PSYCHO

Year: 1960
UK: Universal Pictures
Cast: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Vaughn Taylor, Frank Albertson, Lurene Tuttle, Patricia Hitchcock
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: USA
UK: 108 mins
UK Certificate: 15 for scenes of Gothic horror, terror and murder (black and white)
UK Release Date: 2 April 2010 (Limited Re-release)
BFI

Synopsis

Office worker Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is fed up with her current predicament that she can't afford to get married to her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin) who has to pay costly alimony to his ex. Seizing an opportunity to get rich quick when her boss trusts her to bank $40,000, Marion flees the city and sets off driving across country to a new life with her lover in California.

When driving conditions on the highway become hazardous as she get caught in a storm, Marion pulls off onto a side road that leads to the Bates Motel. Suitably quiet and remote, Marion checks into the motel as tiredness gets the better of her. Managed by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a quiet man dominated by his mother, Marion orders a meal and retires to her room. Settling in, she undresses and decides to relax with a hot shower...

Shot by Hitchcock in black and white, although colour was available at the time, to emphasize the horror depicted particularly by the blood in the infamous shower scene.