1. Anthony Perkins As Norman Bates In Psycho (1960)
I semi-recently re-watched Psycho with my fiancee who had never seen it before. When Marion arrives at the Bates Motel, we meet Norman, a shy, soft-spoken man who lives in the shadow of his angry and controlling mother. He welcomes Marion in from the rain and offers her dinner. "Aww, he's so nice" was the response my naive fiancee gave. This is what makes Perkins' performance so great. When he first meet him, he's awkward and uncomfortable with Marion, but we find him charming. Evidently in real life, Perkins himself was quite charming as supposedly he'd had to fend off Ingrid Bergman, Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot from attempting to seduce him. (Note: Perkins was bisexual, not having his first heterosexual experience until much later in his life. Truly poor timing on his part.) After Marion's unfortunate end, Perkins then plays Norman as a man attempting to be clever and conniving when Detective Arbogast comes by. But Norman, unsure of himself in all other aspects of life, fails to come off as convincing to the detective. Perkins is portraying Bates acting poorly, and doing it perfectly. In the final shots of the film, we watch Norman's face cocked downwards as the voice of his mother explains what's going on inside his head. But that monologue, while containing the classic line about hurting flies, is unnecessary. Perkins pulls off everything the script intends just in the way the faintest smile slowly forms on his face. You know, the kind of smile you get when Brigitte Bardot tries to seduce you.
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