- Film Review
- Reviewed By David Parkinson
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5 out of 5
Containing the most famous montage sequence since The Battleship Potemkin, this is easily the most shocking film produced by the "Master of Suspense". Yet Alfred Hitchcock always maintained it was a black comedy. Working with a TV crew, he completed the picture for a mere $800,000. But the California Gothic tale of the Bates Motel went on to become his biggest commercial success. The opening segment, involving Janet Leigh and an envelope of stolen cash, is the biggest "MacGuffin" in Hitchcock's career. But his most audacious achievement was in getting us to side with the creepy Anthony Perkins against the authorities, Leigh's lover and sister, and his incessantly shrewish mother.
Plot Summary
Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror thriller starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Absconding with $40,000 of her employer's money, Marion Crane sets off to join her lover Sam Loomis in California. After a tiring journey through the rain, she stops at a lonely motel run by Norman Bates, an intense young man who lives with his domineering mother.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Norman Bates
- Anthony Perkins
- Marion Crane
- Janet Leigh
- Lila Crane
- Vera Miles
- Sam Loomis
- John Gavin
- Milton Arbogast
- Martin Balsam
- Sheriff Chambers
- John McIntire
- Dr Richmond
- Simon Oakland
- Caroline
- Patricia Hitchcock
Crew
- Director
- Alfred Hitchcock
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