I highly recommend "Rear Window", "Notorious", "Strangers on a Train" & "The Birds".
Keep the reactions coming!
The black-and-white element was mostly by choice. Artistic choice. Films were becoming primarily in color nearly a decade earlier.
Wasn't sure about that! Admittedly my experience with older movies is very limited. Hoping to change that soon!
The actor that played Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) sure looks a lot like Andrew Garfield. If they ever did a remake, I could 100% see him playing the role. Same tone to his voice too, it's crazy how similar it is.
Andrew was the filmmakers' first choice to play Perkins in 2012's biopic Hitchcock, which was about the making of Psycho. But Andrew was committed to a run in Death of a Salesman on Broadway, so they went with James D'Arcy.
The reason the envelope with $40,000 had so few bills is that in 1960 $1000 bills were in circulation.
For students of this film in particular, there's a pretty good documentary "78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene" from 2017.
Great reaction!
I hope you'll continue with Hitchock films if you want more suspense. My favorite Hitchcock film is Rear Window. Another famous Hitchock film is North by Northwest. Really, all of his films are worth watching.
I loved your reflections on how it could be made at the time - weirdly enough, though it's been a favourite of mine for many years, I only got round to reading the original Robert Bloch novel quite recently. And yes, this is one of those movies like Fight Club where people are surprised there was a book... But the original material is pretty nasty even to the modern reader and quite a few details just couldn't have been filmed in 1960. It's a tribute to Hitchcock's artistry that he not only made it successfully but made something superior. A lot of that is Tony Perkins' performance of course.
And yes to more suspense movies! There's a whole world out there to be discovered.
It is interesting to see what was being done in movies in the 20s, before the restrictions you read about where instituted. Movies of the 20s had nudity and sex adjacent scenes, and then the restrictions came in and suddenly everything was super sanitized. The "Code" was the reason that Lucy and Ricki slept in separate bed, as a married couple, in "L Love Lucy".
The same thing happened to comic books around that same time as well.
Not only was their nudity, but also gore and homosexuality. You also couldn't refer to yourself as God like in Frankenstein.
I first became interested in this movie, as well as the Bates Motel show they did on A&E around 2016, so I’m glad you decided to watch and react to it.
You should watch the film Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim wrote, _The Last of Sheila._
This movie set the standard for movie times in theaters. Due to you had to watch it from the beginning. Before Phyco, movies in theaters were played continuously. You would just catch the movie and stay until you watched all the movie because you could come into at anytime. Played like on a loop.
That's where we got the phrase, "This is where I came in."
Before he penned "Psycho," Robert Bloch visited the small town where Ed Gein lived. Bloch met with a lot of town denizens who didn't want to talk about Gein or his monstrous crimes. Who would want to even remember that insanity? I have relatives in law enforcement. After all these decades, they are still appalled by Gein and his crimes.
Front seats were often straight across, not like today. Hitchcock had people get out of the car that way to avoid having to set up a different camera angle and let the scene go unbroken with unnecessary edits.
If you love the suspense you would LOVE "Rear Window" check it out!
You called Janet Leigh the lead. Very funny! Audiences in 1960 thought that too.
It's 2024. Vera Miles, the sister is still alive! 94yrs old . Aug.23, 1930 ❤
Yes, getting in and out on the passenger side when you got into a car was common in the 1960s if you were parked parallel on a busy street because it was safer than exiting the car from the left side, into traffic. 26:51 Those are good questions you ask. Always seemed strange to me that a guy (Sam) who has a hardware store 15 miles away from the Bates Motel has never met the owner (Norman) before. You run a hotel, you need hardware all the time. They're about the same age and would have been in school together at some point.
My mom (and I'm sure many others) didn't take a shower for about a decade after she saw this movie in the drive-in.
at the very end did you catch norman's face turn into a skull?
Yes, with old cars it may not have been typical to do so but you could easily exit the car on the passenger side from the drivers side. They did not commonly have center consoles or bucket seat but wonderful bench seats.
