Halloween Special: Inside "Psycho"

Posted October 31, 2011 12:00 AM by Robert Siegel

What can be said about one of Hitchcock's most popular movies that has not already been said? Psycho was a phenomenon. There will be some facts about the release, but I decided to concentrate on the publicity campaign for the film. The actual campaign was a brilliant strategy on Hitchcock's part, and was very unique to film advertising at the time. This will also give my reading audience a look behind the scenes when the wheels were turning in the promotional department of a studio in the 1950s.

I have spent the past three months loaning and buying very rare materials from collectors, some of which was in terrible shape, with folds and marks and fading. I have in the course of the last month cleaned all of these up as best I could. You could call many of the items in this column a restoration of sorts. Several letters were in such bad shape that I scanned the letter itself, cleaned up the headers and logos and signature and re-typed the body, but not a word has been changed. So this column is much more "graphic" intensive than other Silver Screen columns, but so far, has been one of the most difficult to present. I hope you enjoy the result. Remember you may left click most images to enlarge them.

Background

Ed Gein was a murderer and body snatcher who had made headlines in the Wisconsin papers for exhuming corpses from local graveyards and making trophies from their bones and skin. In 1957, police found body parts in his home, and Gein confessed to killing two women, a tavern owner (Mary Hogan) and a hardware store owner (Bernice Worden). The body of Bernice Worden was found in his shed hung upside down with a crossbow at her ankles, but the heads of both Worden and Mary Hogan were found inside his home. From the outside, the home looked like a normal farm home, but the inside, as reported by investigators and police officers, was the most disgusting mess they had ever encountered, and ended up taking turns going inside to make reports because of the smell.


Ed Gein	Police photo: interior of Gein's home

Among items found in his home were skulls on his bedposts, organs in his refrigerator, four noses, ten female heads and a pair of lips on a string attached to a window shade, breasts used as cup holders, human skullcaps used as soup bowls, a belt made of human nipples, female genitalia that was salted and in the cupboard and a lampshade made from the skin of a human face. When questioned, Gein admitted to robbing graves, exhuming over 40 bodies. The photos taken inside the home by police are extremely rare because they were closed files, but several have leaked out over the years.


Ed Gein's home	Famous Ed Gein headstone

The judge in the case, Robert H. Gollmar, penned that costs would be prohibitive to try him of two murders, so he was only charged with Worden's murder. He was found unfit to stand trial and was sent to Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane (which is now Dodge Correctional Institution) and later transferred to Mendota State Hospital in Madison. There he remained until 1968, when he was deemed able to stand trial, and was convicted of first degree murder (of Wordon) and sentenced to life imprisonment in a local mental hospital, deemed legally insane.


Newspaper story	Local newspaper article

His house was to be auctioned off in 1958, in fear of rumors that it was going to become a tourist attraction, however, suspected arson burned the home to the ground months later. His car was sold to a sideshow and carnival attendees would pay 25 cents to see it. His gravestone was chipped at by hundreds of people for a souvenir, but was recovered and was placed at a Waushara County, Wisconsin museum.

The book

Robert Bloch, a 40 year old writer who resided in Weyauwega, Wisconsin had been appalled yet fascinated with the Ed Gein case. He wondered how he could write a story that would be suspenseful and horrible, and at the same time was resistant because of the effects such a story might have on the families of the victims. Taxidermy as a major plot device assured that Bloch had crossed the dividing line between the polite "parlor mystery" of the day and the flat-out "shocker." Bloch next toyed with the device of telling the story employing the first-person "voice" of his mama's-boy central figure (Gein's mother was said to be extremely possessive). If the gambit worked, Bloch's surprise ending might put a whole new Freudian spin on the whodunit genre. If it failed, Bloch would land on the bones of other writers unable to bring off what Edgar Allan Poe or Jim Thompson in The Killer Inside Me had done to diabolical perfections.

