BEFORE: I'm not done with Hitchcock just yet, but in a way, I've come full circle. I started with the film "Hitchcock", which was all about the making of tonight's film. And then I got really into Hitch's early films, which set the scene for what he was all about as a filmmaker, and conventional wisdom says that this film (along with "North by Northwest") represents the high point of his career.
Hitchcock puts in another cameo tonight, playing a man seen outside a real-estate office.
THE PLOT: A Phoenix secretary steals $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
AFTER: Everyone knows the famous shower scene, which means the majority of people who see this for the first time these days already know what's going to happen. I know I saw this as a kid, but all I remember is the shower scene, and that's all that I remember, so I'm in the same boat. I wish I could erase the memory of having seen most of this before, and watch it with fresh eyes. But that's impossible, you just can't unring that bell.
The best I can do is watch this for real, for the first time as an adult (thanks for letting me watch this as a kid, Mom + Dad, and making me scared to take a shower...) and pay attention to the other parts. Like the theft Marion Crane pulls early in the film, and then her efforts to escape the police, which bring her to the Bates Motel.
Also, this will be my first time watching the film AFTER knowing the ending, so that means I can pay attention to Norman Bates in the early scenes, and pick up on all the different aspects of his creepiness. Like his taxidermy (ugh) and his general demeanor (which is very high on the creep-o-meter). And, umm, his affinity for bologna sandwiches! Yeah, there's just something not right about that.
What else can I say about this film, without spoiling it for the maybe one or two people out there who have never seen it, or heard about it? The build-up's pretty boring, as is the solving of the crime. Damn, that just leaves us with the only exciting bit - the shower scene, and the big reveal. I think this movie had its time and place in movie history, but because of the shocks in the plot, it doesn't necessarily age well. But in that sense, the film is a victim of its own success, because you only have a short window of time in your life to see this film before you hear about it, and then once you do, it's kind of too late to appreciate it in the proper way.
I think we need to find a way to "un-remember" things so that we can then experience them again for the first time. This would also help if you accidentally read a spoiler alert and then immediately regret it...
Also starring Janet Leigh (last seen in "Touch of Evil"), Anthony Perkins (last seen in "Murder on the Orient Express"), Martin Balsam (last seen in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"), Vera Miles (last seen in "The Wrong Man"), John Gavin (last seen in "Spartacus"), John Anderson.
RATING: 6 out of 10 stuffed birds
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