MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > The Birds at the Top of the Stairs

The Birds at the Top of the Stairs

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
5 replies | jump to latest

I was rummaging through my "Psycho Blu-Ray DVD" the other day, hunting for material for this board, looking mainly at the extras sections.

Within those sections, there is one on the new sound re-mix for Psycho. I watched it with a little envy. It would seem to enjoy the full effect of the new sound recording for Psycho, I'd need to have a surround-sound group of speakers around my TV room. I don't.

If I DID, I would notice that now when Marion sees the cop across the street from California Charlie's and cars roll past the cop, back and forth, back and forth -- the new sound system picks up each car from all the way over HERE(left side of screen) to all the way over THERE(right side of screen).

What I did pick up, even with my modest sound system, was how with the new sound, you can hear the engine purring on Marion's car all the way up the path to the Bates Motel in the rain, and EVEN AFTER SHE PARKS. She doesn't turn off the car until Norman appears to run down the hill.

But here's the biggest deal I found on that sound mini-documentary.

And I have not been able to experience it!

According to the sound experts, "original prints of Psycho with the original sound" have a flaw in the soundtrack.

On the famous high angle close-up of Mother's door slowly opening as an unseen Arbogast continues to climb the stairs(and what a great, classic "suspense" shot that is), evidently along with Herrmann's ever-lightly-stretching violin strings purring you can hear.....BIRDS. Chirping, fluttering, I don't know.

But the sound experts caught it and one opines: "The recording stage within which Herrmann recorded his score with the movie playing was huge and had two big giant doors. If those doors were opened even a little bit, birds could fly in and get picked up on the soundtrack." So we hear Herrmann's strings(BEFORE the screeching murder-attack strings) AND the bird sounds.

All gone now on the Blu-Ray.

But I keep trying to hear those birds on my "old" DVDs(I can't play my VHS any more) and I can't, and so, I am here asking for volunteers: "Can anybody hear those birds at the top of the stairs?

Thank you.

PS. Speaking of birds flying through big doors: some years ago, I was taking a female companion on a tour of the Mission San Juan Bautista where Vertigo was filmed (you'd be surprised how many women had to take this tour in my dating life, hah.)

This time, we were entering the church where Jimmy Stewart runs in to see Kim Novak disappearing into the stairwell and onto the staircase(in a tower, I have told many a companion, that does not exist -- you've got to see the movie. So there.)

I entered the church through a side door, and as I did -- a very large bird came flying over my head and clipped my hair on top of my head,on its way INSIDE the church. I mean, it was quite a bump to my head and a flurry of feathered wings in my ears as the bird bumped into my head and then flew on into the Vertigo church.

No wit I, but I said something like: "Well, looks like we are getting a bonus tour from The Birds to go with our Vertigo tour!"

My companion didn't much care about any of that, but to her credit she asked if the bird had hurt me.

Nope. Just my pride.

[–] Doghouse (447) 6 years ago

Loved the San Juan Bautista story (did you remember to fling your left hand up in that sort of "stationary wave" gesture that Tippi did?).

I put on my 1998 Psycho DVD and, try as I might, heard nothing but the music at the top of the stairs. Even used headphones.
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"What I did pick up, even with my modest sound system, was how with the new sound, you can hear the engine purring on Marion's car all the way up the path to the Bates Motel in the rain, and EVEN AFTER SHE PARKS. She doesn't turn off the car until Norman appears to run down the hill."

- That new sound mix is quite the marvel. Frankly, I think they cheated, à la Vertigo, and recorded some new effects. I get absolutely no trace of anything but the rain on that '98 DVD.

It has nothing to do with the sound mix, but as long as we're talking about that specific scene, here's a little detail about it that's bugged me from the very first viewing: in the last through-the-windshield POV we see as Marion pulls up, the car is moving; in her next closeup, the slight turning of her head indicates that it's still moving as she aligns with the office door, and she then slides across the seat and gets out without first having taken a hand off the wheel to put the gearshift in "park." We can see her pantomiming stepping on the brake with a subtle change in posture (and the new mix provides a slight but satisfying squeak to accompany it), but she never takes the car out of gear. Ever notice that?

One of the pitfalls of working in a soundstage mock-up: you can forget some of the second-nature things you do when in an actual vehicle, rather like that moment in North By Northwest, which I was watching last night, when Cary Grant glances to his right as he gives fellow player Ken Lynch (as the Chicago cop sitting in the back seat with him) a subtle nudge to remind him to lean when the car makes a sharp turn.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Loved the San Juan Bautista story (did you remember to fling your left hand up in that sort of "stationary wave" gesture that Tippi did?).

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Ha. No I think I yelled "ACK!" and ducked.

