16 June: Psycho

On this date in 1960 Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh premièred in New York. 10 things you might not know about Psycho:

1. It was based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Alfred Hitchcock forked out $9,000 for the movie rights without even having read the book – he was that impressed with the review in the New York Times. His bid was anonymous. The novel was itself inspired by a real serial killer called Ed Gein. He also inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.
2. It almost had a jazz sound track. That was what Hitchcock originally had in mind. The score he used in the end was written by Bernard Herrmann and uses only stringed instruments.
3. It nearly wasn’t made at all. Paramount weren’t at all keen. Hitchcock, however, was committed enough to tell them he would forgo his director’s fee for a 60% ownership of the movie. Since it was probably Hitchcock’s most successful film, earning over $32,000,000 they probably regretted that.
4. The shower scene is three minutes long – but took 7 days to film. There were 26 takes of the spinning plughole alone. Hitchcock didn’t intend for that scene to have any Music, but Herrmann insisted he listen to the screeching music he’d come up with, and Hitchcock changed his mind. The Blood in the scene was actually Chocolate syrup, and the sound of the knife penetrating flesh was a knife stabbing a Melon.
5. While Janet Leigh wasn’t adversely affected by the scene while filming it, when she saw it back she realised just how vulnerable a woman was while taking a shower – and only ever took baths from then on. She wasn’t the only one. A man wrote to Hitchcock complaining that his daughter refused to take a shower after seeing the film, having already refused to take a bath after seeing the 1955 film Diabolique. Hitchcock wrote back suggesting to the man that he send her to the dry cleaners.
6. Hitchcock made every effort to prevent spoilers from getting out before the premiere. The cast and crew were sworn to secrecy on their first day on set. He didn’t give anyone the scripts of the ending until absolutely necessary. He bought as many copies of the novel as possible to try and prevent people from finding out the ending by reading the book. He refused to hold pre-premiere screenings for critics or to release any stills from the film. He told cinemas not to admit anyone who arrived late to the screening. In spite of all these measures, a couple of movie magazines got hold of the information and published spoilers anyway, months before the film came out.
7. It’s set in December, because the scenes shot on location had the town’s Christmas decorations in them. Friday, 11 December 1959, to be exact.
8. Psycho was the first American film to show a Toilet on screen, and the first to feature the sound of one being flushed. Even so, it was an incriminating piece of Paper that was flushed rather than any human waste.
9. Alfred Hitchcock’s customary cameo appearance is just over six minutes into the film. He’s the man in a cowboy hat standing outside an office building.
10. 1970s horror films owe a lot to Psycho. Several of the characters are named after characters in Psycho – Marion Chambers in Halloween after Marion Crane and Judge Chambers; Billy Loomis from Scream after Sam Loomis in Psycho and Bates High School in Carrie takes its name from Norman Bates. Not to mention the fact that one of the top actresses in films of that genre at the time was Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh’s daughter.

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