- Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- Written by Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch
- Stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miller
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 49 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz719b9QUqY
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
A thief spends the night at a motel. The proprietor is a little off, but his mother is simply over-the-top crazy. Fun times ensue. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that. Alfred Hitchcock knew what he was doing. This movie is a classic and should be watched in its entirety by everyone.
Synopsis
We begin in Phoenix Arizona, and we get a clear view of the small city’s skyline. We zoom in a hotel room where Sam and Marion are having premarital sex (scandalous!). She wants to get married, but he can’t afford to do it, so they put it off yet again.
He goes to the airport, and she heads back to her job at the real estate office. A wealthy client comes in and brags about buying his daughter a house with cash. He’s carrying the money in his pocket. The boss gives Marion the stack to put in a safe deposit box over the weekend.
But she doesn’t go to the bank. She packs her bags and heads out of town with the cash. She drives until she has to pull over to sleep and a policeman notices her. The cop freaks her out a little bit, so she trades in her car on a different model. It must be a slow crime day, as the cop follows her to the car dealership and watches the whole thing.
It starts pouring rain, so she stops at the first motel she sees, a place called the Bates Motel. The proprietor is Norman, and he checks her in; she’s the only one staying there tonight. She’s hungry, so he invites her up to his house for dinner.
Marion listens to Norman arguing with his mother about the unexpected guest. Mother doesn’t sound particularly pleasant. Marion and Norman talk over dinner, mostly about his hobbies and history. He explains that his mother goes “a little mad sometimes.” Marion decides to go home and return the money, but first she goes back to her room for the night.
Norman’s got a peephole into Marion’s room. He looks in for a bit and then goes up to his house on the hill. Marion, meanwhile, hops in the shower, which leads to what is very likely the most iconic scenes in all of horror history.
Norman finds the body; he’s terrified. Still, he grabs a mop and cleans up the crime scene. He loads her corpse and belongings into the trunk of her car. He does not, however, notice the big wad of cash stashed in her newspaper; he tosses that in the back with the body. He then pushes the car into a pond and watches it sink.
Marion’s sister, Lila, comes to see Sam at his hardware store; she hasn’t seen Marion in days and has no idea where she is. Detective Arbogast comes in, and he’s looking for Marion as well. They tell Sam about the missing money, but he honestly doesn’t know anything about it. They both think Marion will turn up looking for Sam.
Arbogast stops at the Bates Motel and talks to Norman about Marion, but Norman says he hasn’t seen her. Arbogast sees an entry in the guest register, and although the name doesn’t match, her handwriting is the same. Norman gets flustered during the questioning, so Arbogast knows something is up. Arbogast then calls Lila and tells her what he knows.
Arbogast then sneaks back to the motel and snoops around. He goes up to the house and goes inside. Mother Bates stabs him to death. By the time Sam shows up at the motel, Norman is out back standing next to the pond – he’s disposed of another body and car.
Sam and Lila go to the sheriff. The sheriff phones Norman, who tells him that Arbogast left several hours ago. The sheriff explains that Norman Bates’ mother has been dead and buried for ten years; it was a murder suicide thing. Then who was it that Sam saw up at the house?
We watch Norman go upstairs and listen as he argues with his mother. She doesn’t want to leave her room, but Norman wants her to hide in the fruit cellar until this trouble blows over. We watch him carry her down the stairs.
Sam and Lila decide to check into the cabin as husband and wife and search the place. Norman checks them in, $10 for the night. Lila thinks Norman took the money away from Marion. They search cabin #1 and find a scrap of paper that might indicate Marion was there. Lila insists on questioning the old woman in the house while Sam distracts Norman.
Sam keeps Norman talking in the office while Lila goes into the big house. Norman figures out that Sam is distracting him and beats him over the head. Lila heads to the cellar when she sees Norman coming up to the house. She finds Mrs. Bates’ mummified body in the cellar.
Norman comes charging in wearing a dress and wig, and Sam grabs him from behind. He was “Mother” all along!
Later on, the psychiatrist explains that Norman is gone; only Mother Norma remains. Norman killed his mother ten years ago when she found another man. The psychiatrist details the whole thing.
Commentary
The photography and camera work here is just outstanding, but what really makes this film is the soundtrack. Iconic is really the right word for it. Hitchcock killed the main character halfway through, which was a first as far as I am aware. We all know the big reveal at the end by this time, but if you didn’t see that coming, it would be a shocker. The ending is chilling, as we see and hear what goes on inside Norman’s mind.
This one is so classic that you’ve probably heard or seen clips from about every part of it, but it’s really worth checking out and watching it firsthand in its entirety.