I kind of wish bench seats were still a thing in the front seat!
Can't believe I missed Kaiielle-oween! Sounds like it's this big thing everybody's talking about!
Wonderful reaction! I really love a new person “discovering” the twist in this great movie. We studied it in film class back in college in the 1970’s. If you want to know about the making of this movie, I can recommend the 2012 movie “Hitchcock”, with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, and the book that movie was made from, “Hitchcock and the making of Psycho” by Stephen Robello. The Movie "Hitchcock" is currently available for free on UA-cam. Def worth a watch for some behind the scenes stuff.
There were color films going back to around 1940s and they were common by the 1960s. Hitchcock shot Psycho in black and white by choice because he thought it made the film more eeire and ominous. Bernard Herrmann was the brilliant composer of the score and he was also emulated by many horror filmmakers of the 70s and 80s.
The Beatles producer, George Martin, based the string arrangement for “Eleanor Rigby” on Bernard Herrmann’s score for this film.
Hello Kaiielle yes the movie "PSYCHO" was impressive for the year it was produced 1960. The famous or infamous shower scene was shot on the 17th to the 23rd of December 1959. Containing within the most iconic corpse stare in the history of cinema. 🎥🚿
Regarding the color of the fake blood: You're right, it could be any color... and that is precisely what worked in Hitchcock's favor! In an interview he revealed that he chose to release this film in B&W partly because he would be able to show the blood onscreen -- something he would NOT be able to do if the blood was red (A restriction of the times).
Hitchcock could have made this in color but he chose to make it in B&W, just as filmmakers still sometimes choose to do.
I love Mr Robot. But I was so confused during the first season because it kept acting like there was going to be a twist. But unless it expected its whole audience to be gen z-ers who haven't heard of iconic films from the 90s, I was like "BUT IT COULDNT BE MORE OBVIOUS! YOU'RE DELIBERATELY BEING OBVIOUS. WE'VE ALL SEEN THE MOVIE. HIS NAME WAS ROBERT PAULSON!"
Lol sorry just had to get that out. S1 was so confusing. At least they paid musical homage to it. The twists in s3-4 got me...got me sobbing.
A shot-by-shot, line-by-line color remake of Psycho was made in 1998 with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, Anne Heche as Marion, and Julianne Moore as Lila, and William H. Macy as Arbogast. But sadly, even with the great cast, the legendary Gus van Sant as director, and the legendary Christopher Doyle as cinematographer, the remake was a complete disaster primarily because of the poorly acted lead performances that completely missed the mark. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh made it look easy, but it was easier than it looked. And Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche both gave cringey, unconvincing performances that killed the movie.
Please watch the sequel, too. It's good! Also, "Hereditary (2018)" is one that might actually scare you.
The critics' consensus is that "Vertigo" (1958) is Hitchcock's best film due to its memorable filmmaking style. It has mainly romance and intrigue, not horror. The story is about a man who is afraid of heights falling in love with a woman who has amnesia.
Someone may have already commented this but it was Boscos Chocolate Syrup that was used for blood in this movie.
They used Chocolate Syrup for the blood in the shower scene. The stage blood they had kept clumping when water would hit it.
