Norman Bates and Bob Rusk in a Film By Bruno Anthony's Creator

The interesting things one finds in the "streaming world."

I don't know how I found this show, but I did:

A 1990 British series called "Chillers." An anthology of stories in the AHP tradition...but with two catches:

ONE: Anthony Perkins does the hosting honors -- just like Hitch: an introduction at the beginning, a summing up at the end.

TWO: Each of the stories dramatized -- evidently -- are from the works of Patricia Highsmith, who famously wrote Strangers on a Train(very different from the movie, I hear), and The Talented Mr. Ripley, among other things. So these are "classy tales."

But wait...

In skimming the episode list, I found one that stars ....Barry Foster. Yep, Bob Rusk himself. So there you have it : Norman Bates and Bob Rusk in the same film. Well, TV episode. And well, the two actors didn't work together -- Perkins introduced a story starring Foster. Still...there they are. About ten minutes apart -- Foster enters the story about ten minutes after Perkins introduces it.

I watched this one all the way through, is how I know.

The story is good, not great, rather low budget (in British rural locales, complete with country homes)...but mature and adult, something that I expect Highsmith WOULD originate.

Before talking story, I have to talk Norman and Bob , together, and How Time Flies.

This story was filmed in 1990...thus 30 years after Psycho, and 18 after Frenzy. Its very odd to watch, because Barry Foster 18 years past Frenzy looks much as he did IN Frenzy -- no weight gain, the same build, perhaps more hair and a few more lines to the face. But he acts here roughly as Bob Rusk did in his "normal" moments, with a trace of furrowed-brow worry belying his good cheer.

Meanwhile, Norman Bates 30 years past Psycho looked VERY different -- this is the Anthony Perkins of Psycho IV: The Beginning(filmed around the same time). Very fit, as thin as ever, pretty flawless of skin but...different. Aged. A man, not the man child that 1960 Norman was.

And it remains astonishing how fit and mobile Perkins looks in "Chillers" (1990) given that he was barely two years away from his death in 1992 at age 60.

And today, both Perkins AND Foster are long dead. Perkins went in 1992 and Foster only 8 years later(in 2000 at 70) . And now they are movie memories. Funny though: to the Hitchcock fan watching this episode of "Chillers" Norman and Bob are front and center in our memories. And they both seem lively enough for this to have been filmed last week. Why can't people live forever?

Another thing: Perkins introduces this episode from the bottom of a long staircase in a rural home(more modern and opulent than the Psycho house), but Memories of Arbogast still prevail as Perkins begins his intro with: "The dark...at the top of the stairs. What waits for us there?"
HAD to be an in-joke. Perkins climbs the stairs as he introduces the tale. He finishes the episode at the top, safe and sound, and walks down again.

Note in passing: I have read up on "Chillers" and learned that Perkins filmed his 12 intros/outros evidently on the same DAY, in the same outfit. I didn't check to prove this.

The plot of the tale("A Curious Suicide"), with some spoilers because well...its obscure, and they are Hitchcockian.

Nicol Williamson(once a movie star in The Seven Percent Solution, but no more in 1990) plays a British physician who now lives in America with his wife. But they return to England on a trip, and the wife reminds Williamson that his old college buddy -- Barry Foster -- lives nearby in Wales.. a train ride away. Why not visit the old school chum?

But there are "issues": Foster, in college, stole Williamson's girl away(with lies that Williamson was dating another.) And Foster married her. And Williamson married his current wife instead, but pined after the lost love who married Foster.

And the lost love -- Foster's wife -- has died in a skiing accident.

Its all a set-up for a most unnerving reunion between Foster and Williamson. Foster starts his part with all the false cheer of Bob Rusk ("It's great to see you...its been a long time"), but slowly chafes under Williamson's reminders that Foster stole the woman away and that Williamson pines after her even now, even with a "new" wife of many years.

Well...and here come the SPOILERS....Williamson kills Foster with a heavy object to the head. Bob Rusk is the VICTIM in this one. And Foster lies dead on the floor of his living room with a prefect "ode to Janet Leigh on the bathroom floor" look on his face, Arbogastian blood on his temple.

Eventually, The Wrong Man is picked up for Williamson's murder of Foster. Which is an ode not only to Frenzy itself, but to so many other Hitchcock films.

I suppose I can leave the end unspoiled. Its low key character stuff...and the New Mrs. Williamson is quite important to the plot(she KNOWS how much her husband loved the woman who got away...there's a touch of Rebecca here.)