Psycho (1960) Revisit ft. Klarissa B.
- Thomas Duncan
- Dec 3
- 6 min read
Original Episode: #88 Psycho (1960) (released October 27, 2021)
New Episode: #289 Psycho (1960) Revisit ft. Klarissa B. (released December 3, 2025)
Guest:
Klarissa B.
Host and Creator - I've Seen That One (IG)
Previously on Roman Holiday (1953) Revisit, Jaws (1975) Re-Revisit
Cast:
Alfred Hitchcock, Director (GMOAT HOFer)
Joseph Stefano, Writer
John L. Russell, Cinematography
Bernard Hermann, Music (GMOAT HOFer)
George Tomasini, Editing
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates
Vera Miles as Lila Crane
John Gavin as Sam Loomis
Martin Balsam as Milton Arbogast
John McIntire as Deputy Sheriff Al Chambers
Simon Oakland as Dr. Richman
Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy
Pat Hitchcock as Caroline
Vaughn Taylor as George Lowery
Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Chambers
John Anderson as California Charlie
Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer
Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
Background:
Psycho was wide released on September 8, 1960.
On a rough budget of about $800,000, Psycho would gross over $32 million - finishing as the #2 movie of 1960 and the highest-grossing of Hitchcock's career.
Critics at the time were extremely polarized with one not only walking out of the theatre but quitting her job too. Nevertheless, mere months after its initial release, critics came around on the film already to include it in their Top 10s of the year.
Psycho was nominated for 4 Oscars - Best Director (Hitchcock), Supporting Actress (Leigh), Art Direction - B&W, Cinematography - B&W (Russell).
In 1992, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Psycho has appeared on a number of lists by websites, television channels, and magazines. The shower scene was featured as number four on the list of Bravo Network's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, while the finale was ranked number four on Premiere's similar list.
In the BFI's 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made, Psycho was 35th among critics and 48th among directors.
In the earlier 2002 version of the list, the film ranked 35th among critics and 19th among directors.
In the 2022 edition of BFI's Greatest films of all time list the film ranked 31st in the critics poll and 46th in the director's poll.
In 1998, Time Out conducted a reader's poll and Psycho was voted the 29th greatest film of all time.
The Village Voice ranked Psycho at No. 19 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999.
The film was listed as one of TCM's top 15 most influential films of all-time list.
Entertainment Weekly voted it the 11th Greatest film of all time in 1999.
In January 2002, the film was included on the list of the "Top 100 Essential Films of All Time" by the National Society of Film Critics.
The film was included in Time's All-Time 100 best movies list in 2005.
In 2005, Total Film magazine ranked Psycho as the 6th-greatest horror film of all time.
In 2010, The Guardian newspaper ranked it as "the best horror film of all time".
Director Martin Scorsese included Psycho in his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.
The film was named as the third-best horror movie of all time in a readers' poll by Rolling Stone magazine in 2014.
In 2017, Empire magazine's reader's poll ranked Psycho at No. 53 on its list of The 100 Greatest Movies. In an earlier poll held by the same magazine in 2008, it was voted 45th on the list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".
In 2021, the film was ranked at No. 5 by Time Out on their list of "The 100 best horror movies".
In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed the film as the twelfth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.
Psycho was ranked 8th in BBC's 2015 list of the 100 greatest American films.
In 2022, Variety named Psycho the greatest movie of all time, and in 2024 as the third greatest horror film.
American Film Institute has included Psycho in these lists:
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies – No. 18
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Thrills – No. 1
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Heroes and Villains:
Norman Bates – No. 2 Villain
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes:
"A boy's best friend is his mother". – No. 56
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – No. 4
AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 14
Psycho currently holds a 97% among critics on RT, a 97 score on Metacritic, and a 4.3/5 on Letterboxd.
Plot Summary: Psycho begins with Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young woman who steals a large sum of money from her job in the hope of starting a new life. While driving to see her boyfriend in another state, she becomes tired and stops for the night at a small, lonely motel run by a quiet, awkward young man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins).
Norman lives in the shadow of his mysterious and controlling mother, who he says stays in the old house behind the motel. Later that night, Marion is brutally murdered.
When Marion doesn’t return home, her sister Lila (Vera Miles), and Marion’s boyfriend Sam (John Gavin), begin searching for her. A private detective named Arbogast (Martin Balsam), also investigates and grows suspicious of Norman’s strange behavior.
Did You Know?:
Before Psycho (1960), movie theaters would play shows on rotation all day long. People would frequently come in the middle of one and stay till the middle of the next showing; leaving when they came in. But Hitchcock made all the movie theater owners sign a contract that they would not let anyone in until the start of the film. Once they were late; they would not be let in until the next showing. This started formalizing the whole process of mandatory seating times at theaters which continues until today.
Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with the score written by Bernard Herrmann that he doubled the composer's salary to $34,501. Hitchcock later said, "Thirty-three percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music." Ironically, he was originally adamant that there should be no music in the shower scene but he was persuaded by his wife to give it a try. The screeching violins and dire strings (which would inspire the music for Jaws (1975)) ending up selling the scene and driving theatrical audiences beyond anything they had ever experienced.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie so much that he deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the movie's gross. Paramount Pictures, believing that the movie would do poorly at the box office, agreed. His personal earnings from the movie exceeded $15 million. Adjusted for inflation, that amount would be equivalent to over $156 million in 2024 dollars.
Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh said that they did not mind being stereotyped forever because of their participation in this movie. They said in interviews they would rather be stereotyped and be remembered forever for this classic movie than not be remembered at all.
Janet Leigh received threatening letters after this movie's release, detailing what they would like to do to Marion Crane. One was so grotesque, she passed it on to the F.B.I. The culprits were discovered, and the F.B.I. said she should notify them again if she ever received any more letters.
After this movie's release, Sir Alfred Hitchcock received an angry letter from the father of a girl who refused to have a bath after seeing Diabolique (1955), and now refused to shower after seeing this movie. Hitchcock sent a note back simply saying, "Send her to the dry cleaners."
The Stanley Rubric:
Original Legacy Score: 9.75
New Legacy Score: 10
Original Impact/Significance Score: 7.75
New Impact/Significance Score: 9.5
Original Novelty Score: 10
New Novelty Score: 10
Original Classicness Score: 9.5
New Classicness Score: 9.5
Original Rewatchability Score: 5.5
New Rewatchability Score: 6.67
Original Audience Score: 9.15 (88% Google, 95% RT)
New Audience Score: 9.0 (85% Google, 95% RT)
Original Total Score: 51.65 (#42 currently)
New Total Score: 54.67
In Memorium:
Carl Ciarfalio, 72, American actor and stuntman (The Fantastic Four, Casino, In the Line of Fire)
Stephen Downing, 87, American screenwriter (MacGyver, Walking Tall, F/X: The Series) and journalist
Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, 63, English musician (bassist for Stone Roses and Primal Scream)
Udo Kier, 81, German actor (My Own Private Idaho, Ace Ventura, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, and The Secret Agent)
Jimmy Cliff, 81, Jamaican musician and actor (songs - The Harder They Come, Many Rivers to Cross)
Remaining Questions:
Do Sam and Lila get together afterward?
How would you defend Norman Bates?
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