Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960): They’ll Need A Crane

This post is hosted by the Great Villain Blogathon, hosted by Ruth of Silver Screenings; Karen of Shadows and Satin; and Kristina of Speakeasy, from April 20^th through April 26^th, 2014.  It’s wicked fun!

Poor frustrated Marion Crane (Janet Leigh of Touch of Evil; The Manchurian Candidate) is not a happy camper.  She doesn’t ask for much, just love and happiness with her hunky California sweetie Sam Loomis (John Gavin of Midnight Lace; Spartacus).

Jeepers, it's 15 days before Christmas already!

Those crazy kids Marion and Sam may not have money and time,
but they'll always have Phoenix!  Here's looking at you, kids!

Caroline (Patricia Hitchcock) called to see if Teddy called! She can flirt with us anytime!

Marion is so new to crime; I hope she remembers
which is Bad-Girl Black or Good-Girl White!

Don't spend all that $40,000 in one place!

Much as they love each other, Marion and Sam are both frustrated because Sam’s still slaving away for his ex-wife’s alimony, as Sam says, “I’m tired of sweating for people who aren’t there.  I sweat to pay off my father’s debts, and he’s in his grave.  I sweat to pay my ex-wife alimony and she’s living on the other side of the world somewhere.”  Marion’s dullsville job in a Phoenix real estate company doesn’t inspire her much either, unless you count the hot sex in cheap hotels while she and Sam have steamy sex during their lunch hours.  (Somehow, that doesn’t sound that bad!)  Much as Marion loves Sam and vice-versa, she longs to have a bright future of her own with Sam, with money, romance, and happily-ever-afters, maybe even a big tuneful finale, like that other Marion:  Marian the Librarian from The Music Man! (Hey, if you’re gonna dream, dream big!)  “I’ll lick the stamps,” Marion vows to her sweetie.  Then fate steps in for Marion when Mr. Lowery, Marion’s boss (Vaughn Taylor of The Power; In Cold Blood) comes in with $40,000 from one of their customers, oil lease man Tom Cassidy (Frank Albertson from Fury; Wake Island).  But like Sam, Marion is also tired of toiling for people who aren’t there, so when Mr. Lowery asks Marion to bank Cassidy’s dough over the weekend, Marion loses her mind, er, I mean, makes a bold, sudden move, and scrams with the $40,000.  It’s all in the name of love, right?  Yeah, Marion, keep thinking that way while you make your getaway, getting more paranoid at every turn while cops give you the Hairy Eyeball, fumferring all the way!  Then again, hon, it’s not too late to come to your senses and lick those stamps with Sam…

Hi, Mr. Lowery, it's just little old me, Marion, off to pick up those headache pills! Gotta run!

Marion made it through the rain! Now for Marion's Dinner with Norman!

Trusty umbrella service, homemade sandwiches, fresh milk; a pretty girl, taxidermyl
What's The Bates Motel got that Courtyard By Marriott doesn't?

He sees you when you're peeping!

At last, Marion finds shelter at The Bates Motel. It’s clearly had better days since the main road was washed up, but it you love stuffed birds, you’ll love it!  Just steer clear of that nice young man’s mother, Mrs. Bates.  Word has it that young Norman (played by Anthony Perkins from Friendly Persuasion; Murder on The Orient Express; Pretty Poison ) is rather henpecked.  But maybe we should give the old gal a little slack; after all, Mother isn’t quite herself these days, especially when pretty young strangers drop by….

Stephen Rebello’s Psycho commentary track mentions that some first-time viewers felt that Marion comes across as stupid!  However, I agree with Rebello that we must keep in mind that Marion is an amateur, not at all a practiced thief; indeed, she seems to be in some kind of fugue state, confused  and troubled.  As long as Marion has our sympathy, I say give the girl a break while they still can!  Psycho wasn’t named on AFI’s 100 Thrills List for nothing!

Aren't Hitchcock's cameos fun?

Bernard Herrmann’s compelling score (North by Northwest; the Oscar-winner The Devil and Daniel Webster, a.k.a. All That Money Can Buy; North By Northwest) grabs you from the driving theme to those shrieking violins!  Psycho was written for strings only.  Herrmann called it “his black-and-white music.”  Fun Fact: In Orson Welles’ 1958 thriller Touch of Evil, young Dennis Weaver (Duel; TV’s McCloud) played a nervous, twitchy motel manager!

