After a couple of decades as a working character actor on American films and TV shows, Charles Bronson left for Europe in the late 60s and became a massive worldwide film star. This set the stage for him to come back to America and establish his stardom in Hollywood as well. Today, on November 3rd, 2026, Bronson’s 105th birthday, I celebrate that important phase of his career with 9 shots from 9 films!
Just the thought of reviewing Psycho is intimidating.
In the past, I’ve reviewed all of the sequels. I even reviewed a few episodes of Bates Motel. But I’ve avoided reviewing the original 1960 film because I wasn’t sure that there was much left for me to really say about it. It’s one of those films that has been endlessly analyzed. It’s also one of those films that is so famous and which has been imitated so many times that even people who haven’t seen Psycho know what the film is about. Everyone knows about the shower scene. Everyone knows about the twists that took audiences and critics by surprise in 1960. No one is shocked by the revelation about the true nature of Norman Bates and his mother anymore. In fact, most people are more likely to be surprised by Simon Oakland’s hammy performance as the psychiatrist than they are by the ending.
And indeed, probably the best thing that we can say about Psycho is that it still works even when the big twists are no longer a surprise. Janet Leigh’s performance as Marion Crane still holds up as one of the best recorded on film. Even before she arrives at the Bates Motel, we’re scared for her. She spends the first half of the film fleeing Phoenix with an envelope full of stolen cash. Everyone she meets on her journey, from the suspicious highway patrolman (Mort Mills) to the too-eager car salesman (John Anderson), comes across as being a threat. Of course, the bigger threats are the voices in her head as she imagines how people are going to react to her actions. When we hear the patrolman interrogating the salesman, are we hearing an actual interrogation or are we just hearing what Marion fears is happening? We don’t really know and neither does Marion. As played by Janet Leigh, Marion is both a femme fatale (that black bra after she steals the money!) and a relatable and frustrated single woman wondering if she’s waited too long to live her own life (that hotel room with John Gavin’s Sam Loomis!). She’s not a master criminal. She’s someone who did something impulsive and fears she’ll be punished for it.
Ironically, Marion’s murder in the shower has nothing to do with the money. When Norman is cleaning up the motel room afterwards, he picks up the newspaper in which Marion hid the money and tosses it into the trunk of her car. Everyone who comes after Marion assumes that Norman knew about the money, but Norman has no idea what they’re talking about. The money itself seems like such a petty thing. The money was stolen from an oilman (Frank Albertson, who also played Sam Wainwright in It’s a Wonderful Life) who confesses that he has a lot more hidden away. Sam’s claim that he can’t marry Marion because he doesn’t have the financial resources feels more like an excuse than a reason. When private detective Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) disappears, the sheriff (John McIntire) initially assumes that he stole the money for himself. Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) assumes that Norman stole the money because his motel was struggling. Norman doesn’t care about the money. He sends the money (and Marion’s car) to the bottom of a nearby swamp and he does so in such a casual manner that there’s little doubt it’s not the first time. All Norman cares about is protecting his mother. And all his mother cares about is protecting Norman….
Everyone knows about the shower scene but what makes Psycho truly memorable are the little moments. I love Pat Hitchcock’s performance as Marion’s co-worker. “He was flirting with you. I guess he must have noticed my wedding ring,” is one of the best lines ever written and/or delivered. I love the taciturn sheriff and his oddly cheerful wife (Lurene Tuttle), the one who whispers “in bed.” I love the wonderfully passive-aggressive scenes between Arbogast and Norman. Martin Balsam and Anthony Perkins were two veterans of the New York stage and one can tell that they enjoyed bouncing lines off of each other. I even love John Gavin’s somewhat stiff performance as Sam Loomis. People tend to criticize Gavin but his stolid screen presence provides a nice contrast to Perkins’s nervous Norman. Psycho is a film that creates its own little world and Sheriff Chambers and Sam and Lila and Arbogast all come across as if they have (or, at least, had) lives outside of what we see in the film. Of course, Janet Leigh and later Anthony Perkins both dominate the film and indeed, Anthony Perkins, who had been a romantic lead up until Psycho, never escaped the shadow of Norman Bates. (Perkins was the first and really the only choice for the role, though Hitchcock was willing to offer it to Dean Stockwell if, for some reason, Perkins refused to play Norman.)
