Psycho
...kes her, she tries to start the car right away. He asks a few questions and she gives very nervous answers. He eventually asks for her license. Everything turns out fine and he lets her go. But as she leaves to continue onto Fairdale, the officer follows her. Marion still acts weird with Hermann’s brilliant soundtrack playing. The officer disappears for a short while before reappearing when Marion pulls into the car dealership. The scene at the car dealer introduces more bizarre behavior. Marion is still acting uneasy and she wants to trade in her car. The car dealer seems a bit confused by her actions. Marion doesn’t want to take the new car for a spin and she doesn’t even barter with him for the price of the car which took him by surprise the most. Also, when Marion was leaving, she was in such a hurry that she almost left without her bags. When Marion finally leaves the car dealer, things seem normal for a bit. Then she starts having second thoughts again. She starts hearing what the car dealer and police officer’s conversation would be like if she was there. She continues in a rainstorm until she comes up to a motel called “Bates Motel.” As Marion's voyage comes closer to the end at the Bates Motel, Hitchcock has successfully made the audience a direct participant within the plot. The suspicion that Marion feels while at the motel is also felt by the audience. There is a big creepy house at the top of the hill that looks like a haunted house. When Norman comes down finally, Marion checks into a room. She signs her name as Marie Samuels from Los Angeles. Marion seems scared at first but then seems comforted by Norman. Norman brings her some food and invites her into his parlor. The room seems kind of freaky. Norman has birds on the wall because his hobby is taxidermy. The birds stare down at the room like an anxious crowd watching a good movie or play. While Marion is eating Norman engages in a conversation that starts normal then turns abnormal. By the end of the conversation Norman starts saying strange things like “you eat like a bird,” “a boy’s best friend is his mother,” and “we call go a little mad sometimes” (Psycho). The audience is free from worry when Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the money and face the repercussions of her actions. After eating Marion retires to her room and begins to undress. While Marion is undressing, Norman spies on her through a peephole. Marion now goes into the shower. This scene is one of the most famous Hitchcock scenes. It is also the most violent scene in the movie. Marion gets into the shower. Hitchcock incorporates a great camera shot from inside the shower spray. Marion doesn’t show any nudity in this scene because Hitchcock decided to leave it out. Hitchcock on the shoot said, "We only showed Miss Leigh's hands, shoulders, and head. All the rest was the stand-in. I shot some of the body in slow motion so as to cover the breasts. The slow shots were not accelerated later on because they were inserted in the montage so as to give an impression of normal speed” (qtd. in Psycho, the shower). Marion appears to be cleansed by the shower. Then Herrmann’s music starts playing only to increase the audience’s surprise. Then suddenly it stops. Hitchcock, according to Psycho, the shower “wanted only the sound of the shower and, by the way, Marion’s scream” (qtd. in Psycho, the shower). Then the shower curtain opens and a shadowy figure resembling an old lady stabs Marion to death. At first after Marion’s death, you think the obvious choice for a murderer would be Norman’s mother because of the way she spoke to him in the house and Norman describing her as old and ill and Norman yelling, “oh mother, god, blood” (Psycho). Then Norman comes down to the bathroom and covers his mouth after what he saw. He then cleans up and gets rid of Marion. After Marion's murder, the audience begins to side with Norman, hoping that no one will find out about the murder. Hitchcock states, “When Perkins is looking at the car sinking in the pond, even though he's burying a body, when the car stops sinking for a moment, the public is thinking, ‘I hope it goes all the way down!’ It's a natural instinct” (qtd. in Hitchcock Talks About Psycho). Hitchcock now invites the audience to use the other characters of the film to solve the murder but he also preserves the bond between the audience and Norman. Yet Hitchcock still milks the obsession with the stolen money even though it went down with the car in the swamp and leaves the possibility that Marion's death may have resulted from her crime and then introduces Lila-Marion’s sister, Sam, and Arbogast-Private Investigator. It seems as if Hitchcock uses Arbogast’s character to advance the suspense and suspicion even further. Arbogast was hired Cassidy, from whom Marion stole the $40,000. While investigating the case, he comes upon the Bates Motel and interrogates Norman quite well. He catches Norman in a lie and most of his questions make Norman nervous and make him stutter. Arbogast then leaves the motel and comes back later. He wants to speak with Norman’s mother. When he arrives the second time, he sneaks into the creepy house at the top of the hill. Arbogast slowly walks up the stairs. When he gets to the top, the shrieky music starts again and he is stabbed by the same character that killed Marion. Again Hitchcock fools the audience into believing that Arbogast was stabbed by an old woman. After a few scenes involving the sheriff and a new mystery that Norman’s mother is dead, Sam and Lila venture out to the Bates Motel to get some answers. Sam and Lila check into the hot...