Psycho

Trivia

• Robert Bloch lived in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, close to Ed Gein's stalking grounds in 1957, when the Gein murders were discovered. The idea that "the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life" http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/horroronline/bloch.html took root in Bloch's subconscious at that time. Bloch states that he did not realize "how closely the imaginary character I'd created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation" until years later.
• Psycho was the first film to introduce a single main character and then kill her halfway into the film - a rather shocking turn of events in 1960, with no apparent indication of where the story might go afterwards.
• Psycho was the first film to show a toilet being flushed onscreen.
• Although there is little visible gore portrayed on the screen, the infamous "shower scene" is often regarded as one of the most frightening sequences in cinema history, entirely due to the soundtrack, an original piece entitled "The Knife."
• To test the scare factor of the "mother's corpse" prop, Hitchcock placed it in Janet Leigh's dressing room and listened to how loud she screamed when she discovered it.
• Chocolate sauce, which shows up better than stage blood on black-and-white film, was used as the blood for the infamous shower scene. A knife, wielded by Hitchcock himself, plunging into a melon was the source of the sound effect.
• Psycho is consistently in the top 25 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was #18 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #1 on its 100 Years, 100 Thrills, and has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
• In 1966, CBS had planned to air Psycho. However, the September 18 murder of Valerie Percy, 21, one of the twin daughters of then-U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy (R, Il) days before its scheduled airing caused CBS to cancel this plan. Valerie was killed at night at home by an unknown intruder with a hammer and a knife. Despite a US$50,000 reward and an international investigation, the case is still unsolved. Her killing remains a mystery.
• In 1993, the video-artist Douglas Gordon exhibited a version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film which was slowed down so that it lasted for 24 hours.
• In order to get Psycho made, Hitchcock had to put up the cash himself.
• That is Hitchcock himself standing outside the office window when Janet Leigh enters.
• Patricia Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock's daughter, plays the other secretary. There is a subtle poke at her plain looks when she explains away Tom Cassidy's inattention with "he must have seen my wedding ring."
• The voice of Norman Bates' Mother throughout the entire Psycho movie series was that of noted radio actress Virginia Gregg.
• Anthony Perkins did not participate in the shower scene. He was in New York preparing for a stage play.