Psycho - original.

[Zebra]

a great film!

 

[Flopper]

??
The most shocking scene to me was the first scene considering it was made in 1960.
The movie opens with a couple of two "normal" unmarried adults who just had sex. That is pretty major for 1960.
Not to mention, she was the one in charge of their sexual relationship - very much opposite of every single movie of the time.

Most people think the 3 minute shower scene was made having Janet Leigh step in the shower and Anthony Perkins using a fake knife stabbed her over and over. Neither Janet Leigh nor Anthony Perking were part of stabbing scene. A body double was used as Leigh and a stunt man did the knifing, and the blood was diluted chocolate syrup. During the 45 seconds of stabbing, you never see the knife penetrating the body. 54 time the knifes goes up and down with the background music and screaming horrifying the audience. Janet Leigh after seeing the scene commented, that she would not be taking showers anytime soon. The shower scene was 54 separate shots. The whole 3 minute scene took about 6 days of planning and shooting.

Psycho: How The Shower Scene Was Filmed

Chocolate syrup was used creatively.

screenrant.com

 

[whitehall]

No bodies blown up, no graphic sex scenes, not even an "F" bomb in the dialog. How could they have made great movies back then?

 

[Flopper]

No bodies blown up, no graphic sex scenes, not even an "F" bomb in the dialog. How could they have made great movies back then?

That scene almost didn't make pass the Hayes code censors. They considered it nudity, although it did not actually show her breast. Vividly showing a murder was also a code violation. This is first time we a heard toilet flushing in a movie. In those days, no one every took a dump or had to pee and kids came from kissing and rolling around in bed.

 

[whitehall]

That scene almost didn't make pass the Hayes code censors. They considered it nudity, although it did not actually show her breast. Vividly showing a murder was also a code violation. This is first time we a heard toilet flushing in a movie. In those days, no one every took a dump or had to pee and kids came from kissing and rolling around in bed.

Lots of double i

That scene almost didn't make pass the Hayes code censors. They considered it nudity, although it did not actually show her breast. Vividly showing a murder was also a code violation. This is first time we a heard toilet flushing in a movie. In those days, no one every took a dump or had to pee and kids came from kissing and rolling around in bed.

Code censors are a freaking joke that bad movie producers use as an excuse for making bad movies. You didn't have to see the knife going into Janet Leigh's body. Your imagination did the rest. Lots of films got away with double entendre stuff in the 30's like Mae West with the historic line "why don't you come up and see me sometime". What did they think she meant? There was no need to show graphic sexual encounters. Bogie managed to shoot his way through a hundred movies without flushing the toilet or using the "F" bomb and he is still a world class hollywood tough guy. The point is that Hollywood keeps pushing the envelope with bad movies until porn is the norm and people don't know what a good movie is like.

 

[rightwinger]

Lots of double i

Code censors are a freaking joke that bad movie producers use as an excuse for making bad movies. Lots of double entendre stuff in the 30's like Mae West with the historic line "why don't you come up and see me sometime". What did they think she meant? Bogie managed to shoot his way through a hundred movies without flushing the toilet or using the "F" bomb and he is still a world class hollywood tough guy.

That was pre-code
Tarzan had a nude scene

 

[Flopper]

Lots of double i

Code censors are a freaking joke that bad movie producers use as an excuse for making bad movies. You didn't have to see the knife going into Janet Leigh's body. Your imagination did the rest. Lots of films got away with double entendre stuff in the 30's like Mae West with the historic line "why don't you come up and see me sometime". What did they think she meant? There was no need to show graphic sexual encounters. Bogie managed to shoot his way through a hundred movies without flushing the toilet or using the "F" bomb and he is still a world class hollywood tough guy. The point is that Hollywood keeps pushing the envelope with bad movies until porn is the norm and people don't know what a good movie is like.

No other film more firmly signaled the end of the Hayes Code than that of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

King Kong was made in 1933 just as the Hayes Code was being implemented. In a scene with Fay Wray laying at the opening of King Kong's cave, the top of her dress was torn revealing her breast. The movie was released with this scene but the censors demanded the scene be cut which they did but apparent some copies of original were out there.

When I was about 10 years old around 1950, me and my buddies went to a Sat. kids matinee and one the features was the King Kong with the original scene. So there it was on the big movie screen, Fay Wray with her tit hanging out of her dress. Believe me, that was something a 10 year old didn't see ever. In fact, nobody saw tits in movie in 1950. In latter years I saw the Kong movie several times but that scene was gone.

 

[ScorpioRising007]

Bonzi and I decided to go through the top 100 movies of all time and watch what we haven't seen if available, and if we are interested in seeing it.
First up was Psycho. Made in 1960.
It is impossible not to notice it was filmed on a low budget as Hitchcock couldn't get any studios to fund it.
The film crew he used was the TV series crew and their equipment. And so indeed, it has kind of a TV feel to it.
I would say the movie hasn't aged too well. There is zero special effects, as Hitchcock couldn't afford it. So the "knife scenes" are really quite terrible. As you basically see nothing but the blade being lifted in the air.
All in all I really wasn't that impressed, and believe it doesn't belong on the list at all. IMO - the only reason it won the awards it did was because it was the first of it's kind and it was made at a time when audiences wanted to be shocked.
And yes, I realize at the time, the effect was very different for 1960 audiences compared to 2023 audiences.
But we specifically chose a list of best movies of all time without consideration for the effects of the movie at the time.

Psycho is probably my all time favorite movie