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The Many Structures of Psycho

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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SPOILERS for Psycho and Vertigo

A lot of Hitchcock movies have structure that is so good, you can FEEL it -- conventional three-act stuff on the one hand, but sometimes more complex than that -- and Psycho is a perfect example. Maybe the best example. Because: it has a structure that is very very "clear" -- except that it isn't. Because there are alternate structures superimposed on the structure as we have it.

The structure as we have it is "basic three act": (1) Marion's Story; (2) Arbogast's Story, and (3) Sam and Lila's story. Oh, there is an important character who shows up in all three acts -- Norman Bates -- but those "innocents" drive the suspense: how many will die, and who will survive?

Complexities immediately ensue. When does the story of Marion Crane end? When she is killed in the shower? But there are nine minutes or so after that of Norman cleaning up the body and burying it(and her car) in the swamp. And Marion is often THERE -- albeit a very disturbing corpse. So the Marion Crane story really ends with the last burp of her car sinking into the swamp.

When does the story of Arbogast end? When he is killed on the stairs? It seems pretty "final" -- a fade out on Mrs. Bates finishing him off and he's out of the movie. But he TOO gets a scene at the swamp -- the burial is not shown this time, nor his car sinking, but we see Norman there at the swamp and its clear what happened so -- Arbogast's story ends at the swamp, too(its rather a "rhyme" with the Marion story, and rather a cynical joke -- oh, we're back at the swamp again burying somebody. Who's next?)

When does the story of Sam and Lila end? When they confront the Two Mrs. Bateses in the fruit cellar? Its a big climax -- as are the two murders before it. But Sam and Lila continue on as well -- into the infamous psychiatrist scene (six minutes or so) -- before being unceremoniously abandoned (what will happen to them?) so Hitch can re-join Norman in the cell.

Act Three(Sam and Lila) ends at the swamp too -- because the MOVIE ends at the swamp. Except a victim isn't being buried this time -- one is being retrieved(Marion.) But this: this final return to the swamp comes after our conclusive view of Norman Bates as "dead" -- Mother has taken over. The "third death" of Psycho has occurred; so back to the swamp we go.

So...Psycho: a conventional three-act structure (even including the conventional "end of the second act climax" -- Arbogast getting killed -- that sets up the final act.)

BUT:

Some see Psycho as breaking into TWO, not three parts:

Part ONE: Up to Marion's car sinking into the swamp.
Part TWO: Arbogast, Lila and Sam investigate.

The idea here is that Marion's story is a "movie unto itself" which takes a whole new set of characters to match it. Under this analysis, Arbogast(a supporting character)isn't strong enough to anchor an entire second act; rather he is "subsumed" into Part Two along with Sam and Lila.

I resist this. Arbogast is too interesting, Balsam and Perkins working off each other is too interesting, and Hitchcock is too INTERESTED in these two characters facing off -- for Arbogast to have to yield to Sam and Lila as his betters. The second act is Arbogast's. Here's a question: Marion gets 47 minutes to the shower scene and then about nine minutes of burial(56 minutes); Arbogast gets 20 minutes of screen time, entrance to bloody exit -- how much time does that leave for Sam and Lila?

Meanwhile: the three act structure emphasizes Hitchcock's distinction between "surprise and suspense." The murder of Marion in the shower is a great big shocking SURPRISE. Arbogast's climb up the stairs to his expected doom(but how? and from where? and how BAD?) is a sequence of sheer SUSPENSE(which nonetheless surprises when Mom does pop out -- her ferocity, her speed, unseen in the shower sequence). With Marion's murder taking us by surprise and Arbogast's murder taking out "a hero" -- Act Three(Lila and Sam -- and PARTICULARLY Lila alone in the house) is "ultra-suspense" fed by the first two acts.

AND YET:

There is another structure running in Psycho -- one that Hitchcock would return to one more time AFTER Psycho -- "two stories merging into one."

And the irony is as heavy as the suspense:

STORY ONE: Investigators seeking the missing Marion Crane.
STORY TWO: A motel keeper hides his homicidal mother from the world -- and she must not be met by anyone who wants to stay alive.

Thus, the better the investigators do at finding Marion Crane -- the more danger they are in from Mrs. Bates. Arbogast finds this out first.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

This is a "suspense" mechanism on the one hand, but it is heavily fed by IRONY, too:

If only Lila, Sam, and Arbogast KNEW about Mrs. Bates and how crazy she is.

