Some brief points in response to Richard Armstrong's interesting post ...
(1) Hitchcock had indeed done the same thing before, at the start of his
sultry-erotic NOTORIOUS (1946), which begins as matter-of-factly as
possible: 'MIAMI, FLORIDA. THREE-TWENTY P.M., APRIL THE TWENTY-FOURTH
NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX.' There are, though, billowing
heat-clouds above the Miami skyline ...
(2) Contemporary viewers of PSYCHO would have instantly thought of the
b/w TV series 'Dragnet'(1951-58), starring Jack Webb as police sergeant
Joe Friday. 'Halliwell's Television Companion' describes the series
thus: 'Simple but revolutionary cop show recording the minutiae of
investigation, conversation and characterization in stretches of
apparently flat but hypnotic dialogue ("8.22 a.m. We were on our way
downtown ... All I want is the facts, ma'am.")'
(3) We DO see Christmas decorations in the street in the scene where
Marion is driving from Phoenix and is spotted by her boss. Note:
Hitchcock was reportedly disconcerted when his second unit returned with
this footage and he realised that he had slipped up. He had shot or
anyway conceived parts of the film as if it were SUMMER, or anyway HOT
(unconsciously thinking back to the sultriness of NOTORIOUS?). ONLY
THEN was the introductory title hastily scripted to 'explain' those
street decorations! See Stephen Rebello, 'Alfred Hitchcock and the
Making of PSYCHO' (Harper Perennial, pb, 1991), p. 90.
Aspects of PSYCHO remind me of the quintessential German Expressionist
play 'From Morn till Midnight' (1912, filmed in 1920). Note that the
play's title anticipates Ruttmann's BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A CITY (1927),
showing 24 hours in the life of a city - an idea which instantly
fascinated Hitchcock and variants of which he attempted to depict in his
films, from CHAMPAGNE (1927) to FRENZY (1972). One aspect that
intrigued him was to show the FLOW of life, in its bright (e.g.,
spiritual) and dark (e.g., faecal) aspects, including produce becoming
sewerage and flowing down to the sea ... (Some of you may like to look
at my long review of Raymond Durgnat's book on PSYCHO for 'Senses of
Cinema':
<http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/books/03/24/psycho_durgnat_mogg.html>)
- Ken Mogg
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