Psycho (1960 film): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 230:

The film opened to slightly more muted phrase in [[Washington, D.C.]]. [[Richard L. Coe]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called it "marvelously gruesome [...] the sort of eerie, creaky, gobby Snap-Apple-Night that will find many sharooshed and others liverish."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Coe |first=Richard L. |url=https://archive.org/details/per_washington-post_1960-07-28_236/page/n19/mode/2up |title=It's 'Psycho' And It's Fun |work=[[The Washington Post]] |date=July 28, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Harry MacArthur of the Washington ''[[The Washington Star|Evening Star]]'' wrote that "Alfred Hitchcock lets his well known glee with the gruesome romp all over the place in 'Psycho,' latest of his excursions in mayhem and suspense, at the Town Theater. This is a movie he might have made to prove the truth of his oft-quoted statement that he makes pictures for his own amusement. This does not mean, of course, that other moviegoers will not be amused—or shocked or even scared out of their wit by 'Psycho.' It does mean that this is a somewhat transparent example of the master's work in that you can see him sitting there behind it flendishly dreaming up shocking situations for the sake of shock alone."<ref>{{Cite news |last=MacArthur |first=Harry |url=https://newspapers.com/article/evening-star/148804047/ |title=THE PASSING SHOW: Hitchcock's 'Psycho' Gleefully Gruesome |work=[[The Washington Star|The Evening Star]] |location=Washington, District of Columbia, United States |date=July 28, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Don Maclean of ''[[The Washington Daily News]]'' urged the reader to "go see it if you like movies that shake you up. But if you’re afraid to-go in your house afterwards and keep watching behind you the rest of the night, don’t blame me."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Maclean |first=Don |url=https://newspapers.com/article/the-washington-daily-news/148804033/ |title='Psycho' Is Full Of Chills |work=[[The Washington Daily News]] |date=July 28, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref>

A critic who used the Mae Tinee pseudonym in the ''[[Chicago Daily Tribune]]'' wrote that "the old pro really poured it on in this production. I'm sure the wily Mr. Hitchcock had fun making this one. He used his camera with a sharp skill to achieve shock value the staring eye, the flowing blood, the sudden plunge of a knife. Audiences react much as they do on a high ride, giggling with nerves and excitement."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Tinee |first=Mae |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111492290/psycho/ |title=Hitchcock Pours It On in This Film |work=[[Chicago Daily Tribune]] |date=June 24, 1960 |access-date=December 16, 2021}}</ref> In [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], Jeanette Eichel of the ''[[Buffalo Evening News]]'' remarked that "Alfred Hitchcock, master of mystery, fuses fear and suspense in his shiver-and-shock show "Psycho" in the Paramount Theater. His pride is that he does not let an audience down by misleading it. His clues are honest and few persons guess the outcome. He especially asked in an epilogue that patrons not betray the ending."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eichel |first=Jeanette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111500303/psycho/ |title=Hitchcock Blends Fear, Suspense in Shocking 'Psycho' |work=Buffalo Evening News |date=August 4, 1960 |access-date=December 16, 2021}}</ref> A more mixed review came courtesy of Marjory Adams of the ''[[Boston Daily Globe]]'', who wrote that it "is far more macabre and mysterious than any of his previous full-length features. However, the settings are dreary and lack those magnificent backgrounds which Hitchcock employed so effectively in ''North by Northwest'', ''Vertigo'' and ''To Catch a Thief.'' Perhaps the old mystery master has been more influenced in ''Psycho'' by his television programs than by his own classics such as ''39 Steps'' and ''Notorious.'' However, he gives the audience its money's worth. You see two murders committed, with accompanying gore and grisly details. There are so many shocks the theater might be connected to an electric battery."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Marjory |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111492096/psycho/ |title=Hitchcock's 'Psycho Grisly Melodrama at the Paramount |work=[[Boston Globe]] |date=June 23, 1960 |access-date=December 16, 2021}}</ref> Helen Bower of the ''[[Detroit Free Press]]'' was appalled by the film, opening her article by writing, "Gee, whiz, Mr. Hitchcock! Stick to making pictures like ''[[North by Northwest]]'', instead of one like ''Psycho'' at the [[The Fillmore Detroit|Palms Theater]], will you, huh? So okay, ''Psycho'' gets some nervous laughter and a couple of yips of shock from the audience. But when even the great Hitchcock tries to make visual the dark side of star Anthony Perkins psychopathic personality, the effect is ridiculous. Perhaps the get-up would be the only thing a young man in Perkins' state of mind could produce. All the same it makes this phase of Hitch's horror movie look laughably corny."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bower |first=Helen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111508700/psycho/ |title=Hitch's 'Sick' Pic |work=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=July 29, 1960 |access-date=December 16, 2021}}</ref> Glenn C. Pullen of the ''[[Cleveland Plain Dealer]]'' praised the performances of Leigh and Perkins, opening his review by writing that "if the movie theater business has any ills, according to 'Doctor' Alfred Hitchcock's diagnosis, they can be cured promptly by some blood-letting horrors, a healthy shot of mystery juice, and a chilling bath in bizarre melodrama. This whimsical prescription by the old master of suspense films again proved to be eminently correct in the case of his long-heralded 'Psycho'."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pullen |first=Glenn C. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-plain-dealer/148803896/ |title='PSYCHO' AT STILLMAN: Hitchcock Thriller Offers Taut Action |work=[[Cleveland Plain Dealer]] |date=August 5, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Francis Melrose of the ''[[Rocky Mountain News]]'' praised Leigh's and Perkins' performances and called the film "a shocker that hits you like a pile driver. You most likely will be stunned and reeling as you come out of the theater."