Movies to Study: Psycho

There are many reasons why Hitchcock's 'Psycho' is one of the best films ever, but I think one of the real treasures of the film is the performance by Anthony Perkins. He has a very boyish quality that plays perfectly with the relation to his mother, and we have no trouble believing that his best friend is his mother. But what makes a role great is that when watched repeatedly, things are always taken in new and different ways.

The first time watching the film, one sees him as an innocent victim to a sheltered life and an overbearing mother. He cares about her, cleans up her mess, and really did kind-of like Marion Crane. Then, when you watch it for the second time, it's much clearer. He is a great liar to strangers, but when we know what's going on, it seems so obvious. This also works, though, because his character, Norman Bates, really is innocent of murder; what he's guilty of is covering up his mother's crimes. He clearly doesn't enjoy having to send Marion's car into the swamp, but there's never a question that he wouldn't.

Norman Bates, so often calm, only trips up once, and that's when Arbogast comes to question him. He stutters, which is an obvious tell, but Norman still escapes because he subconsciously tosses the onus to his mother--and obviously she's not going to incriminate anyone. Later, in the third act when Sam and Lila visit to check it out, Norman is back to form, and despite getting caught, plays until the final beat.

The film is also a master of subtlety and coincidence. In the third act, a few times, the Sheriff attempts to explain the situation to Sam and Lila, but they cut him off or he gets sidetracked. Because of this, our curiosity is prolonged until the final scene where we get an secondary school psychology lesson. Questions arise before this point: Did his mother fake her death? Was someone else killed and buried instead of her? What does Norman mean when he says she's 'invalid'? Just who the hell is walking around the house in woman's clothes? And it all makes sense, back to the very beginning, when Norman said he liked to stuff birds. He mentions the chemicals that preserve them, which he clearly used on his mother's corpse.

One of my favorite lines comes from Norman (who else?): "She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes." On the first run, we assume he's just defending his mother. Why should he put her in "some place"? He belittles Marion and makes her feel cruel for even suggesting such a thing, but OH, the sweet irony of those words. Norman is literally 'mad' in the film, which is a mean twist on its own, but every other character also goes a little 'mad'. Marion steals $40,000, Arbogast walks in on an old lady who he knows he shouldn't barge in on (both on legal terms and from Norman's verbal contributions), and Sam not only becomes stand-offish with Norman, but almost seems to be making the switch from Marion to her sister. Lila appears to be the only rational person in the film, because even though she busts into the house and finds Mrs. Bates, wouldn't any sister do the same?

One could make the case for Sam as they have for Lila: Wouldn't any lover do anything to save them? I doubt it, because as we saw in scene one, Sam won't marry Marion because he's got alimony. I don't know about you, but if I cared so much about someone, I would want to marry them no matter how much money I did or didn't have. But Marion cares about him; that's why she stole the $40,000.

There have been many essays written on Hitchcock's direction, and I feel no need to rehash those here. But when his mastery of storytelling came together with this perfect script and these great actors, it made one of the best films of all time.