Director(s): Alfred Hitchcock

Writer(s): Robert Bloch (novel), Joseph Stefano

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsom, Vera Miles and John Gavin

Synopsis: Marion Crane has nowhere else to go.  Thinking that her love will run away with her if everything is taken care of financially, she steals $40,000.00 from a client of her boss.  On the run, she seeks shelter on a rainy night at the Bates Motel.  Upon the realization that she will return and seek solace for her crime, she meets Norman Bates and Norman’s mother.

My Review: If anyone could take horror and turn it into art, Hitchcock could do it.  The undisputed master of horror, he brings to Robert Bloch’s novel a face that would forever change movies.  The level of tension that this film must have inflected upon a 1960 audience is something that I can only imagine would have been close to hysteria. 

Nothing much can be said about this movie that hasn’t already been said in the past four decades since it premiere but the movie still can thrill like any other.  After the dismal remake by Gus Van Zant, I personally believe that the one thing that it did do well was to solidify was Hitchcock’s version is one of the best films of all time. 

The screen comes alive in glorious black and white and every frame is moving piece of art.  Painstaking detail went into every frame of this masterpiece.  The characters are brought to live through riveting performance by Perkins and Leigh and honestly, it was their career highlights.  After Hitch there was no going back, and everything else that they did paled in comparison.  Leigh was the only award winner for the film at the 1961 Golden Globe awards, but the movie doesn’t need awards to prove its excellence. 

A movie that is often imitated but never will there be another film like this.  It was truly a one of a kind film, cast, director and script. 

Overall: A classic.