Psycho author Robert Bloch

Bloch knew that novels did not have extensive graphic violence in those days, and in his mind saw a large cutting knife, a woman naked in a confined space, and a skeleton head. He spent six weeks working on the draft. Harry Altshuler, who lived in New York sent the manuscript to Harper & Row books, but the story was rejected. Atlshuler then sent it to a contact at Simon & Schuster who was known for their Mystery Book series, Clayton Rawson. Bloch received an advance of $750. The book company set to work their art director Jeffery Metzner to create a logo that would show the impact of the story. This would be used in the film and would be forever associated with the book, film, and other publications of Psycho. In the summer of 1959, the novel Psycho was published with a first printing of 10,000 copies. This was very close to the 2-year anniversary of the Gein murders. It received top reviews in the literary world. The New York times wrote, "Bloch is more chillingly effective than any writer might reasonably be expected to be, and demonstrates that a believable history of mental illness can be more icily terrifying than all of the arcane horrors summoned up by a collaboration of Poe and Lovecraft. This is truly a chilling story of mental illness and it's horrible consequences." But there were others who found the work disgusting and unethical.

The first printed edition of Bloch's novel, Psycho

Bloch explained some of his reasoning behind Bates and his mother, "In my novel, following on Freudian precepts, I made Norman Bates a transvestite who dressed up as his mother with a wig and dress whenever he committed these crimes. Much to my surprise, I discovered that the actual killer also dressed up, but he allegedly wore the breasts and skins of his mother. I also discovered he was subject to amnesiac spells and had no memory of committing these crimes. He was a necrophiliac and a cannibal. Busy, busy, busy! He had a fixation on his mother, who had died twelve years previously. He kept her room inviolate and untouched since that time and Gein was also given to perversions in the time-honored tradition of the Nazi death camps."

French poster style A

Early in 1959, Altshuler, knowing they had a great work on their hands, sent the book to the movie studios. Most studios responded that the book was extremely well written but just too horrible for films. Ned Brown was an agent for the Music Corporation of America (MCA). He submitted a bid for the rights. Bloch signed, receiving a payment of $9,000. But out of that the book company received a percentage as well as Altshuler which left Bloch about $6,000, with no percentage of the movie gross and no extra money for the sale of the book by Simon & Schuster for film rights. Shortly after that, he learned that the rights were actually acquired by Alfred Hitchcock. Not only did the agent receive a pocketful of money but so did the book company. Bloch was left with $6,000 to a novel that would become a bestseller and a film that over the years would earn millions of dollars.

Poster French style B

The Film

Starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles and John Gavin and co-starring Martin Balsam, John Mclntire and Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, Psycho set new records for suspense, drama and sheer terror. A young woman (Janet Leigh) steals a fortune that will make it possible for her to marry the man she loves (John Gavin). As she flees to take him the money, she meets Anthony Perkins, a sensitive man who has been too long under the domination of his mother. Vera Miles portrays Janet's devoted sister who cannot believe her guilty of the theft and who believes, when she disappears, that there must be some other explanation for it. She goes to Janet's lover who knows nothing at all about the missing money, and together they set out to find her. Involved in the search is Martin Balsam as a private investigator, and John Mclntire who plays the sheriff.

U.S. Poster

To the universal appeal of every Hitchcock film he added another ingredient—an intriguing secrecy which kept even Hollywood agog with interest during production. Hitchcock embarked on a campaign of secrecy and silence surpassing any mystery he has ever put on film. He had guards at the sound stages and absolutely no one was let in. The cast and crew's contracts contained disclaimers that they were not to talk or breath Psycho except on the set behind closed doors.

Italian poster

When he was asked, and it happened often, about his "formula" for the many successful film hits he had created, Alfred Hitchcock declared, "It's very simple. Get an ordinary man into an extraordinary situation. Keep him in hot water until the climax. But," he added, "it should be done with humor. Don't take the plot too seriously, no matter how bizarre. Audiences demand only one thing—to be entertained." The producer-director permitted very little to be known about the film because he believed that audiences like to be surprised. "This film," he said in a press interview in 1959, "has so many twists and turns, it would be unfair to reveal them, and it would be especially unfair to reveal the surprise ending." Hitchcock, however, disclosed one point. The film opens with a torrid love scene between Janet Leigh and John Gavin. The film's other stars, Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles, are not involved in this scene which has been described as "sexy." Hitchcock believed that such a scene had its place. "Sex in films should be only for the purpose of explaining a situation or advancing the story," he says. "Give audiences too much sex, or anything done in bad taste, and subconsciously they will rebel. They become embarrassed, and laugh in the wrong place."

