DVD/150: PSYCHO (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

I envy anyone seeing PSYCHO for the first time, but countless viewings of it only draw me deeper into it's chilling spell.

Paramount refused Hitchcock's wish to film Robert Bloch's novel as they had already rejected the film rights and even claimed there was no space on the lot to film it.

But Hitchcock offered to film it at Universal using his ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS... television crew and taking 60% of the takings rather than his standard fee.  Paramount, sure it would flop, agreed to just distribute it.

What Hitchcock delivered was a disquieting masterpiece but it was met with mixed reviews and the 'Observer' film critic resigned rather than review it!

But audiences made it a huge hit, forcing most critics to re-review it favourably.

Hitchcock's orchestrating the viewer's sympathies makes PSYCHO a masterclass in storytelling and the performances of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins remain timeless pleasures.

Shelf or charity shop? Mrs Bates has been moved to the DVD equivalent of the fruit-cellar - my plastic storage box - but PSYCHO will be revisited again and again; of course a special mention must be made of Bernard Herrmann's extraordinary score; not just the iconic 'stab' theme but his under-scoring that bonds the viewer to the character of Marion during her guilt-ridden car drive and, more importantly, the hesitant, suspense music played as 'helpless' Norman cleans up after Marion's murder, subliminally connecting the viewer to him.

 

  

 

DVD/150: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (John Frankenheimer, 1962)

Nearly 60 years old, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is frighteningly relevent to today's right-wing politics, a film as icy as it's main character.

A US platoon are captured in Korea by Chinese communists, and during a group brainwashing session, Raymond Shaw is selected to be a 'sleeper' assassin, dispassionately killing two of the other soldiers.

Two years later, they are released and Shaw is decorated as a hero when his colleague Major Bennett Marco - who has been hypnotized - reports that Shaw saved lives during their capture.

But Marco has recurring nightmares of Shaw's killings and when he learns another of the platoon has the same dreams, he starts to investigate.

Shaw's fame is exploited by his mother Eleanor to win her husband John Iselin - a dangerously populist Senator dominated by his ambitious wife - the nomination for Vice-President.

Shaw is 'triggered' to start killing but who is his deadly controller?

Shelf or charity shop?  Living in the plastic storage box limbo, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is kept for Frankenheimer's marvellous direction and George Axelrod's darkly satirical take on Richard Condon's novel.  Laurence Harvey's cold persona was the perfect match for Raymond Shaw, Sinatra was never better and Angela Lansbury delivers a performance of pure ice-cold malevolence - her Eleanor Iselin is as great a political villainess as I CLAUDIUS' Livia or Lady Macbeth; at the time of filming she was only three years older than 'son' Laurence Harvey! Sadly Janet Leigh is totally wasted in an unispiring role of Sinatra's girlfriend, a role so vacant that it's speculated that maybe she is a spy too.