Second Horror Movie List
1. The Attic Expeditions with Jeffrey Combs
2. Cobweb (2023)
3. Villains
4. Torment
5. 13 Eerie
6. Nightmare Cinema
7. Planet Terror
8. Devil Times Five (1974)
9. The Resurrected with Chris Sarandon
10. Mr. Frost with Jeff Goldblum
11. Triangle with Melissa George
12. No One Lives with Luke Evans
13. Shrooms
14. The Ruins
15. Session 9
16. Parents with Randy Quaid
17. Slither
18. No Vacancy part 1
19. The Last House on the Left
20. Willard with Crispin Glover
21. Freaky with Vince Vaughn
22. Road Games
23. Lights Out
24. Dolls
25. The Entity
26. The Nun part 1
27. Demonic
28. Demonic Toys 2
29. The Omen 2
30. Carrie
31. White Noise 2
32. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
33. Curtains
34. Krampus
35. The Pact part 1 and 2
36. Idle Hands
37. Wolf Creek 1
38. Wolf Creek 2
39. Piggy
40. Mirrors part 1
41. Mirrors part 2
42. The Roost from Ti West
43. The Innkeepers from Ti West
44. X from Ti West
45. Pearl
46. Maxxine
47. Barbarian
48. Lord of Illusions
49. House on Haunted Hill
50. Wolfen
51. Day of the Dead
52. Goodnight Mommy
53. The Wailing
54. We Are What We Are
55. Lake Mungo
56. Honeymoon (2014)
57. The Canal
58. The Bay
59. Grave Encounters
60. The Old Dark House (1932)
61. The Taking of Deborah Logan
62. Trollhunter
63. Housebound
64. American Mary
65. Absentia
66. Better Watch Out
67. Hell Night
68. The Burning
69. Creepshow 2
70. Barbarian
71. Terrifier
72. Terrifier 2
73. Requiem for a Scream
74. Look Away
75. No Escape
76. Open 24 Hours
77. Patchwork
78. The Folks (2022)
79. Steel Trap (2007)
80. Pledge (2018)
81. There's No Such Thing as Vampires (2020)
82. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
83. Haunted Trail (2022)
84. Bad Things (2023)
85. Vampire Bats with Lucy Lawless
KL: "I love this mom!"
Us: .. oh, do you now..?
KL: "Aw-ho.. this is so *cute*! Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be a psychopath..!"
Us: *lookin' at the film title* .. nahhh..
I experienced '70s cars, which is about when I think the got the largest and "boat-iest". They were *absurdly* long for simply being cars with a '73 Cadillac Deville, a *2-door* car, mind you, having a length of 230". That's more than 20" longer than every generation of Toyota Sienna, a modern minivan, which clock in at 201-207".
The car Marion purchased for trade-in, and trunk her body was placed in, is apparently a 1957 Ford Custom 300, which apparently is 201", as long as modern minivans.
Yes, lots of people exited cars back then by sliding over and getting out on the passenger side, but I've always thought that Arbogast did it, because that's the way Hitchcock had the scene set up. Hitchcock planned every scene of every movie before he started filming. He even said that filming the movie was the most boring part. He liked the planning stages. He also told actors that they could do the job for which they were hired, which was to act, but they had to understand that the viewpoint of his camera was the most important thing. In regards to Arbogast, I figured that the camera was stationary and was positioned so close to the car, that the only way he could get out, was to slide over and exit the other side. I know that I could be full of beans here, but I just wanted to suggest this possibility.
Ahh that's a great point that I didn't think of to be honest! I think if he had exited the driver side, he wouldn't be on camera.
Weird trivia: this is the first American movie to ever show a toilet.
Weirder trivia: Catch-22 (1970) is the first American movie to show someone sitting on a toilet...in a scene with Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam - both also in Psycho.
Audiences were shocked not just because it was the main character killed so early in the movie but also because Janet Leigh was the big name actor in the film.
Um, _The Sound of Music_ is in color. You haven't seen _It's a Wonderful Life,_ though?
Love reaction!!! More Hitchcock!!
Psycho has a 6-minute long trailer, and it is pretty memorable too, showing director Hitchcock giving a "tour" of the motel and the house, concluding with him opening the shower curtain that reveals Vera Miles screaming. Vera Miles plays Lila in the movie. Search "psycho trailer" should get you to the trailer. Vera Miles also stars in the 1956 Hitchcock film "The Wrong Man".
Alfred Hitchcock has a deep lode to mine. He is the master of suspense. Try Rear Window. Or really any of his many films. Rope was another one I liked although it was what TV people would call a bottle episode.
First reactor I've seen pick up on Norman's inability to say "bathroom." Has there been a murder there before or is it just part of the Norman persona's repression?