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Melrose |first=Francis |url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19600818-01.2.179&srpos=19&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-Hitchcock%27s+Psycho----1960---0------ |title='Psycho to Send You Reeling |work=[[Rocky Mountain News]] |location=Denver, Colorado, United States |date=August 18, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, the film broke attendance records at the London Plaza Cinema, but nearly all British film critics gave it poor reviews, questioning Hitchcock's taste and judgment and calling it his worst film ever.<ref name=plaza>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=London Critics Rap 'Psycho'; Policy Vex|date=August 10, 1960|page=4|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety219-1960-08#page/n67/mode/1up|access-date=February 8, 2021|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> Reasons cited for this were the lack of preview screenings; the fact that they had to turn up at a set time as they would not be admitted after the film had started; their dislike of the gimmicky promotion; and Hitchcock's [[expatriate]] status.{{sfn|Nickens|Leigh|1996|pp=103–106}}<ref name=plaza /> [[Alexander Walker (critic)|Alexander Walker]] of the London ''[[Evening Standard]]'' wrote that "Allred Hitchcock may at any time try to frighten to death, and welcome to him. But I draw the line at being bored to death. There were moments in 'Psycho' when I thought he had almost succeeded. Quite an achievement when you consider the stomach-turning contents of this nasty essay into horror by the master of suspense. 'Psycho' is the grisly story of multiple murders at a lonely motel on the edge of Arizona swamp land. Hitchcock has laid the film out like a morbid morgue attendant. His eye for corpses has never been as wide open, nor his sense of bizarre death sharper. But what nauseates one Is his sick relish of anything in it that is perverted or blood-spattered. And much is."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Alexander |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard/148804290/ |title=Hitchcock thriller is grisly |work=[[Evening Standard]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 5, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Dick Richards of the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' called it "a fairly ordinary, sometimes ridiculous melodrama".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Richards |first=Dick |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-mirror/148804342/ |title=THIS HITCH IS NOT UP TO SCRATCH |work=[[Daily Mirror]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 5, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Jack Bentley of the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]'' wrote that "Alfred Hitchcock, the 'master of suspense,' has sadly underestimated the intelligence of his audience in presenting this gory story about a homicidal maniac. For his publicity department's entreaties to cinemagoers not to reveal the ending is totally unnecessary. I soon tumbled to it—and so will you. There are, however, excellent performances from Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and, in particular, Anthony Perkins."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bentley |first=Jack |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-mirror/148804456/ |title=NEW FILMS |work=[[Sunday Mirror]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 7, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> Ernest Betts of ''[[The Sunday People]]'' called it a "mad, morbid and monstrous film [in which] Hitchcock mixes old-fashioned hokum and the jargon of the psychiatrist to stretch your nerves to screaming point."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Betts |first=Ernest |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sunday-people/107587415/ |title=NEW FILMS: Ditch it, Hitch! |work=[[The Sunday People]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 7, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> In a scathing observation, Frank Lewis of the ''[[Sunday Dispatch]]'' told viewers to "ignore those pleas to keep the ending secret. Anyone above the mental age of 10 will know, only too well, what's coming."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Betts |first=Ernest |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-dispatch/148804508/ |title=THE CRITICS |work=[[Sunday Dispatch]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 7, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> A critic in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' who only gave the initials of R.P.M.G. wrote that the film was "for this director, a disappointing murder melodrama with more absurdities than thrills. It is out of the ordinary only in that it is a little unpleasant. The most rewarding feature is Anthony Perkins' study of the murderer suffering as the title foretells from psychological disorders. Janet Leigh also gives a pleasing performance as the girl he kills with a knife while she is under a shower."<ref>{{Cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-psycho/134244420/ |title=BAR ON ENTRY DURING SHOW |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 5, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> A critic for the same newspaper, [[Patrick Gibbs]], wrote that "it almost seems as if the director were pulling our legs and by way of improving the joke he leads us up the garden path—like [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] in the '[[Symphony No. 94 (Haydn)|Surprise Symphony]]'—with some serious completely realistic opening passages typically full of tension and suspense."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gibbs |first=Patrick |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/148804395/ |title=FILM CLIPS: Up The Hitchcock Path |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 6, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> C.A. Lejeune of ''[[The Observer]]'' wrote that "the stupid air of mystery and portent surrounding 'Psycho'{{'}}s presentation strikes me as a tremendous error. It makes the film automatically suspect.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gibbs |first=Patrick |url=https://theguardian.newspapers.com/article/the-observer/148804555/ |title=AT THE FILMS: Something Nasty in the Motel |work=[[The Observer]] |location=London, England, United Kingdom |date=August 7, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref> However, an unidentified critic in ''[[The Guardian]]'', then based in [[Manchester]], was somewhat more favorable in his reaction, saying that the film offered "no more than quite a good sample of the old Hitchcock style, rich in suspense, tension, and the rest of it; and it is also typical in being brilliant in patches and, as a whole, quite implausible."<ref>{{Cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |url=https://theguardian.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian/148804424/ |title=AT THE CINEMA: No more than Hitchcock |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=Manchester, England, United Kingdom |date=August 6, 1960 |access-date=June 6, 2024}}</ref>