16. The Location
Norman Bates just happens to live in the perfect place to be a murderer!
He has a motel in the middle of nowhere, that is practically never discovered by anyone, complete with his own swamp to dispose of the evidence it's almost as if his purpose in life was to be a psychopathic killer! The most iconic horror setting of all time.
17. A boy's best friend is his mother...
Never has the mother/son relationship been so close...or scary! As someone who does love their mum, the Oedipal undertones of Norman and Mrs. Bates relationship makes me appreciate that she isn't, however, my best friend!
18. Arbogast's Death
Hitchcock built suspense in Detective Abrogast's death much the same way as he did with the shower scene. However, the audience knew what was coming this time and thus rather than attempting to surprise them in the same way he did in the earlier scene, he opted instead for a technically creative approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvPqSRLO5Ms He shot the scene in a beautiful high angle that not only disguised Mrs. Bates' true identity, but added a uniquely artistic way of shooting it.
19. Loomis origin
In a rather small part,
John Gavin plays Sam Loomis, the adulterer who is cheating on his wife with Janet Leigh's Marion Crane. Loomis is in one scene, the opening, but filmmaker and Psycho admirer
John Carpenter stole the name for his world-weary detective Dr. Sam Loomis - famously played by
Donald Pleasance in Halloween some eight years later. Halloween admirer
Wes Craven then used the Loomis surname for the character of Billy Loomis in the mid 90's hit
Scream. For whatever reason, the Loomis name just stuck for this genre.
20. Faith In The Little Known
As previously mentioned, Hitchcock took a huge gamble by killing off his top billed star so early in the film. However, he took an even greater risk in allowing the rest of the film to be carried by little known actors/actresses. Although Vera Miles had previously starred as a Hitchcock lead she had mainly been part of the supporting cast in her other films (for example in
Autumn Leaves, a vehicle for Hollywood's perennial star,
Joan Crawford). John Gavin had only featured in a few films before Hitchcock cast him as Sam Loomis, Marion's hard-up lover. The director famously took a disliking to him and his performance, referring to him as 'The Stiff' throughout production!
Martin Balsam who played private detective Milton Arbogast had really only been present on television screens before Psycho. Even Anthony Perkins had only become a star in the late 1950s. Hitchcock put his faith in this less well-known cannon of talent in the main roles - and they don't disappoint, all of them etching out performances here based on this movie alone.