(When in doubt, the answer is "C")

Vinnie whips off his wig and discusses The Shower Scene

It's possibly the most iconic scene in film, certainly in horror/suspense.  It is perfection.  Two and a half minutes of masterfully crafted shock.  Rife with not even implied violence and nudity, but crafted so that you will infer violence and nudity.  The knife is never seen entering flesh, indeed there are only two moments where the knife is even seen near Marion.   And there's no blood - it's chocolate sauce, as everyone now knows - but it's only seen dripping into the bathwater and down the drain, but we imagine it all over poor Ms. Crane.  But it's shot so fast, and so well, that persistence of vision makes you see them together almost constantly.

The Shower Scene is SO iconic, it's been parodied
in the most amazing of places, from Mel Brooks'
High Anxiety to this episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.

Taken out of context and watched on its own, it's still compelling. So much so that film makers have tried to match it in endless kill scenes in Friday the 13th and endless other horror films.  But to truly understand the impact of the scene, you have to see it in the context of the film.

First off, the scene breaks one of Hitch's rules - if you TELL the audience what's coming, the dread and suspense they feel will make for a far longer and more harrowing experience.  But the scene comes straight outta nowhere; indeed, at this point in the film, you expect to see Marion get back in her car and go back to face the music and AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Take this one step further - as far as people knew, Janet Leigh was the star of the film.  For her to be removed from the board had never been done before. It left the movie-goers rudderless at sea - they had no idea what was going to happen, where the story was going to go.  It was that sense of being utterly out of their comfort zone that gave the moment its true shock. When Norman comes in and begins to clean up, the audience naturally assumes that he's the new hero of the film, exactly as they were supposed to.

And as if that's not good enough, they do the exact same shock turn again - just as you start to place emotion into Arbogast, even if you think he's the BAD guy in the movie, who's going to make life merry hell for Poor Norman and his wacky mother, in come the violins and the screaming.   There's only two on-screen kills in the film, and they both come out of left field of a stadium in another state.

The film is filled with left turns where you think yo know what it's about, and suddenly it isn't.  You assume Marion's the main character, wrong.  You assume the money is the McGuffin - wrong, it gets tossed into the trunk of the car and is never mentioned again.  You think Norman is the new hero, and...well...

The Taking of Pelham 123: Armed and Dangerous Strangers on a Train

This blog is part of Summer Under the Stars, co-hosted by Jill of Sittin' On a Backyard Fence and Michael from Scribe Hard. Enjoy!
Screenwriter Peter Stone first got on my radar with the suave, suspenseful comedy-thriller Charade (1963), which happened to be released the year I was born!  I became a Peter Stone fan from then on, with my favorites including the equally urbane Hitchcockian thrillers Mirage (1965), Arabesque (1966); Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), and so much more. Stone wrote the book for many Broadway plays, too, including 1776 (1969); Woman of the Year (1981); Sugar, the Broadway musical based on Some Like it Hot (1972). However, the versatile Stone could write about subjects both urban and urbane.   He sure knocked it out of the park in his screenplay for Palomar Pictures’ The Taking of Pelham 123 (Pelham 123 for short), proving he could write about gritty smart-mouthed characters with the greatest of ease. 

Directed by Joseph Sargent (The Forbin Project; White Lightning; MacArthur), and based on John Godey’s best-selling 1973 novel, film producers Gabriel Katzka & Edgar J. Scherick (Sleuth; The Heartbreak Kid; the 1975 and 2004 film versions of The Stepford Wives) snapped up the film rights, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three hit theaters in 1974.  No offense intended to Denzel Washington, who graduated from Fordham University, my alma mater (he was in the Lincoln Center Campus), though I’m afraid we were disappointed in the lackluster 1998 Canadian version, despite Vinnie having been born on Prince Edward Island!  Don’t hate us!

“Hello, room service?  Send up a larger room!” 

I confess I’ve never seen the 2009 John Travolta/Denzel Washington remake of Pelham 123, and I know there are folks who like it (such as New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott), but for us here at Team Bartilucci HQ, the original 1974 version of Pelham 123 is the only version that matters; accept no substitutes!  Fun Fact: Godey’s real name was Morton Freedgood, and he took his nom de plume from the 19th century magazine Godey's Ladies Book!  Read here for more about Godey!

