Alfred Hitchcock's Cult Classic Horror Psycho

Marion Crane is in love with Sam Loomis, her boyfriend, and wants to get married but they need money. She works at a real estate office in Arizona. One day a wealthy man pays cash for a house and Marion is to deposit the cash at the bank. After a lot of thought, she decides to steal the money and flees to Fairvale to be with Sam. On a particularly stormy night, Marion pulls over at the vacant Bates Motel, where she meets Norman Bates, a troubled young man who is obsessed with his mother.

First off, this is a perfect classic! Hitchcock's great, even at low-budget. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, just CANNOT be beat or reproduced! Perfect, every movement and nuance, every word, perfect! J don't care about Hitchcock's great direction here because without Perkins, this movie would be an exponentially-less of a film without him. Janet Leigh, as Marion Crane, is great as well. Not only is she sexy and beautiful but, her acting's great. Her smirk, while driving her car and hearing voices, looks uncannily like Perkins' smile in the ending shots. It reminds me of Jack Nicholson's insane smile in the car on the way up to the Overlook in "The Shining". Martin Balsam, as Det. Milton Arbogast, is very good as well, the perfect detective actor. The name Arbogast is used in other detective roles by other actors; it's just "detectivey":)

The plot starts out slow for the first third but it's necessary buildup to get us to Norman Bates. Once there, it's almost all Anthony Perkins - he steals the show. The plot isn't difficult to follow so don't worry lovers of simple plots, be happy, rejoice! It's not of you get great results with this simple a story. There's no flash, few special effects, so it relies on direction and characterization. Oh, one truly exciting first is that Psycho shows, on camera, the first toilet ever seen on video - and it flushes as well!! I know, it took my breath away too!