Oh, but the shower. You can’t talk about Psycho without talking about the shower, can you? It’s still a frightening scene, even when you know it’s coming. For Marion, the shower is more than just a shower and as someone who loves to take long showers, I always feel like I know exactly how she’s feeling. She’s decided to return to Phoenix and face the consequences. She’s washing away her guilt and her fear and, being in a motel room with a locked door, she has every reason to believe that she’s safe. But she’s not. We already know that she’s not because we’ve already seen Norman peeping in on her. (As disturbing as Norman’s peeping is, it’s not that much different from what the film’s audience was doing to Janet Leigh during the film’s opening scenes.) Marion discovers the danger too late. I find the scenes of Norman cleaning up the room to be even more unsettling, if just because he’s so professional about it. He knows exactly what to do, which lets us know that this isn’t the first time someone has died in that room. Marion, who we’ve just spent nearly an hour getting to know, is wrapped up in plastic and dumped in the back of her car and the audience is reminded that, when one’s physical life is over, it’s over.
66 years after it was first released, Psycho is still one of the greats.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! This Thursday, I will be reviewing Ghost Writer, which was produced for Fox in 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!
Episode 1.1 “Pilot”
(Dir by Adam Rafkin, originally aired on August 15th, 1990)
Elizabeth (Leigh Taylor-Young) is the new wife of famous horror writer Anthony Strack (Anthony Perkins). Elizabeth and her daughter, Cindy (Juliet Sorci), have just moved into Anthony’s mansion, and it’s taking both of them some time to adjust. Anthony is a workaholic but, as he informs his new family, he’s not a psycho. Elizabeth is disturbed by the strange housekeeper (Pam Matteson) and the picture of Anthony’s late first wife that hangs over the fireplace. Cindy is creeped out by her stepbrother, Edgar (Joshua John Miller, who also played a teen vampire in Near Dark and the obnoxious brother in Teen Witch). After Edgar plays a few pranks and then runs off to the cemetery, Anthony realizes that, instead of worrying about how to finish his latest book, he needs to be spending time with his family. Anthony even takes down the picture of his dead wife. Of course, this leads to his first wife’s skeleton rising up through the staircase. She and Anthony share one final dance, and Anthony declares that he now knows how his book is going to end.
This was a pilot that was not turned into a series. I watched it twice before writing this review. The first time I watched it, it was pretty obvious to me why it wasn’t picked up. A lot of the humor fell flat, and Anthony Perkins, who would die two years after this aired, looked tired and unwell. Too many of the jokes were jokes only because Perkins was the one saying them. That said, when I watched it a second time, I saw that, for all of its flaws, the pilot was actually rather sweet-natured, and it probably could have made for a good series if the show had been given an opportunity to develop. Anthony dancing with his wife’s remains and then dedicating his book to her worked surprisingly well. That said, even on a second viewing, Perkins still didn’t seem particularly comfortable delivering sitcom-style one-liners. If ever a role called out for Roddy McDowall, it was the role of Anthony Strack.
I can see why this pilot didn’t become a series, but it did have potential. If nothing else, Ghost Writer is a more than appropriate way to kill 23 minutes in October.
Norman Bates, now there’s someone who probably made a big deal out of every Mother’s Day. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1960’s Psycho and features Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins at their absolute best.
It’s the Future! The USS Palamino is on a mission to explore deep space. On the Palamino are Captain Dan Holland (Robert Forster), Dr. Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins), Lt. Charlie Pizer (Joseph Bottoms), Dr. Ellen McRae (Yvette Mimieux), a trash can-looking robot named Vincent (voiced by Roddy McDowall), and a hard-drinking, out-of-place journalist named Harry Booth (Ernest Borgnine).