Spanish poster style A

Hitchcock was basically given full control over Psycho. At his home on Bellagio Drive in Bel-Air, reading through the manuscript carefully. It has been noted that it was the characters who could easily be identified with the transvestism and the shock value of the murder in the shower. He felt he knew just how to pull this off to great effect. At the time, several studios specialized in the production and distribution of horror films. American International was known for its low budget but profitable staple of movies based on terror. Universal International had been releasing outer-space pictures and horror films such as Tarantula and The Mole People. Other studios had produced films such as The Thing, The Curse of Frankenstein (along with a long list of Hammer horror productions). Hitchcock screened them all. For months Hitchcock kept even the title secret. If he could have his way he would permit no one to be seated in the theater during the last thirty minutes of the film in order not to ruin the effect of the sensational climax. More about this later.

Photos taken on the set

In May, Hitchcock met with Paramount's studio president Barney Balaban and other top executives where he was under obligation to direct five films, Psycho would be his last under the deal. They were extremely worried and very unhappy about his choice. A movie with such an in-your-face murder and transvestism. They told him flat out they did not want to make the film. But Hitchcock had a wayof becoming very insistent and after several hours of trying to convince the executives, they agreed, but told him that they would not give him the higher budget he had received on some of his other films. They would not allow Technicolor costs, no high-cost A-list stars. Hitchcock agreed to these terms and said he would figure out for himself how to make it work.

Spanish poster style B

Anthony Perkins had more than fulfilled his family heritage. Son of a former actor, the late Osgood Perkins, Tony had three resounding hits on Broadway, "Tea and Sympathy," "Look Homeward, Angel" and his first musical, "Greenwillow." In motion pictures, from his first major role in "The Friendly Persuasion," for which he won an Academy Award nomination, he starred in ten major films, culminating in "Tall Story" and "On the Beach." Writers who have interviewed Perkins have exhausted their adjectives describing him—shy, sensitive, intelligent, alert and witty. However, it remained for one studio worker to sum up all the opinions in one sentence: "Tony is a very pleasant guy, apparently happy with what he is doing. On the set of Psycho, Perkins said that he was absolutely thrilled to be playing the lead and working for "the master."

Anthony Perkins publicity still

Anthony Perkins was gay, but sadly he had to live his life in the closet to due the lack of acceptance of homosexuality at the time. The studios would go to great lengths to nearly force stars to date and be seen in public but Perkins would have none of it. He did, however, later marry and have children. He became sick from AIDS and died on September 12, 1992, sadly only a year before new life-saving medications (Protease inhibitors) were brought to the market by pharmaceutical companies which saved many lives of those living with HIV/AIDS.

Hitchcock on the set with Anthony Perkins

He would comment near the end of his life, "I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life. I chose not to go public about this because, to misquote Casablanca, I'm not much at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one old actor don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

For a girl who loved to laugh and make people laugh as much as Janet Leigh did, and who because of it preferred to work in comedies, her role in Psycho was quite a switch from her most previous laugh hit, "Who Was That Lady?" When Hitchcock approached her to play Marion Crane, Janet jumped at the opportunity to work with the famed Producer-Director, even though the role called for her to be somewhat of a "heavy." "I start off the film by stealing a small fortune," she said. Hitchcock was equally delighted that Miss Leigh was available, a compliment to her acting ability. In addition to being called upon to do some serious dramatic work, the star plays a torrid love scene with Gavin that was talked about and remembered.