If only Norman KNEW that his mother's shower murder victim would bring all these investigators down upon him because...Marion stole 40 grand(which Norman does NOT know.)

Its mutual misunderstanding and it drives the audience crazy. Hitchcock once defined suspense as "giving the audience information that the characters don't have." Well, the investigators are REALLY without the key info: the Bates Motel harbors a murderous monster with a big knife. And -- admittedly lesser suspense -- Norman Bates is without the key info that the detective showed up because of a theft (which confuses Norman more when Sam puts on pressure based on the money angle.)

Thus, Psycho plays out with several superimposed structures that we can feel all at the same time:

Three Acts
Three climaxes(shower murder, staircase murder, fruit cellar.)
Two parts
Two stories merging into one(suspense AND irony.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

One Hitchcock movie before Psycho -- and two after -- rather toy with the same structural constructs:

VERTIGO:

Its two parts:

PART ONE: Madeleine's story(until she falls from the bell tower.)
PART TWO: Judy's story(until SHE falls from the bell tower.)

Or perhaps three acts:

Act One: Madeleine's story(until she falls from the bell tower)
Act Two: Scottie goes mad(bullying official; nightmare; catatonic stay in a mental hospital)
Act Three: Judy's story.

And this:

If "PART ONE" of Psycho ends with Marion's murder(and burial) as a closure of the first act, PART ONE of Vertigo ends with Madeleine's "suicide fall" -- which really comes at the end of the SECOND ACT(First Act being Scottie tailing Madeleine; Second Act being Scottie romancing Madeleine til her death; third act being Scottie romancing Judy til her death .)

Hey, that's an entirely different three acts than I outlined above.

And what of the "prelude" -- Scotties rooftop cliffhanger and "causation" of a cop's death by fall?

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

AFTER Psycho (Number One)

Frenzy.

We get three acts -- three climaxes: the murder of Brenda Blaney; the murder of Babs Milligan; the capture of Bob Rusk(with, unlike Psycho, NO additional scenes after Rusk's capture -- the movie is conclusively over.)

Brenda's murder is like the shower murder in Psycho - the most brutal event in the film, and a surprise(well, Rusk being the killer is). Bab's murder is like the staircase murder in Psycho - pure suspense(now WE know that Rusk is the killer, but SHE doesn't.) And its a staircase-related murder, if not a shown/brutal one(and, as Hitchcock noted himself, the camera going down the stairs in the Babs murder is a reversal of the camera going UP the stairs in Psycho to follow Norman bringing Mother down.)

The capture of Bob Rusk is a milder version of the fruit cellar climax -- though the camera move on "Rusk" sleeping in bed is like the camera move on Mother sitting in her chair -- an emphasis on hair in both pictures.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

AFTER Psycho (Number Two)

Family Plot.

Family Plot is the "lightest" of the Hitchcock films made after North by Northwest(and with the same screenwriter) but it follows the "two stories merge into one" template of Psycho to the letter -- and both suspense and irony ensue:

Psycho:

Investigators seeking the missing Marion Crane come closer and closer to the murderous Mrs. Bates -- the better the investigators do, the more likely they are to die.

Family Plot:

Investigators seeking "missing heir" Eddie Shoebridge come closer and closer to professional kidnapper (and killer) Arthur Adamson -- the better the investigators do, the more likely they are to die(in the book from which Family Plot was taken -- The Rainbird Pattern -- Madame Blanche DOES die.)

I like how Hitchcock formally links Psycho to Family Plot by having pretty much the same scene in both films:

Psycho: Montage: Arbogast questions people all over town in his hunt to find Marion Crane.
Family Plot: Montage: Madame Blanche questions people all over town in her hunt to find "Arthur Adamson"(Eddie Shoebridge.)

A difference, though: in the 1960 Psycho, Arbogast's brief scenes of questioning are linked by dissolves; 16 years later in Family Plot, Blanche's brief scenes of questioning are linked by cuts -- dissolves were now passe.

---

Somewhere, sometime, Hitchcock said that structure was most important to his films(but elsewhere, he said character development was.)

Oh, well...we're on structure here. And from Vertigo to Psycho to Frenzy to Family Plot...boy can you see it. You can FEEL it. And its not really "set in stone" as to which structure we are responding to.