Five scenes
If it wasn't just for the dinner scene, the shower scene, the stair scene, the cellar scene and the end scene, wouldn't this 56yr old movie be completely forgotten by now?
shareWell, maybe, yes.
I mean some would say that if it weren't for the shower scene ALONE, the movie would be completely forgotten by now. But since this is just about the most known scene in movie history...only one scene is necessary.
That said, some other thoughts, if I may:
Howard Hawks on what makes a good movie: "Three good scenes, no bad scenes."
Psycho famously has three big shock scenes that often get shown as the sole clips from the film: the shower murder, the staircase murder, and the fruit cellar reveal.
So there's Hawks' "three good scenes."
No bad scenes? I agree -- but some might not. Many think that the shrink scene is a bad scene, and screenwriter William Goldman thought Psycho is a rare bird because the shrink scene is an AWFUL scene..."and yet the movie is a glory."
Goldman further noted that the end of a movie is the most important part and noted that Psycho "hides the end" (the cell scene) behind a "a bad end"(the shrink scene.) Hard to follow.
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Me, I think that Psycho is one of those very, very, very rare films in which EVERY scene is good. And something cinematic is happening in every scene.
Take the "potentially dull scene" when Sam and Lila first talk to the sheriff and his wife at their home. How Hitchcock frame the sheriff against his staircase, and how Hitchcock "groups" Sam and Lila and the Sheriff with cuts to the wife in between: cinema.
The opening scene has a great camera move into the hotel room, and is landmark sexy(yet sad.)
The "Arbogast questions Norman " scene is a marvel of naturalistic staccato patter(and has the great cinema of the swoop under Norman's bobbing throat.)
The cop stop scene and the car lot scene are models of paranoia(with some ironic humor)...
...and so forth and so on.
I'd say Psycho has oh, about 25 good scenes. Is that how many scenes are in the movie?