Psycho (1960)

  I know, I know, it's not an Oscar nominee.  This year.  In 1961, however, it was nominated for four.  Didn't win any, but I think history has vindicated this film.  After watching Hitchcock, I was telling Rob about it and learned that he had never seen Psycho.  So in it went.

Man, I love this movie.  It's my absolute favorite Hitchcock film.  More than Vertigo, more than all his British ones, this is the top.  Of course, seeing as it's such a classic, nothing in it is new.  It's like Casablanca.  Even if you've never seen it, you still know everything there is to know because it's a part of popular culture.  It's ingrained in us.

You should still watch it though.  If you can, show it to someone young.  Try and get them before they have it spoiled for them by the countless ripoffs.  It was too late for Rob, although he still enjoyed it.  Try to put yourself in the mindset of someone from 1960, seeing all this for the first time.

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is involved in a passionate affair with a recently divorced man (John Gavin).  Tired of sneaking off on her lunchbreaks, she decides to run away with her lover.  Facilitating this is the $40,000 she stole from her job.  However, the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray, as she finds out when she stops at a run-down little motel run by a man named Bates (Anthony Perkins).