Psycho released 50 years ago today

Psycho Released: June 16, 1960 Studio: Paramount Genre: horror/thriller Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 50.00 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 399.79 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Alfred Hitchcock Screenwriting: Joseph Stefano Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam Review: “The greatest, most influential Hitchcock horror/thriller ever made” FS is “an unsettling, fascinating descent into the dark side.” TV Psycho is “considered by many to be the greatest horror film ever made” VD “and the progenitor of the modern Hollywood horror film.” FS “Bernard Herrmann’s slashing violin score has become aural shorthand for terror.” TV “Hitchcock’s decision to shoot the movie in black and white was driven purely by cost. Seeing that many bad, cheap ‘B’ movies shot in black and white were performing well at the box office, he gambled that a good, inexpensive black and white movie could do well and he was right.” MSN The story is based on a novel by Robert Bloch. After embezzling $40,000, real estate office secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) is on the run from the law. She stops at the Bates Motel, run by amateur taxidermist Norman (Perkins). “The psychotic, disturbed ‘mother’s boy’ is dominated by his jealous ‘mother,’ rumored to be in the Gothic house on the hillside behind the dilapidated, remote motel.” FS “Poor Anthony Perkins was so disturbing in his role he never really escaped” LM the role “just as anyone who’s seen the movie won’t ever completely shake those behind-the-shower-curtain tingles. Janet Leigh’s watery demise” LM in “the most celebrated shower sequence ever made” FS “has been deconstructed by film scholars and stolen by other directors too many times to count yet remains a remarkable piece of work.” LM Sources: FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” LM Leonard Maltin “100 Must-See Films of the 20th Century” MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud TV TV Guide (August 8-14, 1998 issue). “50 Greatest Movies on TV and Video” VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Awards: Oscars: Wins: 0 Nominations: 4, including Best Supporting Actress – Janet Leigh, Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Leonard Maltin Edgar Wright First posted 8/1/2019; last updated 6/4/2023.

50 years ago: The Apartment, Best Picture Oscar winner, released

The Apartment Released: June 15, 1960 Studio: United Artists Genre: comedy/drama/romance Box Office (numbers in millions): Domestic: 18.60 Worldwide: ? Adjusted for Inflation: Domestic: 232.10 Worldwide: ?

Directing: Billy Wilder Screenwriting: I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Jack Kruschen Review: The Apartment is “a classic, caustically-witty, satirically cynical, melodramatic comedy” FS Its “wry take on corporate America skewers the climb through the bedroom to the boardroom.” A07 Reportedly, director/screenwriter Billy Wilder’s inspiration for The Apartment came from a scene in Brief Encounter in which a man lets a friend use his apartment for an affair. MSN In this movie, it is C.C. Baxter (Lemmon), “an ambitious, lowly, misguided and young insurance clerk,” FS who is loaning out his apartment, but to his “company’s higher-up, philandering executives.” FS This includes “his callous married boss J. D. Sheldrake (MacMurray).” FS However, Baxter’s plan falls apart when he develops a crush on Fran Kubelik, the building’s melancholy elevator operator. She turns out to be “the boss’ flighty and fragile girlfriend.” A98 After she attempts suicide in the apartment, Baxter is convinced by his “next-door, philosophizing doctor/neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss (Kruschen)” FS that it is time to “confront the craven ethics of his superiors – and he wins the affections of Fran.” FS Sources: A98 American Film Institute (1998). “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies” A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition” FS Filmsite.org “100 Greatest Films” MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud

Awards/Honors/Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Lists: Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists: Oscars: Wins: 5 – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Story and Screenplay, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Film Editing Nominations: 10 – including Best Actor (Lemmon), Best Actress (MacLaine), Best Supporting Actor (Kruschen), Best B/W Cinematography, Best Sound. Other Awards: Other Lists/Honors: Critics’ Picks: Roger Ebert Francis Ford Coppola First posted 5/30/2023.