78/52 **** (2017) – Movie Review

Director Alexandre O Philippe dissects the Psycho shower murder scene to riveting effect, with the help of some remarkable, over-excited experts and some great vintage clips.

The shadowy figure from the shower scene.

It is, quite obviously, a film buff’s paradise, and the perfect part of a double bill with the 2015 Hitchcock/ Truffaut. There perhaps aren’t any startling new revelations, but it’s a great wallow anyway. It is just really enjoyable.

An entire feature-length documentary film about one scene in a 56-year-old movie, and there’s no sense of strain, it keeps up the level of interest and indeed fascination throughout. Not bad, huh?

Particularly interesting is the interview with Marli Renfro, Janet Leigh’s body double for some parts of the murder sequence and its aftermath, who reveals the exact nature of her key role in the famous scene, and also that she was also an original Playboy bunny and was featured on the cover of the September 1960 issue of Playboy.

Janet Leigh had said that she was in the scene the entire time and that Hitchcock used a stand-in only for the sequence in which Norman wraps Marion’s body in a shower curtain and places it in the trunk of her car, but this apparently is not the case. Renfro reveals she was used for several of the shower scene’s shots and it seems Hitchcock acknowledged her participation in the scene.

Also particularly interesting is the art expert who explains Hitchcock’s choice of the old master print that Norman uses to hide his glory hole for peeping on the next door cabin. This little art history digression is fascinating. And Walter Murch’s expert wise words on the editing are invaluable.

By the way, there is no reference to the idea that visual consultant and storyboard artist Saul Bass directed the scene and not Mr Hitchcock, who on the contrary is spoken of as being ultra involved creatively for the seven days of filming, as though the whole of his work was leading up to this moment.

It’s great that the Psycho/ Hitchcock legend is alive and well. It is very happy making. But it is particularly great to watch this one scene run backwards and forwards, while being dissected by real experts – other directors and especially editors. You really can learn a lot if you listen carefully.

To explain the title, the shower murder scene comprises 78 camera set-ups and 52 cuts.

We are told in the film that before Psycho, audiences used to drift in and out of movies in cinemas. But Hitchcock said no one was to be admitted after the start of Psycho, simply because he thought late-comers would keep asking when the star Janet Leigh was going to appear (she was already dead of course!). The long-term benefit of this was, that Psycho pioneered the idea that folks began arriving before the movie started. Hitchcock was right, no admittance after the start of the movie. If only this idea extended to film festivals and film previews in 2017!

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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