I was 11 years old when Pelham 123 was released in theaters, having grown up back and forth between two of New York City’s boroughs: The Bronx and Manhattan.  First we lived in The Bronx among the charming suburban areas known as Throgs Neck and Country Club.  Contrary to what out-of-towners of the time might have thought, our particular neighborhood was not in the rough area of the South Bronx that was then dubbed “Fort Apache.”  I went to high school at St. Catharine Academy and graduated in 1981, and in 1985, I graduated from Fordham University.  Mom had always had sort of a restless streak when it came to settling down, but she compromised by making sure we kids were all at least in one terrific school district, while still living close enough to our favorite local places, including short commutes to school and a half-hour’s drive from Riverdale to Manhattan during holiday time, where we could see the Central Park Zoo, the shows (stage and screen), and so many wonderful things that a half-hour drive between The Bronx and Manhattan had to offer!  Our daughter, Siobhan, was born in 1991, and Vinnie worked in Manhattan until the job he worked for at the time relocated to Northeastern Pennsylvania, where we’ve lived ever since.

What kind of people are they?  What breed?
  I'll  tell you:  they’re little people, with hats on—and big machine guns! 

The New York City of my youth wasn’t entirely the chic, sleek, safety-conscious NYC of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in the post-9/11 days. The NYC of the early 1960s and 1970s was pretty much the one I grew up with, the one that hadn’t yet found its smile—crime, strikes, pimps, and hookers at Times Square, maybe, but back in 1973 and 1974, NYC was still working on that “I Love New York” campaign before Rudy went gung-ho to get the worms out of The Big Apple.  This was when I was living in the Bronx, back when my older brother used to bring me to the films he liked.  But this time, the usual “naughty” factor of bringing me, the youngest kid in the family, to see R-rated movies with my older siblings wasn’t as strong, because by then, I was 11 years old, and our whole family wanted to see Pelham 123, too, so off to the bijou we went—at least three more times, in fact!  It just goes to show that the family who watches gritty-yet-witty suspense films together, stays together!  For the record, I’m pretty sure we first saw Pelham 123 in the United Artists Globe Theater (no resemblance to The Bard).

Pelham 123’s action occurs on the East Side of Manhattan, where, one by one, four men wearing hats and sporting mustaches board the Number 6 train leaving the Pelham 1:23 subway station, hence the film’s title.  They board Pelham 1:23 in this order:

• Mr. Green at 59th Street; played by Martin Balsam (Psycho; Breakfast at Tiffany’s; A Thousand Clowns, for which Balsom won the 1965 Best Supporting Actor Oscar).  He’s been sneezing frequently; maybe he’s got that flu that seems to be going around.
• Mr. Grey at 51st Street; played by Hector Elizondo (Pretty Woman; The Princess Diaries; Love in the Time of Cholera; TV’s Chicago Hope).  Constantly chewing gum and leering at women, he’s the nastiest and sleaziest of the gang; even the Mafia wouldn’t take him!  As the film continues, even the rest of the gang despises him.
• Mr. Brown at Grand Central Terminal; played by Earl Hindman (The Parallax View; The Brink’s Job; TV’s Home Improvement, as half-seen neighbor Wilson.)  He seems to be the youngest of the men, and has a mild stutter.
• And finally at 28th Street, Mr. Blue, the ruthless brains of the outfit; played by Robert Shaw (From Russia with Love; Jaws; Black Sunday).  It’s been said that the hijackers’ color-coded aliases gave Quentin Tarantino the idea to use that gimmick in his breakthrough film Reservoir Dogs.

Hey, everybody, you know what we need?  A nice sing-a-long!  No?

Pelham 123 swiftly gets down to business when train conductor Denny Doyle (James Broderick of Dog Day Afternoon; Alice’s Restaurant; TV’s Family. Yes, Broderick is also the father of Matthew Broderick, star of stage and screen!  But I digress…) finds himself at gunpoint, forced to relinquish the tools of his trade and walk back through the tunnel.  The subway passengers are a microcosm of typical 1970s New Yorkers, a mix of young and old subway riders with blasé commuters, hyperactive kids, coeds (one of them Lucy Saroyan, kin to star Walter Matthau), drunks, businesspeople, hookers, gay men as comedy relief—oh, well, Iike it or not, you can’t fault people for not being ahead of their time, even a great writer like Peter Stone.  Anyway, it’s just another 34-cent subway ride in Gotham—until those natty gents pull out guns with serious firepower!  Mr. Blue sums up the frightened passengers-turned-hostages’ predicament:

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, you see this gun?  It fires 750 rounds of 9 millimeter ammunition per minute.  In other words, if all of you simultaneously were to rush me, not a single one of you would get any closer than you are right now.  I do hope I have made myself understood.”

"Al, that's disgusting! No wonder you're rock-bottom in the polls!
Raymond wouldn't be such a slob!"

What’s more intimidating to live in:  the world of Dune,
or being a Borough Commander  in 1974 New York in a hostage situation?

