Psycho [Special Edition] [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

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. 36 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 he regales 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. The first of a handful of sequels followed in 1983, while Gus Van Sant's controversial remake, starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, appeared in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: DDM2.0
• Encoding: NTSC
• Screen: Black and White, Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Spanish, French
• Features:
  • Disc 1:
  • Feature commentary with Stephen Rebello (author of "Alfred Hitchock and the making of "Psycho")
  • Newsreel footage: The release of Psycho
  • The shower scene
  • The shower scene: Storyboards by Saul Bass
  • The Psycho archives
  • Posters and Psycho ads - lobby cards
  • Behind-the-scenes and production photographs
  • Production notes
  • Theatrical trailers
  • Disc 2:
  • The making of Psycho
  • In the master's shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
  • Hitchcock/Truffaut interview excerpts
  • Alfred Hitchcock presents "Lamb to the Slaughter"

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Black and White Art Direction - 1960 (Joseph Hurley, George Milo, Robert Clatworthy)
•     Nominated Best Black and White Cinematography - 1960 (John L. Russell)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1960 (Alfred Hitchcock)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1960 (Janet Leigh)

• AFI Fest

•     Film Presented - 2007

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1960 (Alfred Hitchcock)

• Edgar Allan Poe Awards

•     Won Best Screenplay - 1960 (Joseph Stefano)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1960 (Janet Leigh)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1991

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Anthony Perkins - Norman Bates
       Janet Leigh - Marion Crane
       Vera Miles - Lila Crane
       John Gavin - Sam Loomis
       Martin Balsam - Milton Arbogast, detective

• Director:

  Alfred Hitchcock

• Producer:

  Alfred Hitchcock

• Book Author:

  Robert Bloch

• Screenwriter:

  Joseph Stefano

• Cinematographer:

  John L. Russell

• Composer (Music Score):

  Bernard Herrmann

• Editor:

  George Tomasini

• Production Designer:

  Robert Clatworthy, Joseph Hurley

REVIEW:

• In a decade in which what was acceptable onscreen would change more radically than at any other time in history, Psycho was in some ways the first shot in the battle for freer filmmaking in the 1960s. Few movies of its time were more direct and unapologetic in their violence or served it up with such disorienting abruptness or tongue-in-cheek wit. With its casual depiction of sex outside marriage, fleeting nudity, bursts of shocking violence, killing off a major character less than halfway through the movie, and focus on the psychological subtext of the murderer's personality, as well as the geometric imagery of Saul Bass's credit sequence and the percussive strings of Bernard Herrmann's score, Psycho was the film with which Hitchcock left the 1950s behind and started the 1960s with relish. Time hasn't hurt the film, either; it still generates a palpable tension and the odd chemistry between Perkins and Leigh in their dinner scene is a wonder to behold. While the film is still frightening after all these years, repeated screenings reveal a cold-blooded humor; with Psycho, Hitchcock tore asunder the audience's expectations of what a suspense film should be, and he appears to have had a wonderful time doing it. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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