Amazon Prime Video original film Psycho was released September 8th, 1960.
#Psycho made $32.2M at the international box office.
rottentomatoes: 97%
metacritic: 97
imdb: 8.5
oscars: 4 nominations
golden globes: 1 win
Marion Crane
Marion Crane is a clerical worker in Phoenix, Arizona.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1 nomination: 1961
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture
1 win: 1961
“I better get back to the office. These extended lunch hours give my boss excess acid. What do I do with my free afternoon? Walk you to the airport? Checking-out time is 3:00 p.m. Hotels of this sort aren’t interested in you when you come in, but when your time is up… oh, Sam, I hate having to be with you in a place like this. When you’re married you can do a lot of things deliberately. Oh, Sam, this is the last time. For this. For meeting in secret so we can be secretive. You come down here on business trips, and we steal lunch hours. I wish you wouldn’t even come. Oh, I have to go, Sam. No. Oh, we can see each other. We can even have dinner. But respectably. In my house, with my mother’s picture on the mantel and my sister helping me broil a big steak for three. Sam! You make respectability sound disrespectful.” — Marion Crane
“I pay, too. They also pay who meet in hotel rooms. I haven’t been married once yet. Oh, Sam, let’s get married. I’ll lick the stamps. I’m thinking of it. Don’t miss your plane. I’m late and you have to put your shoes on.” — Marion Crane
“Is Mr. Lowery back from lunch? It’ll pass. Headaches are like resolutions you forget them as soon as they stop hurting. Any calls? Yes, sir. Not inordinately. Yes. The copies. Mr. Lowery, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go right on home after the bank. I have a slight… just a headache. I’m going to spend this weekend in bed. Thank you. Can’t buy off unhappiness with pills. I guess I’ll go put this money in the bank and then go home and sleep it off.” — Marion Crane
“Yes. I didn’t intend to sleep so long. I almost had an accident last night from sleepiness, so I decided to pull over. Yes. As I said, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I didn’t intend to sleep all night. I just pulled over. Have I broken any laws? Then I’m free to go? Of course not. Am I acting as if there’s something wrong? Please, I’d like to go. Is there what? I’ve told you there’s nothing wrong, except that I’m in a hurry and you’re taking up my time. Why?” — Marion Crane
“What? Can I trade my car in and take another? Yes, it’s… there’s nothing wrong with it. I just… no, thank you. I’m in a hurry and I just wanna make a change. How much? It looks fine. How much would it be with my car? Of course not. Please. $700. All right. I believe I have the necessary papers. Is there a ladies’ room? I’d really rather not. Can’t we just settle this and… but what? Is there anything to terribly wrong about making a decision and wanting to hurry? Do you think I’ve stolen my car?” — Marion Crane
“Just put it in here, please. Thank you. You have a vacancy? Oh, I thought I’d gotten off the main road. Los Angeles. I want sleep more than anything else, except maybe food. Am I that close to Fairvale? The bathroom. Thank you, Mr. Bates. No. I’d like to. Okay.” — Marion Crane
“I’ve caused you some trouble. You shouldn’t have bothered. I really don’t have that much of an appetite. Don’t worry about it. But as long as you’ve fixed a supper, we may as well eat it. Well, it stopped raining. All right. Thank you. You’re very kind. And you’d know, of course. It’s a strange hobby. Curious. Oh, I imagine so. A man should have a hobby. Is your time so empty?” — Marion Crane
“Do you go out with friends? Only my share. I’m looking for a private island. Why do you ask that? Sometimes we deliberately step into those traps. Oh, but you should. You should mind it. You know, if anyone ever talked to me the way I heard, the way she spoke to you… she sounded strong. Except you. Why don’t you go away? No, not like me. Wouldn’t it be better if you put her someplace…” — Marion Crane
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound uncaring. I am sorry. I only felt… it seems she’s hurting you. I meant well. Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough. Thank you. Norman. I’m very tired. And I have a long drive tomorrow, all the way back to Phoenix. I stepped back into a private trap back there and I’d like to go back and try to pull myself out of it before it’s too late for me, too. Oh, I’d like to, but… very early. Dawn. Crane. Good night.” — Marion Crane
Norman Bates
“Gee, I’m sorry I didn’t hear you in all this rain. Go ahead in, please. Dirty night. Oh, we have 12 vacancies. Twelve cabins, 12 vacancies. They… they moved away the highway. I knew you must have. Nobody ever stops here anymore unless they’ve done that. But there’s no sense dwelling on our losses. We just keep on lighting the lights and following the formalities. Your home address. Oh, just the town will do.”