If you love Zach Garber’s colorful wardrobe, tell us LOUD!

Meanwhile, Caz Dolowicz (Tom Pedi of Criss Cross; The Iceman Cometh; Jules Dassin’s The Naked City), the trainmaster in charge of Grand Central Terminal, is not a happy camper, to say the least.  Caz storms down the subway tracks with great speed and much swearing to (the film was R-rated, after all) to see what’s wrong with the backed-up Pelham 1:23.  Approaching Mr. Grey, Caz snaps, "Why didn't you go grab a goddamn airplane like everybody else?"  Alas, even the biggest New York loudmouth is no match for machine guns.  Mr. Grey pulls the trigger, and poor Caz becomes Pelham 1:23’s first casualty!  At least Denny got to leave unharmed!  (Maybe it’s because Denny wasn’t a loudmouth like poor Caz.)  Director of Photography Owen Roizman (The French Connection; The Exorcist; the 1991 film version of The Addams Family) heightens the suspense, especially in the darkness of the subway scenes, bringing film noir to a whole new level.

Mr. Blue has a chilling ultimatum for the straphangers:  New York City has one hour to give the hijackers $1million (which went farther in 1974!), or he’ll start killing the hapless hostages, one at a time!  Police Lt. Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau from Charade; Mirage; The Fortune Cookie, for which Matthau won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for 1967), and his partner, Police Lt. Rico Patrone (Jerry Stiller of Stiller & Meara fame; Zoolander, before Ben Stiller was even a gleam in his dad’s eye; TV’s Seinfeld and The King of Queens) find themselves becoming hostage negotiators as the one-hour time-limit ticks away. Of course, in a huge metropolis like New York City, particularly Manhattan, things get complicated.  For instance, NYC’s Mayor, “Al” to whatever friends he has (Lee Wallace of Private Benjamin; who also played Mayors in Batman in 1989, and Daniel in 1983.  Incidentally, Wallace also reminds me of NYC’s late former Mayor Ed Koch.) is rock bottom in the polls, and it doesn’t help that he’s “sick as a goat” with the flu and isn’t exactly charming company.  Thank goodness he’s got shrewd Deputy Mayor Warren LaSalle (Tony Roberts, frequently seen in such Woody Allen films as Annie Hall and Play it Again, Sam; dramatic roles in Serpico; TV’s Law & Order), and The Mayor’s practical wife, Jessie (Doris Roberts of Little Murders; No Way to Treat a Lady; and TV’s Everybody Loves Raymond and Remington Steele) to keep Al focused on this crisis.  Jessie has one of my favorite lines:

Jessie: “I know a million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but just think what you’re gonna get in return.”

Mayor Al: “What?”

Jessie: “Eighteen sure votes.”

Al sees the wisdom of his First Lady’s words, and they all agree to pay the cool million:

Uh-oh!  Fed-up Zach's ready to rumble with Frank! There's a smackdown in his future!

Mayor Al, feeling more hopeful:  “Jessie, I think I handled it all right.”

Jessie, wryly:  “A regular Fiorello LaGuardia.”  (I say we elect Jessie for Mayor!)

Meanwhile, holding the hijacked subway hostages is bad enough, but Mr. Grey is becoming a loose cannon, and being trapped in an unmoving subway train isn’t exactly doing wonders for the hostages’ morale, especially with a mom and her young sons among them.  As Mr. Blue notes, “Why do you think they threw him out of the Mafia?”

TCM’s Lang Thompson says: “New York’s Transit Authority initially wouldn’t allow the film to be made on actual subways because of the fear of copycat crimes.  Mayor (John) Lindsay got involved and the Authority finally gave permission, but still required the studio to buy anti-hijacking insurance, though there were never any attempts.  The credits have a disclaimer that the Transit Authority didn’t give advice or information for use in the film.”   Little did the city realize they’d have far worse problems down the road when the events of 9/11 reared its ugly head, though at least over time, NYC has been able to rebuild and beef up security!  David Shire’s brassy, exciting score immediately sets the tone for action, and suspense.  Fun Fact:  Keeping it all in the family, Shire had been married for a time to Best Actress Oscar nominee Talia Shire of Rocky and The Godfather Part II.

BUSTED!

Pelham 123 was nominated in 1976 for The BAFTA Awards, the British version of the Oscars.  Balsom was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, and Shire was nominated for his musical score. Stone was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for “Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium.”  Thrills, chills, suspense, snappy dialogue—not bad for a 35-cent subway ride!