Psycho (1960)
Right from the start, Janet Leigh's
character is dirty as hell. Well, 1960's dirty, that is. She's having
an affair with a married man (on her lunch break, no less) and wants
nothing more than to run off with him. Problem is, he has lots of
debt. Sooo...the best idea is to embezzle cash from her real estate
boss and run away. On her travel, she winds up in a spooooky motel.
It would safe to say that the rest is history, but it's really not.
We also meet Norman, who's an overly complex weirdo and a bit of a
peeping tom. After a really awkward dinner with Norman, she retires
to her room and hops in the shower...where she's promptly murdered by
a shadowy figure resembling an old lady. Soooo, they killed off one
of the main characters in the first half of the film. What do you do
with the rest of the film? I'm afraid I gave a spoiler up, but
damn...at the half way point?
The rest of the film is the aftermath.
A PI snoops around and ends up stabbed. Then the sister and lover
show up to snoop around, finds a corpse and that's the condensed
story. It may seem simple and boring, but it never got that way.
Hitchcock had a talent to keep the film moving despite the mid-film
surprise. Maybe I'm making too much of that, but it reminded me of
Tarantino's habit of spending half an hour building up a character
and then blowing them away in a mostly pointless scene. Anti-climatic
as hell.
This is a good film. It's not amazing
or mind blowing because we've heard about it for as long as I can
remember. But it is worth the watch when you're in the mood for a
black and white.
Monday: Sometimes the title gives the
entire movie away.
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