“Cabin One. It’s closer in case you want anything. Right next to the office. Well, there’s a big diner about 10 miles up the road, just outside of Fairvale. Fifteen miles. I’ll get your bags. Boy, it’s stuffy in here. Well, the mattress is soft and there’s hangers in the closet and stationery with Bates Motel printed on it in case you wanna make your friends back home feel envious. And the… over there. Yeah. Well, if you want anything, just tap on the wall. I’ll be in the office.”
“Norman Bates. You’re not really gonna go out again and drive up to the diner, are you? Well, then would you do me a favor? Would you have dinner with me? I was just about to myself. You know, nothing special, just sandwiches and milk. But I’d like it very much if you’d come up to the house. I don’t set a fancy table, but the kitchen’s awful homey. All right. You get yourself settled and take off your wet shoes, and I’ll be back as soon as it’s ready. With my… with my trusty umbrella.”
“No! I tell you no! I won’t have you bringing strange young girls in for supper! By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap, erotic fashion of young men with cheap, erotic minds! Mother, please. And then what, after supper? Music? Whispers? Mother, she’s just a stranger. She’s hungry and it’s raining out. ‘Mother, she’s just a stranger.’ As if men don’t desire strangers. As if… I refuse to speak of disgusting things, because they disgust me! You understand, boy? Go on. Go tell her she’ll not be appeasing her ugly appetite with my food or my son! Or do I have to tell her ’cause you don’t have the guts? Huh, boy? You have the guts, boy? Shut up! Shut up!”
“No. Mother… my mother… what is the phrase? She isn’t quite herself today. Oh, I’m sorry. I wish you could apologize for other people. It might be nicer and warmer in the office. Eating in an office is just too officious. I have the parlor back here. Sit down. It’s all for you. I’m not hungry. Go ahead. You… you eat like a bird. No, not really. Anyway, I hear the expression ‘eats like a bird’ is really a false… falsity. Because birds really eat a tremendous lot. But I don’t really know anything about birds. My hobby is stuffing things. You know, taxidermy. And I guess I’d just rather stuff birds because I hate the look of beasts when they’re stuffed. You know, foxes and chimps. Some people even stuff dogs and cats, but, oh, I can’t do that. I think only birds look well stuffed because… well, because they’re kind of passive to begin with. Uncommon, too.”
“And it’s not as expensive as you’d think. It’s cheap, really. You know, needles and thread, sawdust. The chemicals are the only thing that cost anything. Well, it’s… it’s more than a hobby. A hobby’s supposed to pass the time, not fill it. No. Well, I run the office and tend the cabins and grounds and do little errands for my mother. The ones she allows I might be capable of doing.”
“Well, a boy’s best friend is his mother. You’ve never had an empty moment in your entire life, have you? Where are you going? I didn’t mean to pry. What are you running away from? I don’t know. People never run away from anything. The rain didn’t last long, did it? You know what I think? I think that we’re all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch. I was born in mine. I don’t mind it anymore. Oh, I do, but I say I don’t.”
“Sometimes when she talks to me like that, I feel I’d like to go up there and curse her and leave her forever. Or at least defy her. But I know I can’t. She’s ill. No, I mean ill. She had to raise me all by herself, after my father died. I was only five and it must’ve been quite a strain for her. I mean, she didn’t have to go to work or anything like that. He left her a little money. Anyway, a few years ago, Mother met this man. And he talked her into building this motel. He could have talked her into anything. And when he died, too, it was just too great a shock for her. And the way he died… I guess it’s nothing to talk about while you’re eating.”