The Palamino has nearly completed its mission when it comes across a black hole. They also come across the USS Cygnus, a ship that disappeared 20 years ago. Boarding the Cygnus, they discover that it is ruled over by Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) and that the crew appeared to be made up of robots. Dr. Reinhardt plans to direct his ship to fly through the Black Hole. Dr. Durant is inspired by Reinahrdt’s determination to discover what lies on the other side. The rest of the crew is suspicious of Reinhardt, especially after they meet Maximillian, the hulking red robot that serves as his bodyguard.
One of the studio’s first attempts to make a film for grown-ups, The Black Hole was also the first Disney film to receive a PG rating. The Black Hole has a lot going for it. The cast is stacked with talent. (I haven’t even mentioned Slim Pickens as the voice of a beat-up robot.) The plot is interesting and I think anyone watching will be able to relate to Reinhardt and Durant’s desire to explore what lies inside of the Black Hole. Even when seen today, the special effects hold up fairly well. Maximillian is actually frightening at times. There are some violent moments that definitely earn that PG rating.
It’s just too bad that the movie is so damn boring.
The Black Hole is a movie that calls out for a director like Nicholas Meyer or even Douglas Trumbull. Instead, the movie was directed by Gary Nelson, a television director who lets the story plod along at a slow pace. The movie goes through the motions but it never really captures the wonder or the excitement of being in space. The journey through the Black Hole is visually impressive but it takes forever to get there and then it’s over too quickly. Disney spent so much time on the special effects that they forgot to come up with a script worthy of them.
The Black Hole is a film that should have been much better than it was. As long as Disney is remaking all of their old films, I say it’s time to remake The Black Hole. Get the right director and make it the film that it should have been.
Norman Bates, now there’s someone who probably made a big deal out of every Mother’s Day. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1960’s Psycho and features Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins at their absolute best,
You have to feel a bit bad for Anthony Perkins, who was an Oscar-nominated star of film and Broadway and something of a teen idol before he was cast as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece, Psycho. Perkins was so convincing in the role that he pretty much spent the majority of his career either playing variations of the character or appearing in small roles where his macabre screen image would not be too much of a problem. Perkins gave one of the best film performances of all time and his career never really recovered from it.
Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to overlook just how good Anthony Perkins was in this first Psycho. People look at his later, less-compelling performances and they make the mistake of thinking those performance were the best that Perkins was capable of giving. Perkins was a fine actor and never better than when he played Norman. The scene below highlight how Perkins managed to make Norman Bates both poignant and creepy at the same time.
The 1984 film, Crimes of Passion, tells the story of three people and their adventures on the fringes of society. One is just visiting the fringes. One chooses to work there while living elsewhere. And the other is a viscous demon of repressed sexuality.
Bobby Grady (John Laughlin) has what would appear to be an ideal life. He has a nice house in the suburbs. He appears to have a good job. He has a lovely wife (Annie Potts) and he has friends who all remember what a wild guy Bobby used to be when he was younger. Bobby’s grown up and it appears that he’s matured into a life of comfort. In reality, though, Bobby is frustrated. He worries that he’s become a boring old suburbanite. He and his wife rarely have sex. The commercials on television, all inviting him to dive into the life of middle class ennui, seem to taunt him. In order to help pay the bills, he has a second job as a surveillance expert.
He’s hired to follow Joanna Crane (Kathleen Turner), an employee at a fashion house who is suspected of stealing her employer’s designs and selling them. Joanna is describe to Bobby as being cool, ambitious, and always professional. At work, she always keep her emotions to herself and no one seems to know anything about what she does outside of the office. There’s no real evidence that Joanna is stealing designs. Her employer just suspects her because Joanna always seem to be keeping a secret.
