Skerry Philip J. - Psycho in the Shower

Psycho in the Shower

Psycho in the Shower

The History of Cinemas Most Famous Scene

PHILIP J. SKERRY

2008

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright 2008 by Philip J. Skerry

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Skerry, Philip J.

Psycho in the shower : the history of cinemas most famous scene / Philip J. Skerry.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-2769-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-8264-2769-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psycho (Motion picture : 1960)

I. Title.

PN1997.P79S54 2009

791.43'72dc22

2008046008

For my parents, Angelina and Philip Skerry

Foreword

This is a remarkable book on a remarkably brief scene in a movie that con tinues to have a remarkably enormous cultural impact. The shower scene in Psycho is probably the most famous scene in film history, so it seems long overdue that a book-length examination of the moment. Under standing Psycho requires the right mixture of scholarship, cultural aptitude and personal reaction.

Psycho occupies a unique place in our cultural history and in the work of Alfred Hitchcock. As important as Psycho is to understanding Hitchcocks art, it is safe to say that this little black and white film, practically orphaned by Paramount Studios, and filmed with the speed and efficiency of the directors television crew housed at Universal Studios, stands easily alone for the spectator who has no interest in Hitchcocks labyrinthine anxieties that are detailed in rich list of films. It is hard now to divorce any film from the Hitchcock body of work. Skerry reminds us just how stunning it was to be in the audiencewhen no one sitting in the theater expected, anticipated or even would dread (as we do now) what would happen to Marion Crane in the shower of room #1.

This eventan earthquake on the cultural scene, has an importance which is difficult to match in cinema history. Is there any other moment in film that has the same mnemonic charge? As Skerrys book demonstrates, witnesses of the moment remember very clearly when, where and how they felt as Marion Crane showered at Bates Motel.

Hitchcock is an artist like Shakespeare in that he is a world into which we are encouraged to wander and find something new every day. Professor Skerry has provided more map than narrative, and for true film lovers, the open road with a well-planned map is preferable to the tour guide.

And this shape for the text is an apt one for Psycho. Psycho remains one of the central film events of the 20th century and one of the principle touchstones for our culture. Explore. Check in. Relaxwe all go a little mad sometimes.

Dan Auiler

Long Beach, CA 2009

Preface

Ive written this book so that readers can sample its contents if they choose, rather than read the text straight through. In keeping with the multiplicity of voices that make up the text, Ive organized the chapters around these voices. My voice dominates the first and third chapters, so I suggest they be read as a unit. The temporal structure of these chapters goes from the present-tense narrative of my research trip in , which ranges in time from 1920 through 2002, with separate time lines for Hitchcocks career as a director and for my own as a film viewer and film teacher and scholar.

The interview can be read either separately or as a group. I believe there is something for everyone in these interviews. I talked to Janet Leigh (probably the last significant interview before her death), an actress whose career spanned the transition from the old Hollywood to the new. Her image from the shower scene, mouth agape in agony, has become the iconic image in all of cinema. I interviewed Joseph Stefano, the scriptwriter of Psycho, and Hilton Green, the assistant director of Psycho, as well as the producer of Psycho II, III, and IV. I also went below-the-line to talk to Terry Williams and Danny Greene. Their contributions to the film were significant, but their names do not appear in the credits. They represent a huge cadre of creative people who never received screen credit for their work. Today, if you drive a catering truck, you get credit in the film! Their inclusion in the book, I hope, goes a small way in recognizing those creative folks who didnt have the political clout to get recognized. This recognition is extremely important as these Psycho pioneers age and die off. In fact, two key Psycho participants Janet Leigh and Joe Stefanodied while I was working on the original manuscript and the revised version.

The interviews reflect the voices of the creators of Psycho. But the audience creates a film as much as the filmmakers. This idea of meaning created by the audience is a keystone of postmodernism. Chapter 13 features the voices of audience members who saw Psycho for the first time. I asked for memories from a wide variety of viewers, from ordinary film fans to extraordinarily creative people, in order to show the power and longevity of Psycho.

For those interested in the critical and scholarly approach to the shower scene, I suggest reading . This last, my keystone chapter, is a close reading of the shower scene. For these four chapters, I am indebted to all those scholars and critics who came before me. Ive tried to give credit for critical opinions that influenced mine, but it is sometimes impossible to tell if critical insight is original or if the seed was planted in an earlier reading. In order to facilitate reading the text, Ive used the Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style and have eschewed explanatory notes, preferring instead to incorporate relevant information in the text. In analyzing the shower scene, I turned to the film itself, to the photographic images and their structuresin effect, to Hitchcocks pure cinema. The approach of the book grew out of a recursive interpretation of the films leading up to the shower scene. In short, I started with the shower scene and worked my way backward, viewing the films that preceded Psycho as evolutionary steps along the way to the shower scene, which heralds a new species of film, as it were. I also trace the evolution of my own creation, a book about Hitchcocks shower scene.

If I could create the ideal scenario for reading , I would set my reader down in front of a monitor, a DVD player, and a stack of the films that I discuss, with Psycho on the top. Watch and read. Read and watch.

Acknowledgments

As I was writing this book, I sometimes felt that I was a producer rather than an author. Film is a collaborative medium, and soas it turns outwas this book. The credits of a film are usually divided into above-the-line personnelthose whose roles are primary and whose names appear at the beginning of a filmand below-the-line, those whose roles are supportive or technical and whose names appear at the end of the film.

My above-the-line collaborators play primary roles. Most important are the five people whose long interviews appear in the book, interspersed among the chapters I have written: Janet Leigh, Joseph Stefano, Hilton Green, Danny Greene, and Terry Williams. These talented people took time out of their busy lives to sit down with me and talk about their experiences working on