Janet Leigh publicity still

Vera Miles, whom cameramen said had the most perfect profile (from either side) on the screen at the time, was in both motion picture and television before doing Psycho. In one year she had starred in five motion pictures, "A Touch of Larceny," "Beyond This Place," "The F.B.I. Story," "Five Branded Women," and Psycho, And during filming time of the aforementioned pictures, which kept her away from Hollywood on location for a total of 9 months, she somehow found time to star in six top television shows. In Psycho she has a top role, that of Janet's devoted sister who becomes involved in the deep mystery and danger connected with the former's disappearance.

Israeli poster

With three major film roles to his credit at the time, "A Time to Live and a Time to Die," "Imitation of Life" and "Spartacus," John Gavin was probably the most sought-after young star in Hollywood. But it took time to get there. When Gavin was urged by an agent to take a screen test, he laughed. Acting was the furthest thing from his mind. But after a second urging sometime later, he took the plunge. In typical, thorough Gavin fashion he first set about to learn his craft. He declared that he considered acting as a job of work to be done, and success at any job required training and experience. Gavin would later say that his favorite director ever was Hitchcock and that working with him was not only valuable to learning his craft, but a wonderful experience. In the late 1960's, while on the set of The Madwoman of Chaillot (playing a Reverend), he said "I never thought after only three films I would be working for the Director I so admired, and when I got the call, I had a celebration with friends that evening. It was my happiest time on the set except for working with George Roy Hill and Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie." He left acting in 1979 after doing the TV mini-series Doctor's Private Lives. Later Gavin became Ronald Reagan's first Ambassador to Mexico.

Rare art in this poster from Czechoslovakia for a "Birds" and "Psycho" double feature

Hitchcock often let his family play small roles in his films. You may see family members in snippets from many of his classic pictures. His daughter Pat's scene in this film is playing a secretary and friend of Janet's. It was her first film role for her famous father since she appeared in "Strangers on a Train." Discussing his daughter's appearance in Psycho, Hitchcock said: "After 10 years I thought it was time I gave her a job!" From that point on she would be seen in some of Hitchcock's productions, but many were just cameos.

Poster from Czechoslovakia

Hitchcock had several seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents running on television and his audience was quite large. He hired some of his television crew for the film. He hired several detectives based in Hollywood as advisers. He had crew studying the small used car dealerships in the area. He had them studying every detail, from the highways such as Route 99 to transvestism. Production was completed in a matter on months, and the studio and Hitchcock went into post-production.

German poster

Italian teaser poster

Italian one sheet poster

Alternate Italian one sheet

Publicity

The campaign Hitchcock created for the release of Psycho is unique and well constructed. During the period, publicity departments were pushing widescreen epics and spending a considerable amount of money on the exploitation and publicity of their pictures. But the budget Hitchcock was allowed for Psycho was relatively small. So he felt he had to come up with gimmicks, but good gimmicks, to make the picture noticeable. But he always had to believe in what he was promoting. What you will see below are release announcements, letters from Hitchcock to theater owners, teaser advertising, poster art, and anything related to the publicity and release of Psycho. As stated earlier, some of these items were extremely difficult to restore, so please excuse any remaining marks or smudges, the only specs or spots that remain were left because I considered their removal to interfere with the graphic.

Publicity still: Hitchcock signaling theater-goers not to let the ending be known.

Hitchcock wanted complete secrecy about the plot, even when the film played in theaters, though he could only do so much. He would visit theaters around the world and watch each theater's presentation and make sure no one was seated during the start of the film. These teasers ran in newspapers and were paid for partially by Paramount and by the theater.

The following letter was sent from the studio to exhibitors. The original that I own was very worn, torn and yellowed and parts unreadable for a complete scan and I felt the best thing to do was re-type the body. I scanned the top logos and put them back where they were after cleaning them up and re-wrote the letter body word for word. You may left click to enlarge.

The following was taken from a special very manual sent to theaters by Paramount by request of Alfred Hitchcock. This manual was about 30 pages, and had very specific instructions on how the theater was to present Psycho. Most, of course, were suggestions, but Hitchcock did have scouts across the United States checking theaters in different cities, and they reported back to him. It would not be unusual for him to send a wire to a theater that had been reported as not showing the film properly, especially a worn or over-spliced print.

