such equipment and you had to figure out how the heck to get what Mr. Hitchcock wanted. He wanted the camera to go up the stairs on balsam, walking up to get a close-up of Arbogast walking to the top of this staircase. The camera then had to con- tinue to rise to the top of the staircase and turn to see Mother come out, and then him raising the knife, and then again of him hitting Arbogast in the face, and then of him going backwards all the way down the staircase. It was really complicated. For two weeks before shooting that scene, after a day’s work I would take the grips and the camera crew to the set, then rehearse the moves coming up even after everyone else had gone home.
Why did Hitchcock insist Psycho was a comedy? HG: I think he was playing with you when he said that. He loved to do that sort of thing.
SYCHO’S HUMAN MONSTER, AS CREATED BY ROBERT BLOCH, doesn’t much resemble the Norman Bates we know from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie. Loosely basing his 1959 novel on the grisly deeds of Plain-
field, Wisconsin psychopath Ed Gein, Bloch – who had previously explored a psychotic killer theme in his first novel, 1947’s The Scarf – had been living 35 miles away in nearby Weyauwega, Wisconsin when Gein was arrested for murder in 1957. Not basing the tale on any specific elements of the case (as some of the more ghastly details, such as Gein’s “dressing up” in tanned female skins originally went unre- ported), but rather chanelling an overall feeling of the crimes, Bloch would later write in his 1993 autobiog- raphy that he was surprised at some of the similari- ties between Psycho and what took place at the Gein farmhouse. Hired by Hitchcock to
adapt Bloch’s story, screen- writer Joseph Stefano al- tered several key elements of the novel. For example, the Norman Bates in the original is an overweight, middle- aged alcoholic who elicits lit- tle sympathy from readers, whereas the film depicts him as a young, good-looking,
likeable boy-next-door type. The character of Mary Crane (changed to Marion in the movie, as there was purportedly a real Mary Crane living in Phoenix, Ari- zona at the time) isn’t afforded many pages in the book. And her murder in the shower (by decapitation) is nowhere as elaborate as in the film, and is de- scribed in just a few lines. Published by Simon & Schuster, Psycho received
mixed reviews, but Bloch was soon notified by his agent that an unnamed individual was interested in purchasing the screen rights. The buyer, of course, turned out to be Hitchcock, who paid him $9500 – with no further compensation. However, the enor- mous success of the film helped to give Bloch’s name marquee value and he went on to pen numerous high-profile novels, short stories and screenplays for such films as The Night Walker (1964) and The House That Dripped Blood (1971), as well as TV series Star Trek and Thriller. Before his death in 1994, at age 77, Bloch revisited Norman Bates, Mother and their motel in the 1982 follow-up Psycho II (bearing no affiliation to the 1983 film) and 1990’s Psycho House, which sees the motel opened up as a tourist attraction until nasty murders start to take place again. Commentary on the Psycho portion of the Universal Studio Tour and the whole phenomenon of the film, perhaps?
RM28
SR: I think there is a lot of intentional humour. Humour changes, of course; what is funny alters from decade to decade. Unfortunately, when a movie is as well known and quotable as Psycho, people anticipate a cer- tain line. You know, “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” I don’t know how many people realize this, but that does not come from Psycho. It was just something that people said, a holdover from the Victorian era. I think that many people laugh at Psycho now versus then because it’s more obvious what’s going on. Also, when the audience makes the jump from Marion to Norman, a guy that is really deranged, that’s one of Hitchcock’s great jokes. When he said, “Psycho is a movie that I approached with a great deal of humour,” that’s part of it, and it’s a dark joke he’s playing.
DT: The first time you watch the movie you are terrified. The second time you see it, it’s really quite funny. Not outright hilarious but faintly comic. You know, lines like, “Mother isn’t quite herself today.” Or to intro- duce a major character like Marion and then have her removed. It’s a very mischievous film.
WC: I’ve often told people that making horror films is kind of a gallows humour joke. I mean, we can go to horror films and scream, but in the end we’re still safe and we come out okay. Horror movies are kind of a joke about that. When you think about it, people often applaud and laugh especially after you’ve killed someone in the most gruesome way. Why is that? I guess because it’s a way to deal with the reminder that life is often swift and short and can end arbitrarily.
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