A lot of famous family members of the film cast. As has been noted, Janet Leigh is the mother of Jamie Leigh Curtis. Jamie’s father is Tony Curtis (The Boston Strangler, Some Like It Hot). Jamie is also the godmother of the Gyllenhaals: Jake and Maggie. Detective Arbogast, played by Martin Balsam (12 Angry Men) is the father of Talia Balsam (Mad Men, Homeland) who was the first wife of George Clooney (Gravity, Ocean’s 11), making Martin his father-in-law. There are more… it’s a deep rabbit hole.
George Clooney's aunt, Rosemary Clooney did her last movie appearance in "Airplane!" after a long career in musical comedy....she was the large lady with the big glasses dancing to disco music in the dive bar where Elaine and Ted first met, shown during a flashback.
@@billolsen4360 Cool. I love trivia like that. My favorite cameo in “Airplane!” was Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver on “Leave It To Beaver”) as the ‘Jive Lady’.
'Hello Elliot'. Mr. Robot's finale is the best series finale I've ever watched after The Clone Wars' last arc
It's just such a banger show from the pilot to the finale and everything in between. I love it so much!
@@kaiielle it's really great. Even though I kind of lost interest in S2-3, the final season had me back. I probably should rewatch the whole series again I'm sure I'll like it even more
"she's as harmless as one of those stuffed birds."
Rope and Lifeboat are other cool Hitch films 🔥 🔥
I think the getting out on the passenger side was because there was no console, you could slide across an in a city get out on the sidewalk instead of into traffic on the driver's side.
So much work goes into filming a B/W movie, as it is lit completely different than a color one. As far a wardrobe, you had to make sure that the color of the clothes would film well in B/W...sometime they actually clashed, but the tones of grays worked perfectly on film.
The quick cuts and film angles made the shower scene infamous. Some people claim to have seen some nudity during that scene, when in actuality, there were none. Also it was chocolate syrup that was used for the blood in the shower.
Lmao soooo happy you read all that info at the end because I roll my eyes when I see (well meaning) people mention tidbits like that in the comments.
Cars had big long bench seats, not separate bucket seats like now. We could easily slide over to the passenger side and get out.
Used to have a
1955 de soto station wagon that was so big that the front seat was bigger than a sofa😅
amazing as always! Hitchcock is the master of suspense which very clear from this movie, but yes by todays standards it is not really that scary, but it is a awesome piece of cinematic history, and worth watching so happy to see your inputs on the movie :D
In black and white movies, they used to use chocolate syrup for blood. I learned this in film school.
The no phone call, usually at motels and hotels at that time, you needed to call to the office, to get long distance because there was a change for long distance calls, if she called in the area code no problem, but the motel office would have to connect you to long distance, so they knew to charge you for the call.
What I really enjoyed and appreciated in this film was the recap at the end explaining exactly the sequence of events. 👍❤😱🎥 One doesn't find that sort of conclusion in films often.
Imagine Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining" getting a detailed recap explanation like this at the end of the film 😆 LOL. Explaining that "There are NO GHOSTS or ANYTHING supernatural or paranormal in Kubrick's film.... Would be saved YEARS of film analysis. ❤ ✌
For the record .. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining" , besides being a theatrical masterpiece , was in factual truth of reality ... A psychological thriller.... Not simply a mediocre ghost story as Stephen King had portrayed in his book.
Yeah, I don't always enjoy when things are outright explained, but I felt the scene had its place in this one.
@@kaiielle For the time, it certainly needed to be explained to viewers.
Outstanding reaction video 👍 ❤ 📹
Great reaction to this!!!!
The highway patrolman reminds me of the hearst driver in Burnt Offerings 😮
Very good reaction, BTW, did you know there's a "Psycho 2" and "Psycho 3"? You should react to them, since they're underrated movies, ESPECIALLY in the horror genre.
I did! They're on my list.
Psycho II is a surprisingly good sequel, especially as it was over 20 years later.