Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PFLEB 35991

Cert: 15

Running time: 104 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Year: 1960

Pressing: UK, 1997

Chapters: (11/11)

Sound: Dual Mono (English and German language versions)

Presented in fullscreen

Price: £19.99

Extras : Original Theatrical Trailer

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Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Cast:

Anthony Perkins
Vera Miles
John Gavin
Martin Balsam
John McIntire
Janet Leigh

Based on Robert Bloch's novel (recently published by Bloomsbury - a strange though nonetheless compelling read if you've seen the film and know the major plot twist), Hitchcock's 1960 shocker was made on a shoestring and reaped a bigger box office than any other film he made. So much has been written about Hitchcock in general and this movie in particular that it's difficult to know where to start.

This disc is presented in dual audio - you can watch the movie either in the original English or in a dubbed German version. This disc also includes the original trailer (of which more in a second) which for some reason is NOT dubbed into German and can only be viewed in English.

Actually, the trailer is a great place to start. Hitchcock being the master of publicity he was, he teases his preview audience with glimpses of this and that, giving away a little here, a little there, but never enough to know exactly what's in the film. To jocular music, he gives a guided tour of the setspecifically the old gothic house on the hill and the motel chalets in front of it. He drops hints like a convivial dinner party conversationalist. Indicating the house, "the single window in front - that's where the woman was first seen" Or the second murder at the top of the stairs. "His back broke immediately" (makes disconnecting motions with his two hands) "well, I won't go into it". "This is the bathroom" (Hitch shuts the door quickly.)

Then on to the hotel parlour where the owner "was dominated by this maniacal woman, enough to drive anyone to..well, let's go in". Cabin number one is "all tidied up you should have seen the blood it's to horrible to describe". He indicates the lavatory with great relish. "A very important clue was found here." And so on, up to a brief shot of a woman screaming in a shower and the title "Psycho".

Its a very funny little short in its own right which you'll want to watch over and over. Not to mention a brilliant trailer for the film.

Staying in the same spirit, we don't want to give too much away. Let's just say that there's an infamous shower sequence involving Marion Crane (a strong performance by Leigh), on the run from Phoenix with $40,000 driving a recently purchased used car, finding herself off the rain-drenched highway and signing into the Bates Motel under a false name. There's a private detective named Arbogast (a great bit part by Balsam) and a second murder at the top of the stairs. There's Marion's sister Lila (the underrated Miles) on the trail of her missing sister about to discover something nasty in the fruit cellar.

There's also the motel proprietor, a nice, gum chewing all-American young man named Norman Bates (the role which would typecast Perkins for his subsequent career) who appears to be dominated by his mother. However, as she herself notes at the end of the film, "why, I wouldn't even harm a fly." But things are not as they seem - the local sheriff, for instance, is convinced that Norman's mother has been dead for years. And as he asks, if the woman up there is Mrs Bates, who's that woman buried out there at Greenlawn Cemetary?

What the above may possibly not give away is that Psycho remains as effective as ever even thirty five years on - and this disc is a terrific way to see it either for the first time or the umpteenth rerun.

Presented in it's original 4:3 Academy aspect ratio (i.e. as per normal TV screen) the picture looks as crisp as you'd expect. Images such as lights on the road surface and moments such as the first drop of rain hitting the windscreen during Marion Crane's all-night drive are simply stunning on this transfer. The graphic crispness of Saul Bass' title designs is a joy.

But where the disc really scores is the in clarity of the sound mix - drawers opening in offices, crisp paper sounds wherever Marion guiltily handles the paper envelope containing the $40,000, the bubbling of a swamp before the car sinking into it stops sinking. Bernard Herrmann's extraordinary and groundbreaking music score (no instruments other than stings, staccato and creepy) sounds good too and adds much to the overall atmosphere.

In the years since its release, Psycho spawned literally hordes of imitations, not least in the largely inferior slasher movies of the seventies (if you want to see a better than average example, we recommend Halloween) but it's still the original and best of its type. These days, laserdisc may well be the best way to see it.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1997.