Bobby follows Joanna and he discovers that she’s not stealing designs. Instead, she’s leading a secret life as Chyna Blue, a high-priced prostitute who wears a platinum wig and who tends to talk to like a cynical femme fatale in a film noir. Bobby becomes obsessed with Chyna, following her as she deals with different johns, the majority of whom are middle class and respected members of society. Chyna has the ability to know exactly what the men who come to her are secretly looking for. A cop wants to be humiliated. A dying man needs someone to care about him. And one persistent and sweaty customer is obsessed with saving her.
The Reverend Peter Shayne (Anthony Perkins, in twitchy Psycho mode) hangs out on Sunset Strip and tries to save souls. Those who he can’t save, he kills. He carries the tools of his trade with him, a bible, a sex doll, and a sharpened dildo. After Chyna tells him that she doesn’t want anything to do with him or his money or his religion, Shayne grows increasingly more and more obsessed and unbalanced.
The plot is actually pretty simple and not that much different from what one might find in a straight-to-video neo-noir. What sets Crimes of Passion apart from other films of the genre is the fearless performance of Kathleen Turner and the over-the-top direction of Ken Russell. Never one to shy away from confusing and potentially offending his audience, Russell fills the film with shocking and frequently surreal imagery. Grady’s wife would rather watch insanely crass commercials than have sex with him. (“We just got the cable,” she explains.) When Shayne first approaches Chyna, the scene plays out in black-and-white and at a pace that would seem more appropriate for a screwball comedy than a graphic horror film. When Shayne commits one of his first murders, his victim is temporarily transformed into a blow-up doll. The sex-obsessed dialogue alternates between lines of surprising honesty and moments that are so crudely explicit that it’s clear they were meant to parody what Russell viewed as being America’s puritanical culture.
It’s not a film for everyone, which won’t shock anyone who has ever seen a Ken Russell film. The film works best when it focuses of Kathleen Turner and her performances as Chyna and Joanna. John Laughlin is a bit bland as the film’s male lead but that blandness actually provides some grounding for Russell’s more over-the-top impulses. As for Anthony Perkins, he was reportedly struggling with his own addictions when he appeared in this film and he plays Peter Shayne as being a junkie looking for his next fix. There’s nothing subtle about Perkins’s performance but then again, there’s nothing subtle about Ken Russell’s vision.
Crimes of Passion has some major pacing issues and, for all of Russell’s flamboyance, his visuals here are not as consistently interesting as they were in films like Altered States and The Devils. Still, Crimes of Passion is worth seeing for Kathleen Turner’s performance and as a portrait of life on the fringes. Even a minor Ken Russell film is worth watching at least once.
Poor Anthony Perkins!
Anthony Perkins did not start his career as a horror icon. A talented young actor, Perkins started his career on Broadway and eventually, he started to appear in films. From the start, he was usually cast as nervous young men, the type who awkwardly smiled and struggled to talk to people. Perkins was promoted as a romantic lead, with the Studios and his agents making sure that Perkins was regularly photographed dating Hollywood starlets like Natalie Wood. As witty off-screen as he was nervous on-screen, Perkins was a popular figure in Hollywood. He received his only Oscar nomination for his performance as a young Quaker in 1956’s Friendly Persuasion.
Perkins’s entire career changed when Alfred Hitchcock cast him as the seemingly timid motel owner in 1960’s Psycho. Perkins was reportedly Hitchcock’s first choice for the role, with Hitchcock saying that he felt only Perkins or Dean Stockwell was capable of bringing Norman to life. Perkins was not nominated for Best Actor but the role pretty much defined him in the eyes of many. Perkins spent the rest of his career trying to first escape the shadow of Psycho and then eventually embracing his status as an icon of horror.
Perkins’s performance has been imitated so many times that there’s a tendency to forget just how good he is in the role. In this episode, Perkins-as-Norman discusses his mother with Janet Leigh.
For Hitchcock’s birthday, today’s scene that I love is the final scene of 1960’s Psycho! Do I really have to give a spoiler warning for this?