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I put on my 1998 Psycho DVD and, try as I might, heard nothing but the music at the top of the stairs. Even used headphones.
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I wonder if those guys are "Gaslighting" their viewer/listeners. I couldn't even hear birds on the soundtrack on the DVD documentary when the guys said "there, hear it?"

But now I have an "Ahab's quest" across time and space -- to hear those birds!

Funny thought: one film later, there would really BE birds waiting in a room at the top of the stairs...maybe Hitchcock was inspired by his earlier gaffe.

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"What I did pick up, even with my modest sound system, was how with the new sound, you can hear the engine purring on Marion's car all the way up the path to the Bates Motel in the rain, and EVEN AFTER SHE PARKS. She doesn't turn off the car until Norman appears to run down the hill."

- That new sound mix is quite the marvel. Frankly, I think they cheated, à la Vertigo, and recorded some new effects. I get absolutely no trace of anything but the rain on that '98 DVD.

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I would tend to agree. For one thing, the sound of the car's engine still purring is quite weirdly "always there" -- it gets in the way and it doesn't fit. I thought she turned OFF the car when she got out to go in the office.

We know that the restored Vertigo starts out -- immediately -- with gunshots that don't sound like the ones on the VHS version with the original 1958 soundtrack. I think the sound restorers said something "we would have lost the original sound effects forever anyway without restoration -- we had to put new ones on."

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Psycho as a black-and-white film has never had the "restoration" push that color films like Vertigo and Rear Window got, but it clearly has been buffed up, especially the soundtrack. The "Vertigo" treatment indeed. Car sounds, traffic sounds...a heavy overlay of night crickets when Arbogast reaches the Psycho house that I don't remember much on old prints(though it WAS there in Van Sant's heavily soundtracked remake...maybe they are matching the remake sound backwards to the original?)

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

It has nothing to do with the sound mix, but as long as we're talking about that specific scene, here's a little detail about it that's bugged me from the very first viewing: in the last through-the-windshield POV we see as Marion pulls up, the car is moving; in her next closeup, the slight turning of her head indicates that it's still moving as she aligns with the office door, and she then slides across the seat and gets out without first having taken a hand off the wheel to put the gearshift in "park." We can see her pantomiming stepping on the brake with a subtle change in posture (and the new mix provides a slight but satisfying squeak to accompany it), but she never takes the car out of gear. Ever notice that?

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Can't say that I have, which proves I STILL don't know Psycho inside and out. Isn't that great?

The idea of actors "pantomiming" things has been brought up with regard to Hitchcock in other films. When Melanie and the Brenners go out the front door together at the end of The Birds, its just Rod Taylor making a hand gesture, we never SEE the door. Nor do we see the door slide away when Henry Fonda enters his home in The Wrong Man.

There's also the idea -- in older films at least -- of "eliminating realism" to move the story along. I'm thinking about how in NXNW, Cary Grant buys a cup of coffee at the Mount Rushmore cafeteria before meeting with Vandamm. Its as if the cup was already waiting for him in the hand of the cafeteria cashier and Grant's money was ready to go. The cup and the money are traded quickly and Grant walks away. No need to waste time on the REAL transaction.

Speaking of which: is not the actual SALE transaction at California Charlie's in Psycho wrapped up in record time? Marion and Charlie enter the office, there's a cut to -- something? The cop driving in? -- and she comes out of the office in seconds with a purchased car. The audience doesn't care -- we want the story to keep moving.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

One of the pitfalls of working in a soundstage mock-up: you can forget some of the second-nature things you do when in an actual vehicle, rather like that moment in North By Northwest, which I was watching last night,

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Lucky you!

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when Cary Grant glances to his right as he gives fellow player Ken Lynch (as the Chicago cop sitting in the back seat with him) a subtle nudge to remind him to lean when the car makes a sharp turn

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I hadn't noticed that for years of viewing until the internet drew me to it -- then I saw it. Nice of Grant to protect the take with his nudge of Lynch.

It reminds me though, of something I've always wondered about: are not "bit player types" a bit nervous if they don't deliver their lines right with a star?

Sinatra slapped a co-star for blowing his lines on Tony Rome -- but it was some Vegas comedian crony of his, I guess he felt he could do it.

The actor wasnt' working with a star, but a bit player who played the shrink reporting to Barbara Bel Geddes in Vertigo kept blowing his lines until Hitchcock actually FIRED the guy. Some hours were taken to find another actor(Raymond Bailey-- Mr. Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies), have him learn the lines, and step in to the part.

Everytime I see Bailey's scene, I respect that about his preparation -- or maybe the technical speech was on cue cards?

(The fired actor has never been named.)