A second letter was inside this publication

Special instructions were sent to drive-in theaters running the film.

The following is a rare photo of a standee for theater lobbies that Paramount made available to theaters through the National Screen Service, which distributed all of the studio's posters and many press materials and lobby cards. This was also used in several newspapers in the cartoon section for the first month of Psycho's run in the larger cities.

Before theaters would play the film, many would put teasers in the movie sections of the newspapers. Often they would continue into the show's run but then be placed in other sections of the paper. The following are six teaser ads developed by Paramount for the initial release of Psycho.

The advertising campaign was very successful. Theater owners by the dozens sent Paramount and Hitchcock telegrams and wires praising him and the Paramount advertising executives, who obviously worked very closely with Hitchcock, for developing such a unique and successful campaign. (left click to enlarge)

Once the film was in release, Paramount then created ads with reviews for the film. This was common among movie studios whose films received good reviews. In the larger cities, these advertisements could take up an entire page. This practice still continues, although the art of movie advertising will never be the same as the pre-1960 era, when movie ads started to have a more simple tone. Today, most posters and advertisements use the same type font for all of the credits, and rarely does one see logos or artwork like those of the golden era. Here is an example of one of the Psycho review ads.

When Universal re-released the film in 1969, they stayed with the same logo (which to this day no one has dared to change) and used an area of the image of the original poster (see below)

Final Notes

Premiere at the De Mille Theater

Psycho, which was in production from October 1959 to February 1960, was filmed for a very modest budget of around $800,000. It was filmed in black-and-white (Hitchcock's last film in black-and-white) with a Westrex mono soundtrack, and was processed at Pathe Laboratories. It was shot in 35mm with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It had its New York Premiere on June 16, 1960 and next opened in London in August 1960, which is odd because usually a Los Angeles premiere would take place before a film went overseas. The film had its premiere on August 10, 1960 in Los Angeles. It then went on to Brazil, Japan and into a world-wide release. It received four Academy Award nominations, Best Actress in a supporting role (Janet Leigh), Best Director (Hitchcock), Best Cinematography (John. L. Russell) and Best Art Direction. It lost all four categories. It did win the Edgar Allen Poe award for Best Picture, and Janet Leigh won the Golden Globe as Best Actress. The film was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1992.

Psycho has become one of the most popular attractions at the Universal Studios Hollywood tour. As you drive on your tour tram, you are guest to the Bates motel and on the hill, the Bates home. This was one of the first attractions of the Universal tour when it opened.

It wasn't until 1982 that Universal along with Director Richard Franklin decided it was time to make a sequel, Psycho II, that was released to success in 1983. This time, the film would be in color and stereophonic sound. The sequel did so well that Universal, in 1986, presented yet a third installment, Psycho III, all of which starred Anthony Perkins in his original role. This second sequel didn't do as well as Psycho 2, but did earn a profit. Norman Bates was back yet again in Psycho IV which Mike Garris directed for television. Henry Thomas (E.T.) would play a young Norman Bates, but Anthony Perkins was still cast as the older Bates. Universal later cleared the way for a remake of Psycho. This time the budget was $25 million. The camera angles and score, and nearly everything else was copied directly from the original, causing controversy as to why it was made in the first place. But Universal did not complain with a $7 million profit.

Clockwise, posters for Psycho II, Psycho III, the 1990 remake and Psycho IV.

For the Blu-ray release, Universal used the original separation tracks and created a stereo soundtrack and remastered the film to glowing reviews, but additional special effects have been found in the stereo mix. Psycho is a legend in its own time. It was turned down by nearly every studio, and even Paramount was dubious about making such a vivid shocker in the early 1960's. But today, Psycho is considered one of the all-time best films ever made by many, and its deep drama and absolute terror will continue for years to come. With such success continuing, I am sure Alfred Hitchcock is dancing in his grave.

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All materials in this and other Silver Screen columns are copyright their respective studios, Blu-ray.com and the collection of Robert Siegel. This edition all artwork, publicity and production photos/drawings copyright Paramount and Universal Pictures.

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