Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cat.no: UDR 90017
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 104 minutes
- Year: 1960
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 26 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
- Languages: English, German, Polish
- Subtitles: English, Dutch, Swedish
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Theatrical trailer, Biographies, Filmographies, Production Notes, Booklet
Director:
- Alfred Hitchcock
(The Birds, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, North By Northwest, Rope, The Thirty Nine Steps, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo)
Producer:
- Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay:
- Joseph Stefano
Music:
- Bernard Herrmann
Cast:
- Norman Bates: Anthony Perkins (Black Hole, Murder on the Orient Express, Psycho 1-4, The Trial)
Lila Crane: Vera Miles (Into the Night, Psycho 2, The Searchers, Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle)
Sam Loomis: John Gavin (History of the World Part I, Spartacus, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Marion Crane: Janet Leigh (The Fog, Harper, Little Women (1949), The Manchurian Candidate, Pete Kelly’s Blues, Touch of Evil, The Vikings)
Psychois one of the late director Alfred Hitchcock‘s best known thrillers and nowmakes it onto DVD at the same time as the1998 remakestarring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche.
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) gets ideas above her station while having an affairwith Sam Loomis (John Gavin). While at work in an estate agents office, shesteals $40,000 from a client that she had told them was going to be deposited in thebank. Panic grips the mind as she’s tailed by the police – but not for the reasonshe’s thinking. After changing her car to avoid capture, she checks into Bates Motelwhere she gets a room for the night and a chat beforehand with the hotel managerNorman Bates (Anthony Perkins), but after taking a shower, she certainly won’tbe getting a full night’s sleep.
Next to the motel is Norman’s house, occupied by himself and his mother, an extraordinarycreature of whom we never get to see properly and are told is quite ill, but she certainlymanages to holler loud enough as to be heard at great distances. When Marion is no longeraround, many people come calling including her sister Lila (Vera Miles), privateinvestigator Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) and Sheriff Chambers (John McIntire).
Most people don’t need to be told the story of what happens as they’ve seen it already,but it must be noted that it stands up well as a film on its own without all the publicityand the hype that did not preceed the original film’s release. In 1960, no press screeningswere allowed and, in an unprecedented move that I wish was copied today, as soon as the filmbegan, no-one was allowed in. If you were late, tough. You had to wait for the next screening.
It also made the grade in a number of other ways, as it describes in the booklet,such as being the first film to feature near-nudity as Janet Leigh is dressed inonly her undergarments, a shower scene and (take a seat before reading the nextwords) a TOILET ! Yes, this was not the sort of thing to become a star inHollywood all on its own. Just think – if this film hadn’t been made, the bomb might have had to be placed somewhere else in Lethal Weapon 2.
# Come on over to my place,Hey you, we’re having a party… #
Being such an old film, there is a level of grain to be found at times during thefilm, but that and the minor artifacts are nothing compared to what could have beenreleased had the person in charge of the transfer not been doing their job as bestas they could be. The PAL Laserdisc was released in an open-matte 4:3 fullscreen transfer,but here we are treated to a matted theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 and the print isanamorphically-enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions which provides 33% higher resolutionand the average bitrate is a fine 5.35Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s.
The sound is mono, but extremely well used. Bernard Herrmann‘s score has beenimitated many-a-time, whether for the opening theme or the shower scene music. Effectiveis the name of the game and that’s how it comes across, even when it’s in one-channelsound.
It’s behind you…Extras : Chapters and Trailer :There are 26 chapters covering the 104 minutes of the film. It’s four more than wereused on the PAL Laserdisc, but only half the number that appears on the Region 1 release.The original theatrical trailer is included and is quite a find if you haven’t seen it before.It lasts nearly seven minutes long and features the portly director himself taking you on atour around the house “where it all happened”. Languages and Subtitles :The PAL Laserdisc had a dual-mono soundtrack of English and German, but things go onebetter with a Polish soundtrack added. Subtitles are available in English, Dutch andSwedish. I have one small niggle about the English subtitles – when a car isstarted, why do the ‘hard of hearing’ subtitles state “Starts motre” !? Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes:Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available forAnthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, John McIntire and,of course, director Alfred Hitchcock. Menu :Similar to the first batch of Universal releases, the menu is static and silentwith a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu while other menus containpictures of cast members. On playing the disc you see the Universal logo and acopyright message before the main menu appears.
Even when threatened with death, Arbogast still found timeto wow the crowd with an Al Jolson tribute. Mammy !Overall, Psycho is very engaging in places, but for me it’s far from the best thrillerI’ve ever seen as it does have its slow moments. It does have competition from the Americanrelease though. They get a new documentary featuring new interviews with Janet Leigh, Alfred’sdaughter Patricia, writer Joseph Stefano and Hilton A. Green, plus a censored scene andnewsreel footage. However, we get an anamorphic transfer, while the Americans, it appears,do not.
A review of the remake can be foundhere.
FILM : ***½PICTURE QUALITY: ***SOUND QUALITY: ***EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.