20 Things You Didn't Know About Psycho
2. Title Designer Saul Bass Claimed He Directed The Shower Scene
Legendary title designer Saul Bass was responsible for creating some of the most memorable and distinctive titles in Hitchcock's movies - namely North by Northwest and Psycho.
But it was also common for Bass to be hired as a "visual consultant" for visually complex scenes, whereby he would draft storyboards to map out how a tricky sequence would be filmed.
Yet in the years following Psycho's release, it was reported that Bass actually took credit for fully directing the shower scene, even though the likes of Janet Leigh and assistant director Hilton A. Green have refuted this.
The latter even went as far as to declare, "There is not a shot in that movie that I didn't roll the camera for. And I can tell you I never rolled the camera for Mr. Bass."
Though there's little doubt that Bass' storyboarding had a significant impact on the end result of the scene, the shooting was seemingly conducted entirely by Hitchcock himself.