This is a classy risqué mystery horror movie from start to almost-finish. An instance where the shock is good, but they tacked on a little exposition at the end that I’m not sure it really needed, just filling in the blanks. But storytellin was a little different back then. The almost-ending is a good reveal. If you haven’t seen this, watch it, at least for the visuals alone. If you have already seen it, watch it again for the visuals alone. Alfred Hitchcock is the pre-Takashi Miike. He knows his craft and is working with a good story here by Robert Bloch. And he makes his shit look good, even without the color here.
Two lovers. A cheap hotel in Phoenix. The struggles of life decisions. Well, Marion (Janet Leigh) makes a pretty major one. Maybe not exactly the best one. And while running as fast as she can, she does get exhausted. It’s night. A downpour. She sees a motel up ahead, pulls over to get a room. Good thing there’s a vacancy! The young proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) seems a bit weird, but nice enough of a guy. But man! His mom seems to be a real harpy!
Beyond the cool way this was shot, Hitchcock basically turned the 3-act play into two halves. Some interesting moral dilemmas are presented. I don’t know exactly how much of this one is unique in style versus cribbing from what’s gone before and just improving it, but Hitchcock focused his shots here pretty damn well, both story-wise and, uh, mechanically? Depth of Focus makes what might be an average shot into something much cooler. Great tension, and great score to accentuate the moments. And a great job by Anthony Perkins in an iconic role. Add on top of that here some interesting visual credits by Saul Bass and it’s a grimly good film.