“Anyway, it was too great a loss for her. She had nothing left. Well, a son is a poor substitute for a lover. To a private island, like you? I couldn’t do that. Who’d look after her? She’d be alone up there. Her fire would go out. It’d be cold and damp like a grave. If you love someone, you don’t do that to them, even if you hate them. You understand, I don’t hate her. I hate what she’s become. I hate the illness.”
“You mean an institution? A madhouse? People always call a madhouse ‘someplace,’ don’t they? Put her in someplace. What do you know about caring? Have you ever seen the inside of one of those places? The laughing and the tears and the cruel eyes studying you. My mother there? But she’s harmless. She’s as harmless as one of those stuffed birds.”
“People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues and shake their heads and suggest, oh, so very delicately. Of course, I’ve suggested it myself. But I hate to even think about it. She needs me. It’s not as if she were a maniac, a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you? Thank you, Norman. Oh, you’re not going back to your room already? Really? Are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay just a little while longer? Just for talk? All right. Well, I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll bring you some breakfast, all right? What time? All right, Miss… Crane. That’s it.”
Sam Loomis
“You never did eat your lunch, did you? Why don’t you call your boss and tell him you’re taking the rest of the afternoon off? Friday anyway, and hot. Well, we could laze around here a while longer. I’ve heard of married couples who deliberately spend an occasional night in a cheap hotel. You sure talk like a girl who’s been married. Yeah? For what? All right. What do we do instead? Write each other lurid love letters? I can come down next week. Not even just to see you? Have lunch, in public? And after the steak, do we send sister to the movies, turn Mama’s picture to the wall? All right. Marion, whenever it’s possible, I want to see you. And under any circumstances, even respectability. Oh, no, I’m all for it. It requires patience, temperance, a lot of sweating it out. Otherwise, though, it’s just hard work. But if I can see you and touch you, even as simply as this, I won’t mind. I’m tired of sweating for people who aren’t there. I sweat to pay off my father’s debts, and he’s in his grave. I sweat to pay my ex-wife alimony, and she’s living on the other side of the world somewhere.”
“A couple of years and my debts will be paid off. If she ever remarries, the alimony stops. Yeah. But when you do, you’ll swing. Yeah. And live with me in a storeroom behind a hardware store in Fairvale? We’ll have lots of laughs. I’ll tell you what. When I send my ex-wife her alimony, you can lick the stamps. Marion, you want to cut this off, go out and find yourself somebody available? How could you even think a thing like that? Hey, we can leave together, can’t we?”
Highway Patrol Officer
“Hold it there. In quite a hurry. You slept here all night? There are plenty of motels in this area. You should’ve… I mean, just to be safe. No, ma’am. Is anything wrong? Frankly, yes. Well, is there? Now, just a moment. Turn your motor off, please. May I see your license? Please.”
“I better have a look at those papers, Charlie. Acted like one.”
Southern California
“Be with you in a second! I’m in no mood for trouble. There’s an old saying. ‘The first customer of the day is always the most trouble.’ But like I say, I’m in no food for it, so I’m gonna treat you so fair and square that you won’t have one human reason… do anything you have a mind to. Being a woman, you will. That yours? Sick of the sight of it. Why don’t you have a look around here and see if there’s something that strikes your eyes. And meanwhile, I’ll have my mechanic give yours the once-over. You want some coffee? I was just about… one thing people never ought to be when they’re buying used cars and that’s in a hurry. But like I said, it’s too nice a day to argue. I’ll shoot your car in the garage here. That’s the one I’d have picked for you myself. Go ahead. Spin it around the block. You mean you won’t want the usual day and a half to think it over? You are in a hurry, aren’t you? Somebody chasing you? Well, it’s the first time the customer ever high-pressured the salesman. I figure roughly your car plus $700. You always got time to argue money, huh? I take it you can prove that car is yours. I mean, out-of-state license and all. You got your pink slip… in the building. Over there. I think you better take it for a trial spin. I don’t want any bad word of mouth about California Charlie. I might as well be perfectly honest with you, ma’am. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but… no, ma’am. All right, let’s go inside. Hey!”
