Interesting Facts From Behind the Scenes of "Psycho"

Marion Crane has been driving for hours. In the distance, she spots a neon sign, which reads "Vacancy." At the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel, she opts to spend the night at the secluded and seemingly peaceful Bates Motel. She checks in and briefly chats with the manager, Norman Bates. After parting company, Marion returns to her room, slips off her white bathrobe and steps into the shower. As the water cascades down her shoulders, a silhouette appears, only visible to the audience. The figure draws closer and closer as the unsuspecting woman continues lathering. The figure suddenly rips back the shower curtain to reveal a knife-wielding old woman ... and the rest is history. Psycho is by far some of Alfred Hitchcock's best work. Such voyeurism and deviant behavior was unprecedented; the film changed the face of horror forever. It is an on-screen adaptation of a novel written by Robert Bloch, and was remade in 1998. Here are some interesting facts about the production of the legendary film and its remake:

Chocolate syrup was used for the blood in the original Psycho.

The sound effect used during the stabbing scene was actually the sound of a knife stabbing a melon.

Among the actresses considered to play Marion Crane were: Martha Hyer, Hope Lange, Lana Turner, Shirley Jones and Piper Laurie (who wonderfully portrayed the religious fanatic, Margaret White in Carrie [1976]). Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis' mother) ultimately landed the role.

Alfred Hitchcock received a letter from an angry father whose daughter refused to take a shower after viewing the movie. Hitchcock simply replied, "Send her to the dry cleaners."

In the "Peeping Tom" scene Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) removes a painting from the wall to watch Marion undress. The painting is called "The Lock" by Jean-Honore Fragonard and illustrates a man about to rape a woman.

Psycho cost $800,000 to film and earned an astounding $40 million.

In the trailer, Hitchcock yanks back a shower curtain to expose a screaming woman. The woman is Vera Miles, who plays Marion's sister, Lila Crane.

The MPAA insisted on the removal of the term "transvestite" from the film, deeming it vulgar. They allowed it once it was explained to them that the term was not vulgar, but used to describe a psychological condition.

In the very last scene where the camera closes in on Norman Bates, the faint vision of a skull is visible. This was achieved by superimposition. The skull is supposed to be that of Mrs. Bates.

During the filming, Alfred Hitchcock placed the prop used as Mrs. Bates' corpse in Janet Leigh's dressing room without her knowledge. He did this to test the fear factor of the prop.

Every time a driver exits a vehicle in the film, he/she does so via the passenger side door.

Psycho was rated the 14^th Greatest Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute.

AFI also rated Norman Bates' quote, "A boy's best friend is his mother," number 56 out of 100.

Unlike anyone before him, Hitchcock absolutely insisted that viewers be present from the very start of the film. In some theaters, a record was played, counting down the time left before the show commenced.

In the movie, Marion Crane embezzled $40,000; ironically, that is the exact amount of money that Anthony Perkins was paid for his performance as Norman Bates.

Hitchcock originally wanted the shower scene to be silent, but after hearing Bernard Herrmann's musical score, he had a change of heart. Hitchcock credits one-third of the film's success to the brilliant and compelling musical score and doubled Herrmann's salary.

In 2006, a daylong version of the film was aired in the Museum of Modern Art; it was created by Douglas Gordon.

Contrary to popular belief, George Reeves was never hired to play Detective Milton; he died two months before the idea of Psycho came about.

Hitchcock personally grossed over $15 million for directing Psycho; that amount adjusted for inflation would be the equivalent to over $150 million today.

Of the three weeks that Janet Leigh had to film Psycho, one of them was spent working on the shower scene.

Janet Leigh wore moleskin during the shower scene to prevent any private body parts from being filmed. The moleskin was washed away by the warm water and filming continued. The scene was used in the film.

The character Marion Crane was originally called Mary Crane.

Hitchcock felt that the movie was too grisly to be shot in color, so he filmed it in black and white.

Hitchcock desperately wanted to keep the end of the film a secret, so the audience would be surprised. For a mere $9,000, he purchased the rights to the novel from Robert Bloch and bought as many copies as he could get his hands on to prevent anyone from reading the ending. When filming began, he swore the cast and crew to secrecy, demanding that they not "spill" any information about the plot to anyone. The cast was not allowed to view the ending part of the script until it was time to film it.

Joseph Stefano (the screenplay writer) and Hitchcock intentionally incorporated certain taboo elements into the film as a diversion. They were sacrificial scenes so to speak. The intended result was achieved: the censors were preoccupied with the insignificant "decoys' and overlooked the important scenes that Hitchcock wanted in the film (i.e. the bedroom scene and the peeping Tom scene).

