A masterclass in suspense: Hitchcock’s Psycho turns 50

Lena | March 20, 2010 | 0 Comments

House, Hitchcock, Perkins

To ensure cinemagoers were in their seats by the start of the film, the studio provided a record to play in the cinemas’ foyers. The album featured background music, which was systematically interrupted by a voice saying “Ten minutes to Psycho time,” “Five minutes to Psycho time,”

Every cinema that showed the film had a cardboard cut-out of Alfred Hitchcock pointing to his wristwatch with a note from the director saying “The manager of this theatre has been instructed at the risk of his life, not to admit to the theatre any persons after the picture starts. Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes or ventilating shafts will be met by force. The entire objective of this extraordinary policy, of course, is to help you enjoy Psycho more. Alfred Hitchcock”

Alfred Hitchcock tested the fear factor of Mother’s corpse by placing it in Janet Leigh’s dressing room and listening to how loud she screamed when she discovered it there.

Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel anonymously from Robert Bloch for only $9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a secret. When the cast and crew began work on the first day they had to raise their right hands and promise not to divulge one word of the story. Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it.

Striving for realism in the film, Hitchcock had Janet Leigh’s costume bought from an ordinary high street store as he wanted real life secretaries to identify with the character.