Everyone knows that Psycho (1960) was one of the first — if not the first — Hollywood feature film to show a flushing toilet, but was it the first Hitchcock film to show a toilet? The Lodger (1927) has a scene set in a bathroom, but no toilet is shown. Perhaps the Buntings only have an outside toilet? Nor do we get to see Sir John Menier’s toilet in Murder! (1930) whilst he shaves in… (read more)
In the 1997 documentary “The Making of Psycho“, actress Janet Leigh spoke about her reaction to seeing the shower scene in the completed film: When I saw it and I saw it cut together and I saw the boom, boom, and the music and everything, I absolutely went… I just was crazy. I really screamed. I never take a shower. I cannot take a shower. ‘Cause it never dawned on me until that moment how… (read more)
A couple of pieces of Hitchcock news via Alain Kerzoncuf! On Thursday September 27th, The Space will be streaming Hitchcock’s 1928 silent classic “Champagne” with a new score by Mira Calix, live from the BFI on London’s Southbank. Betty Balfour Secondly, Dread Central has a cool video showing scenes that were trimmed from the US release of “Psycho” (and have never appeared on any of the DVD releases). Janet Leigh on the job!
“Naturally, the knife never touched the body; it was all done in the montage.”(Hitchcock talking to Truffaut about the shower scene in Psycho) However, when analysed frame by frame, one of the short segments does appear to show a knife piercing Marion’s flesh. It’s only 8 frames in length (or 1/3 of a second) and the final frame is this: At first glance, the knife does appear to have cut into the belly. However, I… (read more)