The scene in which Marion is pulled over by a police officer was shot on the Golden State Freeway. It was also the first scene of the movie to be filmed.

Entertainment Weekly rated Psycho the number 7 Scariest Movie of All Time.

Robert Bloch derived the inspiration for his novel from the real-life serial killer, Ed Gein. Gein's atrocities also inspired Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Gein often impersonated his dead mother and strutted about in her clothing. He made disturbing skin suits and artifacts out of human body parts and flesh, thus making him comparable to his fictional counterparts.

When the film begins, Marion is seen in a white bra; Hitchcock chose white to symbolize purity. After she embezzles the money and is undressing at the motel, she is wearing a black bra; this was meant to symbolize that she was no longer pure because she had committed an evil act. The same effect was used with her pocketbooks in the film: prior to the theft, her purse was white; after the theft, her purse was black.

In the shower scene, there is a shot filmed from behind the water stream. This was achieved by building a showerhead with a six-foot diameter so that the water would shoot past the camera.

The 1957 Ford driven by Marion in the film is owned by Universal and is the exact same car used by the Cleavers in "Leave it to Beaver."

Although in the film the shower scene is only 45 seconds long, it was shot over a one-week period at over 70 different angles.

The same year that Psycho was being filmed, Vera Miles had to shave her head for a role in 5 Branded Women; she wore a wig for her part as Lila Crane.

A nude body double was used in some portions of the shower scene.

This was the first movie in America to ever show a toilet flushing. It was deliberately included in the film to heighten the realism.

Psycho was the last film that Hitchcock directed for Paramount. He switched over to Universal, which now owns Psycho despite the fact that the Paramount insignia is still on the movie.

Several ophthalmologists wrote to Hitchcock about the fact that Janet Leigh's eyes were still contracted in the close-up shot after she is killed; when a person dies, his/her pupils dilate.

Using belladonna (a.k.a. deadly nightshade) drops can temporarily dilate a pupil. This technique is used by many filmmakers and was used by Hitchcock in his later films.

In the background to the right in the scene where Marion clutches the shower curtain, nude breasts can be seen. This was overlooked by the censors and appears in the film.

Hitchcock did not care much for John Gavin's performance as Sam Loomis and often called him "the stiff."

The main character in the novel was Norman Bates, not Marion Crane. He was described in the book to be a heavy unattractive man. Hitchcock saw the character as the complete opposite: handsome and young (hence Anthony Perkins).

Ted Knight appeared at the end of the film as a guard.

Only stringed instruments were used in the composing of the musical score.

The shower scene was spliced over ninety times.

The set of the exterior motel was also used in the 1998 remake.

The house and motel sets that were featured in the remake were built in front of the original sets.

The exact same skull that was superimposed over Anthony Perkins' face was also superimposed over Vince Vaughn's face in the final scene of the remake.

For the opening scene, Hitchcock wanted to zoom over the city and slowly lead into Marion's room; this was not possible due to the lack of technology at the time, but it was achieved by Gus Van Sant in the remake.

Nicole Kidman was offered the role of Marion in the remake; she was unable to accept due to scheduling conflicts. Drew Barrymore was considered, but the casting director felt that she was too young to star opposite Vince Vaughn. Anne Heche was given the part.

The same year that the remake was released, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window was remade by Robert Forster. Yet another Hitchcock remake was filmed that year: A Perfect Murder. Viggo Mortenen, who plays Sam Loomis in the remake of Psycho, stars as David Shaw.

Gus Van Sant watched the original Psycho on the set of the remake and used it as a reference.

In the remake, on her way to the car dealership, Heche drives past a bus stop. On the bus stop was a movie poster for Six Days, Seven Nights, which she and Harrison Ford starred in.

Danny Elfman (who composes the film scores for many of Tim Burton's films as well as the theme to Tales From the Crypt) and Steve Bartek adapted the score from the original Psycho for the remake.

The same explicit paining used in the first film was also used in the remake.

Prior to being cast as Marion, Anne Heche had never viewed the original Psycho.

Christopher Doyle, the cinematographer, still had not seen it at the time that he shot the remake.

The license plate number in the remake is the same as that of the second car in the original: NFB 418.

Just as with the original, the highway scene of the remake was the first to be filmed.

The dialogue between Cassidy and Marion was cut from the original film, but reentered by Sant in the remake.

In the remake, Marion's dress buttons feature the same pattern as the shower curtain.

In the remake of the shower scene, all blood and wounds were digitally added.