“Heck, Officer, that was the first time I ever saw the customer high-pressure the salesman. Somebody chasing her? She look like a wrong one to you? The only funny thing, she paid me $700 in cash.”
Phoenix, Arizona
“He’s lunching with the man who’s buying the Harris Street property. You know, the oil lease man. That’s why he’s late. You got a headache? Have you got some aspirin? I’ve got something, not aspirin. My mother’s doctor gave them to me the day of my wedding. Teddy was furious when he found out I’d taken tranquilizers. Teddy called me. My mother called to see if Teddy called. Oh, your sister called to say she’s going to Tucson to do some buying and she’ll be gone the whole weekend and…”
“Wow. It’s hot as fresh milk. Hey, you girls ought to get your boss to air condition you up. He can afford it today. Marion, will you get the copies of that deed ready for Mr. Cassidy? Tomorrow’s the day, my sweet little girl. Oh, not you. My daughter. A baby. And tomorrow she stands her sweet self up there and gets married away from me. I want you to take a look at my baby. Eighteen years old and she never had an unhappy day in any one of those years. Come on, Tom. My office is air conditioned. Do you know what I do about unhappiness? I buy it off. Are… are you unhappy? I’m buying this house for my baby’s wedding present. $40,000 cash. Now that’s not buying happiness. That’s just buying off unhappiness. I never carry more than I can afford to lose. Count them! I declare! I don’t. That’s how I get to keep it. Tom, a cash transaction of this size is most irregular. So what? It’s my private money. Now it’s yours. Suppose we put it in the safe, and then Money morning when you’re feeling good…”
“Oh, speaking of feeling good, where’s that bottle you said was in your desk? Uh-oh! You know, sometimes I can keep my mouth shut. Lowery, I am dying of thirst-aroonie. I don’t even want it in the office over the weekend. Put it in the safe deposit box in the bank, and we’ll get him to give us a check on Monday instead. He was flirting with you. I guess he must have noticed my wedding ring. Come in. You go right on home. Because me and your boss are going out and get ourselves a little drinking done. Right? Of course. Do you feel ill? What you need is a weekend in Las Vegas, the playground of the world. Aren’t you going to take the pills? They’ll knock that headache out.”
“Yes, Mr. Lowery. Caroline, Marion still isn’t in? No, Mr. Lowery, but then she’s always a bit late on Monday mornings. Buzz me the minute she comes in. And call her sister. No one’s answering at the house. I called her sister, Mr. Lowery, where she works, the Music Makers Music Store, you know, and she doesn’t know where Marion is any more than we do. You better run out to the house. She may be, well, unable to answer the phone. Her sister’s going to do that. She’s as worried as we are.”
“No, I haven’t the faintest idea. As I said, I last saw your sister when she left this office on Friday. She said she didn’t feel well and wanted to leave early, and I said she could. That was the last I saw… oh, wait a minute. I did see her some time later, driving… I think you’d better come over here to my office, quick. Caroline, get Mr. Cassidy for me. After all, Cassidy, I told you, all that cash! I’m not taking the responsibility. Oh, for heaven’s sake. A girl works for you for 10 years, you trust her. All right, yes, you better come over. Well, I ain’t about to kiss off $40,000! I’ll get it back, and if any of it’s missing, I’ll replace it with her fine, soft flesh! I’ll track her, never you doubt it. Hold on, Cassidy. I still can’t believe… it must be some kind of a mystery. I can’t… you checked with the bank, no? They never laid eyes on her, no? You still trusting? Hot creepers! She sat there while I dumped it out! Hardly even looked at it. Planning. And even flirting with me!”
