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Harrison's Reports (1960) - Psycho

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"Psycho" with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam

(Paramount, June; time, 109 mm.)

If patrons do not mind being amused by various demonstrations of insanity—and most people do not —they will love this Hitchcock shocker. The ending is so sensational that it justifies the present policy of not seating patrons after the film starts. Devoid of lavish sets and color film and resembling more of the old mystery master's earlier efforts, this one centers around a pretty secretary who runs away with $40,000, is knifed to death, as is the private eye following her, at an eerie motel run by a young man with a very split personality. Starting off at a sick snail's pace, the suspense heightens slowly but surely. The viewer is wholly unprepared for the shocks coming his way, which are followed in each case by some humorous touches. As the deranged bird-stuffing motel-keeper, Anthony Perkins turns in what is probably his best screen performance. Janet Leigh is exceptionally fine as the secretary who repents too late. Martin Balsam is ideal as a "wise-guy" private detective. The direction is great, the music is very effective, the photography likewise :—

John Gavin, a small town businessman, and Janet Leigh, a secretary, are having a lunch-hour tryst in a Phoenix, Arizona, hotel room. Gavin can't marry Janet because he is paying off his father's debts and his former wife's alimony. At the real estate office where Janet works, she is given $40,000 in cash to take to the bank. Instead she drives off with the money, heading for Southern California and Gavin. Her boss sees her drive by when she's supposed to be home ill. Janet falls asleep in her car at the side of the road. She arouses the suspicion of a policeman in a patrol car who doesn't search her, but follows her as far as a used car dealer's lot where she gives her car and $700 for another auto with California plates. In a heavy rain, she stops at an isolated motel run by Anthony Perkins, a sensitive young man who spends his life stuffing birds. Janet hears his mother berating him harshly when he suggests Janet supper at their eerie Victorian mansion which is adjacent to the motel cabins. Janet is the only visitor. While showering, Janet is murdered. Through the shower curtain, we see a long-haired woman brandishing a big knife. Perkin's finds Janet's body, puts it in the trunk of her car with all her belongings — including the stolen money — and pushes the auto into a deep swamp near the motel. Janet's worried sister, Vera Miles, visits the town where Gavin lives which is near the motel—hoping he knows something about Janet's whereabouts. He doesn't. Arriving on the scene from Phoenix is a shrewd private detective, Martin Balsam. Investigating the motel mansion, after phoning Vera to tell her he saw Perkins' mother in the window, Balsam is also knifed to death and buried in his car as was Janet. Vera and Gavin go to the motel after sheriff John Mclntire says he saw no mother at the motel — the mother, in fact, has been buried for years. While Gavin is detaining Perkins, and trying to rattle him with questions, Vera searches the big mansion. In a room in the cellar, she sees the old lady sitting in a chair. It turns out to be Perkin's mother's preserved corpse. At that moment "a woman" appears with a big knife. It is Perkins, wearing a wig and dress. Gavin overpowers him. At the police station, a psychiatrist, Simon Oakland, tells how Perkins, too attached to his mother, had killed her and the lover she found after his father's death. Perkins had unearthed her corpse. We learn that Perkins began playing two roles in life, his mother's and his own. He even started talking like his late mother. Gradually, he "became" his mother, who was jealous of her son's interest in Janet. It turns out he also had killed some young girls.

It was produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock from Joseph Stefano's screenplay based on the novel by Robert Bloch. Not for children.

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